CASINO RULES SET TO COME OUT NEXT WEEK; VOTE SET FOR DEC. 17TH

LINCOLN- A year after Nebraska voters approved casino gambling at the state's horse racing tracks, there's finally a light at the end of the tunnel for the tracks hoping to get gaming licenses.

Tom Sage, executive director of the Nebraska Racing & Gaming Commission, said this week that a final draft of casino regulations is set to be released Nov. 12.

Sage said the commission has been working on the rules for the past couple of months after it received a consultant's report in early September. It has fielded comments from the public and the gaming industry and has incorporated some of the suggestions into its draft regulations, he said.

Commissioners will hold a public hearing on the proposed rules at their next scheduled meeting on Dec. 17. Because of the expected interest from industry members and the public, the commission plans to hold the meeting at Nebraska Innovation Campus.

All six existing horse tracks in the state, including the Lincoln Race Course, have announced plans to build casinos. There also have been proposals announced for new tracks in Bellevue, Gering, Kimball, Norfolk, North Platte, and York, all of which are likely to seek casino licenses as well.

Under Nebraska law, horse tracks must host at least one day of live racing annually to be able to host simulcasting, which all tracks except the one in South Sioux City do.

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REPORT FINDS 258 NEBRASKA VICTIMS OF CLERGY SEX ABUSE SINCE 1978

LINCOLN- The Nebraska Attorney General's Office released its report on clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church, finding 258 documented victims across the three dioceses in Nebraska.

Attorney General Doug Peterson said many of the cases found during the three-year-long probe were gut-wrenching. Few had been prosecuted.

He said no additional prosecutions could come from the cases found in the report because the statute of limitations on filing charges has passed or because the alleged perpetrator has died. But Peterson expressed hope that at least victims' voices had been heard.

“We have been unable to bring our own justice system to bear on these predators,” Peterson said. “That’s extremely frustrating.”

He said he would support legislation to change Nebraska’s statute of limitation laws.

The 182-page report found that the Lincoln Diocese had 97 victims, the Omaha Diocese had 158 victims, and the Grand Island Diocese had three victims. Two priests, Msgr. Leonard Kalin, who served on the campus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and an Omaha priest, the Rev. Daniel Herek, committed many of the abuse and misconduct cases, Peterson said.

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OMAHA TRIBE TO PROVIDE HOUSING ASSISTANCE FOR TRIBAL RESIDENTS; BUYS WALTHILL GROCERY STORE

MACY- The Omaha Tribe of Nebraska said it will start providing as much as $20,000 per household in housing assistance for tribal members who live on the reservation in Northeast Nebraska.

The tribe also announced it has purchased a combination grocery store, gas station, and restaurant in Walthill.

About $1 million has been budgeted for the tribe's new Homeowner Assistance Fund Plan. In the first phase, eligible households would receive up to $2,000 in assistance to pay utility bills. In later phases, residents could qualify for up to $6,000 for mortgage assistance, up to $3,000 for delinquent property taxes, and, eventually, as much as $10,000 in home-improvement assistance.

The direct assistance would be financed with the tribe's share of $41 million from the American Rescue Plan Act. The COVID-relief package passed by Congress in March also will finance the tribe's purchase of the Walthill grocery store, Heritage Foodtown. The purchase price was not disclosed at a news conference in Macy.

Melissa Henscheid, housing director with the Omaha Tribe, said the tribe has been working on the new housing assistance program for months. The first phase, the utility assistance, is expected to begin in a week or so, while the subsequent phases will start at a later date.

Henscheid said at least 180 families living on the reservation should benefit from the assistance, though she acknowledged that figure is a "guesstimate."

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REPORT: AT LEAST 59,000 MEAT WORKERS CAUGHT COVID-19, 269 DIED

NATION- At least 59,000 meatpacking workers became ill with COVID-19 and 269 workers died when the virus tore through the industry last year, which is significantly more than previously thought, according to a new U.S. House report released earlier this week.

With workers standing shoulder-to-shoulder along production lines, the meatpacking industry was one of the early epicenters of the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, which used internal documents from five of the biggest meatpacking companies for its report, said companies could have done more to protect their workers.

The new estimate of infections in the industry is nearly three times higher than the 22,400 that the United Food and Commercial Workers Union has said were infected. And the true number of infections could be even higher because the company documents generally don't account for coronavirus cases confirmed by outside testing or self-reported by employees.

At the height of the outbreaks last spring, U.S. meatpacking production fell to about 60% of normal levels as several major plants were forced to temporarily close for deep cleaning and safety upgrades or operated at slower speeds because of worker shortages. The report said companies were slow to take protective steps such as checking employee temperatures, distributing protective equipment such as masks, and installing barriers between workstations.

“Instead of addressing the clear indications that workers were contracting the coronavirus at alarming rates due to conditions in meatpacking facilities, meatpacking companies prioritized profits and production over worker safety, continuing to employ practices that led to crowded facilities in which the virus spread easily,” the report said.

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UNO'S $35 MILLION RENOVATION OF DURHAM SCIENCE CENTER SET TO BEGIN IN MARCH

OMAHA- A $35 million renovation of the Durham Science Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha is set to begin in March.

Despite the price tag, the two-year project involves improvements that will likely go unnoticed once work is finished.

Sacha Kopp, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at UNO, said the renovation will essentially be an infrastructure upgrade to a building that has seen only minor touch-ups since it opened in 1987. The building — located near the northwest edge of the north campus — houses several academic departments including chemistry, mathematics, physics, and geology.

Kopp said that a lot of the classrooms will be refreshed with new technology and that new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning units will be installed. According to documents presented to the University of Nebraska Board of Regents earlier this month, electrical, mechanical and plumbing upgrades also will be made.

“It’s kind of like rewiring your house” in that the majority of improvements, while important, will likely not be noticeable, Kopp said.

Private donations will cover $20 million of the renovation project’s cost, according to the document presented to regents. The remaining $15 million will come from the state, thanks to a bill passed by the Nebraska Legislature to help NU tackle an $800 million backlog in building maintenance projects. The bill was signed into law in April.

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DOWNTOWN LINCOLN GOLD'S BUILDING TO BE SOLD TO LOCAL INVESTOR

LINCOLN- One of Lincoln's largest downtown office buildings is being sold again after attempts to redevelop it fell through.

Gerard Keating of Keating Resources said that he has a deal in place to sell the Gold's building at 1033 O St. to Mike Works, a Lincoln-based hotel developer.

"Keating Resources is proud to have played a role in repositioning (the) property for its next life," Keating said in an email. He declined further comment.

Keating, who lives in Florida but is a Nebraska native, bought the building out of foreclosure for $2.3 million in December 2019.

His original plan was to turn the northern half of the building into a 110-room extended-stay hotel while remodeling the southern half of the building to provide better, more modern space for existing office tenants.

The coronavirus pandemic sunk the hotel plans, and Keating agreed early last year to sell the building to an investment group led by Jeff McMahon, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate and former managing principal of RED Development, the company that owns SouthPointe Pavilions.

McMahon's group wanted to redevelop the building into about 180 apartments in a $50 million redevelopment, but that deal fell apart this summer when the project failed to get approval to use historic tax credits.

Keating said after that setback that he planned to demolish the building.

The sale will mean the building will be saved, but beyond that Works said he doesn't have many details to offer, other than the fact that he does plan to convert part of the building to apartments and hopes to attract some "interesting" retail and/or restaurant tenants.

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RICKETTS REAPPOINTS BRIAN KRUSE AS DOUGLAS COUNTY ELECTION COMMISSIONER

LINCOLN- Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts has reappointed Brian Kruse as Douglas County election commissioner.

Kruse has served as the county’s election commissioner since 2016.

The position will pay $116,027 in 2022, according to information provided by Douglas County.

Under state law, the governor appoints the election commissioners for Douglas, Sarpy, and Lancaster Counties, and those commissioners name their deputy from an opposing party.

Kruse and Ricketts are Republicans. With Kruse’s appointment official, the Douglas County Election Commission will notify the Democratic, Libertarian, and Legal Marijuana NOW Parties of the opening and request a list of candidates. From those lists, Kruse will pick his deputy.

Democrat Chris Carithers has been the deputy commissioner during Kruse’s first term. Carithers is a former executive director of thE

Douglas County Democratic Party and owner of the Carithers Group, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The deputy’s position will pay $87,020 next year, according to the county.

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$140 MILLION CHILD CARE GRANT PROGRAM TO HELP NEBRASKA PROVIDERS SURVIVE

LINCOLN — Nebraska child care providers have an “unprecedented opportunity” to get back on the solid financial ground and help families get equal access to high-quality care, thanks to a new grant program.

State Department of Health and Human Services officials unveiled the $140 million Child Care Stabilization program this week.

Stephanie Beasley, children and family services director for HHS, said the grants will shore up a key part of the state’s economy. She said the pandemic put a spotlight on the critical role that child care providers play in making it possible for parents to work.

“Child care providers have been and continue to be the workforce behind the workforce throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said.

Nationally, the pandemic has exacerbated the shortage of reliable and affordable child care, which in turn has restricted the growth of the broader economy. The shortage has forced many people — mostly women — to leave the workforce and contributed to a deepening labor shortage.

Child Care Aware of America estimated that 9% of licensed child care programs have permanently closed since the pandemic began, based on its tally of nearly 16,000 shuttered centers and in-home daycares in 37 states between December 2019 and March 2021.

The new grant program is intended to address some of the challenges that have pushed providers to close.

State officials said it aims to ease financial burdens faced by child care providers because of the public health emergency and the instability of the child care market as a whole. It has a special focus on supporting providers in underserved and lower-income areas of the state.

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ADM PLANS TO MAKE JET FUEL AT NEBRASKA ETHANOL PLANT

COLUMBUS- Archer Daniels Midland's Columbus, Nebraska, the dry mill is part of a plan the company announced to turn ethanol into sustainable jet fuel.

ADM said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with a company called Gevo Inc. to transform ethanol into sustainable jet fuel and other renewable hydrocarbon fuels.

According to terms of the deal, Colorado-based Gevo would use its processing technology to turn about 900 million gallons of ethanol produced at ADM’s dry mills in Columbus and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as well as its Decatur, Illinois, complex into about 500 million gallons of sustainable, low-carbon fuels for aviation and other industries.

The Columbus and Cedar Rapids facilities both have production capacities of about 300 million gallons a year, so it appears the plan is to dedicate all their capacity to the sustainable fuels effort.

Gevo CEO Patrick Gruber said in a press release that it has potential demand from customers for more than 1 billion gallons of sustainable fuels.

“By working with ADM, who already has committed to reducing their carbon footprint, we have the opportunity to accelerate scale," Gruber said in the press release. "The technology to convert low carbon ethanol and isobutanol into (sustainable aviation fuel) by Gevo is well developed and ready for world-scale commercialization."

ADM said in the release that demand for sustainable aviation fuel is likely to increase over the coming years because U.S. airlines, airports, shippers, and the U.S. government are working together to advance its use.

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CONSTRUCTION OF NEW, LARGER SARPY COUNTY JAIL REMAINS ON TRACK

SARPY COUNTY- After their weekly meeting, Sarpy County Board members donned hard hats and neon vests.

They headed to the construction site next door, where crews have erected the skeleton of a new jail in recent months. Construction remains on track to wrap up in December 2022, according to Jake Tietgen, lead project manager.

Tietgen described the new facility as about 25% finished. The jail is expected to be operational in early 2023, according to county spokesperson Megan Stubenhofer-Barrett.

Crews broke ground in the spring. They cleared the site and have completed some underground work — laying pilings, plumbing and electric — and stood up structural beams and an elevator shaft. Next, observers will start seeing walls go up, said Stubenhofer-Barrett.

In April, the County Board approved a guaranteed maximum construction price of $69.4 million with JE Dunn. The facility was designed by DLR Group.

The new 150,000-square-foot jail, on the county’s campus near 84th Street and Nebraska Highway 370, is aimed at easing overcrowding and will have more space for programming and services to help people experiencing mental health challenges.

The current jail, built-in 1989, was designed to hold about 150 people, according to Ryan Mahr, the head of the Sarpy County Department of Corrections. The new lockup is designed to hold close to 360.

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RICKETTS DEFENDS DECISION TO SCALE BACK NEBRASKA COVID-19 REPORTING

LINCOLN - At the end of a news conference that highlighted the importance of data reporting availability to Nebraska’s COVID-19 response, Gov. Pete Ricketts defended the state’s decision to scale back its COVID-19 dashboard.

“That really just reflects the needs right now that we have here in the state. So we are looking to get back to normal, folks, right?” he said.

Ricketts said daily data updates are unnecessary and providing that information on a weekly basis is “sufficient.”

“There is nobody who is planning their staff on a daily basis. Right? Nobody needs daily information to do staffing,” he said, stating that staffing occurs on a week-to-week basis. “People want to know a week ahead of time when they’re going to be working.” Ricketts emphasized the decrease of the state's hospital staffing emergency and the increase of hospital capacity in his justification for the shift.

Hospital capacity is also what the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services emphasized in their latest dashboard release. Hospital capacity falling below 10% triggers Directed Health Measures, and the reappearance of the dashboard, until capacity increases above 10%.

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RICKETTS: NEBRASKA TO SEEK INJUNCTION AGAINST OSHA VACCINE REQUIREMENTS

LINCOLN - Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts said during a news conference that he plans to fight OSHA in court over the COVID-19 vaccination requirements as soon as the agency reveals them.

The Governor also reiterated his position against vaccination mandates and said during the news conference that he planned to take action against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to fight those requirements.

“As soon as those rules come out, we will be taking OSHA and anybody else to court to get an injunction and stop what is a huge abuse of federal power to mandate vaccines through these emergency rules,” Ricketts said. Ricketts has cited Nebraska's lack of a vaccine mandate as a reason why potential employees should come work in Nebraska; specifically, nurses as the shortage continues.

Ricketts went on to encourage Nebraskans to get the COVID-19 vaccine, especially for those 40 and older.

Tasked by President Biden to draft vaccination rules for businesses with at least 100 employees, OSHA is expected to roll out its plan any day now.

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CORPS OF ENGINEERS HOSTS MEETINGS ON MISSOURI RIVER MANAGEMENT

MIDWEST- With unusually dry conditions as the backdrop, the Army Corps of Engineers is hosting its annual fall meetings this week on the management of the Missouri River.

The meetings are being held from Montana to Missouri. Earlier in the week, meetings were held in Sioux City, Iowa as well as Nebraska City.

By regulating releases from six dams on the upper river, the corps influences how much water is held in those reservoirs as well as river levels downstream. Those levels affect farming, aquatic life and habitat, power generation, flood control, and drought mitigation.

Upper basin runoff (upstream of Sioux City) in September was 67% of normal, according to the corps. The upper basin is on pace to see its 10th-driest year out of 123 years on record.

Winter releases will be set at 12,000 cubic feet per second.

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SARPY COUNTY BOARD WILL CONSIDER CUTTING ELECTION COMMISSIONER SALARY

SARPY COUNTY- The Sarpy County Board will consider a proposal that would cut the salary of the county’s newly appointed election commissioner by 16% in 2022 and the deputy election commissioner’s salary by 11%.

Gov. Pete Ricketts appointed Emily Ethington, 25, the twin sister of State Sen. Julie Slama, to serve the balance of the term that ends Dec. 31 and another four-year term after that. State law requires the commissioner to appoint a chief deputy of a different political party — Sarpy County chief deputy Michelle Boyland was appointed in July 2020.

As a result, Ethington’s 2022 salary would be $72,753, and Boyland’s 2022 salary would be $69,910. County employees typically receive yearly raises tied to the cost of living and moving up in the salary schedule. Megan Stubenhofer-Barrett, the county spokeswoman, believes that this would be the first time these positions’ salaries would be tied to a schedule.

According to board member Jim Warren, Ethington had requested that commissioners set her salary at $90,000.

State law says the election commissioner and chief deputies are county “employees.” Don Kelly, chairman of the County Board, said the county had been treating the roles like elected officials instead. Kelly said he crafted the proposal by looking at comparable positions outside the county as well as within county ranks, along with previous salaries for Sarpy election commissioners and their qualifications and experience.

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TRUMP ENDORSES HERBSTER IN GUBERNATORIAL RACE; RICKETTS DISAGREES

NEBRASKA - Former President Donald Trump announced that he is endorsing Charles Herbster in his bid to be elected governor next year, prompting a swift response from Gov. Pete Ricketts who said he "strongly disagrees" with that judgment.

Herbster, who was an agricultural adviser to Trump during his presidency, is a candidate for the Republican nomination.

In his endorsement statement, Trump took a verbal shot at Republican Sen. Ben Sasse and lavished praise on Ricketts.

Herbster "has been a tremendous supporter of America First and Make America Great Again, right from the beginning," Trump said, "and will do a fantastic job" as governor. Ricketts responded via Twitter with claims that he has also been a supporter of President Trump's conservative leadership and America First mentality. Ricketts wrapped up his comments with "Nebraska deserves better."

Ricketts is expected to endorse Jim Pillen of Columbus, a University of Nebraska regent, but has not done so yet.

Despite the disagreement between President Trump and Ricketts, the former President has referred to Ricketts as a "terrific" governor of Nebraska.

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FORMER NEBRASKA SEN. CAP DIERKS, A CHAMPION FOR RURAL AMERICA, DIES AT AGE 89

EWING- A strong advocate for rural development, who was known for getting things done during his long tenure in the Nebraska Legislature, has died.

Former Sen. Merton "Cap" Dierks, 89, died from complications following a stroke. He was known as a state senator who preserved relationships as he advocated for issues important to him.

"Rural America lost one of its very best champions," said John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, describing Dierks as "one of the most influential and respected state senators" in the Legislature in the last 35-plus years. "He argued things from a moral and ethical and policy perspective, so he raised the level of debate on a lot of discussions."

Former U.S. Sen. and Nebraska Gov. Bob Kerrey and current Sen. Deb Fischer offered similar praise.

"Cap was a man whose faith and love of Nebraska combined with the virtue of caring about the opinions of everyone made him a model of what public service is at its best," Kerrey posted in a tribute on Facebook. "I trusted and loved this man completely. Young Nebraskans: Remember him. Be like him. You cannot do better."

Fischer, a former state senator who served alongside Dierks, said she got to know Dierks while advocating for Nebraska's schools.

"He was a champion in the Nebraska Legislature for our state’s children and our state’s school districts. ... He was always a gentleman, sincere and honest in every relationship, and he had the deep respect of all who knew him."

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NEBRASKA JOINTS SUIT AGAINST BIDEN OVER REVERSAL OF TRUMP-ERA ABORTION REFERRAL BAN

COLUMBUS, OHIO — Ohio’s top lawyer filed suit against the Biden administration seeking to restore a Trump-era ban on abortion referrals by family planning clinics that President Joe Biden reversed earlier this month.

The action filed by Republican Attorney General Dave Yost in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati was joined by 11 other states, including Nebraska.

At issue are new federal regulations set by the Department of Health and Human Services that take the Title X federal family planning program back to the way it ran under the Obama administration when clinics were able to refer women seeking abortions to a provider.

The two rules Yost wants reinstated were passed in 2019. One required federally funded family-planning clinics to be physically and financially independent of abortion clinics. The other required them to refrain from referring patients for abortions.

He said both rules were intended as firewalls between clinics' family planning services, which can receive taxpayer funding, and their abortion services, which cannot.

"You can’t 'follow the money when all the money is dumped into one pot and mixed together,” Yost said in a statement. “Federal law prohibits taxpayer funding of abortion — and that law means nothing if the federal money isn’t kept separate.”

States joining the challenge are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and West Virginia. Not all states participate in Title X.

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KEY PLAYER IN FORTENBERRY INDICTMENT RESIGNS AS PRESIDENT OF CHRISTIAN GROUP

LINCOLN- A key figure in the indictment of U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry for allegedly lying to federal investigators has resigned his position with a Washington, D.C.-based Christian group.

Toufic Baaklini, who resigned last week, had served as president and a board member for several years for In Defense of Christians, an organization that fights persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

Baaklini told federal investigators that in January 2016, he was given $30,000 by Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian billionaire now living in Paris, for distribution as political contributions to Fortenberry. Baaklini said he gave the money to a California man who was hosting a fundraiser for Fortenberry at a Los Angeles restaurant. A group of people — with five of the donors having the last name Ayoub — were recruited to eventually donate the money.

Fortenberry ran into Baaklini in Washington sometime after the fundraiser, according to federal court documents, and asked him something to the effect of: “Do you think anything was wrong with the fundraiser?”

Baaklini replied by falsely saying “no” and then asked why. Fortenberry reportedly responded, “because it all came from the same family.”

Baaklini, who was born in Lebanon, had given campaign donations to more than a dozen Republican candidates for office in recent years, according to federal campaign reports.

In Defense of Christians, in a news release Sunday, thanked Baaklini for his service, adding that any campaign contributions made by, or through, Baaklini were in his "personal capacity."

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DON WALTON: PATTY PANSING BROOKS PREPARING BID FOR FORTENBERRY HOUSE SEAT

LINCOLN - Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks is gearing up for her next challenge.

The Lincoln state senator, who will be term-limited out of the Legislature at the end of next year, will announce soon that she will seek the 2022 Democratic nomination for Republican Rep. Jeff Fortenberry's 1st District House seat.

Fortenberry, who has pleaded not guilty, is facing trial in Los Angeles on federal charges that he lied to the FBI and concealed information about illegal campaign contributions that he accepted from foreign sources in 2016. Although a trial date has been set for Dec. 14, it is possible that it may be delayed.

There are many unanswered questions regarding the 2022 congressional race. We know that Fortenberry will be challenged by Democrats if he decides to seek reelection, but it is unknown whether another Republican would contend for the position as well. It is also yet to be seen whether Senator Pansing Brooks or any other Democrat could compete with the incumbent in a district that has been strictly Republican for quite some time.

Some of the state senators who will have finished their two terms at the end of next year are the hardest working and most impartial legislators. However, there are not many legislators who would want to run for another, more demanding, elected office after serving two terms.

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COULD NEBRASKA LAWMAKERS PASS A TEXAS-STYLE ABORTION BAN?

LINCOLN- On either side of the abortion debate, all eyes are on the judicial fate of Texas’ new abortion law, the most restrictive in the country.

Nebraska lawmakers who have sponsored legislation limiting abortion expect anti-abortion proposals again next year, and so does a lawmaker who has proposed legislation to increase access. But the shape those proposals take may be determined by what happens in the courts.

The Texas law, which went into effect in September, bans abortions once the cardiac activity is detected. That usually falls at about six weeks, before some women know that they’re pregnant. While courts have blocked other states’ attempts at similar restrictions, this law differs by putting enforcement in the hands of private citizens. A federal appeals court allowed the restrictions to remain in place for a third time in the last several weeks alone.

If a Texas-style law were implemented in Nebraska, it would ban a majority of the abortions that are currently performed in the state. A report from the State Department of Health and Human Services showed that about 85% of abortions in Nebraska in 2020 happened at an estimated gestation of six weeks or later. In 2019, that percentage was about 71%.

Abortion rights advocates’ concern that Nebraska may follow in the footsteps of Texas is not unfounded: Gov. Pete Ricketts, who opposes abortion, has lauded the law and hinted that Nebraska lawmakers might use it as a model.

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