STATE'S PROPOSAL TO LET SOME INMATES OUT EARLY STIRS BIPARTISAN PUSHBACK — AND MEMORIES OF PAST SCANDAL

A decade ago, Nebraska’s corrections department allowed hundreds of inmates to leave prison early through a program that few — including judges, lawmakers and the public — knew existed. Corrections leaders eventually scrapped the early-release scheme shortly after probing lawmakers revealed it.

Now, as the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services continues to grapple with overcrowding and converts one prison into an immigration detention center, it is trying to create a similar program. It’s already prompting pushback, including from lawmakers in both political parties.

“What you’re saying is, ‘OK, we don’t really think the judges knew what they were doing, or this Legislature (knew what they were doing) when they said what factors to consider. We just think, internally, NDCS can make those ultimate determinations.’ And I, respectfully, disagree with that,” said state Sen. Carolyn Bosn, a former prosecutor who chairs the Judiciary Committee.

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UNDER NEBRASKA GOV. JIM PILLEN, STATE GOVERNMENT AND SPENDING KEEP GROWING

LINCOLN - In the first three years of his first term, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has made tax cuts — and particularly property tax relief — his administration’s top priority.

At the Republican governor’s direction, lawmakers have poured $1.38 billion into funds that provide direct property tax cuts to Nebraskans, and another $319 million into an education fund created in 2023 to reduce the reliance on local taxpayers to fund the state’s K-12 schools.

Pillen has tried and failed to convince lawmakers to raise sales tax revenue to help pay for the property tax cuts while pledging to slash the state’s “bloated government” that he has promised to run “like a business.” “We’ve got to run government with less money,” Pillen said in January. “We have to cut the size of government.” 

However, under Pillen, Nebraska’s government and its budget have only grown, according to state fiscal documents and other public records. The state employs at least 1,100 more employees than it did at the end of former Gov. Pete Ricketts’ term — despite an executive order Pillen signed in 2024 that was said to eliminate nearly 1,000 state jobs and promised future cuts to vacant positions on a rolling basis.

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MARK COHEN RUNS NONPARTISAN BID FOR U.S. HOUSE IN NEBRASKA’S 3RD DISTRICT

LINCOLN — Mark Cohen, a former Air Force attorney and karate instructor, is running a nonpartisan bid in Nebraska’s 3rd Congressional District against U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith in the 2026 midterms.

The state’s rural, sprawling 3rd Congressional District includes central and western Nebraska and much of the state’s northeastern and southeastern edges. It’s one of the nation’s most conservative congressional districts by political party registration and voting history. 

Cohen’s bid comes after launching an exploratory committee in August. Smith already faces a Republican primary challenger in former U.S. Border Patrol agent David Huebner. Democrat Becky Stille, an agricultural lab tech, is running for the Democratic nomination.  

Cohen, from Lemoyne near Lake McConaughy, said in a statement,  “Nebraskans are fed up with a two-party system that forces us to choose between extremists.” 

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NEW DETAILS EMERGE IN STRIP CLUB, NEBRASKA LIQUOR CONTROL COMMISSION PROBE

Lincoln - A superseding indictment was unsealed Monday, adding charges against Dan Thomas and Shane Zywiec related to a public corruption investigation involving strip clubs in Lincoln and the longtime director of the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission. It replaces the original indictment, adding five pages of detailed allegations.

Dan Thomas, owner of The Night Before Lounge, faces two counts: honest services fraud, or an attempt to unlawfully influence official acts, and conspiracy to commit it. Thomas was picked up by the FBI and booked at a jail in Maricopa County, Arizona, at 10 p.m. Thursday, according to jail records

Shane Zywiec stands accused of aiding and abetting a Hobbs Act extortion. He also is believed to have been arrested, prior to the unsealing. Neither has made their first court appearances yet. 
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STATE HUNTS WAY FORWARD AFTER NEBRASKA GOT ‘BUTTS KICKED’ BY TYSON PLANT CLOSURE

LINCOLN — Nebraska “got our butts kicked” by the Tyson Foods decision to close a Lexington beef plant employing about 3,200 people, Gov. Jim Pillen said Monday. But he sees a possible Hail Mary pass to resurrect the industrial property. Pillen, in an interview with the Nebraska Examiner on the agribusiness closure, said he learned officially of Tyson’s decision Friday at noon, just a few hours before the Arkansas-based multinational corporation made the news public.

He said his team had been seeking a meeting with company officials amid the struggles faced by the cattle industry, including cutters and other meat processors facing lower cattle supplies and higher retail prices for beef. 

The governor said he was told a key contributor to Tyson’s decision involved the age and inefficiencies of the Lexington factory, which was built decades ago to manufacture combines and other farm machinery. 

The “good news,” Pillen said, is that Tyson officials are exploring other options for the Lexington property, including repurposing it into a specialty, “value-added” agricultural operation akin to Tyson’s Omaha plant that produces millions of pounds of raw and cooked bacon.

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FORMER STATE SEN. LYNNE WALZ STEPS TOWARD RUN FOR NEBRASKA GOVERNOR

FREMONT, Neb. — Former State Sen. Lynne Walz on Monday launched an exploratory committee to run for Nebraska governor in 2026, seeking to uplift Nebraskans’ concerns instead of their partisanship.

Walz, in an announcement interview with the Nebraska Examiner, said the state’s political system and economy are “broken.” She said she wants to hear from Nebraskans about their lives and work to find solutions together before formally launching a formal gubernatorial bid. Such arrangements let potential candidates raise money and gauge public support.

“This campaign is going to be a campaign for the people, and it’s my job, as far as I’m concerned, to go out and really listen to the people,” Walz said.

Walz said politicians, no matter their political stripes, are “no longer interested in fighting for the average person,” so she said it’s important to elect “average people” who know the real world. She’s a former fourth and fifth-grade teacher, local church leader, and mother of three who has worked various jobs to make ends meet, from sorting seed corn to working in a local deli.

Walz plans to travel the state in early December and hold listening sessions with taxpayers. She said she would incorporate those ideas into her campaign for governor, a decision she expects to finalize in early 2026. Non-incumbents must file by March 2.

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LARGE MEATPACKER TYSON FOODS TO CLOSE LEXINGTON PLANT IN WESTERN NEBRASKA

Tyson Foods announced Friday that it plans to close its Lexington plant as part of "network changes designed to right size its beef business and position it for long-term success."

In a press release, the company said it will end operations at its Lexington beef facility and convert its Amarillo, Texas, beef facility to a single, full-capacity shift. "To meet customer demand, production will be increased at other company beef facilities, optimizing volumes across our network," the release says.

The release continues, "Tyson Foods recognizes the impact these decisions have on team members and the communities where we operate. The company is committed to supporting our team members through this transition, including helping them apply for open positions at other facilities and providing relocation benefits.

TWO MORE INDICTED IN NEBRASKA LIQUOR COMMISSION, STRIP CLUB SCANDAL

Two more people now face federal indictments in connection to a public corruption investigation that came to light in September with the arrests of the former director of the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission and a man with ties to two Lincoln strip clubs. In court records, the newly charged suspects were identified only as Sealed Defendant #3 and Sealed Defendant #4 as of Friday morning.

But one is believed to be Daniel Thomas, owner of The Night Before Lounge, who was picked up by the FBI and booked at a jail in Maricopa County, Arizona, at 10 p.m. Thursday, according to jail records. The other isn't yet known, nor are the charges until they're unsealed, a move that hadn't happened as of late afternoon Friday.

But what is known is that it's connected to the same investigation that led to the September arrests of Hobert "Hobie" Rupe and Brent Zywiec, who pleaded not guilty at their first court appearance Sept. 25. 

The new defendants are charged in the same case where Rupe, the former Liquor Control Commission director, is accused of using his government position to work against rival clubs in exchange for money, free private dances and sexual acts at two Lincoln strip clubs and looking the other way to law violations. 

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NEW $140M UNION OMAHA SOCCER STADIUM, MIXED-USE VILLAGE COULD HINGE ON PAUSED STATE SPORTS INCENTIVE

OMAHA — Union Omaha soccer and the City of Omaha are planning to build a 6,500-seat sports stadium to anchor a new 20-acre mixed-use entertainment and housing district in downtown Omaha, Nebraska’s biggest city.

The campus — proposed to rise on a largely unused area north of Cuming Street, near where the College World Series is played — comes after an earlier downtown site fell through for the state’s first and only professional soccer club.  

As planned, the City of Omaha would own the estimated $140 million open-air stadium on the tract of land east of the Millwork Commons area, and is in the process of buying the land from Union Pacific Railroad.

Financial and other details are contingent on various city and state approvals. The first step is securing the property, said Deputy City Attorney Jennifer Taylor. A land purchase agreement is on the City Council agenda for Tuesday. But the progress of the project also could hinge on the city and soccer club’s ability to access a bottlenecked state incentive for sports complexes that requires approval from Gov. Jim Pillen.

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NEBRASKA GOV. JIM PILLEN SAYS $30M OVERPAYMENT TO OPS SHOWS FAILURE OF STATE AID FORMULA

OMAHA - Gov. Jim Pillen says the Nebraska Department of Education's $30.5 million overpayment to the Omaha Public Schools for the 2025-26 school year shows the current state aid formula is a "failure." 

OPS officials announced Monday that they had been notified by the Nebraska Department of Education that an error causing the district's poverty allowance to be overstated resulted in the overpayment of state aid under the Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act.

Pillen issued a statement Thursday stating the error is "another example of how the TEEOSA formula continues to fail Nebraskans."

"Time and time again, I have said that we must do away with this complex formula that nobody understands and have the state fund schools while providing property tax relief," Pillen said. His statement noted the Department of Education is governed by an elected board rather than directly accountable to the governor. 

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WHAT HAPPENS TO NEBRASKA LEGISLATURE IF OMAHA LAWMAKER JOHN CAVANAUGH GOES TO CONGRESS?

OMAHA - State Sen. John Cavanaugh, who is seeking the Democratic nomination in Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District, said he would not resign from the Legislature unless he is elected to Congress in November of 2026. 

Then, the governor would be able to pick Cavanaugh's successor in the Legislature to serve the final two years of his term. Since 1999, the state's governor has been a Republican. Cavanaugh and the chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party are confident that the party can absorb the potential blow of losing a seat in the Legislature in 2027 and 2028 legislative session.

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SWING VOTE REPUBLICAN MERV RIEPE ANNOUNCES RE-ELECTION BID FOR NEBRASKA LEGISLATURE

LINCOLN - State Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston announced Thursday he is running for reelection in his Omaha-area district of the Nebraska Legislature.

“District 12 deserves a senator who puts people before politics and who isn’t afraid to stand up for them,” Riepe said in a press release. “I’ll continue working to control health care costs, expand access to care, maintain a balanced budget, deliver real tax relief, support public safety and grow economic opportunity for families across Nebraska.” Riepe, 83, worked for decades as a hospital administrator in Omaha and was a hospital corpsman in the U.S. Navy. He was first elected to the Legislature in 2014 and lost reelection in 2018. He won his seat back in 2022. 

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DAN OSBORN PICKS UP ENDORSEMENT OF NEBRASKA’S LARGEST TEACHERS UNION

OMAHA — The former labor leader running for U.S. Senate in Nebraska got endorsed by the state’s largest teachers union. The Nebraska State Education Association endorsed registered nonpartisan Dan Osborn in his Senate bid against Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts. 

The endorsement comes months earlier than the last time Osborn ran for Congress against GOP U.S. Sen. Deb Fisher in 2024, which happened in the run up to the general election. NSEA President Tim Royers said it was “very important” for the union to lay “a marker down early” for a candidate who cares about public education.

“It’s really become clear to us how important these federal races are … candidly, it wasn’t something that we felt in the last election cycle,” Royers said. “The biggest thing is there’s a very clear contrast in candidates in this race.”

Royers said NSEA members have shown their ability to mobilize voters in communities of varying size — pointing to ballot measures that they helped organize and can help Osborn “move the needle in a demonstrably positive way.” Osborn called the endorsement “huge.”

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NEBRASKA LAWMAKER PUSHES TO PROTECT CLASSROOM QUALITY AMID SCHOOL FUNDING OVERHAUL

LINCOLN — A Nebraska state senator is warning that a proposed overhaul of school funding could undermine classroom quality, even as the state works to reduce property taxes. At a meeting of the School Finance Review Commission (SFRC), Sen. Danielle Conrad emphasized that the state must remain committed to education, not just tax relief.

Conrad pointed out that while reducing property taxes is widely supported, the conversations around revising TEEOSA — Nebraska’s school-aid formula — have largely ignored persistent challenges like teacher shortages, burnout, and declining student achievement. She argued that the reforms cannot be “tax cuts at all costs” and urged the committee to remember TEEOSA’s dual goals of funding equity and educational quality.

At the same meeting, Sen. Myron Dorn noted that state funding for schools has nearly doubled since 2020, yet he expressed concern about the long-term sustainability of proposed revenue sources. He warned that the Education Future Fund — a potential source of new funding — could be depleted within two years if current budget forecasts prove accurate. Looking ahead, the SFRC plans to issue its first formal report to the Legislature by December 1, then move into a second phase focused on concrete recommendations for improving (or potentially replacing) TEEOSA.

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TENSIONS RISE AT UNL FOLLOWING UNPRECEDENTED VOTE AGAINST CHANCELLOR

Faculty leaders at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) passed a historic “no confidence” resolution against Chancellor Rodney Bennett, with a 60–14 vote by the UNL Faculty Senate. The resolution—unprecedented in the university’s 157-year history—urged the University of Nebraska Board of Regents and system president Jeffrey Gold to review Bennett’s fitness to serve, and called for consideration of termination or negotiated departure. Faculty pointed to concerns about transparency, shared governance, resource allocation and a budget reduction plan that proposes to cut $27.5 million from UNL, including elimination of four academic programs.

In response to the vote, Regent Kathy Wilmot expressed full support for Bennett and his approach to managing UNL’s financial challenges. While she acknowledged that the proposed cuts would significantly impact faculty and careers, Wilmot said the university’s “financial viability” required budget discipline and warned against personalizing institutional conflict. Meanwhile, Regent Paul Kenney noted that while the faculty vote was their “100 % opinion” and part of campus dialogue, it did not change the board’s view of the budget shortfall—“we were short a lot of money to start with… that hasn’t changed.”

The situation places Bennett’s leadership at a crossroads: hired in July 2023 as UNL’s twenty-first chancellor, his contract runs through June 30 unless extended. The faculty vote and the regents’ mixed responses highlight deeper tensions over how UNL should address structural budget deficits, faculty involvement in decision-making, and the future direction of the institution. As the board prepares to consider program eliminations and other cuts in December, the fallout from this vote could shape both Bennett’s tenure and the governance culture at the university.

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NEBRASKA’S PROJECTED BUDGET DEFICIT GROWS TO $471 MILLION AHEAD OF 2026 LEGISLATIVE SESSION

LINCOLN — Nebraska lawmakers will begin their 60-day legislative session in January with a larger projected deficit than the hole they just filled during the 90-day session this year.

The new projected deficit stands at roughly $471 million, as confirmed by Legislative Fiscal Analyst Keisha Patent during a meeting on Thursday of the Nebraska Legislature’s Tax Rate Review Committee. “I wish it was rosier, but we’ll figure it out,” said State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair, the committee’s chair, at the end of the meeting.

Lawmakers this spring grappled with a fluctuating deficit that at one point grew to $432 million. After some cuts, they ended the session with a projected surplus of about $4 million by the end of the biennium in 2027.

However, state senators left a structural deficit that would have grown to about $129 million by the end of the following biennium in 2029.

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PILLEN APPOINTS TWO COMMISSIONERS TO LIQUOR CONTROL, MEDICAL CANNABIS COMMISSIONS

LINCOLN — Gov. Jim Pillen announced two appointments Monday to the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission. The appointees will also serve on the Medical Cannabis Commission.

Pillen announced his appointment of Robert “Bud” Synhorst of Lincoln and James Elworth of Nebraska City as the newest members of the regulatory boards. The duo succeeds Bruce Bailey of Lincoln and Kim Lowe of Kearney, respectively, who resigned Sept. 29 at Pillen’s request. Bailey and Lowe resigned following a federal indictment against the former executive director of the Liquor Control Commission they had worked with. Neither commissioner was implicated in the indictment alleging public corruption. The former director has pleaded not guilty.

Synhorst and Elworth will join retired District Judge J. Michael Coffey on the Liquor Control Commission, who joined the commission this summer. Coffey is a registered Democrat; the others are registered Republicans. 

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SUNDAY ALCOHOL SALES REGULATIONS CHANGING IN LANCASTER COUNTY

LINCOLN - Businesses in unincorporated parts of Lancaster County can now sell alcohol starting at 6 a.m. on Sundays. 

The Lancaster County Board of Commissioners at its regular meeting Tuesday morning updated 1992 regulations that prohibited businesses from selling beer before 9 a.m. and liquor before noon on Sundays. The Board of Commissioners considered updating the regulations following a request from Gurinder Singh Cheema, owner of Emerald Mini Mart, a mom-and-pop convenience store on West O Street in Emerald

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AUDITOR: NEBRASKANS 'MIGHT BE ABLE TO ESCAPE TAXES' WITH $310M LEFT UNCOLLECTED BY STATE

LINCOLN - In 1789, the American statesman Ben Franklin famously wrote that, in this world, “nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

But in Nebraska, the latter doesn’t seem so certain anymore, Auditor Mike Foley said Monday. Nebraska residents and businesses now owe the state $310.66 million in unpaid income, sales, and withholding taxes, Foley’s office reported Monday, marking a $41 million jump from last year and $171 million from a decade ago.

“I fear that word may be getting out that people essentially know, ‘They’ll put you on a list, but so what? You don’t have to pay,’” Foley said Monday. “You can’t escape death. But you might be able to escape your taxes. And that’s a bad message to give to people.”

The state’s $310.66 million delinquent tax balance is 15% higher than it was a year ago ($269.52 million) and is up nearly $100 million from 2021, when state residents and companies owed $212.41 million in unpaid taxes.

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UNL CHANCELLOR SHARES FINAL $27.5 MILLION BUDGET CUT PROPOSAL

LINCOLN - University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Rodney Bennett announced his final budget reduction proposal in an email to students, faculty, and staff on Monday. 

In his final plan, Bennett proposes eliminating four programs: Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Educational Administration, Statistics, Textiles, Merchandising, and Fashion Design. Community and Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture, which were initially on the chopping block, were excluded from the final proposal, reducing the expected savings from program cuts from $7.7 million to $6.7 million. 

The chancellor is supporting an alternative proposal from the College of Architecture and the Academic Planning Committee to consolidate all its programs under one umbrella, which would achieve similar cost savings of $700,000 through administrative efficiencies. 

The proposed shared director position between the Glenn Korff School of Music and the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film was omitted from the final proposal. The college was able to find alternative savings of $350,000. Bennett said in the email that he modified the proposed cuts after receiving input from the Academic Planning Committee. The APC voted against eliminating Community and Regional Planning, Landscape Architecture, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and Statistics.

The final budget proposal comes despite the APC calling on the chancellor to delay the budget reduction process in a 12-page letter. The APC raised similar concerns that faculty groups and students shared regarding the university's process for deciding which programs to eliminate, such as the short timeline and the metrics, which some faculty have called flawed. The elimination of the staff positions, unfunded scholarships, and a 1% across-the-board budget cut will save the university $11.66 million, according to the final proposal.

All state-aid funding for the Division of Student Life, totaling $850,000, will be eliminated. The university will save $2.5 million by reducing unfunded scholarships and replacing them with private scholarships. Several administrative and staff positions within the Office of the Chancellor, the Executive Vice Chancellor’s Office, and Business and Finance will be eliminated, resulting in a $2.95 million savings. This is a $260,000 increase from the initial proposal. 

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