"A "whole new bunch" of Nebraska lawmakers are ready to go where lawmakers before them have gone, attempted and failed to solve the alcohol issues arising from the location between the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and Whiteclay, Nebr.

State Sen. Russ Karpisek, a Nebraska legislator leading a committee studying Whiteclay, told representatives from Pine Ridge that it was time to get beyond the skepticism of the past and look to a new future.

"We weren't here at those other times," he said of past failures. "We're a whole new bunch of senators."

It's a whole new bunch of senators inheriting an age-old problem.

We appreciate Nebraska's efforts to solve the problem shared by Whiteclay and Pine Ridge, but we fear a new generation of lawmakers will find what their predecessors have learned over the years: the solution to the problem at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is much deeper than the location it shares with Whiteclay."

Get the Story:
Editorial: 'New bunch' faces old problems (The Rapid City Journal 12/15)

Also Today:
For Whiteclay problems, some push for detox (AP 12/13)

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