MEATPACKING REBOUNDS BUT HIGH PRICES AND BACKLOG PERSIST

OMAHA — Meat production has rebounded from its low point during the coronavirus pandemic when dozens of plants were closed, but experts say consumer prices are likely to remain high and it will take months to work through a backlog of millions of pigs and cattle, creating headaches for producers.

Earlier this week, beef, pork, and poultry plants were operating at more than 95% of last year’s levels, which was up from about 60% in April at the height of plant closures and slowdowns, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department.

Grocery stores, which absorbed some of the meat price increases this spring, also may not pass along all the price cuts as they try to restore their profit margins. As meat plants scale up to full capacity, companies still must ensure that plants don't again become hotbeds of infections.

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SMALL BUSINESSES, LIVESTOCK PRODUCERS HURT BY CORONAVIRUS CAN APPLY FOR STATE AID BEGINNING MONDAY

LINCOLN - Gov. Pete Ricketts announced Friday that small-business owners and livestock producers hurt by the coronavirus pandemic can start applying for grants from the state next week.

The grants are being created with a share of the state’s $1.25 billion in federal coronavirus relief. Nebraska is putting $387 million of the total into helping small businesses and livestock producers, retraining workers, and expanding broadband Internet in rural areas.

Under the biggest program, the state will distribute $330 million as stabilization grants for small businesses and livestock producers. The $12,000 grants are available for businesses with five to 49 employees and livestock producers with one to 10 employees and at least 20 head of livestock. The money can be used for operating expenses and working capital.

Applications will be accepted for two weeks, from Monday through June 26. State officials hope to get the money out by Aug. 1.

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COULD CORONAVIRUS HOTSPOTS BE PREDICTED? RESEARCHERS THINK FEVERS COULD BE THE KEY

OMAHA – A team of University of Nebraska researchers is investigating whether fever data from Internet-connected thermometers can help forecast COVID-19 hot spots in Nebraska weeks before new outbreaks are officially reported.

Fadi Alsaleem, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln engineer, said data he obtained from the thermometers showed a spike in fevers in Nebraska in mid-March, about a month before a surge in cases was reported in the state.

He and other researchers also are seeking to combine the thermometer data with other data sets to build a model that might better predict how the spread of coronavirus will respond to the relaxation of social distancing guidelines.

The thermometers are produced by Kinsa Inc., a San Francisco-based company that for several years has used anonymous fever data uploaded to the Internet to track influenza.

“I think it’s an exciting development, a pathway forward to predicting where spikes of (COVID-19) will occur so we can have the ability to forecast (and) predict how to respond,” said Freifeld, who recently joined the project.

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'EVERYTHING IS A GO' FOR NEBRASKA SHRINE BOWL AS RESTRICTIONS ON CONTACT SPORTS ARE LIFTED JULY 1ST

LINCOLN - Gov. Pete Ricketts will allow contact sports in the state to resume on July 1. That means the Nebraska Shrine Bowl can be played July 11 in Kearney. Also, high school football, basketball and soccer players and wrestlers can join the rest of their classmates in summer workouts.

Jay Bellar, the executive director of the Nebraska School Activities Association, said the NSAA will provide schools with updated guidelines as soon as it can. Shrine Bowl executive director Dave MacDonald, who heard about the July 1 opening from a board member, called it a “pretty exciting day.”

“Everything is a go," he said.

It was only last week that the NSAA allowed high schools to hold open gyms for basketball, football, soccer and wrestling with restrictions.Activity through June 30 will be limited to individual skills and workouts. There can no physical contact with others, no sharing of equipment and no grouping of students. Open gym supervisors are required to enforce the restrictions.On Thursday, the NSAA will let high schools participate in camps, clinics and summer leagues in all sanctioned activities except basketball, football, soccer and wrestling. Thursday also is the first day for youth baseball and softball games in the state.

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OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE MAKES FIRST MOVES TOWARDS LOOSENING CORONAVIRUS RESTRICTIONS

OMAHA - Citing a leveling-off of new COVID-19 cases in the Omaha metro area, 55th Wing Commander Col. Gavin Marks has taken the first steps toward loosening the 3-month-old pandemic restrictions at Offutt Air Force Base.

Marks gave Offutt military commands the go-ahead to allow up to 50% of their personnel to work from on-base offices beginning Monday. To accommodate additional traffic, he allowed the reopening of the Kenney Gate (on Fort Crook Road just south of Highway 370) for the first time since March.

He said the lifting of some restrictions was recommended by the public health working group he created earlier this year to offer advice on handling the pandemic, which has caused the deaths of more than 115,000 Americans.

He warned Offutt airmen, though, to continue to follow mask-wearing, sanitizing, and social-distancing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and from the base.

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MORE THAN 27,000 NEBRASKANS HAVE BEEN TESTED FOR CORONAVIRUS BY TESTNEBRASKA

OMAHA - More than 27,000 Nebraskans have been tested for the coronavirus through the state’s $27 million testing initiative, TestNebraska. Statistics released by the state Wednesday show that of those tested in May who have received their results, 886 tested positive and 23,170 tested negative. Forty-eight inconclusive results have come back since the start of testing.

Last week, Nebraska began to offer coronavirus tests to people outside of priority groups.

The expansion of TestNebraska means that anyone ages 15 to 35 can get tested in Douglas, Lancaster, and Sarpy Counties, as well as anyone of any age group in the other 90 Nebraska counties.

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PANDEMIC MORE THAN DOUBLES METRO AREA’S UNEMPLOYMENT, DROPS AIR TRAVEL 92%, CHAMBER REPORT SHOWS

OMAHA - April was a tough month for the Omaha metro area’s economy, according to data from the Greater Omaha Chamber.The number of passengers boarding planes at Eppley Airfield, for example, plummeted from about 104,000 in March to just 8,700 in April — a nearly 92% drop. Meanwhile, the metro area’s unemployment rate rose from 4.3% to 9.9%. That was better than the national rate of 14.4% but worse than Nebraska’s rate of 8.6%.

Those figures were among the monthly economic indicators released by the chamber Wednesday that show how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the local economy. The numbers encompass a seven-county region: Cass, Dodge, Douglas, Otoe, Sarpy and Washington in Nebraska and Pottawattamie in Iowa.

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POTENTIAL COVID-19 NEBRASKA AGRICULTURE LOSSES PEGGED AT $3.7 BILLION

LINCOLN - Nebraska could suffer nearly $3.7 billion in agricultural income losses this year due to the coronavirus if economic conditions do not improve, the Nebraska Farm Bureau estimated Wednesday.Jay Rempe, the Nebraska Farm Bureau's senior economist, said “To provide some perspective, $3.7 billion is more than 80% of the state of Nebraska's entire budget.”

The analysis pegs potential estimated losses in the beef cattle sector at nearly $1 billion in 2020. Potential corn and soybean losses were estimated at $1.17 billion. Potential losses in the ethanol sector could reach $1.3 billion, assuming that ethanol plants are unable to operate at more than 75% of capacity for the remainder of the year.

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CASES OF CORONAVIRUS CONTINUE TO INCREASE AMONG SENIORS IN SCOTTSFULL; RICKETTS SAYS DECLINE ACROSS NEBRASKA

SCOTTSBLUFF - Panhandle Public Health District officials announced the first case of the coronavirus in Banner County Monday, as cases continue to increase in Scotts Bluff County. Officials said 11 more people have tested positive, with results coming in since Friday.

Cases among the elderly, which has been identified as a vulnerable population, continue to increase in the Panhandle. As of Monday, 39 people over the age of 60 have been diagnosed with the coronavirus.

On Thursday during his press conferce, Governor Ricketts relased updated numbers regarding COVID-19 and long-term care facilities. 126 facilities (25% of the total number of facilities across Nebraska) have had positives tests in either residents or staff. A total of 553 residents, and 440 staff have tested positive, with 98 total deaths (of residents). Governor Ricketts however highlighted that the numbers have been dropping over time, and that his administration is working on a plan to reopen facilities. 

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UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA RESEARCHERS CONSTRUCTING MODEL TO PREDICT CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAKS USING FEVER DATA

KEARNEY - Putting a smart thermometer to the ear could mean putting an ear to the ground for future COVID-19 outbreaks and the consequences of relaxing social distancing, according to a University of Nebraska-Lincoln engineer.

Working with colleagues Basheer Qolomany, who researches machine learning and big data at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and Alison Freifeld, professor of contagious diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Fadi Alsaleem is exploring how data from Bluetooth-connected Kinsa thermometers may help forecast COVID-19 hotspots in Nebraska up to weeks before new outbreaks are officially reported.

The three researchers are using Kinsa data and machine learning to construct a model that could better predict how the spread of the novel coronavirus will respond to relaxing social distancing guidelines.

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RUSH TO HALT CORONAVIRUS BRINGS APPS TO TRACK SPREAD, BUT HURDLES PLENTIFUL

WASHINGTON – The global rush to halt the coronavirus led countries like Australia and South Korea to launch smartphone apps to track its spread — using the technology as a key part of their push to tamp down the pandemic and restart their economies. But in the U.S., with varying opinions on what data these apps should record, the federal government has so far failed to institute concrete privacy standards. Apple and Google sought to fill the void by asserting their own standards, flexing the power they hold over the software on almost all smartphones. The result is a nationwide hodgepodge that has U.S. states struggling to take advantage of what sounded like promising digital tools to determine who has been exposed to the coronavirus.

Some Americans will have multiple apps to choose from. Others will have none at all. And the level of adoption experts say is needed for these apps to make a meaningful difference — about 60 percent of the population — is looking all but impossible to hit.

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PLANNING FOR THE NEXT PANDEMIC

WASHINGTON - Senate health committee chair Lamar Alexander is keeping his eye on the future, releasing a pandemic preparedness white paper that recommends beefing up disease surveillance and testing development before the next outbreak.

“Outdated technology at the local, state, and federal levels” is interfering with the development of a close-to-real-time surveillance system to detect and model infectious diseases, the paper says.

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BRYAN, ST. ELIZABETH, CONTINUE TO SEE DECLINE IN COVID-19 PATIENTS

LINCOLN - Bryan Health said in a news release Thursday that it now has only nine patients with confirmed cases of the virus. That's down from 13 on Monday and 30 on June 1. It's the first time COVID-19 patient numbers have been in the single digits since the last week of April. Bryan also reported that only five of those patients are from Lancaster County, down from a high of 16 on May 26. The number of patients on ventilators dropped to five, down from seven on Monday and 11 on May 26.

CHI Health St. Elizabeth also said its numbers are declining. Spokeswoman Taylor Barth said the hospital has 15 COVID-19 patients, including seven from Lancaster County. That's down from 30 about three to four weeks ago.

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INFECTIONS WERE RISING IN 21 STATES ON WEDNESDAY, BUT WASHINGTON HAD OTHER BUSINESS

NEW YORK - The coronavirus may not be done with the United States, but the nation’s capital seems to be done with the coronavirus. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers in both parties were examining police brutality.

The United States surpassed two million coronavirus cases on Wednesday, according to a New York Times database, which showed that the outbreak was continuing to spread, with cases rising in 21 states as governments eased restrictions and Americans tried to return to their routines. At least 15 cases nationally have been linked to protests, including five National Guard members and one police officer in Nebraska. Health officials in Parsons, Kan., and Stevens Point, Wis., on Tuesday also announced new cases involving people who had attended protests.

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EDITORIAL: NEBRASKA CITIES, COUNTIES, AGENCIES MUSTN’T ABUSE FEDERAL CORONAVIRUS AID

OMAHA - Distribution of more than $1 billion in federal CARES Act money will soon begin to governments across Nebraska. Every governmental entity in Nebraska — the state, counties, cities — must make absolutely sure they understand a key federal provision: The CARES Act empowers the federal government to closely scrutinize every use of the aid money. So, be warned, Nebraska cities, counties, and state agencies: Play fast and loose with the rules this year, and next year you may well find an unhappy Uncle Sam reaching into your budget to get the money back.

Clare Duda, the chair of the Douglas County Board, stated the list of requests “is going to be scrutinized, and I expect it to dwindle.” The Governor’s Office rightly emphasizes the need for Omaha to adequately justify its compensation needs.

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RICKETTS DEFENDS CARES ACT SPENDING PLANS

LINCOLN- On Thursday Seventeen state senators sent a letter to Ricketts Wednesday about his plans for distributing $1.25 billion in federal CARES Act funding. The letter suggested, among other things, a public comment period on how the money should be used. Asked about that Thursday, Ricketts said it’s already happened. He gave the example of part of the funds that will be used to help small businesses. 

Ricketts said he has no plans to seek additional public input, but that transparancy would be provided through a coming state website, as well as the hired accounting firm Deloitte Touche to oversee and track the spending. But State Sen. Kate Bolz, one of the signers of the letter, said Nebraska should follow the example of Montana, which had a public process in which over a thousand people commented.

The letter from the senators also suggested designating an ombudsman to whom people could appeal funding decisions. Ricketts suggested that’s not necessary.

“With regard to an ombudsman I'd certainly just say hey, if you've got an issue with any of these things, please just reach out to my office, and we'll deal with it that way,” he said.

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SENATORS PLEDGE TO ACT ON RACIAL INEQUALITY, LAW ENFORCEMENT AFTER LISTENING SESSION

LINCOLN - State senators pledged action, and not just words, after hearing complaints from more than 180 people over two days about racial inequality in Nebraska and injustice at the hands of law enforcement. Chair of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Steve Lathrop, stated, “I think the committee is interested in implementing some of the changes that were suggested.” Sen. Adam Morfeld called the listening session compelling and inspiring.

The Judiciary Committee, Lathrop said, also has an omnibus crime bill pending this year that could be amended to include other ideas suggested by testifiers during the listening sessions. But such ideas must have been included in bills already introduced during the 2019 or 2020 session.

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BRIESE SAYS STATE MAY NEED TO DECOUPLE FROM FEDERAL INCOME TAX CODE

LINCOLN - Sen. Tom Briese of Albion said Tuesday he believes there may be a legislative need to disconnect Nebraska's state income tax law from federal tax law in order to protect the state revenue flow needed to fund increased property tax relief. The CARES Act, which provides financial relief for Americans impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, may reduce anticipated individual state income tax revenue by an estimated $27 million in fiscal 2020-21.

"We owe it to everyday Nebraskans that we don't allow federal tax changes to jeopardize our ability to fund needed property tax relief," Briese said.

Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn is leading the effort to enact property tax reduction legislation this year as chairwoman of the Legislature's Revenue Committee. The committee's proposal would fund local property tax relief through increased state aid to schools and is awaiting amendments on the floor.

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NEBRASKA ENVIRONMENTAL TRUST BOARD CHOOSES ETHANOL PUMPS OVER WETLANDS FOR $1.8 MILLION GRANT

LINCOLN — Ethanol pumps won out over conserving wetlands and a unique ranch in voting by the Nebraska Environmental Trust board on Thursday.The board’s vote affirmed a controversial recommendation in February, made with little discussion, to defund five conservation projects and instead award $1.8 million to several gas stations for installation of ethanol blender pumps that deliver higher blends of the corn-based fuel.

Supporters — who included Gov. Pete Ricketts, a staunch backer of ethanol who appoints nine of the board’s 14 members — said the switch funded a fuel that improves air quality and would help the state’s economy, and that clean air was even more important now given that COVID-19 attacks the respiratory system.

But opponents — including former State Sen. and Lincoln Mayor Chris Beutler, who cosponsored the bill that created the Environmental Trust in 1992 — said that the change ignored the Trust’s grant selection process and funded a project that was more about economic development and politics than the purpose of the Trust, which is to “conserve, enhance and restore the natural environments” of Nebraska.

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EDITORIAL: OPS MUST KEEP FOCUSED ON MOVING ITS PENSION FUND INTO LONG-TERM STABILITY

OMAHA - Omaha Public Schools has an obligation not only to educate students well but also to manage its pension system well. After a recent period of disastrous management and embarrassment, the pension system is under more stable operation.

The appointment of a capable former state senator, Patrick Bourne of Omaha, to the board overseeing the fund provides an occasion to review what OPS has done and where it should be heading on the pension front.No question, the OPS fund has a long way to go. Financial experts say pension programs should be 80% funded to be fiscally sound. The OPS fund currently is at 63%.

Even with the sound strategy put forward this year by OPS, it will take a projected 17 years to bring the pension system back to relative solvency. In other words, fixing the system’s pension mess will require close ongoing attention by OPS, year after year. The system must not drop the ball again.

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