LINCOLN - The proposal granting state lawmakers the authority to expand to 55 senators could be debated by the full Legislature as early as next week.
Speaker Jim Scheer's proposed constitutional amendment (LR279CA) advanced from the Legislature's Executive Board to general file Thursday morning on a 6-1 vote.
Two senators, Ernie Chambers and Tony Vargas, both of Omaha, abstained. Lincoln Sen. Kate Bolz cast the lone dissenting vote during a brief executive session.
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LINCOLN — Mark Hansen always knew that 54 years ago, he was conceived via artificial insemination.
But six years ago, the Urbandale, Iowa, man was shocked to discover, through an over-the-counter DNA test, that his dad wasn’t his biological father — his mother’s doctor was.
Hansen said his mother was distraught and felt violated, and his emotions ran the gamut, from confusion to wondering if his family would still consider him “family.”
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LINCOLN — A leading Nebraska business group broke new ground Thursday by taking a stand against workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry adopted the policy change to align itself with Blueprint Nebraska, a statewide economic development plan released last fall, officials said.
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LINCOLN - Children donning yellow scarves filled the state Capitol’s Warner Chamber on Wednesday for the annual school choice rally promoting the latest bill to offer tax credits for donors to a scholarship fund for private and parochial school students.
“I’m sure lots of you are on scholarship,” said Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, who introduced the Opportunity Scholarships Act (LB1202). “But we run out every year. It’s not enough.”
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IOWA - After a bad workplace accident in 2001, Rick Parham wound up with steel plates and rods in his spine.
He also found himself dealing with ongoing pain, including cramps in his legs that woke him up at night.
A little less than a year ago, Parham turned to a newly opened medical cannabis dispensary on the edge of Council Bluffs. He now uses a combination of cannabis tinctures, creams and vapor to keep himself moving during the day and to get adequate sleep at night. Recently, he’s been putting siding on his home in Pacific Junction, Iowa, which took a hit from flooding last spring.
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LINCOLN - School-age Nebraskans who are deaf or hard of hearing rely upon interpreters to give them access to the same education as their peers who are able to hear.
But access to interpreters fluent in American Sign Language or services aimed at helping young Nebraskans who experience hearing loss prepare to even enter school is not equal across the state.
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LINCOLN — The unnamed retiree was highly respected in his central Nebraska community, an elected official with a wife, children and grandchildren to keep him active and connected.
He also was absolutely convinced that he had won the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes and had sent off nearly $10,000 to claim his winnings.
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LINCOLN - There are still a few knots to work out of a bill that would ease licensing requirements for practitioners of reflexology, who touch pressure points on hands, feet and outer ears.
Legislative Bill 347, introduced by State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, would allow reflexologists to sidestep a Nebraska law that requires them to be licensed as massage therapists, who have to log 1,000 hours of coursework and training.
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LINCOLN — The Willa Cather Foundation is making a final push for donations to enhance Cather’s hometown of Red Cloud as a literary landmark and destination for “heritage” tourists.
The nonprofit foundation will announce Tuesday that it is seeking to raise $6.5 million to restore and upgrade eight historic buildings related to Cather’s novels in Red Cloud, develop a boutique hotel there and amass an endowment to maintain structures owned by the organization.
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OMAHA - John Kerry, former U.S. secretary of state and former presidential candidate, will speak Feb. 26 at the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Hagel Forum in Global Leadership.
This will be the second Hagel Forum, which debuted last year. The 2019 forum featured Chuck Hagel, a UNO graduate, and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president. Hagel is a former U.S. defense secretary and a former senator from Nebraska.
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LINCOLN - Nebraska lawmakers gave first-round approval Monday to a bill that would build a framework — but provide no money — to help survivors of sex trafficking turn their lives around.
As introduced, Legislative Bill 518 would have put $450,000 a year into programs providing such support as housing, economic stability, education, counseling, legal aid, transportation and victim advocacy.
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LINCOLN - Rebekah Schmitz didn't set out to make "The Teal Oasis" a short-term rental when she bought the tumbledown bungalow on South 27th Street in 2018.
But Schmitz, who flips houses, realized the renovation needed in the basement made it a better investment if she marketed the home for Airbnb guests rather than sell it or try to rent it to long-term tenants, she said.
So she overhauled the home and transformed its backyard from a jungle to a cozy, landscaped hangout with porch swings, a gazebo and a fire pit.
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LINCOLN — Reformed criminal offenders are being denied “a fresh start” because of a dramatic drop in meetings by a state board that grants pardons, a legislative committee was told late last week.
The State Board of Pardons — which consists of the governor, attorney general and secretary of state — held only 13 hearings over the past three fiscal years, compared with 345 hearings during the three years previous to that. The board, which used to meet six to eight times a year for multiple hearings, met only twice during 2019.
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LINCOLN - A lot of moving parts now in the Legislature's ever-changing 2020 tax story.
A new property tax relief and state school aid reform package is headed to the floor from the Revenue Committee.
A 35% property tax reduction initiative petition drive is ongoing out there across the state and it would mandate more than $1 billion in instant relief lifted from revenue used to fund state government programs and services.
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OMAHA - Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert made it official.
She wants a five-year 200 million dollar, vote-of-the-people bond issue to fix the city's broken streets on the May primary ballot.
Her plan would find property taxes on an average Omaha home jumping 61 dollars a year. Her proposal now goes to the city council which must give its approval. A public hearing on the plan is set for February 4th.
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MONTGOMERY, Ala.—One afternoon in October, the warden at the prison where Sandy Ray’s son was serving time called to say he was hospitalized in critical condition, she recalled. He had fought with correctional officers who accused him of rushing at them with handmade weapons, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections.
When Ms. Ray arrived, her 35-year-old son, Steven Davis, lay in bed unconscious, his face swollen and disfigured, photos she took show. “He was unrecognizable,” Ms. Ray said in an interview after a demonstration for prison reform where she spoke publicly. “He looked like a monster.”
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In some towns, it is getting harder to pick up your blood-pressure pills with that gallon of milk and rotisserie chicken.
Hundreds of regional grocery stores in cities from Minneapolis to Seattle are closing or selling pharmacy counters, which have been struggling as consumers make fewer trips to fill prescriptions and big drugstore chains tighten their grip on the U.S. market.
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WASHINGTON—State attorneys general will meet with U.S. Justice Department attorneys next week to share information on their respective probes of Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit, a step that could eventually lead to both groups joining forces, according to people familiar with the matter.
The meeting is seen as the start of a periodic dialogue that could expand into more formal cooperation as the probes continue, the people said.
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LINCOLN - Gov. Pete Ricketts said while he is monitoring the presidential impeachment trial, he believes most Nebraskans are more concerned about property tax relief, recovering from the historic floods and reopening trade opportunities with China.
"It's all partisan politics. It has nothing to do with whether or not the president should be impeached. It is just a political exercise," Ricketts said.
The U.S. Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump was just one of the topics discussed in a recent interview with Ricketts, a fellow Republican, as he heads into his sixth year as governor.
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LINCOLN - Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard dropped a surprise package in the Legislature's lap on Thursday, proposing a constitutional amendment that would replace the state's property, sales and income tax system with a single-rate consumption tax.
The new tax would be applied to the purchase of new goods and services and would become effective in 2022 if the Legislature agrees to place the proposal on this November's general election ballot and if voters approve the dramatic change.
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