TRUMP FLOATS NOVEMBER ELECTION DELAY-- BUT WOULD NEED CONGRESS ON BOARD.

WASHINGTON— President Donald Trump is for the first time floating a “delay” to the Nov. 3 presidential election, as he makes unsubstantiated allegations that increased mail-in voting will result in fraud. 

Trump tweeted Thursday: “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”

The dates of presidential elections — the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in every fourth year — are enshrined in federal law and would require an act of Congress to change. The Constitution makes no provisions for a delay to the Jan. 20, 2021 presidential inauguration There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud through mail-in voting, even in states with all-mail votes. Five states already rely exclusively on mail-in ballots, and they say they have necessary safeguards in place to ensure that a hostile foreign actor doesn’t disrupt the vote. Election security experts say that all forms of voter fraud are rare, including absentee balloting. 

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PALMTAG MOVES TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT IN DISTRICT 1 ELECTION

LINCOLN - Palmtag, who is running for the Southeast Nebraska legislative seat against Sen. Julie Slama, is firing back about the mailer, which went out in the spring but is still a hot topic. The mailer sent by the Nebraska Republican Party said she sided with Lincoln liberals, atheists and radical extremists, which she says is not true and a character assassination.

That flyer has come up numerous times in his speeches on the floor of the Legislature this week, along with comments he's made about Slama that she has called disgusting and vile. "The Slama campaign mailed this flyer to people in legislative District 1 and it basically attacked my faith and my conservative values," Palmtag said. "They called me an atheist. I am a Catholic."

When asked about that Wednesday, Slama said only that she remained focused on the real issues facing her district, including property tax relief, broadband expansion and COVID-19 and flood recovery, and would not talk about the flyer.

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INSIDE THE GOP BILL (SORT OF)

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans started unveiling pieces of their new coronavirus relief bill today, but negotiators remain undecided on several key issues. Republican leadership briefed Senate GOP aides on the proposed legislation this afternoon, Marianne LeVine and John Bresnahan write. The Republican initiative is expected to include a temporary flat payment for unemployment insurance for two months, although the exact amount of the federal contribution wasn’t finalized, according to sources on the call. Beefed-up $600 federal unemployment payments begin expiring at the end of this week, a deadline that has spurred GOP leaders into action.

But Republican leaders also didn't reveal whether their proposal will include a payroll tax cut, a top priority for President Donald Trump. Several GOP sources said the payroll tax cut "was out," but Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declined to confirm that as he walked out of the Capitol tonight.

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ARE THE KIDS ALRIGHT?

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump suggested that science was on the side of in-person schooling this fall, because children are less likely to get sick and die from Covid-19. “They don’t catch it easily,” he said. “They don’t bring it home easily. And if they do catch it, they get better fast.”

That did appear to be one tiny blessing in March as Covid-19 sprawled across the globe. Early reports suggested kids were virtually untouched by the pandemic.

Now it’s July, and some school districts are just weeks away away from opening up classrooms. Like the president, some politicians — and parents — are arguing the risk is low for kids. Is it?

Kids still appear to be less likely to catch and transmit the virus. The leading explanation is that kids make fewer receptors, a protein called ACE2, making it more difficult for the virus to latch on, said Mark R. Schleiss, a pediatric infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota Medical School. As children move into adolescence and become adults, they make more of these receptors, theoretically increasing their chance of contracting the virus. The evidence for this hypothesis is limited, and would require more research.

Other theories suggest children’s smaller lungs, or even their shorter height, play a role in the likelihood of transmission, Schleiss said.

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CHI HEALTH SUSPENDS SOME COVID-19 TESTS

KEARNEY — A problem in the supply chain is causing delays with COVID-19 testing at CHI Health’s Core Lab.

For that reason, CHI Health Good Samaritan has suspended tests for COVID-19 it gives prior to many medical procedures. This does not affect surgeries.

Abbott, the manufacturer that supplies the reagents essential for testing, will be unable to meet the current demand for the next four or five weeks. This affects all 13 hospitals in the CHI Health system.

Since resuming elective procedures, CHI Health was one of the only health care systems in the area requiring a COVID-19 test before surgery.

Fewer than 1% of presurgical patients tested came back positive.

Surgeons and staff members will continue to wear proper N95 masks and other essential personal protective equipment at all times. CHI Health does not have a PPE shortage.

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HY-VEE WILL OFFER 3 MILLION FREE MASKS, BUT WON’T REQUIRE THEM IN STORES

KEARNEY - Hy-Vee remains off the growing list of grocery stores requiring customers to wear masks while shopping.

But in a press release Tuesday, the company announced that it will begin distributing more than 3 million free masks to customers starting Monday. The mask-giving but not mask-requiring initiative is called “Mask It Up To Shut COVID Down. It’s Your Choice.”

The list of grocery stores soon requiring masks includes Walmart, Bakers, Target, Trader Joe’s, Walgreens and Publix.

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STATE’S INITIAL UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS PLUNGED LAST WEEK

LINCOLN - Nebraska's initial unemployment claims plummeted last week, falling to their lowest level since the coronavirus pandemic began.

According to data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor, Nebraskans filed 3,989 initial claims in the week that ended this past Saturday. That was slightly more than half as many as the adjusted number of 7,911 for the previous week.

It's also the lowest weekly total since there were about 800 claims the week ending March 14, right before businesses started shutting their doors and events were canceled due to COVID-19.

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NU PRESIDENT SAYS CAMPUS LIFE – AND SPORTS – CAN BE DONE SAFELY

OMAHA - Higher education officials in the University of Nebraska system are preparing for about 51,000 students to return to the Lincoln, Omaha and Kearney campuses in five weeks while also focusing on preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“This will not be a normal year,” University of Nebraska President Ted Carter said. “We have to learn how to live in a COVID-19 world. And do this with mitigation.” Carter said he wants to see fall sports happen.

Carter predicted that the number of tuition hours would stay about the same while tuition revenue would decrease because fewer out-of-state and international students will enroll. Since the April announcement of Nebraska Promise, which will provide free tuition for undergraduate Nebraska students whose families earn less than $60,000 a year, applications have been up 21%, Carter said.

He expects that about 10,000 or more students might ask for and need a test — and TestNebraska, the state’s testing initiative, could help in that effort.

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MASK MANDATE MIGHT BE COMING, SAYS HEAD OF DOUGLAS COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH

OMAHA - Douglas County health officials are taking steps toward requiring people to wear masks in indoor public spaces. "We're in an unprecedented pandemic now, and we need to do everything we can to slow it down," said Chris Rodgers, president of the Douglas County Board of Health.

Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert said Monday that she's not interested in following Lincoln's lead. Governor Ricketts is still in the process of reviewing legal options in response to Lancaster County’s mandate.

However, Douglas County health officials view mask-wearing as a means of keeping businesses open and allowing schools to safely reopen.

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MASKS NOW REQUIRED IN LINCOLN; MAYOR STOTHERT NOT PUSHING FOR OMAHA MANDATE

OMAHA - Monday marked the first day of Lincoln’s new mask requirement. Local leaders say the public health measure is needed to tamp down a growing increase in the number of coronavirus cases, especially before University of Nebraska-Lincoln students begin arriving for the fall semester and K-12 schools reopen in some fashion.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts had a decidedly different take, calling the mask mandate an example of government overreach that isn’t backed by hard data.

He said he is still reviewing whether Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department have the legal authority to require face coverings without the state’s permission.

Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert said she believes any mask mandate should come from Ricketts, not local entities. Stothert said she has been encouraged by how many people she sees in public wearing masks and by the declining percentage of people testing positive in Douglas County. Stothert also said that enforcing a local mask mandate would not be a good use of police resources.

Ricketts said he doesn’t want to see the state’s 500-plus municipalities coming up with a patchwork of conflicting regulations and restrictions, though regions of the state have been under different restrictions at times as coronavirus cases rise or fall in certain counties.

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NEBRASKA’S STATE MARCHING BAND CONTEST CANCELED AMID CONCERNS OVER COVID-19

OMAHA - The Nebraska State Bandmasters Association on Wednesday announced that it was canceling its annual fall marching band contest over pandemic concerns.

The State Marching Contest and Festival are normally the exciting finish to the high school marching season. Bands from all across the state converge on sites in Kearney, Lincoln and Omaha to perform the shows they worked to perfect all season.

Michael Schlake, the association’s marching chair, said the association’s executive board felt it couldn’t ensure the safety of everyone involved, from students and directors to judges, vendors and spectators.

“It’s just an astronomical amount of people, and the potential for an outbreak was just too high,” Michael Schlake, the association’s marching chair, said. “It’s really sad, believe me, this is not one I wanted to do or come to lightly.”

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NEBRASKA MUST CUT COVID-19 TRANSMISSION RATES FOR SCHOOLS TO OPEN SAFELY

OMAHA - Safely opening schools in Nebraska cities with elevated COVID-19 levels will depend heavily on lowering viral transmission rates, local health experts say. Nebraska as a whole, and the Omaha and Lincoln areas specifically, have seen recent upticks in COVID-19 cases.

Many schools already plan to require masks and keep kids apart as much as possible. Officials with the Omaha Public Schools, for instance, plan to open with a 3-2 schedule that will have students attending three days a week one week and two days the next. The schedule will essentially cut in half the number of students in buildings at a given time and provide added space for social distancing.

When the Nebraska Department of Education released draft guidance on reopening schools last week, it included a color-coded scale of risk levels based on local infection rates, hospital capacity and other factors intended to guide shutdown decisions and health protocols.

In general, Nebraska school districts continue to review their options as more information becomes available, even as they get down to the wire for opening day.

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SEN. CHAMBERS PROTESTS MAYOR STOTHERT’S DECISION TO REMOVE CITY BOARD MEMBER

OMAHA - State Sen. Ernie Chambers staged a one-man protest in downtown Omaha on Friday to object to Mayor Jean Stothert’s decision to remove a member of a city advisory board over comments he made about a man who killed five police officers in 2016.

Stothert said Friday that Marty Bilek, her chief of staff, told Ja Keen Fox on Thursday that he was no longer a member of the city’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board. Fox recently tweeted “Rest in Power Micah X Johnson,” who fatally shot five Dallas police officers.

In an interview Friday, Stothert said she would have made the same decision if someone on another city board, such as the Planning Board or Omaha Airport Authority, had made a similar comment.

She called Fox’s statements “egregious,” saying that if he felt that what happened in Dallas was acceptable, “I’m going to assume Ja Keen feels that it’s OK to do the same in Omaha.”

Chambers, who said he doesn’t know Fox, questioned why Fox should be punished for exercising his First Amendment rights when police officers who assault or kill people of color are “praised generally.”

“Mere words result in a man being kicked off this (advisory board), but cops are not punished when they kill people? When they brutalize people? When they make false arrests?” he said.

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RICKETTS HAS THE AUTHORITY TO DISTRIBUTE NEBRASKA’S CARES ACT FUNDS, ATTORNEY GENERAL SAYS

LINCOLN - Gov. Pete Ricketts has the legal authority to distribute the $1.1 billion in federal CARES Act funds sent to the state to aid in the economic recovery from COVID-19, the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office said in a legal opinion released Friday.

State Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha had requested the opinion, citing several conflicting clauses in state law and in the Nebraska Constitution about the State Legislature’s authority to appropriate and questioning whether the governor could decide how to spend such federal money.

A 12-page opinion, written by Leslie Donley of the Attorney General’s Office, said that a budget bill passed by the State Legislature last year included language saying that “any additional federal funds” received by the state should be appropriated by the state agency designated by the federal government or, if none were designated, the governor.

The opinion said the Legislature, via the language, had legally appropriated the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds sent by Congress and given the governor the authority to distribute it to help struggling Nebraskans.

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ASPIRING ATTORNEYS SAY COVID-19 COMPROMISES BAR EXAM

LINCOLN - David Sears was one of three law school graduates in the state to petition the Nebraska Supreme Court last week to allow aspiring attorneys to skip the examination for admission to the bar.

They want the court to grant all applicants emergency diplomas to allow them to start working as the coronavirus continues to endanger people in large gatherings, such as test sites. Many exam applicants wrote impact statements to the court telling of their angst and the danger they see in having to take that test in person with up to 148 other applicants.

In their petition to the Supreme Court, which denied it in a ruling on Saturday, the applicants argued emergency declarations and health directives have been made locally and nationally that allow for special circumstances. Ricketts has issued no less than 31 executive orders since March 31 related to the pandemic, they said.

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CHANGES IN NEBRASKA’S JUVENILE JUSTICE CENTERS RANKLE SENATORS, ADVOCATES

LINCOLN - Several state senators and child advocates said Thursday they are disappointed with a plan revealed Wednesday to move youths in the state's care.

"It was an orchestrated ambush, basically, is how I would classify it," said Sen. Tom Brandt of Plymouth, whose district includes Geneva, the longtime home of the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center for girls.

The Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee was informed of the changes Wednesday, which will include moving girls from the Kearney and Geneva Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Centers to a new building on the Hastings Regional Center campus. Boys in a state-run substance abuse program in Hastings that were supposed to move into that building will now move to the Whitehall campus in north Lincoln.

The moves strain an already tense relationship between the Legislature and agencies under Gov. Pete Ricketts' administration.

Department of Health and Human Services CEO Dannette Smith said from Tuesday evening into Thursday, she and her team informed about 80 stakeholders about the changes to ensure complete transparency. They included legislators, city officials, judiciary and probation representatives, advocacy groups and the media.

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ENROLLMENT FOR MEDICAID IN NEBRASKA STARTS AUG. 1, ALMOST 21 MONTHS AFTER VOTERS APPROVED IT

LINCOLN - Low-income adults who have been previously shut out of Nebraska Medicaid can start applying for coverage on Aug. 1. They will be able to start getting care two months later, on Oct. 1.

Molly McCleery, director of health care access for Nebraska Appleseed, a Lincoln-based advocacy group that pushed the ballot measure, said she is excited that more Nebraskans will finally be able to get the health care they need.

State Sen. Adam Morfeld of Lincoln, who led the petition drive that put the issue on the ballot, criticized the long wait for implementation, which has exceeded that of any other state. He blamed the delay on Gov. Pete Ricketts, who fought the expansion as being unaffordable and favoring able-bodied Nebraskans over vulnerable citizens.

“The governor made an intentional decision to delay Medicaid expansion by adding unnecessary and unlawful requirements,” he said. “It has led to tens of millions of wasted taxpayer dollars, an unnecessary yearlong delay and nearly 100,000 Nebraskans without care that Nebraskans voted for in 2018.”

Ricketts has said the time was needed so Nebraska could implement the program smoothly and avoid mistakes made by other states. His spokesman, Taylor Gage, noted the state had met the April 1, 2019, deadline to submit its expansion plan to the federal government.

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EDITORIAL: THE LEGISLATURE’S DUTY ON TAX RELIEF, BUSINESS INCENTIVES; GET IT DONE

LINCOLN - The challenges are many. Senators will have only a small window of time — a mere 17 days — to decide those and other issues. With 33 votes needed to override a filibuster, sponsors face tough sledding in moving the tax and business incentives proposals forward. And if some lawmakers fail to get all that they want, there’s considerable risk they may well sulk, disengage and allow the tax and incentives bills to die, putting their personal pique above the good of the state.

The Legislature must not let that happen. There’s an enormous need for property tax relief across the state. And the current business incentives law expires at the end of this year, which risks putting Nebraska at a major disadvantage against competitor states. The current incentives proposal, Legislative Bill 720, can achieve major improvements over existing policy. LB 720 imposes cost constraints, removes overly complicated procedures, provides incentives for higher-wage jobs and has specific provisions to help rural communities. It would position Nebraska for sound economic development.

So: Lawmakers, get it done.

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EDITORIAL: COOPERATION IS BEST SOLUTION TO ADDRESS NEBRASKA CLIMATE CHALLENGES

OMAHA - In 2018 the federal government’s most comprehensive climate study pointed to adaptions that Nebraska and other northern Great Plains states must make in coming years. This part of the country, the National Climate Assessment said, must adjust agricultural and other practices to cope with climate-related change: Higher average temperatures. Reduced soil moisture, threatening crop yields. Increased evaporation rates. “Low-probability, but high-severity and high-impact, events” such as heavy downpours, intense hailstorms, floods and droughts.

Our region can expect fewer hailstorms, for example, but those that occur will be more severe, increasing the probability of crop damage by 40%.

These conclusions were in line with what climate scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln had reported in a Nebraska-specific study in 2014.

The best solution is cooperation among multiple parties — farmers and ranchers, natural resources districts, university researchers, Nebraska Extension, federal conservation agents, businesses, municipalities, utilities and households.

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REPUBLICAN OFFICIAL CALLS FOR CHAMBERS’ EXPULSION

LINCOLN - The Nebraska Republican Party on Tuesday called for the expulsion of Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers for remarks he made during a debate Monday about Sen. Julie Slama of Peru.

Republican Party Executive Director Ryan Hamilton said the statements by Chambers were disgusting and clearly out of bounds.

"He owes Senator Slama an apology, as does every senator who yielded time so he could continue his vile, misogynistic rant against Senator Slama. He should be censured and expelled immediately — there ought to be no place in Nebraska’s Legislature for this abhorrent language and mistreatment.”

Chambers, in his speeches Monday, was responding to a flyer sent out in District 1 on Slama's behalf that said her opponent, Janet Palmtag, also a Republican, "sides with Lincoln liberals, atheists and radical extremists." There are photos of Chambers and Palmtag on the flyer put side by side.

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