BALLOT INITIATIVES TO RAISE NEBRASKA'S MINIMUM WAGE, REQUIRE VOTER ID APPEAR HEADED TO NOVEMBER BALLOT. MEDICAL CANNABIS UNSURE

LINCOLN — Two well-funded initiative petition drives appear to be headed for a vote in November, while a third — to legalize medical cannabis - looks iffy to gain a place on the ballot.

“We’ll know in the next couple of months if we qualify or not,” said State Sen. Anna Wishart of Lincoln, who co-chaired the signature drive conducted by Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana.

Wishart said the predominantly volunteer effort submitted 93,000 signatures for one of its two petitions, and 91,000 for the other. About 87,000 valid signatures of registered voters are needed to qualify for the ballot. Election officials say that, typically, between 10% and 15% of signatures submitted for such petition drives are deemed invalid after checking. So that makes it uncertain if the marijuana petition drive will qualify.

Meanwhile supporters of the move to increase the minimum wage 'Raise the Wage Nebraska' estimated Thursday that about 150,000 Nebraskans would benefit from raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. That is about 20% of the state’s workforce, they said.

State Sen. Julie Slama and other backers of the initiative to require voters to provide ID at the polling place said Thursday they submitted 172,000 signatures to qualify the issue for the November ballot. 

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APPEALS COURT REINSTATES NEBRASKA'S 38-COUNTY SIGNATURE REQUIREMENT

OMAHA — Petition circulators turning in signatures Thursday to get on Nebraska’s general election ballot this fall will need signatures from 5% of registered voters in 38 of the state’s 93 counties.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday temporarily lifted a lower court’s injunction that briefly prohibited the State of Nebraska from enforcing its 38-county signature requirement. 

Attorney General Doug Peterson's office said that organizers of this year's highest-profile petition drives — for medical marijuana, a higher minimum wage and voter ID — have to make sure their signatures meet the reinstated requirement.

Previously, U.S. District Judge John Gerrard issued an injunction siding with a lawsuit by Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, which put into question the constitutionality of assigning different values to voter signatures from different parts of the state.

The appeals court's decision means the original requirement stays in place while the lawsuit proceeds. It is still possible the court rules against the requirement and qualifies a petition that fails to meet the geographic requirement.

Crista Eggers, one of the medical marijuana petition drive leaders, has argued the state's geographic signature requirement values people in the state's urban and suburban counties less than Nebraskans who live in rural counties. 

“We are continuing to pull signatures in from all across the state,” Eggers said, declining to share details about where and about whether the petition drive might come up short. “It is so fluid right now.” 

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FILLMORE COUNTY TO CLOSES 10-BED INPATIENT BEHAVIORAL HEALTH UNIT

GENEVA - Following a decision at the April County Board meeting, Fillmore Supervisors along with the Fillmore County Hospital closed the doors to their 10-bed inpatient behavioral health unit on June 30th. 

The Unit served primarily geriatric patients with psychiatric needs, often combined with dementia symptoms and diagnoses, a press release states. It has served patients in Nebraska since opening July 1, 2015. By June 30, it will have served over 900 patients from 83 counties in Nebraska and in three surrounding states.

The closing was announced following an evaluation and recommendation made by Fillmore County Hospital CEO Chris Nicholas and his administrative team. This evaluation involved a financial analysis by internal as well as external entities, future forecasting, and a thorough cost/benefit analysis. The lingering effects of COVID played a major role, Nichols noted. Erratic referral patterns, difficulty discharges, staffing difficulty, and inflated costs including supplies, equipment, contracts, and wages were all heavy factors that changed significantly since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.

The Unit became a statewide resource for inpatient geriatric psych needs, but less than 10 percent of the patients served were from Fillmore County and the immediate service area, according to the press release. The opening of Columbus Community Hospital’s 10-bed inpatient psych unit last summer will help fill the void, as will existing inpatient psychiatric beds in Fremont, Lincoln, Omaha, Hastings and North Platte.

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INITIATIVES TO RAISE NEBRASKA'S MINIMUM WAGE, REQUIRE VOTER ID APPEAR HEADED FOR VOTE IN NOVEMBER

LINCOLN — Two well-funded initiative petition drives appear to be headed for a vote in November, while a third — to legalize medical cannabis — looks iffy to gain a place on the ballot.

“We’ll know in the next couple of months if we qualify or not,” said State Sen. Anna Wishart of Lincoln, who co-chaired the signature drive conducted by Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana. 

Wishart said one petition received 93,000 signatures and the other received 91,000. Roughly 87,000 valid signatures of registered voters are required to qualify for the November ballot.

Election officials say that, on average, between 10% and 15% of signatures that are submitted for petition drives are deemed invalid after checking. This puts the marijuana petition in question for the November ballot.

“It’s going to be a photo finish,” said Omaha Sen. Wendy DeBoer, who was among those submitting petitions Thursday, July 7 at the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office in downtown Lincoln.

The group gathered more than enough signatures to qualify for the 2020 ballot, but it was removed from the ballot by the Nebraska Supreme Court after they ruled the initiative violated the state's "single subject" rule.

This year, after losing major donors, the medical marijuana effort had to rely primarily on volunteers to circulate its petitions. 

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SIX REJECTION LETTERS ADD FUEL TO WEEKEND FIGHT OVER FUTURE OF NEBRASKA GOP

LINCOLN — The Nebraska Republican Party has told six GOP activists who have agitated for changes in the party that they are not welcome at its annual convention Saturday in Kearney.

Half a dozen people received letters from the party this week saying it would not credential them due to them either changing political parties, starting new parties, or supporting candidates outside of the GOP.

These letters reignite a years-long fight over the party's future between populists, like these six, and those in the state's political power structure led by Gov. Pete Ricketts, according to several Nebraska Republicans. 

Three of the six people who received the letters challenged GOP incumbents in recent primaries. Two said incumbents lacked loyalty to former President Donald Trump and his claims about the 2020 election. 

One, Matt Innis, challenged U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse in the 2020 primary. His letter cited his "vocal criticism" of Ricketts as the reason he was turned away.

Innis has called Ricketts' top staffer a "dirty trickster" and questioned whether she and Ricketts started the groping allegations against former gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster. Innis regularly posts memes targeting political officials and staff.

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JUDGE RULES HEARING WAS ENOUGH TO REMOVE SARPY COUNTY TREASURER

OMAHA — The Sarpy County Board did not violate former Sarpy County Treasurer Brian Zuger’s due process rights when it removed him from office after a hearing that considered the quality of his work, a judge has ruled.

Sarpy County District Judge Geoffrey Hall on Tuesday dismissed Zuger’s attempt to overturn his 2021 removal from office. Hall dismissed the case with prejudice — meaning Zuger cannot refile the case — saying the county gave him “a fair and impartial hearing.” 

Evidence from the county's hearing supported Zuger's removal, according to Hall. The judge said Zuger acknowledged his own failures "to carry out and comply with the duties of his office."

Miscalculated tax dollars provided to school districts and other issues arose after the State Auditor's Office questioned how Zuger handled the county's books, ultimately leading to the county removing Zuger.

County leaders found these concerns persuasive and cited state law that allows them to remove a county treasurer if the treasurer neglects to carry out the office's legally required duties. 

Since Zuger's removal, Sarpy selected Trace Jones to be the new treasurer after a news release Wednesday.

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INITIATIVE TO RAISE NEBRASKA'S MINIMUM WAGE SAYS THEY'VE SUBMITTED 160,000 SIGNATURES

LINCOLN — Leaders for an initiative to raise Nebraska’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026 said Thursday they had submitted 160,000 signatures to qualify the issue for the November ballot. Thursday, July 7 is the deadline for submitting signatures for the fall ballot.

Roughly 87,500 signatures of registered voters are required to get the issue on the ballot, so 160,000 should be more than enough to qualify.

About 10% to 15% of signatures are typically thrown out on petition drives for various reasons, such as the signers not being registered to vote, election officials have said.

Advocates for raising the wage estimated that nearly 150,000 Nebraskans would benefit from the raise in the minimum wage, or about 20% of the state's workforce.

The last time Nebraska's minimum wage was increased was in 2014 after voters approved another ballot initiative to increase the wage to $9 an hour.

Amid rising costs of housing, food, and fuel, advocates believe that $9 an hour is too low to sustain a household and that raising the wage is "the right thing to do."

Opponents claim that raising the minimum wage would result in job losses and makes companies less competitive with states that don't have higher minimum wages.

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NEBRASKA STATE SENATOR SPENDS FOURTH OF JULY IN UKRAINE

OMAHA - While the U.S. celebrated its independence, a Nebraska State Senator was getting a closer look at a country fighting to retain that status.

Since June 26, State Sen. Tom Brewer has been in Ukraine on a mission trip where he has observed military actions. His first mission to Ukraine was purely for humanitarian assistance, but his second trip was intended to be about fielding equipment but was diverted. 

“Unfortunately, the equipment did not arrive in the Ukraine which causes (them) to divert to a third mission, which has been essentially trying to get the ground truth on what’s happening here,” he told 6 News on Wednesday. 

Brewer, a veteran who earned two Purple Hearts, said the destruction he has seen in Ukraine is unlike anything he saw during his six deployments in Afghanistan, where he was seriously wounded.

Brewer noted that Ukrainians are fighting Russians with weapons they haven't been trained to use after seeing U.S.-provided weapons on the ground there. Despite the U.S. assistance, Brewer hasn't been satisfied with the U.S. government. 

“I have been totally disappointed in the United States government and the State Department,” he said. “They have referenced me to a website where I did a form. I attempted to visit the embassy no one was available except a security guy who said we shouldn’t travel in Ukraine. So as far as I’m concerned, the United States State Department is useless to people traveling in the Ukraine.” 

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OMAHA WILL GAIN ABOUT 180 NEW RESIDENTS WITH APPROVAL OF LATEST ANNEXATION PACKAGE

OMAHA- The City of Omaha will add about 180 residents in mid-July with last week’s approval of an annexation package.

The Omaha City Council approved a proposal by Mayor Jean Stothert to annex three areas near the city limits that will add 177 acres to the city.

The areas include Methodist Women’s Hospital, northeast of 192nd Street and West Dodge Road; the Omaha Public Power District’s Elkhorn service center, southeast of Old Lincoln Highway and 180th Street; and Pacific Renaissance Addition, which includes a town house development called Ravello 192, northwest of 192nd and Pacific Streets.

Approval of the proposal came after some debate.

Council member Vinny Palermo spoke against the annexation package, citing a staffing shortage within the Omaha Police Department and concern that the additions could further strain officers.

The department is down about 60 officers departmentwide, said Deputy Police Chief Scott Gray. 

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LONGTIME PUBLIC SERVANT PAUL HARTNETT DIES AT 94

BELLEVUE - D. Paul Hartnett, a former member of the Nebraska Legislature and Bellevue school board, passed away on Sunday, June 27, at age 94.

Hartnett served on the school board from 1968 until 1984, when he was elected to the Unicameral. He was re-elected four times in the 45th district and stepped down in 2004.

"Bellevue has lost a great statesman,” Mayor Rusty Hike said in a statement. “I will miss Paul Hartnett dearly. Bellevue is a better place because of him.”

Harnett will be remembered as the driving force behind the construction of the Kennedy Freeway through Bellevue and working to bring a national veterans cemetery to Sarpy County. His philanthropic activity was extensive, including providing college scholarships to high school students in Bellevue and his childhood home of Dakota County. 

His visitation was held earlier this week at the Bellevue Memorial Funeral Chapel, and his funeral occurred at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Bellevue. 

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TRADE MISSION SEEKS TO RE-ESTABLISH NEBRASKA DRY BEAN EXPORTS TO EUROPE SINCE TRUMP-ERA TARIFFS HAVE ENDED

LINCOLN- Nebraska’s dry bean growers are hoping to re-establish trade with the European Union now that a Trump-era, retaliatory tariff on agricultural products has been dropped.

A week-long trade mission to Bulgaria just concluded, with the leader of the trip, Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen, expressing confidence that trade with the European nations in dry beans will be re-established.

Nebraska produces about 1 billion servings of dry beans a year, and had shipped $3.2 million worth of beans to the European Union in 2019 before those shipments ended due to a 25% tariff on agricultural commodities.

Lynn Reuter, executive director of the Scottsbluff-based Nebraska Dry Bean Commission, said Tuesday that Bulgaria in particular is a prime consumer of Great White Northern beans produced in southwest Nebraska and the Panhandle. 

“You can’t turn down any market the way the world market is now. You have to constantly be looking for new markets,” she said of the trade mission.

Evnen, in a press release, said that importers and processors the Nebraska trade group met in Bulgaria expressed an “immediate readiness” to establish trade for the state’s dry beans. 

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RETIRED SOLDIER/NEBRASKA STATE SENATOR SEES NO QUIT IN UKRANIAN FORCES

LINCOLN- State Senator Tom Brewer, who was seriously wounded and earned two Purple Hearts during six deployments in Afghanistan, was near the Russian lines in the war in Ukraine this week in Kharkiv. The second-largest city in the country has been the target of relentless shelling by the Russians in June. 

Brewer’s initial mission was to train Ukrainian soldiers on long-range rifles and check on the humanitarian needs of war refugees, the wounded and civilians still in the country. But it has morphed into a volunteer fact-finding trip that he thinks America should be undertaking. 

He said he’s seeing no quit in the Ukrainians he has met during his first week touring the war-torn country.

“They have a burning hate for the Russians and after seeing their people killed and their homes burned, they are in for the long fight,” Brewer said. 

“They have lived under the Russian/Communist thumb before and they will die before they will do it again,” he added.

Before Brewer arrived in Ukraine on June 26, he underwent treatment for leukemia which he’s been battling in recent months.

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NEBRASKA AGRICULTURAL PRODUCERS SO FAR REAP $123 MILLION FROM FEDERAL EMERGENCY DISASTER RELIEF PROGRAM

LINCOLN- Nebraska agricultural producers have received $123 million of the $4 billion distributed nationally so far through a federal Emergency Relief Program designed to offset their losses due to natural disasters over the past two years.

John Berge, executive director of Nebraska’s U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency, said natural disaster events have resulted in “catastrophic production and property losses” in Nebraska.

“Although these payments will not make these producers whole, they will help alleviate some of the financial stressors brought on by these severe and devastating weather events,” said Berge.

The federal government is implementing the emergency relief in two phases. The first phase uses existing claims data. Prefilled applications were sent out to producers with crop insurance who suffered losses; producers have until July 22 to submit those.

The second phase focuses on ensuring that producers not covered by other programs receive assistance.

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DOUGLAS COUNTY REPORTS ANOTHER CASE OF MONKEYPOX, A WEEK AFTER NEBRASKA'S FIRST

OMAHA- A second probable case of monkeypox was reported July 5th by the Douglas County Health Department — a patient known to have been in contact with a confirmed case.

The latest patient is isolated at home and receiving outpatient care, a statement from the county said. An investigation is underway to identify and inform anyone who might have been exposed. 

County officials said the risk to the public remains low, but anyone with the characteristic rash resembling monkeypox should contact their healthcare provider.

There is no specific treatment for monkeypox, though some antivirals have been used effectively, according to the statement.

Nearly 5,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported worldwide. In the United States, 460 cases have been reported in 32 states and territories.

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COVID-19 IN NEBRASKA: TRACKING OMICRON, NEW 'STEALTH' VARIANT, TESTING, AND HOSPITALIZATIONS

OMAHA- As of July 5th, the Douglas County Health Department reported 819 new, known cases of COVID-19 since the previous report. That brings the county's total of positive cases to 158,395 since the pandemic reporting began.

The death toll stands at 1,134 since the pandemic began.

According to the July 4th report, 119 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 including four children. 15 adults were in the ICU, with two people on a ventilator. Adult ICU beds were 89% occupied with 33 staffed beds available. Medical and surgical beds were 79% occupied with 292 staffed beds available.

Each individual health district has different opportunities for acquiring the COVID-19 vaccine. Additionally, most pharmacies and grocery stores offer the vaccine and information.

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NORTH PLATTE-AREA RAIL PARK PROJECT PROGRESSING

NORTH PLATTE- Officials in the North Platte area are moving ahead with plans for a railroad industrial park they say could ultimately create more than a thousand jobs.

The proposed railroad industrial park would be located next to the village of Hershey It received a significant boost last week when the state of Nebraska announced it would contribute up to $30 million to the project, contingent on local contributions of $7.5 million.

The project site contains almost 300 acres, and officials hope to attract agricultural processing, manufacturing, and warehousing operations. 

Gary Person, president and CEO of the North Platte Area Chamber and Development Corporation, says an economic impact study shows there could be up to 1,000 jobs created directly, and other indirect economic impacts as well.

The state also announced another grant of up to $30 million for a logistics hub in Fremont. 

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NEW REPORT SHOWS NEBRASKA CONTINUES DOWNWARD ABORTION TREND

LINCOLN- 2,360 abortions were reported in Nebraska last year, according to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

The number is similar to the year prior, and suggests that the number of women seeking abortive care was moderating despite the pandemic. Still, the numbers follow a national trend of increasing abortions during the pandemic. 

Women in their early 20s who say birth control or contraceptives either failed or weren't used are the main group seeking abortions according to the report.

While many other Republican-led states have already taken action to restrict abortions in their states, Nebraska is in a minority that has taken a slower approach. Abortions are still available in Iowa and Kansas as well, but both states are making moves to further restrict the procedure.

Andi Curry Grubb, Planned Parenthood’s Nebraska Executive Director said, “There is no paid family leave in Nebraska. There is very limited access to Medicaid. People who are pregnant can get Medicaid for 60 days, and that's nothing when you're in the wake of having a child – particularly if you've had a C section or if you've had any complications.”

The Nebraska Family Alliance disagreed. Nate Grasz, the Alliance’s policy director, said the state is already in a good position to accept more births and more new parents, if the legislature eventually bans abortions.

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IT'S A BIRD, IT'S A PLANE AND NO, THAT'S NOT A NEW BIKE TRAIL IN THE MIDDLE OF I-80

LINCOLN- The unusual-looking, 22-mile-long strip of fresh asphalt in the middle of the Interstate 80 median west of Lincoln is not a new bicycle trail. 

Jeni Campana of the Nebraska Department of Transportation said that the asphalt trail is the “base” for a new cable guard rail that will be installed soon between the two I-80 exits.

The installation of the cable guard rail is part of a $9.5 million project in that stretch of I-80, which includes improvements to culverts, dirt work and some paving. Garcia/Chicoine Enterprises, of Milford is doing the work, which is expected to be completed before the end of the year.

Campana said the state has utilized cable guard rails in the Omaha area, on the Kennedy Freeway/U.S. 75 in South Omaha and Sarpy County for about a decade, to prevent vehicles from crossing over the median and causing head-on collisions.

Campana said the cable guard rails were considered for I-80 from the west edge of Lincoln to Pleasant Dale, but that stretch is scheduled to be widened to six lanes, with work expected to begin in 2024. 

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FORTENBERRY FILES NOTICE OF APPEAL AND CLAIMS FALSE STATEMENTS STATUTES TOO EASILY ABUSED

LINCOLN- Shortly after being sentenced to probation last week for lying to federal agents, former U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry did as he said he would and appealed his conviction.

His legal representatives said they expect to file a complaint with the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, alleging that FBI agents used “deceptive tactics” in getting Fortenberry to talk to them.

Attorney Glen Summers, who also represented Fortenberry during the trial, said in a statement that federal false statements statutes are “far too susceptible to abuse” and that the 61-year-old Republican should not have been prosecuted for comments he gave to FBI agents.

Fortenberry’s six-page “notice of appeal” was filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California.

“We look forward to presenting these issues on appeal and hopefully helping to rein in the weaponization of Section 1001 by federal law enforcement agencies,” Summers said.

Section 1001 of the federal code makes it illegal to make false statements to a federal investigation. The congressman and Flynn were prosecuted under that section.

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PROGRESSIVE GROUP RUNNING $1 MILLION IN DARK MONEY ADS AGAINST DON BACON

OMAHA- A national group targeting swing-district Republicans in Congress said it is running $1 million in TV, digital and mail ads this summer against U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb.

The group, Unrig Our Economy Nebraska, is the local offshoot of a national effort by progressive donors to push back against GOP messaging about the economy, including inflation.

The first Omaha-area ads painted Bacon as a corporate shill who protects profits over people. Unrig’s local director, Kevin Cass, said Bacon blames Democrats for price hikes as businesses post record profits.

Bacon has said the dark money group is deflecting from economic mistakes made by President Joe Biden and Democrats. He said 2nd Congressional District voters won’t be fooled by the ads.

Bacon is seeking a fourth term in November against State Sen. Tony Vargas of Omaha, a former teacher and nonprofit executive who served previously on the Omaha Public Schools board.

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