Whiteclay beer stores ordered to close

Top Picture: Nebraska Senators Patty Pansing Brooks and Tom Brewer embrace after sharing the news of the Whiteclay beer stores’ license revocation with colleagues on the legislative floor at the Nebraska State Capitol on Wednesday. Photo by Calla Kessler.

Lower Picture: Judi gaiashkibos, NCIA Executive Director, talks with attorney Dave Domina from the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission meeting on Wednesday

The flow of beer in Whiteclay must stop, the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission ordered Wednesday, an unprecedented move that sets the stage for a major court battle.

Commissioners voted 3-0 to deny licenses to all four beer stores in the alcohol-soaked outpost in northwest Nebraska, a bottle’s toss from South Dakota’s dry Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

“This is not a place that can exist any longer,” commission Chairman Bob Batt of Omaha said after the vote. “This is not a place that can exist as a purveyor of alcohol at all.”