National Signing Day is Feb. 1 and the Husker football team has 14 commitments coming into the day with the potential of four of five more. Bo Pelini is holding a press conference at 2:30 today where he’ll talk about the 2012 signing class. Here is a schedule of when other potential top recruits will make their announcement. Check back here for the latest or follow us on Twitter at Nebraskasports. (All times listed are central time)
Green, legal way to get rid of TVs, computers, microwaves
February 1, 2012 By
An electronics recycling project in the northeast Nebraska community of Plainview is so popular, it’s being expanded.
In the past, the event ran for a few days in various locations, but organizer Carol Peters says they’re now planning to take computers and other electronics every Thursday and Saturday in February.
They get lots of phone calls after the events are over so they wanted to offer more dates. A company in Omaha is bringing up a trailer that they’ll simply start to fill up.
Peters says they will be able to accept most home electronics.
“We’ll accept the whole computer, the monitor, the tower, and we’ll accept TVs, microwaves,” Peters says, but not stoves or refrigerators.
While there is a small charge to take the equipment, Peters says it’s not a money maker for the Northeast Nebraska Resource, Conservation & Development Council.
She says it’s $5 for each monitor and $5 for each computer tower. Small TVs will also be $5 and that price will go up, based on the size of the TV.
Peters says they are known for their recycling projects and this is an extension of that.
Jerry Oster, WNAX, Yankton
Congressman Terry says push for Keystone XL moves forward (AUDIO)
January 25, 2012 By
Congressman Lee Terry says he agrees with President Obama’s energy message in the State of the Union address; that America needs to develop all energy sources.
“Now, last week, he killed the pipeline,” Terry says. “So, this week he’s talking about ‘an all of the above’ approach. Once again, his actions are opposite of what he’s telling us.”
Terry vows to continue the fight to win approval for the Keystone XL pipeline. The $7 billion project took a blow when President Obama followed a suggestion by the State Department and turned down TransCanada’s request to build a 1,700 mile oil pipeline stretching from western Canada to refineries at the Gulf Coast in Texas.
How that action affects Nebraska’s efforts to help TransCanada find an alternative route for Keystone, that avoids the Sand Hills, has not been clarified, according to Terry.
“So, no, I have no idea what to tell the governor or our state legislature,” Terry says.
The Nebraska legislature, meeting in special session late last year, reached an agreement with TransCanada to move the proposed route of the pipeline so that it won’t travel through the Sand Hills. The state is paying for a supplemental environmental impact study on a potential new route. The alternative would have to meet the approval of the governor, under legislation approved in special session.
Terry sponsors legislation to give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority over the Keystone XL permit, rather than with the president. Hearings are being held today in Washington on the proposed legislation.
AUDIO: Congressman Lee Terry on future of Keystone XL pipeline [2:00]
Senator: Pres. Obama to blame for loss of 20,000 pipeline jobs
January 24, 2012 By
U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa
Reports say President Obama’s State of the Union Address tonight will be focusing, in part, on economic fairness.
U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, of Iowa, says it isn’t “fair” for the president to have denied the permit last week that would have green-lighted construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to Texas.
Grassley says Obama’s action will halt the hiring of what could have been thousands of pipeline workers.
“He’s going to convince me he’s interested in fairness when he gets those 20,000 workers to work,” Grassley says. “He’s the only person standing in the way of those 20,000 jobs. You can’t blame John Deere, you can’t blame Caterpillar, you can’t blame Wall Street, you can’t blame anybody else. So if he’s going to be fair and equitable, create those 20,000 jobs.”
Grassley says the pipeline also promises to create another 120,000 jobs indirectly. Grassley, a Republican, says America needs more affordable energy, in his words, “We need to drill here and drill now.”
The proposed $6-billion pipeline would stretch 1,700 miles from Canada’s British Columbia and across six states to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
“This infrastructure project has been under review by the administration for more than three years,” Grassley says. “It could be a job-creating energy partnership with a very friendly neighbor, a relationship that could reduce America’s dependence on volatile foreign energy sources, including Venezuela, Libya and OPEC.”
Grassley says that oil will be produced in Canada and if it doesn’t come to the U-S, it’ll likely go to China.
He says, “Environmentalists that are objecting to harvesting this type of fossil fuel aren’t accomplishing anything by stopping the Keystone project except hurting Americans and helping the Chinese.”
Concerns were raised about the TransCanada pipeline’s original path through Nebraska as it was proposed to cut through environmentally-fragile areas, including the Sandhills and the Ogallala Aquifer.
Congressman: Go ahead and build pipeline, get permit later
January 24, 2012 By
Cong. Steve King of Iowa
Republicans in the U.S. House may soon try to force action on the Keystone XL oil pipeline after President Barack Obama last week rejected the pipeline’s permit.
Some of his environmental and safety concerns stemmed from the pipeline’s original proposed route through Nebraska’s Sandhills and the Ogallala Aquifer.
Congressman Steve King, a Republican from western Iowa, says there could be legislation to move the pipeline ahead, but he says the president still stands in the way.
“Anything we might pass through congress faces a presidential veto and requires a two-thirds majority to override a presidential veto,” King says. “That’s possible that that could happen in the House of Representatives, but it’s very, very unlikely that it would happen in the Senate.”
King says there is an alternative to get around the president’s decision.
He says,” My suggestion would be this — and it might be a bit of brash recommendation — that we really just need the permit, everything else is cleared as I understand this, we need the permit to go across the border with Canada. Why not just build that pipeline right on up there to Canada and lay that last section of pipe out there on ground in the United States. I’ll go up there myself and swing that piece into place when we have a president that’ll sign that agreement with Canada.”
King says President Obama’s decision to stop the pipeline was a political one made under pressure from environmentalists.
Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City
