RICKETTS, STATE SENATORS CONDEMN WHITE SUPREMACIST COMMENTS MADE DURING HEARING ON GUN CONTROL BILLS

LINCOLN — Gov. Pete Ricketts and State Sen. Julie Slama have joined Sen. Megan Hunt in condemning the white supremacist testimony of a Lincoln gun shop employee before a legislative committee on Friday.

Hunt, of Omaha, issued a press release during the hearing saying white supremacy has “no place in our country” and must be opposed and “called out.”

“Elected officials must draw a bright line against normalizing racism and white supremacy while working to promote policies of equality and inclusivity,” said Hunt, who is the Legislature’s first openly bisexual senator.

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THREE NEBRASKA SCHOOL GROUPS UNITE IN OPPOSITION TO PROPERTY TAX

LINCOLN — Groups representing Nebraska schools, from the smallest to the largest, have united against the Legislature’s main property tax proposal.

The Nebraska Rural Community Schools Association, representing smaller schools; Schools Taking Action for Nebraska Children’s Education, or STANCE, representing midsize schools; and the Greater Nebraska Schools Association, representing large schools, issued a joint press release Friday opposing Legislative Bill 974.

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I-80 TO BE REBUILT THROUGH OMAHA; $860 MILLION PLAN OUTLINES FUTURE OF METRO AREA FREEWAYS

OMAHA - Interstate 80 through Omaha will be widened under a new state plan to plot the course for the metro area’s freeways.

The Nebraska Department of Transportation has completed a major study that outlines $860 million in changes over the next 25 years to Interstates 80, 480 and 680, the Kennedy Freeway, West Dodge Road and the West Dodge elevated expressway.

Most notably, it outlines plans to widen I-80 from four main lanes each way to six lanes through Omaha between I-480 and 680.

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OMAHA-BASED ETHANOL COMPANY SAYS IT WON'T MAKE MONEY OFF CONTROVERSIAL GRANT

LINCOLN — The head of the nation’s largest ethanol producer says his firm is being unfairly portrayed as the beneficiary of a controversial shift in a state lottery grant recommended by the Nebraska Environmental Trust Board.

Todd Becker of Omaha-based Green Plains Inc. said the $1.8 million shifted away from wetland and conservation easement projects would be parceled out in grants to retail gas stations, not his firm, to help pay for the installation of “blender” pumps that can deliver fuel with 15% to 85% ethanol.

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30 CABINS FLOODED, 2 PEOPLE RESCUED IN ICE JAM FLOODING ON PLATTE RIVER IN DODGE COUNTY

OMAHA - Ice jam flooding over the weekend inundated about 30 cabins along the Platte River west of Fremont and required a harrowing water rescue that left four people injured.

The sudden surge of the Platte River out of its banks west of Fremont on Saturday generated a rush of anxiety as people worried about a recurrence, even on a modest scale, of last year’s catastrophic flooding. Last year, in March, about $2.7 billion in damage occurred across Nebraska when runoff from snowmelt and rain poured into area rivers, triggering overland and ice jam flooding. At least 7,000 homes were damaged and several people died.

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DON WALTON: TAX REFORM AND PRISON REFORM PRESENT TOUGH CHALLENGES

LINCOLN - Tax reform and prison reform, both heavy legislative lifts.

One requires a balance of economic, regional and political interests; the other requires a reality check.

So far, the legislative play call for both has always been simple: Punt.

Prison reform looks like the easier challenge to resolve with a combination of increased funding now — at a time when state government already has the revenue in hand or on the way — and when sentencing reform legislation is on the floor and sitting in the Legislature's lap.

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NEW 1,600-BED PRISON BETWEEN LINCOLN AND OMAHA PROPOSED

LINCOLN - Just a few years ago, Nebraska administrators and lawmakers were trying everything possible to avoid having to sink state money into building a new prison.

Things have changed.

Corrections Director Scott Frakes said Tuesday the state is considering a public-private partnership to build a new, 1,600-bed prison between Lincoln and Omaha to help deal with overcrowding and staffing issues. It could even have potential to expand by hundreds of beds.

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SURVIVORS OF CHURCH SHOOTINGS RUN AS GUN-RIGHTS CANDIDATES

SEGUIN, Texas—Stephen Willeford was widely hailed by supporters of the Second Amendment as the model “good guy with a gun” in 2017, when he grabbed an AR-15 rifle and pursued and shot at a gunman killing churchgoers in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

Two and a half years later, the gregarious plumber has embraced the moniker Good Gun Guy Wille in speeches, church security training and now in a campaign for local county commissioner. If he wins, he wants to make Wilson County a “Second Amendment sanctuary” that would defy any restrictions state politicians might put on guns.

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CAN SOLAR POWER COMPETE WITH COAL? IN INDIA, IT'S GAINING GROUND

BHADLA, India—In a dusty northwest India desert dotted with cows and the occasional camel, a solar-power plant is producing some of the world’s cheapest energy.

Built in 2018 by India’s Acme Solar Holdings Ltd., it can generate 200 megawatts of electricity, enough to power all the homes in a middle-size U.S. town. Acme sells the electricity to distributors for 2.44 rupees (3.4 cents) a kilowatt-hour, a record low for solar power in India, a country that data trackers say has the world’s cheapest solar energy.

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FIRST EBOLA, NOW CORONAVIRUS. WHY AN AN OMAHA HOSPITAL GETS THE TOUGHEST CASES.

OMAHA - In the years after the Sept. 11 attacks, officials at Nebraska Medical Center envisioned a time when the nation would need a large, secure treatment center to guard against the threats of bioterrorism and infectious diseases. They spent $1 million to transform an empty wing of the hospital into a 10-bed biocontainment unit, complete with concrete walls, filtered air and video links to the nursing station.

Then they waited.

The beds sat empty for years, until an Ebola outbreak in 2014. The unit became a central player in treating Americans returning from West Africa with the lethal disease. Nurses wearing face shields, water-resistant gowns and three pairs of surgical gloves treated three Ebola patients. When that threat subsided, the unit returned to being a quiet ward used only for training and planning.

Now, the hospital in Omaha is once again playing a key role in an international health emergency, after 13 Americans who tested positive or were exposed to the new coronavirus on a contaminated cruise ship in Japan were hustled off an international flight and transported there for evaluation on Monday.

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COURT HEARING ON REQUEST TO BLOCK HISTORICAL RACING IN NEBRASKA POSTPONED

LINCOLN - A Lancaster County District Court hearing set for Tuesday on a request to block Fonner Park from installing historical horse racing terminals has been postponed, according to court staff.

No new court date had been set in the case pitting the Nebraska Attorney General's Office against the Nebraska State Racing Commission over its approval of the controversial terminals.

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SENATORS THROW UNANIMOUS SUPPORT BEHIND CHAMBERS' PRIORITY BILL ON RACIAL PROFILING

LINCOLN - It isn't often an Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers bill gets such an overwhelming response.

It happened Wednesday when the Legislature advanced Chambers' priority bill (LB924), requiring racial profiling anti-bias training for law enforcement, on a 43-0 vote.

The veteran lawmaker said he could have prioritized that bill (LB44), which was introduced last year and failed to advance on a 25-17 vote, for symbolism and symmetry to leave the way he came into the Legislature in 1971, fighting to end the death penalty.

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'SOMETHING DIDN'T LOOK RIGHT': PARENT URGES POLICIES TO PREVENT GROOMING OF VICTIMS

LINCOLN - Lisa Albers doesn't know if a stronger school policy would have prevented her child from being groomed by a substitute teacher.

Future policies, the Grand Island Public Schools board member said, defining what interactions between students and teachers are appropriate — as well as what the consequences are for breaching that trust — will prevent future students from being violated.

Under a bill (LB1080) from Omaha Sen. Steve Lathrop, all public and private schools in Nebraska would be required to adopt policies outlining appropriate conduct between employees and students.

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TOM OSBORNE TESTIFIES AGAINST GAMBLING BILLS; SENATOR SAYS NEBRASKA LOSING MONEY

LINCOLN - Three bills that would expand gambling in Nebraska drew fire from familiar opponents during a hearing before the Legislature’s General Affairs Committee on Monday, including former Husker coach Tom Osborne and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers.

Legislative Resolution 295CA would allow Nebraska voters to decide this fall whether to allow casinos and sports betting in the state. LB 971 would redefine “lottery” to include sports betting, and LB 990 would designate sports betting, fantasy sports and poker as “games of skill” rather than “games of chance,” changing the way they are regulated.

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CONSERVATIONISTS DECRY ENVIRONMENTAL TRUST BOARD'S DECISION TO INCREASE GRANT MONEY FOR ETHANOL FIRM

LINCOLN — Conservationists are up in arms over a decision that calls for directing an extra $1.8 million in grant money to a private company for ethanol pumps at the expense of projects to preserve saline wetlands, duck marshes and a Pine Ridge ranch that features a trout stream.

The Nebraska Environmental Trust board, which distributes grants from state lottery money, voted 7-2 with two abstentions last week to override the recommendations of its own grant review committee.

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HHS OFFICIALS ASK JUDGES TO PAUSE ADDING JUVENILE OFFENDERS TO TROUBLED KEARNEY YOUTH FACILITY

LINCOLN — State officials are asking judges to temporarily stop sending juvenile offenders to the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center-Kearney, saying the troubled facility is at the “maximum safe census.”

Bo Botelho, chief operating officer and general counsel for the Department of Health and Human Services, made the request in a letter sent to judges on Tuesday.

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ACTION PROMISED AT KEARNEY JUVENILE CENTER; NEIGHBOR SAYS RECENT ESCAPES ARE 'VERY CONCERNING'

KEARNEY, Neb. — Neighbor Stephen England can see the state’s largest rehabilitation center for juvenile offenders from the back window of his house on Country Club Lane, where he’s lived for four decades.

He’s seen kids escape from the nearby Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center and run through his backyard. But the population of Nebraska teenagers housed there has changed over the past few years, he said.

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CHERRY COUNTY COMMISSIONER TO CHALLENGE SEN. BREWER FOR SEAT REPRESENTING SAND HILLS

LINCOLN — Cherry County Board member Tanya Storer of Whitman has announced her candidacy to challenge incumbent State Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon to serve District 43 in the Nebraska Legislature.

That sets up a heavyweight fight over who will represent Nebraska’s Sand Hills.

Storer is endorsed by former Gov. Kay Orr, and Brewer has been financially supported in the past by Gov. Pete Ricketts.

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ETHANOL BYPRODUCT STORAGE RAISES A STINK AROUND SMALL COMMUNITY

OMAHA - We’ve all seen ethanol on gas pumps. But after it’s produced there’s a byproduct left behind that can smell. It’s called distillers grain and when the air isn’t still, Jody Weible smells the storage pile a half-mile away.

The byproduct from the AltEn ethanol plant is stored on top of land close to a busy Saunders County road. AltEn ethanol plant manager Scott Tingelhoff said, “If anybody has concerns I think the good neighbor way to handle it is to communicate with them and to talk about it.”

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US HOUSING CRISIS IS MAKING ITS WAY TO THE HEARTLAND

LINCOLN - Earning $40,000 a year in Omaha used to be enough to make rent comfortably. Not anymore.

Housing costs are slipping out of reach for the middle class in smaller and medium-size cities across the U.S., the latest sign that the affordability crisis that started on the coasts is moving inland, according to research released last week by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

From 2011 to 2018, the proportion of households making $30,000 to $45,000 a year that were “cost-burdened” — paying more than 30% of their income on rent — soared the most in metros including Nashville, Tennessee; Greenville, South Carolina; and McAllen, Texas.

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