STATE SEN. BREWER HEADED TO UKRAINE TO ASSESS HUMANITARIAN NEEDS

LINCOLN — Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon will leave Nebraska on Friday for an extended trip into and across battle-torn Ukraine, where he will assess conditions and humanitarian needs.

An earlier plan to travel to Poland got scratched in replacement for the upcoming trip to Ukraine. He originally intended to stay in Poland and assist in logistical and humanitarian activities for refugees who fled after the Russian military invaded Ukraine and initiated relentless bombardment of its cities, turning many of them into rubble. 

Brewer will meet with Noah Philson in Krakow, Poland, a young Nebraskan who is been providing humanitarian assistance, and they will travel to Lviv in western Ukraine.

From there, the two will go to the capital of Kyiv with a driver and interpreter who will take Brewer through the country to the final destination of Odesa, a deep-water port on the Black Sea.

They will go through the worn-torn Donbas region along the way where Russian forces have virtually destroyed the port city of Mariupol. 

Brewer’s mission is to assess humanitarian needs and “figure out a way to break up the logjam” of equipment and resources that is currently “stacked along runways in Poland.”

“Ukrainians are busy fighting the war,” he said, “and can’t bring it in.”

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NU REGENTS APPROVE $1B BUGDET, HOLD TUITION FLAT FOR 2022-23

LINCOLN - The University of Nebraska Board of Regents approved a $1 billion operating budget for 2022-23 on Thursday that holds tuition flat for the second straight academic year. 

Reflecting a 1.3% increase in spending over the previous year — a $12.8 million bump — NU President Ted Carter said the budget also makes investments in several areas prioritized by the university.

“We stuck to a plan we built two years ago shortly before COVID hit, a plan that called for conservative fiscal planning so we can focus our resources on the areas that have the biggest impact like student affordability, faculty competitiveness, and other strategic priorities,” Carter told regents.

The Nebraska Promise program, which allows students to attend an NU campus tuition-free, has increased the annual household income qualification from $60,000 to $65,000 under the new budget plan. 

Additionally, $10 million more will be injected into the salary pool for faculty at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Nebraska Medical Center, covers an expected increase in health insurance premiums, and pays for core operations in new programs previously approved by the board. 

“And we are doing it without passing these costs on to our students,” Carter said. 

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OMAHA'S TIF APPROVALS IN FIRST HALF OF 2022 FAR EXCEED 2021 TOTAL

OMAHA - From a new downtown Omaha skyscraper to the construction of a $220 million casino, massive projects have put 2022 on track to be a record-breaking year for tax-increment financing loans in the city. 

Upward of $105 million in tax-increment financing, or TIF, has been approved in 2022, already exceeding the total in all of 2021. 

Eight redevelopment agreements approved by the Omaha City Council accounted for the $105 million. The figure does not account for redevelopment plans approved by the City Council, a step that is taken before an agreement is considered. 

TIF is a financing tool regularly used in Omaha since 1980 in local development efforts.

Proponents of the economic incentive champion it as a tool to encourage private investment in areas that need housing and revitalization.

Critics contend that the incentive is used too generously and is too often granted for developments that don’t contribute to civic improvements or affordable housing needs.

An average of $42.3 million in TIF has been approved per year from 2015-2021. Since 2000, the highest single-year total was in 2016 when thirty projects yielded nearly $70 million in TIF loans. 

In 2021, 25 projects were approved for roughly $41 million in TIF loans.

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PUBLIC SPACES, CITY EMPLOYEES, AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING TARGETED FOR OMAHA ARPA SPENDING

OMAHA - The City of Omaha’s full-time employees, minus elected officials, are to get a $3,000 boost this year in their paychecks. 

Nearly 15 city parks, pools, and other public spaces are to be spiffed up.

These are just some of the ways Omaha plans to spend its latest allocation of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, Mayor Jean Stothert announced Tuesday, June 21.

The COVID-related federal act put $112,591,455 into the city’s coffers. An earlier infusion came in May 2021; the other $56 million came this month. ARPA funds must be spent by 2026. 

“The primary use of ARPA funds is for local governments to replace revenue losses through 2023,” said Stothert, adding that about $31 million will go for that purpose. 

However, she said, the ARPA funds could also be used to support community programs, respond to pandemic impacts, and promote economic recovery.

“The programs we have created and funded are especially important and will have communitywide benefits,” Stothert said. 

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NORFOLK CELEBRATES COMPLETION OF NEBRASKA'S LARGEST SOLAR POWER FARM

NORFOLK - People behind the state’s largest solar farm and one of its largest battery installations celebrated a finished project Wednesday, June 22 in Norfolk, Nebraska. 

The new solar farm can produce 8.5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 1,250 homes, according to city officials. 

Two megawatt-hours of power will be stored in a new Nebraska Public Power District battery system, enough to help local NPPD customers during peak usage times, including hot days.

NPPD and developers at N Solar, Sol Systems, GenPro, Energy Solutions, and Mesner Development contributed to the project.

Those residents who signed up for the city's community solar program will save roughly $15 to $20 a month by participating, city officials said. 

“Having local electricity generation helps balance our system,” Norfolk Mayor Josh Moenning said. “We’re using our own natural resources, in which the fuel is free.”

NPPD President Tom Kent said the contract helps NPPD bolster its solar portfolio to 20 megawatts. The utility also runs hydroelectric and nuclear power plants. 

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BIDEN SIGNS BILL RENAMING OMAHA POST OFFICE AFTER BLACK WWII HERO

OMAHA- President Joe Biden signed a bill to rename the Benson post office after an Omaha sailor who saved more than a dozen shipmates while serving in World War II. 

The legislation designates the U.S. Postal Service facility at 6223 Maple St. the Petty Officer 1st Class Charles Jackson French Post Office.

French, a Black man who enlisted in the still-segregated Navy as a mess attendant, was hailed as “the hero of the Solomon Islands“ after the sinking of his ship, the USS Gregory, on Sept. 5, 1942, near Guadalcanal. He was credited with swimming for several hours through shark-infested waters while towing a lifeboat filled with 15 wounded shipmates, all of whom were white, until they could be rescued.

Rep. Don Bacon, who introduced the bill to name the Omaha post office, said the designation would help preserve French’s legacy and give “Nebraskans and other Americans the opportunity to remember his heroic actions.”

“Despite the segregation at the time, he went above and beyond to answer the call of duty by saving his fellow sailors,” Bacon said in a statement.

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A FLURRY OF FRAUD: CITY CLERKS HAVE RECENTLY STOLEN MONEY FROM 17 NEBRASKA TOWNS

LINCOLN- In Nebraska, 14 city and village clerks have been charged for theft or violating public resources over the past decade.

Those clerks, plus another who took money but wasn’t charged, stole an estimated $1.7 million from 17 small towns across the state, according to audit reports and restitution orders. 

A whopping 158 towns in Nebraska have gone more than 20 years without a full financial audit, including four towns where former clerks were charged with theft.

While clerks acting as treasurers are legally required to complete continuing education classes through the state each year, there’s no such required training for people elected to a city or village board.

The lack of experience, training and oversight often means that village clerks are caught only after taking money for an extended period of time. 

Many small Nebraska towns operate on a system of trust and not a system of verification. 

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NEBRASKA AUDITORS CRITICIZE STATE ACCOUNTING AGAIN, CITE $10.5 BILLION IN ERRORS

LINCOLN- The State Auditor’s Office has put a disclaimer on Nebraska’s end-of-the-year financial report for a second straight year after finding errors totaling $10.5 billion.

A recently released letter addressed to the governor and speaker of the Legislature highlighted the fear of the report's accuracy.

In the letter, Assistant Deputy State Auditor Kris Kucera said auditors had proposed more than 110 adjustments to the Financial Report for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2021. 

But the letter said the state could not show that its accounting and oversight processes were good enough to ensure that other major errors had been caught and that the rest of the financial report was accurate. 

The letter summarized more than $4.3 billion worth of errors, requiring 115 adjustments. It said there were another $6.2 billion in errors that did not require formal adjustments, bringing the total to more than $10.5 billion. 

In the previous year, DAS listed 52 errors that year amounting to more than $21 billion.

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UNMC SCIENTISTS: MEAD RESIDENTS HAVE REASON TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT ALTEN WASTE

MEAD- The now closed AltEn Ethanol Plant in Mead is again the topic of discussion, but this time by scientists.

Residents have been concerned for over a year now about the plant handlings and this week Dr. Ali Khan, dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said that those concerns are valid.

“There are good reasons to suspect that there could be adverse impacts", Dr. Khan said. 

Dr. Khan told Mead residents that air samples have been taken, and the inside of one Mead home was swabbed for pesticides. Samples have also been taken from the wet cake piles and from soil nearby, as well as from two streams that drain from the AltEn site, just south of Mead.

Results from many of the tests are three to six months away, Khan said, adding that researchers may need 10 years to figure out whether the contamination has caused adverse health and environmental impacts. 

Officials said that a medical registry of local residents will soon begin to track medical issues to see if they differ from those experienced elsewhere. 

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ATTORNEY GENERAL, STATE AUDITOR INVESTIGATING IF DONATION TO HISTORY NEBRASKA WAS HANDLED APPROPRIATELY

LINCOLN- Outgoing History Nebraska director and CEO Trevor Jones is the subject of an investigation by the Nebraska Attorney General's Office. 

The alleged irregularities involve more than $260,000 in funds provided to the state history agency by the Nebraska State Historical Foundation. 

Jones is not suspected of using the funds for his personal use, according to sources familiar with the probe. But questions have been raised about whether Jones followed proper protocol in accepting the money and whether it was used for purposes other than what was intended. 

The donation being investigated came in 2020, at a time when Jones was telling the History Nebraska board that the agency’s earnings were “dismal,” because of closures of historical sites due to COVID-19.

That prompted a donation from the Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation of more than $260,000 to help address the funding shortage. But the money, it is alleged, wasn’t used for that purpose, but to help a new foundation launched under Jones’ watch. 

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UNMC AND NEBRASKANS TO HAVE ROLE IN NATIONAL $450 MILLION STUDY OF COVID LONG-TERM IMPACT

OMAHA- The University of Nebraska Medical Center is participating in a $450 million national grant that will study roughly 40,000 adults and children across the country to gain a better grip on the full scope of post-COVID symptoms.

The project is set to span for 4 years and aims to improve treatment, knowledge, and health outcomes. This research project is being funded by the National Institutes of Health. 

“It’s important that we understand what post-COVID looks like. It will help us understand the future of American health care, since most Americans have had it,” said David Warren, the UNMC co-principal investigator of the research study.

Participants tapped for the research could be asked to make two to four visits a year during the study period lasting up to four years, according to a UNMC statement. They could be asked for information about health, symptoms, physical activity and sleep between visits as well as getting a medical checkup. In some cases, they may be eligible to receive medical tests. 

UNMC will look for about 85 individuals to get the study underway. 

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OMAHA-AREA COVID-19 HOSPITALIZATIONS HIT 100 AGAIN

OMAHA - Here is the following updated June 23 weekly Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services numbers available from the Nebraska COVID-19 data on the Nebraska Public Health Atlas. That information no longer includes data on COVID-19 hospitalizations or deaths, hospital capacity, or vaccinations. 

Positive test numbers declined slightly over the past week. Among 17,325 tests conducted in the week ending June 18, 2,611 resulted in positive cases. That decline brought Nebraska’s positivity rate from an adjusted 12.9% as of June 11 to 15.1% as of June 18. About a month ago, it was 9.7%. 

In Omaha, the pandemic death toll is no 1,134 people, according to DCHD. The most recent 355 positive COVID cases bring the local pandemic total to 156,313 cases. 

As of late Wednesday, area hospitals were caring for 100 COVID-19 patients, eight more than reported Tuesday. Of these, four were in pediatrics, 10 were adult patients in ICU, and two patients were on ventilators. 

March 18 was reportedly the last time were 100 or more COVID019 hospitalizations in the Omaha-metro area, according to the health department. 

As of late Wednesday, hospitals were 87% full with 183 beds available, down from 230 reported Tuesday. To date, 66.6% of all Douglas County residents have been vaccinated. 

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SUSANNE SHORE, THE GOVERNOR'S WIFE, ENDORSES DEMOCRAT PANSING BROOKS

LINCOLN- Susanne Shore and her husband, Nebraska Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts, are at odds in supporting candidates to replace convicted U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry.

Shore, a registered Democrat who switched temporarily to Republican to vote in the May primary election, has shown an independent streak in her politics.

She donated to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and Joe Biden’s run in 2020, but also has backed two GOP candidates, Mitt Romney and George W. Bush, in the past.

Ricketts endorsed Pansing Brooks’ Republican opponent, State Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk, shortly after Fortenberry was convicted this spring of three felony counts of lying to and misleading federal investigators. Ricketts also appeared in a campaign ad for Flood.

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FLOOD CAMPAIGN: SOFTWARE GLITCH CAUSED DONATION REPORT PROBLEM

LINCOLN- A member of State Senator Mike Flood's campaign team said that a software glitch led to several errors in recent contribution reports.

The Flood camping was notified that several donations exceeded the federal contribution limit for individuals which is set at $2,900.

Jessica Flanagain, a campaign consultant for the state senator, said the problem was that a software system, used to input donations, didn’t recognize that some contributions were for the June 28 “special election”.

The result of the software glitch was that donors who gave Flood two donations of $2,900, one for the May primary and one for the special election, were listed as giving two “primary” contributions of $2,900 on the campaign’s pre-primary report in April.

The campaign report has since been amended and refiled correctly.

A spokesman for the Pansing Brooks campaign, Chris Triebsch, said it was ironic that both Fortenberry and Flood have issues with their federal election filings.

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DOUGLAS COUNTY ELECTION COMMISSIONER SEEKS $130,000 FOR VOTING DROP BOX VIDEO SURVEILLANCE

DOUGLAS COUNTY- Brian Kruse is seeking $130,000 in federal funds for video surveillance of early voting drop boxes.

Kruse penned a letter to the Douglas County Board that stressed that there have been no known security and fraud problems with local boxes but cited “citizen concerns and security best practices” and a nearly 500% increase in usage in the past couple of years.

The board announced that it will consider this request and the money would come from the ARPA money.

“Concurrent with the continued presence of coronavirus, there has been increased scrutiny of security for every step of the election process,” Kruse wrote. “Concern over early voting drop box security has risen along with the increase in utilization.”

Kruse only views this as a continuation of security in Nebraska elections, and called it "another tool in the toolbox".

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JUDGE LIFTS MAJOR OBSTACLE FOR NEBRASKA MEDICAL POT CAMPAIGN

OMAHA- The medical marijuana campaign recently received a significant ruling that strips petition circulators' requirement to gather signatures from at least 5% of voters in 38 or more counties.

U.S. District Judge John Gerrard issued an order that temporarily bars the state from enforcing the requirement, which is enshrined in the Nebraska Constitution to guarantee at least some buy-in from rural voters before an issue can appear on a statewide ballot.

The ruling comes at a very favorable time as July 7th was the day that at least 87,000 valid signatures were to be due to the Nebraska secretary of state.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana and the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska argued that the requirement violates free speech and equal protection rights by making some voters' signatures more valuable than others.

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen announced that he will be appealing the decision.

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NEBRASKA LOSES BID TO BECOME EARLY PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY IN 2024

LINCOLN- The Democratic National Committee rejected Nebraska’s bid to become one of the early states in the 2024 presidential nominating calendar.

The bid would have allowed Nebraska to be one of the first five states in the 2024 presidential primary lineup.

Nebraska and New York were nixed from the running, as was a group representing Democrats abroad, a total of 16 states remain in contention.

The news was disappointing, said Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska state party.

“We really made the case that a small state like Nebraska should be part of the first five presidential primary states,” Kleeb said. “We have a really strong mix of urban, suburban and rural. And that, while all states have rural communities, Nebraska’s rural communities are needed — those rural voters are needed — in order to win statewide.”

DNC officials reported the proposal from Nebraska Democrats called for a party-run primary that would be different from the existing state-run primary election. The memo said that could “create confusion by rendering the state-run process meaningless despite Democrats being on the ballot”.

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DIFFICULT TO PREDICT TURNOUT AS RARE SPECIAL ELECTION TO PICK NEW HOUSE MEMBER APPROACHES

LINCOLN - It's been 71 years since we've done this. 

The June 28 special election to fill the remainder of former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry will mark the first time Nebraska voters have been called back to the polls since Robert Harrison of Norfolk was elected to the House of Representatives during a special election in 1951 following the death of Rep. Karl Stefan.

Now, Republican nominee Mike Flood and Democratic nominee Patty Pansing Brooks face off to fill the unexpired term of Fortenberry who resigned following his conviction on charges that he lied to federal officials. 

With voters being summoned just over a month since the May 10 primary election, it is difficult to predict turnout. 

"I don't know how to anticipate turnout," Election Commissioner David Shively said. "I anticipated more activity from the candidates and the parties" in spurring turnout next week, he said.

As of early Tuesday, June 21, 18,014 of the 33,792 early ballots mailed to Lancaster County voters had been returned, but Shively anticipated a steady flow later in the day.

"Early-person voting is up," he said. "Voting by mail is down," and it's difficult to predict total turnout in this unusual election held in the summer.

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'IN-LIEU-OF-TAXES' MIXUP CAUSING BUDGET ANGST AT DOUGLAS COUNTY

LINCOLN — The mistaken distribution of millions of dollars of “in lieu of taxes” by the Douglas County Treasurer’s Office is causing some budget headaches in the state’s largest county.

Douglas County Board members P.J. Morgan and Mike Friend, who serve on the county budget committee, said the county is facing a shortfall of about $5.5 million going into next year's budget.

The two officials said the distribution mistake is a major factor in the angst surrounding the budget, though rising inflation and the need to increase worker salaries to remain competitive are also factors.

Morgan said that the budget gap for the 2023-2024 budget is expected to be resolved. Both officials, however, said the county likely faces some challenges beyond that due to the loss of in lie of tax revenue.

“It could have some have long-lasting impact. We’re not really sure yet,” Friend said.

A state audit recently revealed that the Douglas County Treasurer's Office, for six decades, had been miscalculating how much funding in lieu of taxes paid by the Omaha Public Power District was due to taxing entities in the county.

It shorted some taxing entities, such as the Elkhorn, Ralston, and Westside school districts, by up to $4 million in revenue a year and overpaid other entities, such as Douglas County, by more than $5 million.

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NUMBER SENSE, APPLIED MATH EMPHASIZED IN DRAFT NEBRASKA SCHOOL STANDARDS

LINCOLN - The first draft of new math standards for Nebraska schools is a tweak, not an overhaul, of existing ones, according to state education officials.

The draft would put greater emphasis on number sense, data, and statistics, but don't expect sweeping changes, they said. The standards are instead a refinement of the 2015 set they would replace.

“We didn’t want a dramatic shift,” said Matt Blomstedt, the state’s education commissioner.

State law requires the Nebraska State Board of Education to adopt standards every seven years in core areas, including math. Local districts must either adopt the state standards or their own of at least equal rigor within a year after adoption.

Blomstedt said the state has encouraged districts to adopt high-quality instructional materials aligned with state standards.

“We see more improvements where people use the adoption of those instructional materials in alignment with our standards," he said.

A national math test, the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress, provides insight on how Nebraska kids measured up to peers in other states before COVID-19.

Forty-five percent of Nebraska fourth-graders scored proficient or above on the test compared to 40% nationwide.

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