FOX News

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Short Takes................................

Alex Gordon has started well in Wichita AA ball as he has a .341 avg., 19 runs, 5 HRs, 10 RBIs, and 5SB. He may advance quickly with players in KC struggling. Drew Anderson is batting .239 with the Brewers AA club. He has good speed and a lot of talent. His season should improve. Shane Komine is at the Athletics AAA club. He is 1-1 with a 3.80 ERA.

Albert Pujols is big in my fantasy baseball team. He has a record 14 HRs in April. Ken Griffey Jr and Luis Gonzalez previously had the record.

Lance Thorell of Loomis broke the 110 high hurdle record held by Ross Ridenour, also of Loomis. Lance had run a 14.4 with a hand held watch but broke the record last week with a 14.79 which was electronically timed. Lance is an athlete the Nebraska football team should look at recruiting in some fashion. He will be a senior this fall. He also has an excellent time in the 300 low hurdles. His cousin, Drew Billeter, plays basketball at Chadron State. Another cousin, Matt Hill, is headed to Texas this fall to play basketball.

Tom Shatel was out of line saying Nebraska basketball is going down the tubes today in his column in the Omaha World-Herald. The loss of Spinelli is not good. We wish we had him. This writer is sure that Collier and Boehm will put all their efforts into finding a very good replacement. Novsek is an excellent assistant coach along with the rest of the staff.

This writer will be surprised is Alex Maric would be a Round 1 or 2 NBA draft pick at this time. Definitely the potential is there with one or two more years of college.

Best TV shows right now are 1) Boston Legal 2) The Office 3) The King of Queens 4) House. On Boston Legal, Robert Wagner will star as an LA clone of DENNY CRANE.

Jake Gdowski of Grand Island will go Division 1 in football. I hope Nebraska is the school he goes to. His dad, Tom Gdowski, played at NU.

The book "The World is Flat" is a great book. It is written by Thomas l. Freidman. Here is a paragraph from Chapter 7 of the book

"Sports writer John Feinstein could have been referring to either American engineering skills or American basketball skills when he wrote in an August 26, 2004, AOL essay on Olympic basketball that the performance of the U.S. basketball team is a result of "the rise of the international player" and "the decline and fall of the U.S. game". And the rise and fall of the U.S. game, argued Feinstein, is a result of two long-term trends. The first is a steady decline "in basketball skills,"with American kids just wanting to shoot either three-point shots or dunks-....And there is the ugly problem of ambition. The world changes. In the case of American basketball, it hasn't changed for the better."

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Tom Osborne Gets My Vote

This year we are fortunate of having two qualified, professional candidates for governor of the state of Nebraska. They both have experience in the political arena and they both have made decisions that have bettered their constituents most of the time.

When Rep. Tom Osborne announced his candidacy a year ago at the Hastings College campus, this writer thought the race was over. However, Governor Dave Heineman has done a good job in handling the duties governor since being appointed to the position after then governor Mike Johanns was selected as Secretary of Agriculture.

Tom Osborne was an excellent coach and arguably the best ever in the history of NCAA football. In the past few months it appears that this former position has hurt Rep. Osborne rather than help him. The comment that "just because he was a great coach doesn't mean he know beans about being governor" is absolutely wrong. These people have not followed Tom Osborne during his tenure as representative AND they do not know what drives this man in making the decisions that he does.

As you watch and listen to Tom Osborne, you see that his driving force in making decisions are heavily tied to spiritual values. His family and friends are important but also he has a passion to help and mentor young kids who have had broken homes and have had lives affected by drugs and/or alcohol. His emphasis in changing the "Good Life" of Nebraska will be to improve the quality of life by introducing and supporting programs that will eventually have less people in prisons, less drug use in Nebraska, a support system for kids and young adults that are exposed to abuse, drugs, and alcohol. He has always set his goals high and with hard work and perseverance he will leave the state a much better place.

He will do this by surrounding himself with an excellent staff. This staff will be empowered to lead their respective departments and he will provide or work for the tools necessary to get the job done.

Rep. Osborne has done an excellent job of fighting for legislation for the Nebraska farmer. He has passed legislation such as Creps which provides drought relieve for those who are short of water for their crops. He has sponsored and was able to get a habitat incentive program through so that the farmers would be able to diversify their acres and utilize the resources they had to help them remain on the farm and promote tourism at the same time. Rep. Tom Osborne fought for money for rural Nebraska that would be provided for economic development in rural communities that are struggling to grow in population.

Tom Osborne excels at communication even though he talks softly. He is very capable of working with Kansas to improve the situation in the Republican River Basin. We will need to compromise to come up with a solution but I wouldn't want anybody else in this state representing us more than Tom Osborne. He has talked to the Kansas people and this writer is unaware of any true efforts by Dave Heineman.

Education is important to Tom Osborne. He has been endorsed by the Nebraska Education Association. There are many issues regarding education affecting our state at this time. Tom Osborne will look outside the box for solutions, if necessary. His solution, this writer believes, will be a win-win for all parties.

Tom Osborne is the best person for this job at this time. He will lead us with no obligations to special interest groups as he has refused to accept any money from special interest groups though PAC money. He has true leadership with real values.