BAN ON CERTAIN SECOND-TRIMESTER ABORTIONS STALLS IN LEGISLATURE

LINCOLN - State senators spent three hours Wednesday afternoon debating Lincoln Sen. Suzanne Geist's "dismemberment abortion" bill to ban the second-trimester procedure that tears "a baby limb from limb."

Most doctors call the procedure dilation and evacuation, a surgical procedure that uses suction to remove the fetus, forceps, and a curette to scrape the lining of the uterus and remove tissue.

Early last week, Geist succeeded in a motion to pull the bill from committee to the floor for debate, which was guaranteed Wednesday when Speaker Jim Scheer designated a specific time for it on the agenda.

"LB814 would end the practice of killing a live baby in the second trimester of pregnancy by pulling off its arms and legs piece by piece until it either bleeds to death, its spinal cord is cut or its skull is crushed," she said. "It's an unthinkable way to dispose of a child."

Omaha Sen. Megan Hunt moved to kill the bill, saying there is much more important business for the Legislature during a pandemic.

"Here we are at the hallowed hour of 1:30 (p.m.), as foretold by the speaker of the Legislature, who in the midst of a pandemic, a public health crisis ... thought we'd better get this bill ... into its own hallowed and sanctified time slot," Hunt said.

The bill was filibustered and got three hours of debate but no vote was taken. Geist can bring the bill back if there's time and she can show she had 33 votes to break the filibuster.

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EDITORIAL: LAWMAKERS’ DITHERING ON TAXES, INCENTIVES RISKS GREAT HARM TO NEBRASKA

LINCOLN - When the Nebraska Legislature recently resumed its session, property tax relief and business incentives towered as two of the lawmakers’ central obligations. Yet, this week the Legislature is staring failure in the face on those very issues. This needless stalemate risks enormous harm to Nebraska.

The cries for property tax relief from many quarters in the state are unmistakable and legitimate. Additionally, the Legislature’s dithering on business incentives issues risks putting a dunce cap on Nebraska economic development, making ours the only state next year without an incentives program.

To get beyond the current deadlock, the Legislature must show leadership, be willing to negotiate, be and flexible. Nebraska lawmakers stand at the brink of a terrible failure for themselves and the state. Senators mustn’t let that happen. They have an all-important duty to find the final compromises for tax relief and a sound business incentives strategy. Get it done now.

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MEATPACKING WORKERS WIN LEGISLATIVE HEARING NEXT WEEK

LINCOLN - Meatpacking workers and their advocates will get a legislative hearing to air their workplace concerns related to COVID-19 next week despite the Legislature's decision on Wednesday denying Sen. Tony Vargas an opportunity to introduce a new bill. The hearing will be focused on an amendment, introduced by Sen. Vargas, to an existing bill. 

Sen. Matt Hansen of Lincoln said he has scheduled a hearing for next Thursday before his Business and Labor Committee that will provide a forum for consideration of measures that might be taken to provide safeguards in Nebraska meat processing plants, where nearly 5,000 workers have been infected by the virus.

The amendment prepared by Vargas would require 6 feet of distancing between workers, conforming to the norm of 6 feet of social distancing expected outside those plants as a protection against the virus.

Although the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has authority over standards in meat processing plants, states are empowered to add their own requirements.

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NO VOTE THIS YEAR, BUT EFFORTS TO REPEAL NEBRASKA’S AFFIRMATIVE ACTION BAN WILL CONTINUE

LINCOLN - Leaders of an effort to repeal Nebraska’s ban on affirmative action will keep pushing to remove it from the state constitution, even though they were unable to put the issue before voters this fall.

Omaha City Councilman Ben Gray and Douglas County Board member Chris Rodgers had launched a hurried effort to get a repeal of the ban onto the November ballot. They were hoping that an urgency to address racism would help reverse Nebraskans’ overwhelming vote — 58% to 42% — to adopt the measure, Initiative 424, in 2008.

State Sen. Justin Wayne was willing to try to introduce a bill in the Legislature this month, but decided not to when it became clear it was too late. He said he would focus instead on Legislative Bill 1218, which seeks to make minority-owned businesses more likely to obtain state contracts.

Governor Ricketts opposes the idea. “Governor Ricketts is opposed to racial discrimination, and especially state-sponsored discrimination, which is why he continues to support the amendment which the people of Nebraska passed in 2008,” said his spokesman, Taylor Gage.

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RURAL SENATOR SAYS PROPERTY TAX RELIEF MORE IMPORTANT THAN TAX CUTS FOR BUSINESSES

LINCOLN – Senator Tom Briese stated that he’s “reasonably confident” he has the votes to pass a bill allowing Nebraska to not implement some federal tax cuts aimed at helping distressed businesses impacted by COVID-19. Briese, a farmer, said that “decoupling,” or declining the federal tax changes, would free up nearly $250 million in revenue over three years that could be used for a higher tax priority for Nebraskans — property tax relief.

Decoupling is seen as a key negotiating chip in discussions underway about a “grand compromise” this legislative session to permit passage of a property tax relief/school aid reform bill — highly sought by farmers and ranchers — as well as a new state business incentive program — the top priority of the State Chamber of Commerce and other business groups.

Decoupling, however, was opposed Monday by every major business group in the state, including the groups that represent the state’s banking, accounting, auto dealers and small-business industries. They argued that the CARES Act tax cuts were aimed at the businesses that have struggled most in recent years, and are at the highest risk of closing unless they get an infusion of cash via the tax breaks.

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OWNER OF PAYCHECK ADVANCE SEEKS CHANGE TO BALLOT LANGUAGE ON PROPOSED CAP OF PAYDAY LOAN INTEREST RATES

LINCOLN- The owner of Paycheck Advance has filed a lawsuit seeking to keep a ballot initiative, which would cap the rate cash advance businesses such as hers can charge, off the ballot as currently worded.

If put on November's general election ballot and approved, the measure would cap payday loan rates at 36%, rather than up to 400% as currently allowed under state law. In a complaint filed this week in Lancaster County District Court, Trina Thomas says the ballot title and explanatory statement prepared by the Nebraska Attorney General's Office is "insufficient and unfair." 

As sent, it would say: A vote "FOR" will amend Nebraska statutes to: (1) reduce the amount that delayed deposit services licensees, also known as payday lenders, can charge to a maximum annual percentage rate of thirty-six percent; (2) prohibit payday lenders from evading this rate cap; and (3) deem void and uncollectable any delayed deposit transaction made in violation of this rate cap.

Thomas' attorneys, J.L. Spray and Stephen Mossman, say she proposes dropping payday lenders from the language.

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NO VOTE THIS YEAR, BUT EFFORTS TO REPEAL NEBRASKAN'S AFFIRMATIVE ACTION BAN WILL CONTINUE

OMAHA-  Leaders of an effort to repeal Nebraska’s ban on affirmative action will keep pushing to remove it from the state constitution, even though they were unable to put the issue before voters this fall.

Omaha City Councilman Ben Gray and Douglas County Board member Chris Rodgers had launched a hurried effort to get a repeal of the ban onto the November ballot. They were hoping that an urgency to address racism would help reverse Nebraskans’ overwhelming vote — 58% to 42% — to adopt the measure, Initiative 424, in 2008.

The City Council and County Board both passed resolutions in mid-July asking the Nebraska Legislature to put an initiative on the November ballot to repeal the amendment. But it was too late, even if legislation could have cleared a steep uphill climb during a pandemic-shortened session. The language needed to have been submitted by July 2, Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen said.

Now the soonest that the issue could be put before voters would be November 2022, the next general election in Nebraska. Rodgers said it may be better to wait even longer, until the next presidential election in 2024, and in the meantime make greater use of measures currently available.

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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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