Nebraska Supreme Court hears of Whiteclay 'epidemic' in state's written arguments

LINCOLN — The lack of law enforcement in the unincorporated village of Whiteclay, Nebraska, has allowed “epidemic” liquor-related problems rivaling “Chicago in the Roaring Twenties,” the Nebraska Supreme Court was told Monday.

Attorneys for the State Liquor Control Commission submitted written legal arguments on Monday to support the commission’s decision in April to shut down the beer stores in the northwest Nebraska border town.

That decision was nullified April 27 by Lancaster County District Judge Andrew Jacobsen, which prompted an appeal the same day by the State Attorney General’s Office. That appeal superseded the judge’s order until a higher court could hear an appeal, leaving the stores without liquor licenses as of May 1, forcing them to close.

The four beer stores sold the equivalent of 3.5 million cans of beer a year, earning Whiteclay the nickname “Skid Row of the Plains.” Almost all the sales were to residents of the adjacent Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, across the state line in South Dakota. Alcohol is officially banned on the reservation, but liquor-related crime and health problems, such as alcoholism and fetal alcohol syndrome, are rampant.

Read more: http://www.omaha.com/news/nebraska/nebraska-supreme-court-hears-of-whiteclay-epidemic-in-state-s/article_95fade90-e3d6-5531-9d6f-ec0731fb3433.html