Many of the inmates at the Penitentiary have been carefully watching the stories about the reasons for building another prison. We were surprised when the story morphed into "replacing" the Penitentiary, what are they thinking? The problems with the Penitentiary are created by the Department themselves; but that is another story. With proper maintenance the Penitentiary could be used for another 50 years. What are they thinking?

On Tuesday night, March 15th, Senator Flood turned on the light bulb. He went on and on about what a great piece of property the Penitentiary sat on. He did misstate that it was at 27th and Highway 2 when in fact it is at 14th and Highway 2. It is a prime piece of real estate ready for development, having rail access already in place. It suddenly became obvious that someone wants the land the Penitentiary is sitting on. They just need to get the prison out of the way so they can take it.

It's the Omaha Library story all over again. For weeks we heard that the Omaha Library Board was considering moving out of their nice downtown facility and into a smaller dilapidated warehouse that needed renovation. It left people scratching their heads wondering why, but once the Board made the vote to do that it became obvious. Up stepped Mutual of Omaha and announced they wanted to build a new headquarters building on the old library property; and they wanted Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to do that.

Yeah, welcome to klepto-Nebraska. When you run government like a business you don't have a democracy, it's an autocracy. In a business, what the boss says goes. Someone in the press ought to ask Senator Flood and Governor Ricketts just who it is that wants the land the Penitentiary is sitting on.