April, 2013
Washington -- The world premier of "Paul's Case", an opera based on Willa Cather's short story of the same name, took place this week across the river at the Artisphere in Rosslyn, Virginia.
We think of Cather as a Nebraskan, but she was born in Virginia, so this was an appropriate venue. The opera is set in Pittsburgh and New York, both places in which Cather also lived.
The composer, Gregory Spears, took questions from the audience and individually after Saturday evening's performance. He told us privately that his style has most obviously been influenced by Britten, but he was also an admirer of Wagner. I thought he might mention Hanns Eisler, but did not. The music is infused with humming, whistling, and the use of voices eerily to represent train whistles.
Because the story is in the public domain, he explained, he did not have to seek permission from anyone in order to make it into an opera. Nevertheless, he said Cather scholars are much interested in the opera. He would like to see it performed someday in the Red Cloud Opera House in Nebraska. See you in Red Cloud?
Good News for Research Integrity
April, 2013
Washington -- This week three prominent researchers admitted errors in their economics research papers. Andrew Gillen of Education Sector withdrew his paper on faculty work levels and college costs; Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard backtracked on their paper on the relationship between national debt and growth.
Each had a hypothesis worth testing, but they made errors along the way. Bravo to those who tried to replicate the research and discovered the errors. This is the way the process is supposed to work.
How many other research papers should be withdrawn for errors? A lot. Most researchers know how easy it is to make errors, how tempting it is to cover them up when they happen to help confirm a hypothesis; and how unlikely it is that the research will be replicated.
When I was a researcher at the National Center for Education Research, I was disappointed that the researchers on staff were discouraged from doing any research themselves, let alone review the work of others to check for errors and biases that only other researchers would be likely to find.
I hold no particular brief for or against the conclusions of the authors whose papers have successfully been challenged this week. What is important is that some researchers are out there doing their jobs, including replications, and that should have a salutary effect on all research.
Washington -- This week three prominent researchers admitted errors in their economics research papers. Andrew Gillen of Education Sector withdrew his paper on faculty work levels and college costs; Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard backtracked on their paper on the relationship between national debt and growth.
Each had a hypothesis worth testing, but they made errors along the way. Bravo to those who tried to replicate the research and discovered the errors. This is the way the process is supposed to work.
How many other research papers should be withdrawn for errors? A lot. Most researchers know how easy it is to make errors, how tempting it is to cover them up when they happen to help confirm a hypothesis; and how unlikely it is that the research will be replicated.
When I was a researcher at the National Center for Education Research, I was disappointed that the researchers on staff were discouraged from doing any research themselves, let alone review the work of others to check for errors and biases that only other researchers would be likely to find.
I hold no particular brief for or against the conclusions of the authors whose papers have successfully been challenged this week. What is important is that some researchers are out there doing their jobs, including replications, and that should have a salutary effect on all research.
Three Strikes for AAU
April, 2013
Lincoln -- The Association of American Universities has struck out with me.
The first strike came in 1999, when the AAU joined with several other higher education associations in putting their own interests ahead of students, families, taxpayers, and the public interest when they sought to defeat a federal rule to ensure that grant aid from a new federal program would lower students' debt burdens. Instead, they wanted to permit institutions to use the grant funds to displace other grant aid, leaving students no better off, essentially pocketing the money for themselves. (See Janet Lorin's excellent article on how displacement works.)
The second strike came in 2011, when the AAU removed the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from its membership, the first time in AAU history a university had been voted off its rolls for not being sufficiently a research university. The removal would have been justified if the AAU's allegations had been true, but they weren't. The AAU's research ranking methodology was unbecoming an association of research universities, in that it disallowed certain agriculture research funds from consideration and it did not correct for organizational differences among institutions. It then held the UNL removal vote open beyond the original deadline to round up the votes it needed, essentially making up rules as it went. Several of my friends and colleagues in higher education in Washington have said not to be concerned, as the AAU is more of a social club than a respected association, but that is not a sufficient answer to the question of why all the effort to remove UNL. (If anyone has more insight into the motivation behind this bizarre AAU action, please email me at joberg@aol.com.)
The third stike is the amicus brief from AAU in the current Monsanto case, in which the AAU, by aligning totally with Monsanto, is undermining research faculties and standards in higher education institutions everywhere. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports ("In Standing Up for Big Ag, Are Universities Undercutting Their Own Researchers?") how faculty do not have freedom to research and publish their findings on Monsanto processes and products. Monsanto has blocked publication of research findings on its Roundup Ready patents.
Money talks. Apparently agribusiness money talks louder than the state and federal taxpayer money that is being appropriated to universities to do unbiased research. What a justified comeuppance were UNL to assert its research independence and oppose the AAU brief on Monsanto as it applies to research. It would strike a blow for research integrity and independence everywhere. But that won't happen because UNL has joined the AAU in its amicus brief, with nary a word to protect faculty researchers. What an opportunity missed, to show that UNL is a true research institution.
Lincoln -- The Association of American Universities has struck out with me.
The first strike came in 1999, when the AAU joined with several other higher education associations in putting their own interests ahead of students, families, taxpayers, and the public interest when they sought to defeat a federal rule to ensure that grant aid from a new federal program would lower students' debt burdens. Instead, they wanted to permit institutions to use the grant funds to displace other grant aid, leaving students no better off, essentially pocketing the money for themselves. (See Janet Lorin's excellent article on how displacement works.)
The second strike came in 2011, when the AAU removed the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from its membership, the first time in AAU history a university had been voted off its rolls for not being sufficiently a research university. The removal would have been justified if the AAU's allegations had been true, but they weren't. The AAU's research ranking methodology was unbecoming an association of research universities, in that it disallowed certain agriculture research funds from consideration and it did not correct for organizational differences among institutions. It then held the UNL removal vote open beyond the original deadline to round up the votes it needed, essentially making up rules as it went. Several of my friends and colleagues in higher education in Washington have said not to be concerned, as the AAU is more of a social club than a respected association, but that is not a sufficient answer to the question of why all the effort to remove UNL. (If anyone has more insight into the motivation behind this bizarre AAU action, please email me at joberg@aol.com.)
The third stike is the amicus brief from AAU in the current Monsanto case, in which the AAU, by aligning totally with Monsanto, is undermining research faculties and standards in higher education institutions everywhere. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports ("In Standing Up for Big Ag, Are Universities Undercutting Their Own Researchers?") how faculty do not have freedom to research and publish their findings on Monsanto processes and products. Monsanto has blocked publication of research findings on its Roundup Ready patents.
Money talks. Apparently agribusiness money talks louder than the state and federal taxpayer money that is being appropriated to universities to do unbiased research. What a justified comeuppance were UNL to assert its research independence and oppose the AAU brief on Monsanto as it applies to research. It would strike a blow for research integrity and independence everywhere. But that won't happen because UNL has joined the AAU in its amicus brief, with nary a word to protect faculty researchers. What an opportunity missed, to show that UNL is a true research institution.
USS Arlington
April, 2013
Washington -- The new USS Arlington (LPD-24) has been commissioned in Norfolk; its captain is a Nebraskan from Rushville (Old Jules country) of all places.
I had an invitation to attend the commissioning through the USS Arlington (AGMR-2) reunion association and would have considered attending had I known a fellow Nebraskan was to be captain of the new ship. I sailed in the old Arlington, a communications relay ship, through its many adventures from the coast of North Korea to the pickup of the Apollo 8 astronauts. Many years ago I attended the Norfolk commissioning of the USS Platte because of its Nebraska connection.
A sea story from the old Arlington:
We were several days steaming south of Pearl just after Christmas, 1968, at the anticipated splashdown point of Apollo 8, the first manned spacecraft to leave earth's orbit and circle the moon. Lovell, Anders, and Borman were the astronauts. USS Yorktown was the capsule pickup ship; Arlington accompanied her to provide communications with the world.
I was the communications watch officer for the splashdown, scheduled for about dawn. I went up on deck before the watch; it had just rained giving the ship a fresh-water washdown. A couple of hours later the recovery and the supporting communications went well. After the watch, I went up to the wardroom for breakfast, then stepped out onto a sponson to see the astronauts waving to us from the nearby Yorktown.
Just at that moment, President Lyndon Johnson was trying to reach the astronauts to congratulate them. Network news cameras in Washington were on the president. The call was to be patched through Arlington. For some reason, the president was erroneously advised that the astronauts were on the line, and he began talking, cameras rolling. But the call had not gone through; it was connected only to an Arlington radioman (RM3 McCormick, as I recall). The president went on and on, the radioman not wanting to interrupt the President of the United States. When Johnson finally stopped, the radioman told him, "Mr. President, your call didn't go through, but I'll be sure to pass your thoughts on to the astronauts!"
As far as I know, viewers of the network news programs that evening never knew the difference.
Washington -- The new USS Arlington (LPD-24) has been commissioned in Norfolk; its captain is a Nebraskan from Rushville (Old Jules country) of all places.
I had an invitation to attend the commissioning through the USS Arlington (AGMR-2) reunion association and would have considered attending had I known a fellow Nebraskan was to be captain of the new ship. I sailed in the old Arlington, a communications relay ship, through its many adventures from the coast of North Korea to the pickup of the Apollo 8 astronauts. Many years ago I attended the Norfolk commissioning of the USS Platte because of its Nebraska connection.
A sea story from the old Arlington:
We were several days steaming south of Pearl just after Christmas, 1968, at the anticipated splashdown point of Apollo 8, the first manned spacecraft to leave earth's orbit and circle the moon. Lovell, Anders, and Borman were the astronauts. USS Yorktown was the capsule pickup ship; Arlington accompanied her to provide communications with the world.
I was the communications watch officer for the splashdown, scheduled for about dawn. I went up on deck before the watch; it had just rained giving the ship a fresh-water washdown. A couple of hours later the recovery and the supporting communications went well. After the watch, I went up to the wardroom for breakfast, then stepped out onto a sponson to see the astronauts waving to us from the nearby Yorktown.
Just at that moment, President Lyndon Johnson was trying to reach the astronauts to congratulate them. Network news cameras in Washington were on the president. The call was to be patched through Arlington. For some reason, the president was erroneously advised that the astronauts were on the line, and he began talking, cameras rolling. But the call had not gone through; it was connected only to an Arlington radioman (RM3 McCormick, as I recall). The president went on and on, the radioman not wanting to interrupt the President of the United States. When Johnson finally stopped, the radioman told him, "Mr. President, your call didn't go through, but I'll be sure to pass your thoughts on to the astronauts!"
As far as I know, viewers of the network news programs that evening never knew the difference.
"Big Jim Exon", Part II
Lincoln -- It is enlightening to read the interviews of Jim Exon's Republican adversaries in Chuck Pallesen's and Sam Van Pelt's new book, Big Jim Exon. Among others, former governors Norbert Tiemann, Charley Thone, and Kay Orr each weighed in with their special perspectives.
These interviews complement the series Lincoln Journal Star reporter Don Walton recently wrote about the Orr Administration, in which Kay Orr opened up about her years as governor.
What strikes me is the continuity rather than the discontinuity over the Morrison, Tiemann, Exon, Thone, Kerrey, Orr and later administrations. Frank Morrison overhauled state government in the 1960s with administrative streamlining in which a single strong executive emerged out of a plural executive model. Nobby Tiemann continued Morrison's work to broaden the tax base. These changes set the stage for surprising executive continuity despite alternating political party control.
The most obvious example of this streamlining was the creation of the Department of Administrative Services, responsible to the governor for central state budgeting, accounting, and other functions such as state buildings, transportation, and computing. All budgeting, even that of constitutional and educational agencies, and all accounting (including pre-audit) henceforth went through DAS.
It was Jim Exon, who followed Tiemann, who was first fully to use the enhanced executive powers and to set the standard for their use in subsequent administrations.
What is also striking is that subsequent governors relied so much on people who administered state government under Jim Exon. Republicans seemed not to have had a very deep bench of potential administrators to put into top appointive positions.
Don Leuenberger is an example of continuity. Don was director of Exon's DAS budget division on the eve of the Thone-Whelan gubernatorial election contest in 1978. Jerry Whelan, the Democratic candidate and Exon's lieutenant governor, sent out feelers to several of us, including Don, asking us to stay on if he was elected. When Charley Thone was elected instead, Don and I expected to find employment elsewhere.
So it was a great surprise to us when Charley Thone, in the first days of the gubernatorial transition, asked Don and me to accept re-appointment in his administration. He quickly noted that I was not likely to stay at DAS (as I was going to Washington with newly-elected Senator Exon), but he pressed Don for a quick answer about remaining as state budget director; Don agreed. Don went on to be appointed to other top positions under Republican governors, including tax commissioner in the Orr Administration and was (as is apparent in the Walton interviews) the key Orr advisor on running state government.
Like so many of us, Don Leuenberger cut his teeth as a goveror's advisor and administrator in the seminar-like sessions (see Part 1) that Governor Exon conducted for years in Stan Matzke's DAS office. So did Larry Bare, a Matzke protégé, who first made appearances at the sessions from his job in the Department of Economic Development. Larry later became state budget director, DAS director, and finally chief of staff to two later Republican governors. Democratic chiefs of staff Bill Hoppner and W. Don Nelson were also veterans of the sessions in which Jim Exon set the bar high as a strong governor model for effectively administering state government under Nebraska law.
Thanks to Chuck and Sam for including an anecdote (on page 149) describing of the atmosphere of the Exon seminar sessions, particularly the running gag in which Exon would take a dubious idea and announce into any place where a hidden microphone (as in the Nixon White House) might be found that "IT WOULD BE WRONG!" Jim Exon was a powerful governor, but always an ethical one who actually had a good time being ethical.
All books have mistakes. I hope there is a second edition in which the record can be corrected (on page 91) to show that Jack Falconer was at the first meetings with Governor-elect Exon, not me; and (on page 323) that comments attributed to Gene Budig about legislation in the U.S. Senate were actually, for better or worse, from my interview.
It is appropriate here to note that many of the principals of the Exon seminar sessions continued to meet, under the aegis of Norm Otto's breakfasts, for years and even decades after Governor Exon left office. Peters, Chunka, Matzke, Jacobson, Leuenberger, Bare, Hoppner, Nelson, Ferris, Rochford, and many others over the years participated in critiques of state government, regardless of party affiliation or who was in power. It was -- and still remains -- the ultimate state government back channel.
These interviews complement the series Lincoln Journal Star reporter Don Walton recently wrote about the Orr Administration, in which Kay Orr opened up about her years as governor.
What strikes me is the continuity rather than the discontinuity over the Morrison, Tiemann, Exon, Thone, Kerrey, Orr and later administrations. Frank Morrison overhauled state government in the 1960s with administrative streamlining in which a single strong executive emerged out of a plural executive model. Nobby Tiemann continued Morrison's work to broaden the tax base. These changes set the stage for surprising executive continuity despite alternating political party control.
The most obvious example of this streamlining was the creation of the Department of Administrative Services, responsible to the governor for central state budgeting, accounting, and other functions such as state buildings, transportation, and computing. All budgeting, even that of constitutional and educational agencies, and all accounting (including pre-audit) henceforth went through DAS.
It was Jim Exon, who followed Tiemann, who was first fully to use the enhanced executive powers and to set the standard for their use in subsequent administrations.
What is also striking is that subsequent governors relied so much on people who administered state government under Jim Exon. Republicans seemed not to have had a very deep bench of potential administrators to put into top appointive positions.
Don Leuenberger is an example of continuity. Don was director of Exon's DAS budget division on the eve of the Thone-Whelan gubernatorial election contest in 1978. Jerry Whelan, the Democratic candidate and Exon's lieutenant governor, sent out feelers to several of us, including Don, asking us to stay on if he was elected. When Charley Thone was elected instead, Don and I expected to find employment elsewhere.
So it was a great surprise to us when Charley Thone, in the first days of the gubernatorial transition, asked Don and me to accept re-appointment in his administration. He quickly noted that I was not likely to stay at DAS (as I was going to Washington with newly-elected Senator Exon), but he pressed Don for a quick answer about remaining as state budget director; Don agreed. Don went on to be appointed to other top positions under Republican governors, including tax commissioner in the Orr Administration and was (as is apparent in the Walton interviews) the key Orr advisor on running state government.
Like so many of us, Don Leuenberger cut his teeth as a goveror's advisor and administrator in the seminar-like sessions (see Part 1) that Governor Exon conducted for years in Stan Matzke's DAS office. So did Larry Bare, a Matzke protégé, who first made appearances at the sessions from his job in the Department of Economic Development. Larry later became state budget director, DAS director, and finally chief of staff to two later Republican governors. Democratic chiefs of staff Bill Hoppner and W. Don Nelson were also veterans of the sessions in which Jim Exon set the bar high as a strong governor model for effectively administering state government under Nebraska law.
Thanks to Chuck and Sam for including an anecdote (on page 149) describing of the atmosphere of the Exon seminar sessions, particularly the running gag in which Exon would take a dubious idea and announce into any place where a hidden microphone (as in the Nixon White House) might be found that "IT WOULD BE WRONG!" Jim Exon was a powerful governor, but always an ethical one who actually had a good time being ethical.
All books have mistakes. I hope there is a second edition in which the record can be corrected (on page 91) to show that Jack Falconer was at the first meetings with Governor-elect Exon, not me; and (on page 323) that comments attributed to Gene Budig about legislation in the U.S. Senate were actually, for better or worse, from my interview.
It is appropriate here to note that many of the principals of the Exon seminar sessions continued to meet, under the aegis of Norm Otto's breakfasts, for years and even decades after Governor Exon left office. Peters, Chunka, Matzke, Jacobson, Leuenberger, Bare, Hoppner, Nelson, Ferris, Rochford, and many others over the years participated in critiques of state government, regardless of party affiliation or who was in power. It was -- and still remains -- the ultimate state government back channel.
Good News about Dana College
Lincoln -- Midland University in Fremont, according to newspaper reports, is about to take over the campus of defunct Dana College in Blair. If this happens, it will be a wonderful development for higher education in Nebraska and the country.
Midland would be well-advised to retain some of the tradition of Dana. Dana College was a small liberal arts college that preserved the Danish heritage in Nebraska and the region. When in the United States, Danish royalty sometimes visited. Dana was a fine institution for students who wanted a small college experience. It was good for the local economy. Dana had many distinguished alumni, including former U.S. Senator Paul Simon of Illinois.
Dana closed in 2010 as a result of weak financial fundamentals exacerbated by the Great Recession. The governing board tried to sell it to a for-profit college, which wanted to buy its accreditation as much as its campus, but the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the regional accrediting organization balked and would not approve such a transfer.
This was the first time the HLC stood up against this unseemly practice and its action got national attention, including attention from the U.S. Senate, which just months earlier in hearings had questioned the HLC's lack of backbone in upholding higher education standards.
According to news reports at the time, Nebraska Governor Heineman and Attorney General Bruning made an attempt to overturn the HLC's rejection of the for-profit company's attempt to obtain Dana's accreditation. If true, that was misguided. The for-profit company was co-led by C. Ronald Kimberling, whom news reports touted as having thirty-five years of experience in higher education. Inexplicably, Nebraska newspapers did not note that nearly all of the experience was troubled. When Kimberling was an assistant secretary of education in the Reagan Administration, his office was associated with malfeasance that was condemned in the U.S. Senate's Nunn Committee hearings over Abuses in Federal Student Aid Programs. Kimberling then went on to Phillips Colleges, which were constantly in trouble with the Department of Education's program reviewers. He then went to Argosy University, which has been investigated by the Government Accountability Office and featured in many exposés, including those by Frontline and the New York Times.
If I were a Dana alumnus, I would not want my degree sullied by sale of my college's name or accreditation to the likes of such a company. It is much better if Midland can step in and rescue not only the Dana campus but also preserve the Dana legacy and reputation.
There is another reason to hope for success for Midland and Dana. The state and country need independent colleges to complement public institutions. Not all of a nation's higher education teaching and research should be under governmental authorities that could exercise undue control. The lesson of Germany in the 1930s is instructive. Faculties free to oppose interference and totalitarianism whether from the right or left should be nurtured as part of a strong higher education system. Some believe that the Second Amendment is the ultimate safeguard; I believe thriving colleges with strong faculties, reviewed periodically by honest accreditors, are a more likely bulwark.
Midland would be well-advised to retain some of the tradition of Dana. Dana College was a small liberal arts college that preserved the Danish heritage in Nebraska and the region. When in the United States, Danish royalty sometimes visited. Dana was a fine institution for students who wanted a small college experience. It was good for the local economy. Dana had many distinguished alumni, including former U.S. Senator Paul Simon of Illinois.
Dana closed in 2010 as a result of weak financial fundamentals exacerbated by the Great Recession. The governing board tried to sell it to a for-profit college, which wanted to buy its accreditation as much as its campus, but the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the regional accrediting organization balked and would not approve such a transfer.
This was the first time the HLC stood up against this unseemly practice and its action got national attention, including attention from the U.S. Senate, which just months earlier in hearings had questioned the HLC's lack of backbone in upholding higher education standards.
According to news reports at the time, Nebraska Governor Heineman and Attorney General Bruning made an attempt to overturn the HLC's rejection of the for-profit company's attempt to obtain Dana's accreditation. If true, that was misguided. The for-profit company was co-led by C. Ronald Kimberling, whom news reports touted as having thirty-five years of experience in higher education. Inexplicably, Nebraska newspapers did not note that nearly all of the experience was troubled. When Kimberling was an assistant secretary of education in the Reagan Administration, his office was associated with malfeasance that was condemned in the U.S. Senate's Nunn Committee hearings over Abuses in Federal Student Aid Programs. Kimberling then went on to Phillips Colleges, which were constantly in trouble with the Department of Education's program reviewers. He then went to Argosy University, which has been investigated by the Government Accountability Office and featured in many exposés, including those by Frontline and the New York Times.
If I were a Dana alumnus, I would not want my degree sullied by sale of my college's name or accreditation to the likes of such a company. It is much better if Midland can step in and rescue not only the Dana campus but also preserve the Dana legacy and reputation.
There is another reason to hope for success for Midland and Dana. The state and country need independent colleges to complement public institutions. Not all of a nation's higher education teaching and research should be under governmental authorities that could exercise undue control. The lesson of Germany in the 1930s is instructive. Faculties free to oppose interference and totalitarianism whether from the right or left should be nurtured as part of a strong higher education system. Some believe that the Second Amendment is the ultimate safeguard; I believe thriving colleges with strong faculties, reviewed periodically by honest accreditors, are a more likely bulwark.
"Big Jim Exon", Part I
March, 2013
Lincoln -- This is going to take more than one post.
Chuck Pallesen and Sam Van Pelt have written a great book, Big Jim Exon. A lot of people, Democrats and Republicans alike, have opened up about Jim Exon as never before. It is the best biography of a Nebraska statesman since James C. Olson's biography of J. Sterling Morton.
It is good to see so many people give Norman Otto, chief of staff to both Frank Morrison and Jim Exon, his due; he was a great Nebraskan and a friend to many in both parties. Norm's "breakfast circle" of leading state officials, past and present, continued until shortly before his death a few months ago.
Chuck Pallesen's untimely passing in late 2011 takes away another remarkable figure from the Nebraska civic as well as political scene. Chuck plays down his own role in this book; the reader must read carefully between the lines to know how he was able to balance so many roles at once.
Chuck interviewed me three times for this book, the last time only briefly as his health was failing. Had there been a fourth time, I would have tried to talk him out of making such a big issue of the Gus Lieske affair in Governor Exon's first term. But I would have been wrong. After reading the comments of so many others, I am now convinced that this contretemps was pivotal not only to Jim Exon's governorship, but to his whole career. When Stan Matzke replaced Lieske as Department of Administrative Services director, Matzke inaugurated a more collective decision-making process, centered around the state budget. Over the ensuing years, Governor Exon spent hundreds of hours in the DAS office with instructions to his staff upstairs not to disturb him while he went over state and federal issues in great detail with his agency heads and with DAS's budget and management analysts.
This became a seminar that went on for months every year. Regulars at the seminar table were Bill Peters, John Jacobson, W. Don Nelson, and often Bill Hoppner or Norm Otto. Don Leuenberger and I also spent countless hours at these sessions. Sometimes Norman Krivosha would join by speakerphone; Gene Budig came in once in military uniform to witness the process.
Exon could not get enough of it. He asked, he probed, he learned. He gained confidence mastering the arcana of government. With regard to his relationship with the legislative branch, most state senators were overmatched not just by Jim Exon the politician, but by Jim Exon the master government executive.
Credit goes to Stan Matzke, and to Budget Director John Jacobson, for this innovation that developed the administrative talents of Jim Exon and also made of him a serious student of many public policy issues. He would go on to record a total of five state-wide election victories before retiring as the undefeated champ of Nebraska elections.
Lincoln -- This is going to take more than one post.
Chuck Pallesen and Sam Van Pelt have written a great book, Big Jim Exon. A lot of people, Democrats and Republicans alike, have opened up about Jim Exon as never before. It is the best biography of a Nebraska statesman since James C. Olson's biography of J. Sterling Morton.
It is good to see so many people give Norman Otto, chief of staff to both Frank Morrison and Jim Exon, his due; he was a great Nebraskan and a friend to many in both parties. Norm's "breakfast circle" of leading state officials, past and present, continued until shortly before his death a few months ago.
Chuck Pallesen's untimely passing in late 2011 takes away another remarkable figure from the Nebraska civic as well as political scene. Chuck plays down his own role in this book; the reader must read carefully between the lines to know how he was able to balance so many roles at once.
Chuck interviewed me three times for this book, the last time only briefly as his health was failing. Had there been a fourth time, I would have tried to talk him out of making such a big issue of the Gus Lieske affair in Governor Exon's first term. But I would have been wrong. After reading the comments of so many others, I am now convinced that this contretemps was pivotal not only to Jim Exon's governorship, but to his whole career. When Stan Matzke replaced Lieske as Department of Administrative Services director, Matzke inaugurated a more collective decision-making process, centered around the state budget. Over the ensuing years, Governor Exon spent hundreds of hours in the DAS office with instructions to his staff upstairs not to disturb him while he went over state and federal issues in great detail with his agency heads and with DAS's budget and management analysts.
This became a seminar that went on for months every year. Regulars at the seminar table were Bill Peters, John Jacobson, W. Don Nelson, and often Bill Hoppner or Norm Otto. Don Leuenberger and I also spent countless hours at these sessions. Sometimes Norman Krivosha would join by speakerphone; Gene Budig came in once in military uniform to witness the process.
Exon could not get enough of it. He asked, he probed, he learned. He gained confidence mastering the arcana of government. With regard to his relationship with the legislative branch, most state senators were overmatched not just by Jim Exon the politician, but by Jim Exon the master government executive.
Credit goes to Stan Matzke, and to Budget Director John Jacobson, for this innovation that developed the administrative talents of Jim Exon and also made of him a serious student of many public policy issues. He would go on to record a total of five state-wide election victories before retiring as the undefeated champ of Nebraska elections.
Virgil Oberg 1932 - 2013
March, 2013
Lincoln -- In Lincoln for the funeral of my cousin, Virgil Oberg, I should tell a couple of stories about Virgil that warrant remembering.
Because our fathers were brothers who farmed near each other, Virgil and I often worked together on the family farms and on the farms of neighbors. This was back in the Eisenhower administration, to give a time perspective. Virgil was in demand for shelling corn and putting up hay, as he was so strong and agile he could do the work of any two average men.
He was a decade older than I, and a better problem solver. Once we had to mow, rake, and bale alfalfa up on what we called the Dillon place on the Davey Road; our equipment and skills didn't seem to match up to the task. I was good at mowing with my 7-foot sickle-bar mower (which had a three point hitch), but not sure of how to use a side delivery rake to get the windrows aligned for the baler. So Virgil put my mower on his three point hitch tractor and used my tractor to do the windrows with his rake. It was a hot, breezy day for drying the hay, and we were done mowing and raking in one afternoon.
Our community softball team was an also-ran in the Waverly summer softball league until Virgil joined it. Then we won the league title consecutive years. Virgil had to adapt from baseball, his usual game, to softball. He explained to me that in baseball the pitched ball is coming down, but in fast-pitch softball it is often rising, requiring adjustments in the swing. He had more than his share of hits, but his real value was as the team catcher. He was so quick that bunters seldom had a chance, and he chased down many foul balls for outs. People turned out to the games to see him play.
In later years when Virgil farmed around the Agnew Road, he mowed and cleaned up the old Free church cemetery, which had been neglected for decades. That was Virgil's way. His neighbor Jack Johnson gave a fine eulogy at the funeral. The Lincoln Journal Star also wrote a big article to remember local legend Virgil Oberg.
The last time I saw Virgil was a few months ago, when I turned over a family heirloom to him. It was our great grandfather's trunk, which helped bring the Oberg (Åberg) family from Sweden to America in the 1880s. Great grandfather John Oberg built the first house in "new Ceresco" Nebraska and was the town blacksmith.
Lincoln -- In Lincoln for the funeral of my cousin, Virgil Oberg, I should tell a couple of stories about Virgil that warrant remembering.
Because our fathers were brothers who farmed near each other, Virgil and I often worked together on the family farms and on the farms of neighbors. This was back in the Eisenhower administration, to give a time perspective. Virgil was in demand for shelling corn and putting up hay, as he was so strong and agile he could do the work of any two average men.
He was a decade older than I, and a better problem solver. Once we had to mow, rake, and bale alfalfa up on what we called the Dillon place on the Davey Road; our equipment and skills didn't seem to match up to the task. I was good at mowing with my 7-foot sickle-bar mower (which had a three point hitch), but not sure of how to use a side delivery rake to get the windrows aligned for the baler. So Virgil put my mower on his three point hitch tractor and used my tractor to do the windrows with his rake. It was a hot, breezy day for drying the hay, and we were done mowing and raking in one afternoon.
Our community softball team was an also-ran in the Waverly summer softball league until Virgil joined it. Then we won the league title consecutive years. Virgil had to adapt from baseball, his usual game, to softball. He explained to me that in baseball the pitched ball is coming down, but in fast-pitch softball it is often rising, requiring adjustments in the swing. He had more than his share of hits, but his real value was as the team catcher. He was so quick that bunters seldom had a chance, and he chased down many foul balls for outs. People turned out to the games to see him play.
In later years when Virgil farmed around the Agnew Road, he mowed and cleaned up the old Free church cemetery, which had been neglected for decades. That was Virgil's way. His neighbor Jack Johnson gave a fine eulogy at the funeral. The Lincoln Journal Star also wrote a big article to remember local legend Virgil Oberg.
The last time I saw Virgil was a few months ago, when I turned over a family heirloom to him. It was our great grandfather's trunk, which helped bring the Oberg (Åberg) family from Sweden to America in the 1880s. Great grandfather John Oberg built the first house in "new Ceresco" Nebraska and was the town blacksmith.
Superb Reporting at Bloomberg
March, 2013
Washington -- With this new article on a shady but widespread college financial aid practice, Janet Lorin at Bloomberg News has established herself as one of the nation's leading higher education analysts as well as journalists.
As to the practice of displacement, which essentially takes scholarship money away from financially needy students and puts them deeper into debt, one college aid officer meekly offered up, "Morally, it's a difficult question."
No, this isn't a difficult question. The practice is unethical. It also deceives well-meaning donors to scholarship funds.
Thanks to Janet Lorin for exposing it.
Washington -- With this new article on a shady but widespread college financial aid practice, Janet Lorin at Bloomberg News has established herself as one of the nation's leading higher education analysts as well as journalists.
As to the practice of displacement, which essentially takes scholarship money away from financially needy students and puts them deeper into debt, one college aid officer meekly offered up, "Morally, it's a difficult question."
No, this isn't a difficult question. The practice is unethical. It also deceives well-meaning donors to scholarship funds.
Thanks to Janet Lorin for exposing it.
East German Academic Degrees
March, 2013
Berlin -- What with all the recent interest in German academic degrees, I have to recount an old story from the days of German re-unification.
My family and I were traveling on Germany's Baltic Coast not long after the East German state had been dissolved. We drove up from Berlin to show our children where their maternal grandfather had worked, long ago, on guidance systems at Peenemünde and to spend New Year's Eve on the beach at Usedom.
A few hours before midnight on New Year's Eve, we walked from our hotel down to the water's edge to see many townspeople dragging their Christmas trees onto a huge pile, to be burned to welcome in the new year.
But then a few townspeople tried to stop the event; a great deal of shouting and pushing ensued. Fights broke out. It seems two factions were disputing control of a tradition. The town's communists were opposed to the event, as it had not been observed during communist rule; the others wanted the town to return to the pre-communist tradition of a great Christmas tree bonfire.
The communists were routed and chased back up the banks away from the beach. The traditionalists shouted insults all the way, telling their communist neighbors they weren't in charge anymore, and to get off the beach and to take their phony, worthless East German doctoral degrees with them!
Berlin -- What with all the recent interest in German academic degrees, I have to recount an old story from the days of German re-unification.
My family and I were traveling on Germany's Baltic Coast not long after the East German state had been dissolved. We drove up from Berlin to show our children where their maternal grandfather had worked, long ago, on guidance systems at Peenemünde and to spend New Year's Eve on the beach at Usedom.
A few hours before midnight on New Year's Eve, we walked from our hotel down to the water's edge to see many townspeople dragging their Christmas trees onto a huge pile, to be burned to welcome in the new year.
But then a few townspeople tried to stop the event; a great deal of shouting and pushing ensued. Fights broke out. It seems two factions were disputing control of a tradition. The town's communists were opposed to the event, as it had not been observed during communist rule; the others wanted the town to return to the pre-communist tradition of a great Christmas tree bonfire.
The communists were routed and chased back up the banks away from the beach. The traditionalists shouted insults all the way, telling their communist neighbors they weren't in charge anymore, and to get off the beach and to take their phony, worthless East German doctoral degrees with them!
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