Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Lawmakers mourned the loss of former colleague Jennie Robak, who was
struck and killed by a car in a grocery store parking lot in Lincoln.
The 81-year-old Robak represented the Columbus area from 1989 to 2003.
The feisty Democrat was the mother of six children, including former
Lieutenant Governor Kim Robak who presided over the Legislature for six
years while her mother was a state senator.
Jennie Robak was interested in mental health issues, said former state
Sen. DiAnna Schimek of Lincoln. Schimek remembered Robak as somebody you
could count on. She had a good heart, cared about issues and was a
happy person, she said. The two women were elected in the same class and
began serving in 1989.
Veteran lawmaker Ernie Chambers has long listed his occupation as
"Defender of the Downtrodden." This year he is stepping forward as the
defender of the Mountain Lion. The big cats are native to Nebraska but
were wiped out by early settlers and essentially vanished after 1890.
The next sighting wasn't until 1991 in Sioux County, in the upper
northwest corner of the Panhandle. Wildlife experts say the cats have a
breeding population of about 22 today.
Chambers is offering a bill to repeal the Nebraska Game and Parks
Commission's authority to set a hunting season on mountain lions and has
also vowed to fight every bill and issue in which the commission has a
stake. He said the people who go after the cats are killers, not
hunters, because they use dogs to chase the animals until they are
exhausted and easy prey. That's not hunting, he said, that's slaughter.
He has vowed to avenge the deaths of two young male cats that were shot
and killed during January's hunting season. The two hunters, who won
their permits in a lottery, said the senator is entitled to his opinion.
Unbeknownst to them, killing a mountain lion is likely easier than
killing Chamber's passion for the issue.
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