We should issue everyone who will take the job work visas and the right to bring their families. In view of the last 10 years of the national economy and Nebraska's unemployment rate of 2.6 percent, Nebraska needs these willing workers or Nebraska's agriculture will suffer. This is more than a meatpacking problem. Omahans must consider the impact not just on Omahans but the entire state and our agriculture-based economy. Iowa's population grew by about 9 percent.
Plans are to rebuild.
City officials in Council Bluffs proposed the annexation of 1,300 acres of land east of the city for future growth and development. The city of Underwood continues fund-raising efforts to construct a new community hall sometime in the summer of 2002. The city was left without a central gathering place when the UMBA Hall, which was built in the 1950s and was a staple of community July Fourth and Christmas celebrations, was destroyed by fire last July. Baker's Supermarkets, the largest local grocery store chain in Greater Omaha, was recently purchased by Kroger, Co., the nation's largest supermarket chain. D.C. Papio-LaVista is the only band from Nebraska or Iowa to be invited, and one of only 35 nationally.