Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • A3

LincoLn JournaL Star Tuesday, March 14, 2017 A3 00 1 quiet in this small shop sandwiched between the UPS Store and Williams Cleaners on Old Cheney Road. the class- room, it was 600 miles an hour all day says the woman behind the counter. bells and the stu- dents and all the noise they brought with These days, Lori Goff owner of Socks Such is sur- rounded by more subdued sub- ject matter. socks talk back to the retired teacher says in a tongue-and-cheek fashion that perhaps only another teacher can appreciate. not that Goff love her students, even the chatty ones.

give hugs, she says.) not that she love the bustle of 33 years of family and consumer science, first at Bryan Community School, then at Lincoln Southeast. But wanted to get out while the kids still liked me and I was still young enough to have another been pondering a sec- ond career during her last years of teaching teenagers how to bake pies, deal with relation- ships, and design their ideal bedroom. But owning a shop for sock lovers her first choice. really thought I was going to sell she says. love, love, love homes but there are too many Realtors in Lincoln and not another sock Goff made up her mind to traffic in footwear instead of square footage before she left Lincoln Public Schools last May.

husband John and I were traveling a lot and it seemed ev- erywhere we went, there was a sock Visiting their son in Denver: sock shop. Vacations in Minneapolis and New York City and Chicago: sock shop, sock shop, sock shop. It was during a trip to San Francisco and visiting Sockshop Haight Street, with its 20-foot ceilings and socks that reached all the way to the top, that she and John looked at each other over a glass of wine, and de- cided: sock shop. talked about it over din- ner and we kept talking about it and talking about Lori opened the doors to on Feb. she has two partners with minority shares in the business, her daughter- in-law Kim Goff, and the namesake Jillian Fiedler, a for- mer student.

knew I want to work full time and I knew a needed a young person to help with tech- nology and social The trio met every Tuesday for a year, nailing down their business plan. They held home parties before the 2016 holi- days Sock Hops, they called them selling a thousand pairs of fun and funky socks before the brick-and-mortar doors opened. That gave them confidence, and a following. having a Goff says. wait to walk in Fiedler, her 21-year-old for- mer student and sock partner, feels the same way.

always wanted to open my own said Fiedler, who is taking a break from col- lege to help run the store. going really well, and great having the UPS Store next door, people in and out all LOCAL Local news tips? call the city desk at (402) 473-7306 NICHOLAS BERGIN Lincoln Journal Star A herd of cattle associations are pushing to get Charles Herb- ster, a Nebraska farmer, rancher and businessman, nominated as deputy secretary at the U.S. Ag- riculture Department. The 14 trade groups, including the Independent Cattlemen of Nebraska, recently sent a letter to the White House urging President Donald Trump to pick Herbster as the right hand to Agriculture Secretary nomi- nee Sonny Perdue. only way to improve upon the tremendous opportunity that Mr.

Perdue will bring as your Sec- retary of Agricul- ture would be to include the entrepreneurial tal- ents and production-agriculture knowledge of Charles W. Herbster on Mr. executive team as Mr. Deputy Secre- the letter says. Herbster declined to comment on the letter or his job prospects, citing respect for the nomination process.

of the things they re- quest of you when in a group of the finalists is that you make any comment to the press. I want to be respectful of the Trump presidency for he said in a phone interview. most important thing would be to get the nomination of the secre- tary, Governor Sonny Perdue, which hopefully will take place here The Senate Ag Committee has received all the necessary paper- work for the Perdue nomination nearly eight weeks after Trump announced his pick and plans to schedule a confirmation hear- ing after reviewing the docu- ments, a spokesperson in the of- fice of Chairman Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said on Monday. Herbster has known the Trump family for 11 years and got to know Ag groups pushing Herbster for post NANCY HICKS Lincoln Journal Star The Lincoln City Council will begin discussing budget issues in January next year, much earlier than in previous years, under a new schedule that council mem- bers hope will give them more insight and more influence over budget decisions.

Working with other council members and the administration of Mayor Chris Beutler, Council- woman Leirion Gaylor Baird de- veloped the new schedule and an ordinance requiring the mayor to present his final budget plan al- most a month earlier, in mid-June, beginning next year. The new schedule will give council members a chance to be more informed and more prepared before budget decisions must be made, said Gaylor Baird. Requiring the mayor to release the budget in June will also give the public and the council more time to react, she said. The council will hold a public hearing on the new budget sched- ule at its March 20 meeting, which begins at 3 p.m. Council members, in particular Republicans, have complained for several years that they have little real influence over budget decisions because they get bud- get-related information so late in the process.

Last year the tension resulted in a budget impasse between the four Republican council members and the three Democrats and Beutler. The budget controversy was re- solved in a court case last fall. The June 15 deadline for pre- senting the budget plan and the new schedule for council budget discussions apply to the next two-year budget, which will be developed in 2018. City fiscal years begin Sept. 1.

This year city leaders will tinker with the second year of the current biennial budget, but the charter allows for only limited changes. The revised schedule also di- vides the budget discussion by topic safety and security, neighborhoods, economic op- portunity, healthy and productive people, transportation and envi- ronmental quality, and account- able government rather than by department. The focus is on outcomes, ob- jectives and data and how the budget reflects and supports city goals, said Gaylor Baird. For example, public safety is more than police and fire. It in- cludes recreation and after-school programs for youth, she said.

Looking beyond department lines will help the council members see the bigger picture, she said. The schedule for the next two- year budget, which sets out de- partmental meetings through- out the winter and early spring, should be helpful, said Council- woman Cyndi Lamm, who has been critical of the limited and late budget information. Those departmental meetings get council members in the con- versation earlier, said Lamm, who was considering her own bud- get-related charter amendment proposal. the access will be meaningful or not remains to be she said. The budget schedule is just part of the frustration, said Lamm.

The Charter Revision Commission is looking at the other half of the budget debate what should the veto power be (line-item or full budget veto), and what should the fallback budget be (the previous budget or the pro- posal) if there is an impasse. The commission is currently exploring what other cities do, said Lamm. reach the writer at 402-473-7250 or On Twitter New calendar for city budget MATT RYERSON, JOURNAL STAR Lori Goff, a retired teacher from Lincoln southeast, has opened a gift shop called socks such at 3900 Old cheney road. Sliding into the sock business ZACH PLUHACEK Lincoln Journal Star A proposal to allow Nebraska teachers to use physical force on unruly students is queued up for debate by the full Legislature this spring. Sponsored by state Sen.

Mike Groene of North Platte and backed by the state union, the measure advanced with substantial changes Monday from the Education Committee on a 5-2 vote. The rewritten version of bill (LB595) specifies that a teacher must have acted in a when using physical force to be im- mune from legal action or work- place discipline. Groene said the change ad- dresses concerns by some of the opponents that it gave teachers too much leeway. He said received more phone calls about this bill (LB595) than on any other measure introduced much of it positive feedback from teachers and ad- ministrators, as well as parents who feel the bill could protect their children from violent or destructive classmates. Still, Groene expects some op- position within the full Legisla- ture, including from Omaha Sen.

Ernie Chambers. going to be a Groene said. The bill would allow teachers to use physical force with students who become violent. More lim- ited physical restraint is allowed to prevent a student from de- stroying school property. The revised bill strikes an op- tion to place students who are physically removed from class into an alternative education Restraint proposal advances JOANNE YOUNG Lincoln Journal Star Agencies that provide behav- ioral health services in Lincoln and Southeast Nebraska say the conversion by the state to three health care companies rather than one for managed care has given them their own management headache.

On Jan. 1, three companies United Healthcare, Nebraska Total Care, and WellCare of Ne- braska took over managed care for Medicaid clients, called Heritage Health, each one able to provide integrated services for medical, behavioral health and pharmacy. What that means for agencies is having to file claims with three companies, depending on the en- rollment of clients, who do things three different ways, said Jon Day of Blue Valley Behavioral Health, a private nonprofit organization been bumpy start for new managed care plan Council would get information sooner Herbster CINDY LANGE- KUBICK Teacher-backed measure headed for full debate Groene Please see RESTRAINT Page A5 Please see LANGE-KUBICK, Page A5 Please see HERBSTER, Page A5 mental health agencies now dealing with three companies Please see HEALTH, Page A5.