Omaha World-Herald. Jan. 2, 2022.

Editorial: Oh, 2022, what terrors and joys do you bring?

As we pack away 2021 in the same Pandora’s box where we tried to stash 2020, The World-Herald editorial board decided to peer cautiously forward. What hope and indignities might the new year bring?

Here are our thoughts, mostly serious and a couple kind of silly, as we tumble toward a third year of COVID-19, another bitter election season and fresh hope and trepidation about Husker football. Hey, it’s Nebraska. We know it’s on your mind, probably more than the election.

Britain’s Economist magazine, looking at betting odds on various exchanges, calculates a 52% probability that U.S. inflation will top 4%, 82% likelihood that Republicans win control of the House and a 12% chance Tom Brady will win his eighth Super Bowl.

Our predictions are less data-driven, but likely about as reliable.

COVID: Medical experts say the viral contagion is likely to drop from pandemic to endemic status, meaning it will be with us but more like the flu, which causes from about 12,000 to 52,000 U.S. deaths per year. We can expect occasional coronavirus variants, but increasing global vaccinations, annual boosters and better treatment will finally quiet COVID-19.

Alternate reality: President Joe Biden signs an executive order banning COVID vaccines, prompting new conspiracy theories and a rush to clinics among the previously unvaccinated.

ELECTIONS: Yes, we must suffer another election season, and it will be capital U Ugly. We predict: No significant voter fraud, as is historically true; Republicans will do well nationally and in Nebraska (duh); but U.S. Rep. Don Bacon will face a tough re-election challenge from State Sen. Tony Vargas. We see a squeaker between two strong candidates that’s too close to call.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA: This will pass if it makes it to the Nebraska ballot. Marijuana is a political winner across party lines, evidenced by Mississippi approving medical marijuana in 2020 and South Dakota approving recreational pot sales — though both of those states’ supreme courts struck down the will of the voters.

WORKER POWER: The national and state labor shortage will continue, forcing employers to offer bonuses, higher pay and make other adjustments. Job markets will be reshuffled as workers re-evaluate their goals and what they are willing to endure. You’ll order more food from kiosks. While workers will have at least temporary leverage, Nebraska and the nation will face a crisis in health care and education as teachers, nurses and others who have been on the front lines of the pandemic continue to burn out and leave their professions at unprecedented levels.

OUT OF THIS WORLD: Every attempt to predict the future is bold, but when it comes to exploring space, humanity has a good track record. So, this year we predict that the James Webb Telescope will come alive and put some of humanity’s biggest questions to work with realistic expectations of discovering answers to them. Brace for the most awe-inspiring images ever captured, and to be fascinated by the discoveries.

AROUND THE GLOBE: Extreme global poverty, defined as income of $2 a day or less, will resume its decline after a COVID-driven uptick in 2020. Roughly 1.9 billion people around the world have been lifted from that level over the past two decades. Yet roughly 600,000 Americans will be homeless — though those people have income exceeding the lowest global level.

BACK HOME: The remade Gene Leahy Mall in Omaha will open on schedule around Memorial Day, and be such a hit that it builds further excitement for riverfront amenities set for completion over the next couple of years.

HUSKERS: The football team will get to a bowl game after an incomprehensible five-year drought. There, we stuck our necks out. The Memorial Stadium sellout streak will continue. The volleyball team will make it to the Final Four in Omaha, where attendance records will be shattered. The basketball team will win an NCAA tournament game.

We mean the women’s team.

At least one thing remains certain after nearly 100 years: There is no place like Nebraska,

Dear old Nebraska U.

Where the girls are the fairest,

The boys are the squarest,

Of any old school that I knew.

___

Lincoln Journal Star. Jan. 2, 2022.

Editorial: Editorial board lists its agenda for 2022

In some instances, the word “agenda” implies something hidden beneath the surface or some kind of subterfuge.

However, the annual listing of the Journal Star editorial board’s five priority topics – our agenda, for lack of a better word – is done in the interest of transparency. Rather than be accused of some kind of secrecy, these five topics are publicly shared early in the year because of their importance to readers.

Four of the five topics from last year remain the same. Climate change; inclusiveness, civility and nonpartisanship; protecting public education; and reforming prisons and policing are of the utmost importance and need positive action rather than continued inaction.

The item that has fallen off the list, protecting the farm economy, remains critical to Nebraska’s financial wellbeing. But the easing of certain tariffs and increase in commodity prices have helped those who work in the state’s largest industry, despite the ongoing need for property tax reform.

With historic unemployment – the lowest ever recorded for any state ever – that garnered countless headlines in 2021, improving upon Nebraska’s quality of life has now risen to the forefront.

The following is a brief explanation on why these items, listed in alphabetical order, are our editorial priorities for 2022:

(asterisk) Climate change: A historic day of December destruction, caused by a record number of tornadoes, should be fresh in all Nebraskans’ heads. Beyond the immediate worries to life and limb, though, are longer-term worries for the state’s agricultural industry – food instability, economic hardship, etc. – that affect all of us. Yet, far too few Nebraska leaders even acknowledge our changing climate as existing, much less a cause for concern, when it comes to even the simplest acts, such as passing a climate resiliency plan.

(asterisk) Inclusiveness, civility and nonpartisanship: Just after this agenda published last year, America witnessed the antithesis of these ideals with the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the full extent of which is still being learned today. The terror of that day shows what can happen when partisanship and hostility to opposing ideas boil over – and it must not happen again. That requires us to work together civilly for the betterment of all, regardless of such artificial dividing lines as political affiliation.

(asterisk) Protecting public education: Overworked and underpaid teachers are burning out and leaving the field at the highest rate in recent memory during this pandemic. Meanwhile, state lawmakers refuse to adequately fund K-12 schools – providing one of the lowest rates of direct state aid in the country despite the some of the highest property taxes – as some openly talk of “defunding” the University of Nebraska. Whether it’s against biological, political or financial threats, our schools are our future and must be protected.

(asterisk) Quality of life: Nebraska recorded its second-highest rate of growth, according to U.S. Census data, and it’s still struggling mightily to find workers for vital jobs. The Good Life has a great story, but it requires all Nebraskans to work toward increasing affordable housing opportunities, welcoming refugees and immigrants, filling existing jobs and creating higher-paying employment.

(asterisk) Reforming prisons and policing: Nebraska’s prisons remain at nearly record levels of crowding, even leading to an emergency declaration in 2019. Though progress has been made on raising pay to combat chronic staff shortages – a welcome development – such achievements are too few and far between when it comes to the men and women behind bars. The entire criminal justice system, from policing and prosecution to incarceration and programming, is beginning to make incremental change, but more is needed.

As health experts have braced us for a world where COVID never really goes away, it’s safe to say that the policy and practice of dealing with the pandemic will remain a recurrent theme, too. And the Editorial Board will address dozens of other topics in the coming year — some we can’t even imagine at this point — but readers can expect that we will return to variations on these five themes often as we try to promote the community discussion.

END