NEBRASKA'S UNEMPLOYMENT RATE STAYS AT 3.1 PERCENT

LINCOLN — Nebraska’s unemployment rate held steady at 3.1 percent again in September, matching the August and July figures, the state said Friday. The preliminary September rate was four-tenths of a point higher than the adjusted September 2018 rate of 2.7 percent, the Nebraska Labor Department said in a news release.

The new Nebraska rate is well below September’s national preliminary rate of 3.5 percent, which is down two-tenths of a point from the August 2019 rate of 3.7 percent, which also was the September 2018 rate.

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REGENTS COULD NAME NEXT NU PRESIDENT ON FRIDAY

LINCOLN - The last search by the University of Nebraska Board of Regents to hire a system leader involved nine months of headhunting, private meetings and public interviews before Hank Bounds was nominated as president.

In the effort to find Bounds' successor — NU's seventh president announced in March he would step down, and the search began in April — regents appear ready to complete the task in about six months. Tuesday, the eight-person board charged with governing the university added an agenda item to its Friday meeting, allowing for regents to potentially nominate a priority candidate.

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SAN JOSE TO PROPOSE TURNING PG&E INTO GIANT CUSTOMER-OWNED UTILITY

SAN JOSE - Frustrated by PG&E Corp.’s California blackouts and its existing options for exiting bankruptcy, the mayor of the state’s third-biggest city is proposing something radically different: turn the company into the nation’s largest customer-owned utility.

San Jose hopes to persuade other California cities and counties in coming weeks to line up behind the plan, which would strip PG&E of its status as an investor-owned company and turn it into a nonprofit electric-and-gas cooperative, Mayor Sam Liccardo said in an interview.

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MEDICAID PAYMENT METHODOLOGY FOR NURSING HOMES GETS REDESIGNED

KEARNEY- Medicaid and long–term care payment methodology for nursing homes is being redesigned and has a goal of implementation in July of 2020. The new payment methodology for nursing home facilities will create payment equity and incentivize quality and efficiency.

By modernizing the payment method, Nebraska Medicaid believes Medicaid beneficiaries should have a better quality of care and a more stable provider network. Today's current Medicaid appropriation system is based on each individual nursing home facility and their costs per day.

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LAST MINUTE OPIOID DEAL COULD OPEN DOOR TO BIGGER SETTLEMENT

CLEVELAND—A $260 million late-night settlement between four drug companies and two Ohio counties averted a trial here over who is to blame for the opioid crisis, clearing the way for broader talks aimed at resolving thousands of opioid-addiction cases nationwide.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs and companies said the settlement could be an important step toward a multibillion-dollar deal that brings closure to 2,500 lawsuits and sends needed money to communities hard-hit by opioid addiction.

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FORMER NEBRASKA SEN. BEN NELSON TALKS ABOUT TRUMP, PARTISANSHIP AND WHY HE LEFT POLITICS

OMAHA- Former Governor and U.S. Senator Ben Nelson is back home in Omaha, busy, engaged and visibly contented. He recently was named the CEO of Florida-based Insurance Care Direct, one of the nation's largest health and life insurance agencies, and he's an attorney in the Lamson Dugan & Murray law firm headquartered on Regency Parkway Drive not far from his home. And he's writing a book about the Senate and his time there. 

His publisher wants it on the market in 2020 in the midst of an electric presidential election year.

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MORE POWER NEEDED: OPPD PLANS TO BUILD NEBRASKA'S LARGEST SOLAR FARM, PLUS NATURAL GAS PLANTS

OMAHA - Omaha’s electric utility plans to build Nebraska’s largest solar power farm as part of a broader green power initiative.

The Omaha Public Power District board will vote as early as Nov. 14 to seek bids to produce 400 to 600 megawatts of solar power, officials said Tuesday.

That would be roughly double the size of the state’s largest solar installation announced to date, a 230-megawatt, $230 million project proposed east of Lincoln by Ranger Power.

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STRONG STATE TAX REVENUE REPORT RENEWS CALLS FOR PROPERTY TAX RELIEF IN NEBRASKA

LINCOLN — Gov. Pete Ricketts renewed his call for property tax relief Tuesday after state tax revenues topped projections for a seventh month in a row.

“Our budget is set for the next two years, and higher-than-expected revenues have flowed into our cash reserve,” he said. “This trend of healthy revenues is setting the state up to do significant property tax relief in the upcoming legislative session.”

The Department of Revenue released a report Tuesday showing that the state collected $76.5 million more in taxes than had been forecast for July 1 through Sept. 30.

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PETITION DRIVE LAUNCHES TO CAP PAYDAY LOAN LENDING RATES AT 36% IN NEBRASKA

LINCOLN — A petition drive to cap payday loan rates at 36% annual interest in Nebraska kicked off Tuesday in Lincoln.

Leaders with Nebraskans for Responsible Lending said they are trying to put a measure before voters in the November 2020 general election. They plan to begin gathering signatures soon.

“It’s time that something was done,” said former State Sen. Al Davis of Hyannis. “The Legislature has had ample opportunity to fix this problem and they haven’t done so, so now we’re going to go out and secure signatures and get this in place.”

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NEW FEDERAL FAMILY FIRST LAW COULD HELP NEBRASKA PREVENT CHILDREN FROM GOING INTO FOSTER CARE

LINCOLN — Nebraska hopes to be among the first states taking advantage of a new federal law aimed at keeping children out of foster care, officials said Thursday.

Dannette Smith, CEO of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, said the Family First Prevention Services Act breaks from 30 years of federal child welfare policy by putting the focus squarely on prevention services.

“Previously, federal funding for child welfare was largely available to states only after a child enters the foster care system,” she said. “Under Family First, states can utilize federal funds for programs that strengthen families and reduce the trauma that occurs when a child is removed from his or her home.”

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NEBRASKANS PRIORITIZE HEALTH CARE, EDUCATION FUNDING IN ANNUAL PUBLIC OPINION SURVEY

LINCOLN - Nebraskans prioritized access to affordable health care, investments in K-12 and higher education, and property tax cuts in a public opinion poll conducted by the Holland Children's Institute.

Seven in 10 respondents to the survey ranked affordable and accessible health care as a top priority for state policymakers to pursue, according to the phone survey.

The delay until October 2020 to implement voter-approved Medicaid expansion, as well as potential restrictions on who would qualify for coverage, concerned 56% of the respondents, the results show.

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SARPY COUNTY DATA CENTERS HAVE $522 MILLION IMPACT STATEWIDE, UNL REPORT SHOWS

OMAHA - Business leaders in Nebraska take every available opportunity to refer to the state as the “Silicon Prairie,” a play on the term for Northern California’s cluster of big technology companies.

The idea behind the term — to bring those companies, and by extension, high-paying jobs and more money, into the state — is playing out in Sarpy County, which recently landed its eighth data center with Google’s $600 million announcement.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers recently set out to determine how big an impact the data center industry has on the local economy, and their findings revealed some whopping figures.

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OMAHA MAYOR SAYS SHE SUPPORTS TAX ON VAPING PRODUCTS

OMAHA — Omaha's mayor says she supports a proposal to expand a tobacco tax to include vaping.

Mayor Jean Stothert said last week she would support the expansion for public health and tax fairness reasons.

Council President Chris Jerram has called for ending an exemption for nicotine delivery devices. The proposal would add a 3% tax on tobacco products to e-cigarettes and other vaping products.

The change would spur an estimated $1 million increase in the tobacco tax, which now raises about $3.5 million annually.

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$250,000-A-YEAR CONSULTING DEAL FOR FORMER NU PRESIDENT HANK BOUNDS DRAWS BOTH CONCERNS, PRAISE

LINCOLN - Hank Bounds resigned as the University of Nebraska’s president in August, saying that he was tired and that his family wanted to get back to the South.

But the NU system, with the support of the NU Board of Regents, has brought Bounds back as a consultant and fundraiser for some University of Nebraska athletic department construction projects.

Bounds’ pay as a consultant: $250,000 a year in donor money for up to three years. The recipient officially is One Team LLC, a company Bounds has set up and will manage. It’s not clear whether other people will serve on his consulting team. He didn’t return calls or respond to a text late this week.

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HISTORICAL HOMECOMINGS: STATUES RETURN TO NEBRASKA AFTER NEARLY 90 YEARS IN WASHINGTON

LINCOLN - William Jennings Bryan has been living a low-key life lately, far from the millions of annual guests who used to visit his longtime home at the U.S. Capitol.

For the past few weeks, the three-time populist presidential candidate has been kept under red, white and blue wraps in the Nebraska National Guard Museum on the west side of Seward, awaiting his second unveiling in 82 years.

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DON BACON TO DONATE CAMPAIGN FUNDS HE RECEIVED FROM INDICTED GIULIANI ASSOCIATE

OMAHA - Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon received campaign donations from one of the men indicted this week on charges of violating campaign finance laws in connection with the president’s pressure on Ukraine.

The World-Herald brought the donations to Bacon’s attention. His campaign said that as soon as the congressman “discovered the illegality of these donations,” he donated that amount to two anti-sex trafficking charities.

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ERNIE CHAMBERS PREPARES BILL TO COMPENSATE COLLEGE ATHLETES HE CALLS 'UNPAID EMPLOYEES'

LINCOLN - In December 1983, Ernie Chambers faced off against Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler on Phil Donahue’s TV show. The issue: Should college athletes be paid?

At one point, the conversation got so heated — and the studio audience so animated — that Donahue told the Nebraska lawmaker: “You’re going to need an escort to get out of here.”

Now, 36 years later, the state senator finally sees the NCAA inching toward dramatic reform after passage of a California law permitting athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness.

“I like any plan that makes it possible for athletes to gain something,” Chambers said.

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RUMORED PULLOUT FROM OPEN SKIES TREATY WOULD IDLE OFFUTT JETS

WASHINGTON- The Trump administration is believed to be preparing to pull out of the 34-nation Open Skies Treaty, a plan that would idle two Offutt-based OC-135B reconnaissance jets and their crews. 

The planes are crewed and maintained at Offutt by the 45th Reconnaissance Squadron, which is part of the 55th Wing. Several dozen Offutt airmen are involved in the program. Members of Nebraska’s congressional delegation have also questioned the move.

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J&J HIT WITH $8 BILLION JURY AWARD OVER ANTIPSYCHOTIC DRUG

PHILADELPHIA - A Philadelphia jury on Tuesday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $8 billion in damages to a Maryland man who said his use of J&J’s antipsychotic Risperdal as a child caused enlarged breasts and the company failed to properly warn of this risk.

It was the biggest award to date among more than 13,000 lawsuits against J&J alleging that Risperdal caused a condition called gynecomastia in boys, which involves enlargement of breast tissue. The lawsuits generally claim that J&J was aware of the risk of this side effect, but understated the risk to doctors.

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MINE NEAR ELK CREEK QUALIFIES FOR $200M IN NEBRASKA TAX INCENTIVES

JOHNSON COUNTY - The company working to build a mine in southeast Nebraska to extract a rare heat-resistant element says the project qualified for up to $200 million in state tax incentives.

NioCorp Developments said Tuesday it signed a contract with Nebraska for tax incentives on the proposed niobium mine near Elk Creek in Johnson County. The project is expected to create over 400 jobs and require more than $1 billion in construction costs.

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