NEBRASKA- The Nebraska motor fuels tax rate for July 1 through December 31, 2021, will be 27.7 cents per gallon, down from 28.7 cents per gallon. The components of the future and current rates include wholesale, variable, and fixed rates. The wholesale tax rate is set depending on the wholesale price of fuel. The variable tax rate is set to meet legislative appropriations. The fixed rate is set by statute.
For the full announcement click HERE
LINCOLN- The firestorm over proposed health education standards could jeopardize a bill aimed at teaching children about staying safe from child sexual abuse. Legislative Bill 281 sailed out of the Education Committee and through first-round consideration by the full Legislature. But it did not get any further. State Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston, who introduced the measure and named it her priority for the year, said she decided to put it on hold until next year. She said she wanted to ensure that it would not get entangled in the health standards controversy. “I want to spend time over the summer looking into proper curriculum so as to not go into areas that would not be acceptable for parents,” she said.
As advanced, the bill would require four hours a year of sexual abuse prevention lessons for K-12 students. The lessons would have to be age-appropriate and use evidence-based methods to teach about body safety and about recognizing, refusing and reporting abuse. The bill would require schools to train teachers, administrators and other school staff about child sexual abuse prevention and reporting. Schools also would have to reach out to parents with information about preventing abuse and about discussing the topic with children.
Senator Albrecht noted that LB 281 would require that schools teach about child sex abuse prevention but would not mandate that they use a particular curriculum. She said the lessons could be part of teaching about safety.
Michael Carnes, a Wayne man who survived childhood sexual abuse and has pushed for the Nebraska legislation, said he understands Albrecht’s decision to delay her bill. But he said that the measure is needed and that leaving it to parents to teach prevention can be problematic because sometimes parents are the abusers.
“Kids need to know that sexual assault is wrong and that what they are experiencing is wrong,” he said. “We teach kids what to do in case of fire and in case of tornado. It blows my mind that we don’t teach them what to do in case of sexual abuse.”
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OMAHA- The Biden administration has announced a strategy to combat the threat of domestic terrorism, a plan developed with the help of a new counterterrorism program headquartered at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The new strategy, released Tuesday, comes more than five months after a mob of insurgents loyal to then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress was voting to certify Joe Biden’s presidential win.
“Domestic terrorism — driven by hate, bigotry and other forms of extremism — is a stain on the soul of America,” Biden said in a statement. “It goes against everything our country strives for, and it poses a direct challenge to our national security, democracy and unity.”
Academics from UNO’s year-old National Counterterrorism Innovation Technology and Education Center joined in the working groups that drew up the strategy, said Gina Ligon, the center’s director. The center was established at UNO last year with a $36.5 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security. It includes more than 50 academics at universities across the country.
The strategy lays out broad goals that will be filled in with specific policies and structures in the months ahead, Ligon said. “(The strategy) is not just words. Its existence will free up resources,” she said. The key to the strategy is that it is focused not on a specific political ideology, Ligon said, but rather on a propensity for violence.
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NATIONAL- Natural-gas prices are starting the summer air-conditioning season nearly twice as high as they were a year ago.
Demand for the fuel is picking up as the world’s economies reopen and as Americans dial down their thermostats for what is expected to be a hot summer. Meanwhile, U.S. producers have stuck to the skimpy drilling plans they sketched out when prices were lower, eliminating the glut that was keeping them depressed.
Natural-gas futures ended Friday at $3.215 per million British thermal units, up 96% from a year ago and the highest price headed into summer since 2017. Futures traded even higher—and regional spot prices jumped—when triple-digit temperatures baked the Southwest earlier this month. Analysts expect prices to be even higher later in the year when it is time to fire up furnaces.
Besides being burned to generate electricity and for hot showers and cooking, natural gas is consumed in large volumes to make plastic, fertilizer, steel and cement. Monetary-policy makers don’t consider energy prices when gauging inflation because they are so volatile. Yet climbing gas prices are adding to the costs of producing manufactured goods at a time when investors are on edge about the potential for runaway inflation.
Gas producers had suffered for years from low prices caused by their own market-glutting gushers. Shareholders and analysts pressured producers to focus less on growing volume and more on profitability.
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The race to secure electricity deals for power-hungry data centers has tech companies reshaping the renewable-energy market and grappling with a new challenge: how to ensure their investments actually reduce emissions. Amazon said it planned Wednesday to announce commitments to buy 1.5 gigawatts of production capacity from 14 new solar and wind plants around the world as part of its push to purchase enough renewable energy to cover all of the company’s activities by 2025.
Tech companies are wielding their balance sheets to finance solar, wind and other renewable-energy projects on an unprecedented scale. In some countries, developers say tech companies’ willingness to spend upfront—signing commitments to buy energy at a certain price for long periods—has helped make corporations more important than government subsidies as the main drivers of renewable investment.
Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft Corp are four of the top six corporate buyers of publicly disclosed renewable-energy- purchase agreements, accounting for 30%, or 25.7 gigawatts, of the cumulative total from corporations globally, according to the research firm BloombergNEF. Amazon is the largest corporate purchaser world-wide, with other top purchasers including the French oil company TotalEnergies, and AT&T Inc.
“It’s almost like a stampede for clean energy,” said Michael Terrell, director of energy at Google.
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BELLEVUE- Col. Kristen Thompson took over command of Offutt Air Force Base’s 55th Wing on Tuesday from Col. Gavin Marks — a pair of leaders who represent historic firsts for the 80-year-old reconnaissance unit. Thompson is the first woman among the 65 officers who have commanded the unit since it was established in January 1941; Marks was the first African American. He led the 55th Wing through a tumultuous time that included the early stages of recovery from the March 2019 floods and the historic COVID-19 pandemic. “You definitely left your mark on the 55th Wing,” said Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, commander of the Texas-based 16th Air Force, who presided over the ceremony.
About 300 people, including Gov. Pete Ricketts, attended the ceremony at the base.
As he handed over command, Marks held Thompson’s arm aloft like a winning prizefighter, then gave her a long hug.
“You were born to lead. And this wing is ready for your leadership,” he said. Thompson, a 2001 graduate of the Air Force Academy, has accumulated more than 3,400 flight hours, including 600 combat hours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For the full article click HERE
OMAHA- A crowded room in North Omaha buzzed with talk of liberation and progress on Friday, in celebration of a new state law that addresses racial discrimination on the basis of hair texture and style in the workplace. People gathered in the Highlander Accelerator to celebrate Legislative Bill 451, with Gov. Pete Ricketts signing ceremonial copies of the bill for key contributors to its passage. The bill expands a ban on racial discrimination in the workplace to include discrimination based on hair textures or styles historically associated with race, such as protective hairstyles that include braids, locks and twists.
State Sen. Terrell McKinney introduced the bill, which the Legislature passed on a 40-4 vote in April and Ricketts signed into law last month. “In the age where employment discrimination rarely presents itself in policies that explicitly exclude based on race, LB 451 addresses harmful practices that appear neutral but actually work to deny job opportunities for reasons that have nothing to do with your qualifications and ability to do a particular job,” McKinney said.
McKinney has also introduced an interim study resolution to look at the impact of natural hair discrimination in educational settings. He said that his office will do research to see if that is an issue and if legislation might be necessary and that there may be a hearing on the issue.
“If we are going to live up to our state’s motto, ‘Equality before the law,’ it’s important that we continue to make sure we do not have racial discrimination in the (workplace),” Ricketts said Friday.
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OMAHA- Critics say the Buffett Early Childhood Institute promoted the controversial critical race theory in webinars it held this spring for Omaha-area educators. But institute officials say that the webinars provided a safe and welcoming forum for educators in Douglas and Sarpy Counties to discuss racial issues and that the content was “anti-racist” but not critical race theory.
“Do we teach critical race theory? The answer is no,” said Erin Owen, the institute’s director of communications and marketing. The dispute triggered an emotional outpouring Thursday evening as supporters and critics of the theory and its tenets packed a meeting of the coordinating council of the Learning Community of Douglas and Sarpy Counties.
Learning Community Council member Tim Hall, one of the critics, posted his concerns about the webinars on Facebook before the meeting. “The Buffett Institute receives over $100,000 per month of your tax dollars as a partner with the Learning Community,” Hall wrote. “We all know that the University of Nebraska receives hundreds of millions in tax support. It is unacceptable that such racist ideology propaganda is being pushed upon our children, and especially wrong that it is funded with your taxpayer dollars.” Council member Clarice Jackson said Hall’s post amounted to “fear baiting.”
After about four hours of public comment and discussion, council members voted to approve the contracts. The council voted 8-3 to approve a four-year $13.8 million contract with the Buffett Institute to manage the Superintendents Early Childhood Plan, a bundle of programs for schools. Participating districts get $5.5 million of that.
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NATIONAL- It’s probably inadvertent, but the national map of broadband need published by the White House on Thursday offers an extra layer of information beyond its detailed look at Internet access in the United States. Those areas that are in greatest need of broadband are displayed in red, accidentally elevating another quality most share: They largely voted for Donald Trump in 2020.
The Census Bureau collects data on technology adoption across the country, releasing assessments of how common computer ownership or Internet access is at the state, county and Census tract level. If we compare the density of households without any type of computer (including smartphones) or broadband access to how a country voted in 2020, we see that Trump-voting counties are overrepresented in both groups.
The reason the White House released its map, of course, is to make the pitch for a broader investment in broadband in those rural areas.
“As we release this important data to the public, it paints a sobering view of the challenges facing far too many Americans as they try to connect to high-speed broadband and participate in our modern economy,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Axios.
Whether Congress supports an investment meant to close that gap will come down to politics. So it’s worth pointing out the extent to which more Republican areas are disproportionately affected by limited technology.
For the full article click HERE
NATIONAL- Supply constraints that have challenged businesses and caused shortages of everything from semiconductors to sweatpants are deepening, adding to pressure on inflation and testing the Federal Reserve’s resolve to keep juicing the economy.
Economists and business executives now say those supply-chain disruptions, key labor shortages and resurgent demand driven by multiple rounds of fiscal stimulus will persist through the end of the year, if not longer.
“It turns out it’s a heck of a lot easier to create demand than it is to—you know, to bring supply back up to snuff,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday after the central bank’s most recent policy meeting.
The squeeze on U.S. businesses shows little sign of letting up, particularly in the manufacturing sector.
The pace of manufacturing production and hiring slowed in May from the prior month even though new orders and order backlogs accelerated, according to the May Purchasing Managers Index published by the Institute for Supply Management.
A June report by the Institute of International Finance found that supplier delays that have pushed up the cost of manufactured goods around the world will likely persist into 2022, adding to global inflation concerns.
“What is happening now exceeds anything seen in recent history,” the report concludes.
For the full article click HERE
LINCOLN- The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services says a "software error" resulted in phone numbers and partial Social Security numbers being sent to a third party in April. The release of personal information, which was discovered by HHS on April 9, was disclosed in a June 7 letter to those who were affected.
The agency said it did not expect that individuals would be harmed because their names were not included in the information that was inadvertently sent to "another individual in the State of Nebraska." But the state urged those who received the letter to call the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — to put a fraud alert on their credit report.
HHS said it implemented "an immediate solution" to the software error and was working on a long-term solution.
"We are committed to keeping your information safe and assure you we are doing everything possible to regain your trust," the letter signed by HIPAA Privacy Officer Keith Patton reads.
For the full article click HERE
STATE- Nebraska government tax collections surged well above projections in May, with the state collecting $297 million more than expected, according to numbers released Tuesday. The Nebraska Department of Revenue reported net tax receipts of $720 million, which is more than 70% higher than the official forecast of $423 million.
The increase was driven by corporate income tax collections that were 375% above the certified state forecast and individual income tax collections that were 97% above the forecast. Net sales-and-use and miscellaneous tax receipts were 14.9% and 30.9% higher, respectively.
Net tax collections are also higher than expected in the current fiscal year, which ends this month. The state has collected $5.378 billion in the current fiscal year, an amount that's nearly 19% higher than the certified forecast of $4.525 billion.
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SANTEE- Multiple teachers at Santee Community Schools have resigned because of a local mandate requiring them to get vaccinated for COVID-19 in time for the upcoming school year. The district board of education earlier this month approved nine resignations, many of which were solely because of the mandate, said Superintendent Todd Chessmore. The Santee Sioux Nation tribal council passed the guideline June 2, requiring all employees within the boundaries of the reservation to get fully vaccinated for COVID-19. The mandate officially goes into effect July 1.
One former staff member who resigned expressed disappointment in the fact that employment contracts were signed in early spring; however, by the time school employees were given the ultimatum earlier this month, most job opportunities at other schools were filled. “It’s been a very stressful time because there were mandates in town, and no one ever suggested it would affect the school,” said the former employee, who requested to remain anonymous to protect future employment options. “Teachers had signed contracts back in March and April, and it wasn’t in the contract to have to do this.”
Chessmore said he’s optimistic about the upcoming school year and those who are staying.
“This is a bump in the road, but it’s a bump, not a canyon,” he said. “We are going to navigate it and are optimistic about the future.”
For the full article click HERE
GLOBAL- Bitcoin is now officially legal tender in El Salvador, a country in Central America with a population of 6.5 million and a gross domestic product of about $27 billion, as of 2019.It is a country about the same size as the state of New Jersey, but the move by San Salvador’s legislative body early Wednesday to make bitcoin BTCUSD legitimate is making waves in the broader crypto complex.
Bitcoin being classified as legal tender in El Salvador means that everyday Salvadorans can easily make cross border payments without having to rely on the U.S. dollar DXY , wrote Ross Middleton, chief financial officer of DeversiFi, a decentralized finance business.
Bitcoin’s legalization in the country, championed by 39-year-old President Nayib Bukele, means that it can be used to pay taxes, services at all businesses, except those unable to process such transactions. Middleton believes it could lead to crypto native companies setting up within the country now that the banking relationship will be easier.
That said, Presearch’s Pape cautioned that legal designation of bitcoin in El Salvador could also create more turbulence within the crypto complex. “It feels like there’s a showdown brewing, and announcements like this could paint a large target on Bitcoin that could cause some short-term pain for the crypto space,” Pape wrote. He said that US regulators may feel compelled to “ensure that bitcoin isn’t used by nation-states whose interests run counter to those of the U.S.”
For the full article click HERE
NEBRASKA- TC Energy Corp., formerly TransCanada, announced Wednesday that it had terminated the pipeline project. It would have moved crude oil from Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska, before connecting with an existing pipeline system that reaches the Gulf Coast. The company announced it was canceling its project after President Joe Biden revoked a necessary permit in January. Still, environmental advocates and others say the work is far from over. Jane Kleeb, founder of leading opposition group Bold Nebraska, is calling for further action in at least three areas: the State Public Service Commission, courts and the State Legislature.
The commission, which is made up of five elected commissioners and regulates telecommunications carriers, railroad safety, major oil pipelines and more, approved the pipeline’s route in 2017. The Nebraska Supreme Court ultimately affirmed that approval. That allowed TC Energy to exercise the power of eminent domain, and now advocates want the commission to revoke the approval.
There are still more than 60 cases in court, with landowners across nine counties fighting TC Energy over eminent domain, according to Brian Jorde, a lawyer representing landowners. “It’s a real problem that TransCanada owns all this land across our state and could sell it to anyone they want tomorrow,” Kleeb said.
Sens. Adam Morfeld and Eliot Bostar, both of Lincoln, signed a letter last month in part asking the Public Service Commission to explain why it hadn’t reopened the matter to alter or rescind its approval after Biden’s action. Morfeld said Friday that he’d be supportive of legislation that makes it so a private company can’t exercise eminent domain when a pipeline route has been rejected or not approved, but he’d have to read the actual legislation to know whether he’d want to take the lead on it. “To me, that’s common sense,” Morfeld said. “Common sense protection of land rights.”
For the full article click HERE
LINCOLN- Ann Tillery could see by her own image on the Zoom screen that something was wrong when the left side of her face began to droop. Her speech slurred and her left arm felt heavy. All of the signs of a stroke were there, and the technology of the video conferencing platform helped the Lincoln, Nebraska, woman realize it fast enough to get lifesaving help.
Problem was, no one else on the call realized what was happening. Tillery was alone in a conference room at the University of Nebraska Foundation. She grabbed her phone and tried to stand but fell to the floor. “I knew I had a very limited time to act if I was going to have the best chance of recovery,” Tillery said. “Luckily I did have my cellphone.”
After several days in intensive care, Tillery spent 11 days in inpatient care working with occupational, physical and speech therapists. Her rehabilitation continues. One of her initial recovery goals was to get better soon enough to attend the annual Cattlemen’s Ball in Columbus. Last weekend, she made it to the event.
“Let’s keep an eye out for one another,” she said.
For the full article click HERE
LINCOLN- Placing more of the nation’s water and land in conservation can help protect the environment and address climate change. The Biden administration in part brought this problem on itself by announcing in January the 30x30 concept — putting 30% of the nation’s land and water in conservation status by 2030 — via an executive order that provided no practical guidance on how an initiative of such complexity and ambition would be implemented. The lack of information and failure to provide upfront outreach came across as arrogant and fueled cynicism and uncertainty among many farmers and ranchers.
Protection of private property stands as one of the central tenets of the federal Constitution, and rightly so. Federal officials must build on points in the interagency report and do a far better job explaining how the government intends to use existing conservation initiatives — such as the Conservation Reserve Program long used in the Midlands — to reach the proposed goal.
Gov. Pete Ricketts has been outspoken in opposing the 30x30 proposal. But through his rhetoric and actions at recent public events, he is at risk of coming across less as the state’s elected chief executive than as a political figure seeking to ride producers’ cynicism and anger in pursuit of political gain. It was distressing, for example, that Ricketts stooped to calling Vilsack a liar at one anti-30x30 event.
“When the agriculture secretary says it’s not a land grab, then you know it is a land grab,” Ricketts said.
For the full article click HERE
NEBRASKA- A new industry is set to take off in Nebraska. If it works out as backers hope, it would create jobs in the state and offer financial advantages for the state’s ethanol producers. In addition, the industry could have significant implications in the effort to combat climate change. The groundwork was laid by State Sen. Mike Flood’s Legislative Bill 650, which all but one legislator voted to pass last month. Since then, multiple companies have announced plans to contract with ethanol producers in Nebraska to filter carbon dioxide and permanently store that element in the ground — either in the state or piped elsewhere.
Here’s how it essentially works: Instead of allowing carbon dioxide to emit from a producer’s stacks, those stacks would be capped and route the carbon dioxide to a series of compressors. The carbon dioxide is then converted into a transportable form such as liquid and stored well below the surface — at least 2,600 feet below.
Additionally, energy producers that store their carbon dioxide will lower their carbon dioxide intensity score, which affects their ability to sell their ethanol. A lower score could allow a producer to sell to states such as California, which has stringent carbon dioxide regulations.
“If you’re an ethanol plant that has a very low carbon score, you’re going to be a lot more attractive to the California market and their regulators than any other seller of ethanol,” Flood said. “Reducing your carbon score means better prices and better returns for Nebraska farmers.”
For the full article click HERE
LINCOLN- Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts this week said he is “opposed to critical race theory,” voicing an increasingly common opinion among Republican politicians. The governor was asked about the concept Monday on his monthly call-in radio program, during which he didn’t explicitly call for legislation related to the theory and public schools but encouraged parents to get engaged.
At the foundation of critical race theory is that race is a social construct used to oppress and exploit people of color, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. Academics use the approach to look at how our understanding of race and white supremacy have impacted our past, structures — such as laws, politics, economics and society in general — and present, according to Jeannette Jones, the associate professor.
It started with a caller named James from Raymond, Nebraska, asking Ricketts where Nebraska stands as a state on the theory.
“Well, I’m opposed to critical race theory,” the governor replied. “It’s a Marxist theory ... it’s really un-American, about how it teaches us to think about ourselves as a country,” Ricketts said.
Regarding legislation, Ricketts said no state senator has picked up the issue, but that could change next year.
For the full article click HERE
WASHINGTON- The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week for the first time since April despite widespread evidence that the economy and the job market are rebounding steadily from the pandemic recession. The Labor Department said Thursday that jobless claims rose 37,000 from the week before. As the job market has strengthened, the number of weekly applications for unemployment aid has fallen for most of the year. The number of jobless claims generally reflects the pace of layoffs.
Though jobless claims have tumbled since the start of 2021, when they exceeded 900,000, they remain high by historical standards. Before the pandemic paralyzed the economy in March 2020, unemployment applications were running at about 220,000 a week.
In Thursday’s report, the government said a total of 3.5 million Americans were continuing to collect traditional state unemployment benefits in the week ending June 5, up by just 1,000 from the week before.
Many states, though, are set to begin dropping the supplemental federal jobless aid this month.
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