WASHINGTON — Farm bankruptcies are on the rise in Nebraska and Iowa in the wake of this year’s catastrophic weather events and rocky trade environment. A new report by the American Farm Bureau Federation shows a 24% increase in Chapter 12 bankruptcies nationwide over the previous year.
“While filings remain well below the historical highs experienced in the 1980s, the trend is a concern,”
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LINCOLN - The Legislature's Revenue Committee is moving toward completion of a tax reform proposal that will be revealed to members of the Legislature later this month and probably pushed to early floor debate in January. The committee will huddle in Lincoln on Friday to move toward completion of a plan that is likely to be presented to all senators at a Legislative Council meeting, probably Nov. 22.
"We're close," Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, committee chairwoman, said Monday. "I'm feeling pretty good, but we're not quite home yet."
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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A ballot campaign seeking to tighten the cap on how much interest payday lenders can charge in Nebraska has received a major boost from a national donor, increasing the odds that it will succeed in placing the issue on the 2020 ballot.
Nebraskans for Responsible Lending received $485,000 in cash and in-kind contributions last month from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a liberal, Washington-based group that has helped in other states with campaigns to expand Medicaid, raise the minimum wage and restrict payday lending.
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Electric vehicles (EVs) have been around about as long as cars themselves. In fact, primitive EVs were the dominant form of automotive transportation at the dawn of the auto age in Europe and the U.S. in the late 19th century. It wasn't until the 1920s — when the U.S. road system was starting to be built out and cheap oil was available from newly tapped Texas oil fields — that internal combustion cars began to take over as the predominant vehicles across the United States.
Analysts estimate the EVs will be cheaper to buy than internal combustion cars as soon as 2022. Beyond that, it's probably only a matter of two decades before EVs represent the majority of cars, light trucks and SUVs plying American roads.
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LINCOLN - While rural Nebraskans remain confident that higher education can lead to a good job, those surveyed in the 2019 Nebraska Rural Poll put less importance on a college education today than they did four years ago.
Only 33% of respondents believed that increasing the number of people who get college degrees was necessary to build a strong economy, compared to 53% in 2015. Additionally, only 44% of those surveyed believed that getting a college education is more important now than it was 10 years ago and only 38% believed it was necessary to get a college degree in order to get ahead in life.
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LINCOLN — The next election for Nebraska governor is three years away, but already some potential candidates are dipping their toes in the political waters.
State Sen. Brett Lindstrom of Omaha, a 38-year-old Republican, said he’s begun talking to people about a run after being urged to consider it following the 2019 state legislative session. “I’m taking a hard look at it,” said Lindstrom, a financial adviser and former Nebraska football player. “It seems early, but Nebraska is a big state to cover.”
One Democrat, former State Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha, said he’s also decided to run again after being defeated for governor in 2018 by Pete Ricketts, who, because of term limits, can’t run again in 2022.
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OMAHA - Tensions between Douglas County Democratic Party Chairwoman Crystal Rhoades and State Democratic Party Chairwoman Jane Kleeb boiled over in a Facebook post this weekend.
In the Saturday post, Kleeb wrote that she had been “notified that Crystal Rhoades is reaching out to Bold donors, and telling them not to donate to us because of me.” Kleeb founded Bold Nebraska, a group that helped organize opposition to the Keystone XL oil pipeline. She did not specify which donors had been contacted by Rhoades.
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MANITOWOC, Wis. — Sachin Shivaram, the chief executive of Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry, started to worry this summer when orders for his brake housings and conveyor belt motors first grew scarce. Within weeks, what began as mild concern snowballed into a business drought that has seen bookings plunge by 40%.
The sudden slump at this 110-year-old company illustrates the economic erosion that is challenging President Donald Trump's signature promise to restore a lost era of American manufacturing greatness. Even as the $21 trillion U.S. economy continues growing, and unemployment hovers at a half-century low, factory activity has contracted for two consecutive months, according to the closely watched Institute for Supply Management index.
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LINCOLN - Ted Carter, former superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, brings various strengths as the prospective choice as the University of Nebraska’s next president. At the same time, Carter needs to appreciate the many complexities an NU president faces in regard to management, diplomacy and time demands. If the retired vice admiral is ultimately chosen for NU’s top administrative post, he needs to be wide awake to the scale of responsibilities he’ll need to shoulder...
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LINCOLN - ACT scores released Wednesday reveal substantial gaps in readiness between ethnic and racial groups — with poverty correlating closely to lower test scores.
In Nebraska, 24,744 graduates took the ACT exam, which gauges college readiness in reading, English, math and science. Some 42% of white test-takers and 38% of Asians met three or all four of ACT’s college readiness benchmarks. Benchmarks are the target scores that the nonprofit organization uses to predict success on college coursework. Other Nebraska groups were substantially lower: 9% of black students, 14% of Hispanics, 9% of American Indians and 19% of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders.
Closing the gaps is a long-term project, Education Commissioner Matt Blomstedt said. “Addressing next year’s sophomores is probably not going to eliminate those gaps,” he said.
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LINCOLN — So, the state is forecast to have extra revenue, about $266 million, and Gov. Pete Ricketts and others say the money should be used for property tax relief measures next year.
But it’s far from a simple matter to cut taxes, and recent discussions by the legislative committee that oversees tax policy indicate that there are still vast differences over how any extra money should be used. The clock is ticking — the Legislature’s Revenue Committee wants to agree on a plan by Nov. 21.
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LINCOLN - A former superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol is suing the state's law enforcement agency and its superintendent for denying him an identification card to carry a concealed firearm.Subject to conditions, some retired law enforcement officers may carry a concealed firearm without a Nebraska concealed handgun permit, said patrol spokesman Cody Thomas.
Brad Rice, who was superintendent of the patrol from March 2015 to June 2017, requested the State Patrol provide him an identification card to do so and was denied.
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FREMONT, Neb. — It's a grassroots campaign to attempt to amend the Nebraska constitution.The group, Nebraska for Sensible Marijuana Laws, has gathered about 15,000 signatures so far.
"I believe it's time," Mark Jensen said. Jensen is the Dodge County coordinator and pushed the petition at the Fremont library. "Sometimes our leadership comes from above and sometimes it comes from below and I think the leadership is going to have to come from registered voters," Jensen said.
The national group, Smart Approaches to Marijuana, has a chapter in Nebraska co-chaired by former state Sen., John Kuehn. "There is no such thing as medical marijuana," Kuehn said.
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LINCOLN - Advanced manufacturing in Nebraska offers major economic opportunities for individuals as well as communities. Companies are keen to fill positions, and workers qualified for high-skill positions can find rewarding career opportunities.
Manufacturing employs nearly one in 10 Nebraskans, and the sector has bounced back from the Great Recession, with the largest employment in more than a decade. Gov. Pete Ricketts recently noted various manufacturing expansions across the state.
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OMAHA - Clinical research sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry produced an estimated economic impact in the state of $394 million in 2017, according to a new report by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA.
Since 2004, nearly 3,000 clinical trials have been conducted in Nebraska, said Zachary Poss, senior manager for state advocacy with the industry group. Today, there are 326 industry-sponsored trials open at hospitals, clinics and other sites across the state serving more than 8,000 Nebraskans. They focus on drug treatments for conditions including cancer, arthritis and infectious diseases.
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LINCOLN - The Lancaster County Board on Tuesday approved an agreement with the state to house some youths in a secure portion of the county's youth services center.
Both boys and girls sent by judges to Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Centers who have more serious behavior and mental health issues could be sent to the Lincoln youth center beginning in January. The agreement includes a lease of the property for five years, with an option for another five years. Rent on 18,137 square feet will start at $352,946 annually, and will go up 2% in each subsequent lease year. If the lease is renewed another five years, rent beginning in the fifth year will be $389,583 and up to $421,697 by the 10th year.
The space's pod is rimmed with single bedrooms on three sides, with a common area and outdoor recreation area. Staff at the YRTC facility will be state workers. There will be no mingling of the county and state youths.
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LINCOLN - State governments have a basic obligation to set qualification requirements for public benefits. The task can be tricky. Nebraska officials have struggled to find the right threshold for Medicaid eligibility for children with disabilities, and this year concern arose when some children in that category lost coverage.
The policy debate continues, but a decision by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services provides a measure of relief. Some children who lost coverage after requirements for their Medicaid waiver can be helped through a different waiver, one designed for people with developmental disabilities.
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LINCOLN — Fourteen workers were detained for suspected immigration violations after a federal raid Wednesday morning at a Madison, Nebraska, facility that produces wood landscape mulch. A person who answered the phone at D&D Industries of Madison declined to comment when contacted by a reporter Wednesday.
But Nicole Alberico, a Chicago-based spokeswoman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, said 14 men — three from Guatemala and 11 from Mexico — were arrested during the operation at the business.
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LINCOLN - Investors gobbled up more than a half-billion dollars in bonds issued by the University of Nebraska earlier this month to fund new construction projects and refinance hundreds of millions of dollars in existing debt.
The $563 million issued — the largest bond sale in university history — will pay for $130 million in new projects and allow NU to refinance $433 million in existing bonds, capitalizing on historically low interest rates to slash debt payments by nearly $14 million.
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LINCOLN - A new plan for girls and boys who need placement in state Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Centers will include the Lancaster County Youth Services Center.
State Department of Health and Human Services CEO Dannette Smith announced Monday that she has developed a new plan that would house girls and boys at Kearney, girls and boys with more trauma and behavioral health issues at the Lancaster County center and a small number of girls at Geneva who are getting ready to leave treatment and go back to their communities and schools.
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