The NFL’s third leading rusher last season is now with the Chiefs. Thomas Jones who has rushed for 1,000 yards or more for the past five seasons was cut by the Jets last week. Jones will be a good tandem with Jamaal Charles who ran for over 1,100 yards last season.

Jones is coming off a season in which he had career highs with 1,402 yards and 14 touchdowns. The year before that Jones was a Pro Bowler and prior to that, Jones was with the Chicago Bears, who along with running back Cedric Benson led the Bears into the Super Bowl.

The Jets ranked first in the NFL with 172.2 yards per game and New York couldn’t find a way to restructure his contract. Their loss, the Chiefs gain. Last season, Charles took over for Larry Johnson and rushed for 1,120 yards and seven touchdowns while gaining the confidence of Todd Haley more and more as the season went on.

Chadron State College is mourning the loss of 19 year old football player Garrett Schlictemeier after he was killed in a car crash in Alabama while on spring break. The driver was teammate Michael Madkins who lost control of a Range Rover. He was recovering in an Alabama hospital. A third player, Tyler Perri was a passenger and not injured as all the teens were ejected from the vehicle near Auburn, Alabama. Authories say alcohol might have been a factor.

State Senator Charlie Janssen

“We’ll see the fiscal notes for years to come if this happens.  You’ll see it, appropriations will see it, they’ll come back and say well now we’re doing college savings  we need more money for this, well we had to hire an additional person to handle this.”

If the resolution makes it through two more rounds of debate – the decision on eliminating the State Treasurer’s office would go to the voters.

All six Presidents of Nebraska’s community colleges have agreed to meet throughout the next week to come up with a temporary solution to the funding problems. They will be meeting over the next year to come up with a more permanent solution.

“How do we make sure they work it out? We start first of all with trust. And I have trust in all six community college presidents and their respective board members and their respective boards to honor the agreement that they’ve made.”

Senator Greg Adams of York held a news conference to announce that all six colleges have agreed to meet. Metropolitan Community College has dropped their lawsuit against the six other community colleges in the state regarding a funding dispute. In the lawsuit, Metro claimed a loss of nearly 11 million dollars saying the state made miscalculations. The other community colleges will contribute nearly two million dollars to Metro while they discuss a new funding formula.

Flooding is a huge concern right now and the National Weather Service wants people to take the possibility serious.

“We have issued a flood advisory for most of the Elkhorn and Platte Rivers from about Interstate 80 upstream.”

Meteorologist Brian Miller says ice jams are causing some of the problems.

“There are some local ice jams that are occurring up around North Bend and up near the Stanton-Cuming County line near the Pilger area.”

Miller says with the rains, the situation could get worse.

“We are somewhat concerned with the rain, ice jams could cause some flooding along the Elkhorn and Platte Rivers.”

Miller says there is also a lot of ice in the Loup River that is dumping into the Platte.

Senator Gwen Howard Omaha

“I think that if there is any way that we can ensure a baby is born healthy, we have an obligation to do that.”

Senator Dave Pankonin of Louisville was the lone no vote on the committee, but says he does care about the babies.

“I am concerned about that aspect, and I think that there well be many groups that will come forward if we don’t do this.  As the Governor said, I think there will be efforts to help those folks.”

The Governor says if the bill passes, he will not sign it.

Nebraska women’s basketball Coach Connie Yori earned her first Big 12 Conference Coach-of-the-Year honor, and senior forward Kelsey Griffin became the first Cornhusker to be named Big 12 Player-of-the-Year. Yvonne Turner was voted the Big 12’s Co-Defensive Player of the Year with Baylor’s Brittney Griner. Griffin, Turner, and Cory Montgomery earned first team honors. Dominque Kelly picked up honorable mention honors and Lindsey Moore named to the all-Freshmen team.

Manager Trey Hillman didn’t seem too happy with Alex Gordon’s broken thumb. Hillman said the bad thing about was it didn’t need to happen…but it did. Gordon slid head first into second base on a steal attempt and came up with the tip of his thumb broken. Gordon could be ready by opening day.

This year is almost a do or die season for Gordon who has been projected at the heir apparent to George Brett at third base. He hasn’t quite lived up to the hype of coming out of Nebraska, and last year he missed a good chunk of the season with hip surgery. So entering 2010, it was time for Gordon to show some signs of a rebound and/or a future.

The bad news for Gordon is he was just three days into Spring Training. Even if his thumb is ready by opening day, he’ll need some at-bats to get his timing down so I would imagine an extended spring in Arizona for Gordon.

The good news for the Royals, is that they have some depth on the infield and it will allow them the opportunity to see some younger players at that position.

Click to listen to comments from Gordon, Hillman and GM Dayton Moore.

Alex Gordon