Court Calls 03/29/2021 Sandra Weller of Cambridge - Possession of a controlled substance, possess or use drug paraphernalia Continued to 04/12/2021 @ 10:30 A.M. Rhonda Hinz of Arapahoe - Probation Revocation, Plea: Denial; Revocation Hearing set for 04/12/2021 @ 11:00 A.M.

Last week we passed the halfway mark for this year’s session. We were supposed to receive the proposed budget from the Appropriations Committee last week but there were a few minor changes they wanted to make before releasing it. We should get it sometime this week.

Sports fans rejoiced this past weekend as a favorite past time returned from a one-year COVID-induced hiatus. The NCAA Tournament certainly brought the madness through the first weekend, including one my backside.

The Nebraska Legislature is halfway through its 2021 session. Senators are working on passing a budget that controls spending and delivers on Nebraskans’ top priority—property tax working to achieve other important objectives like providing veterans tax relief, replacing the crumbling Nebraska State Penitentiary, and expanding our state’s broadband infrastructure.

Last week a total of 89 bills were named either a senator or a committee priority bill. If priority bills are advanced out of committee they will have a better chance of being heard on the legislative floor this year. The speaker also named 25 bills as speaker priority bills. This may sound like a lot of bills and although some of these bills are controversial, most are not.

Recently I saw a patient who had experienced two consecutive days of pain in his right upper abdomen. I questioned him, looking for clues of gallstones, liver mass, or maybe an ulcer in the small bowel, but his answers did not fit my expectations. The pain was located under his right ribs and radiated into his back, just as I would expect of gallbladder disease; but it was not triggered by eating, and the way the patient described the pain did not fit the profile of an abdominal disorder. Then, a lightbulb went off; I needed to look at his skin.

Did you think I was gone for good? To all eight of you that read these each week (well, when I actually get around to writing them), I am sorry I have been absent so much lately, but I had something I wanted to say this week. A good number of our local high school students will depart for the State Speech Meet after competing at districts in the past week or two.

From March 21-27, 2021 we’ll celebrate National Agriculture Week in Nebraska. It’s a great opportunity to highlight the hard work our farmers and ranchers do to produce high-quality and crops they raise feed families in our state, across the nation, and around the world.

Last week and early this week, things continued to be busy around here. Committees were busy meeting in executive session, trying to advance bills so that senators could decide on what bill they would like to prioritize for the session. Each senator can prioritize one bill and each committee can prioritize up to two bills. Usually a senator does not like to prioritize a specific bill until they know it has the votes to get out of committee because if it does not and there aren’t enough votes to pull the bill out of committee then they have wasted their priority bill for the year. Having priority bill status means that those bills will be heard on the Legislative floor for debate before other bills that do not have priority bill status.

As a primary care physician, I walk with my patients as they face many of life’s challenges. Facing the diagnosis of dementia may be one of the hardest. Any chronic illness involves loss, but dementia threatens the loss of not only ability and independence, but of the very self.