HOMEOWNERS, BUSINESS OWNERS WOULD GET BREAK UNDER NEW PROPERTY TAX PLAN

LINCOLN - Property taxes are figured by multiplying the value of your property by the tax rate set by local governments, including schools. Sen. Lou Ann Linehan’s latest proposal would lower residential and commercial valuations in calculating school property taxes, from 100 percent of market value to 95 percent in the first year, then to 90 and 85 the next two years. Meanwhile ag land would go from 75 percent of market value now, to 65 percent the first year and 55 percent the second.

In an interview with NET News, Linehan described what she’s trying to accomplish.

“The basic idea: over three years we reduce property taxes significantly by reducing valuations and increasing school aid significantly,” she said.

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AMERICA'S MARIJUANA GROWERS ARE BEST IN WORLD, BUT FEDERAL LAWS KEEP THEM OUT OF GLOBAL MARKETS

DENVER — In a large warehouse, LivWell Enlightened Health feeds its cloned cannabis plants a custom blend of nutrients, sprays them with filtered water and pumps extra carbon dioxide into the air, and releases three types of insects to clear1 unwanted pests without the use of toxic pesticides.

Every part of the growing process is meticulously documented and evaluated to refine the process.

After 20 years of experience, legal marijuana growers in the U.S. have the reputation of creating the best product in the world, scientifically grown and tightly regulated for quality and safety.

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DON WALTON: HERE COMES 2020, THE ELECTION, TRUMP AND UNL

LINCOLN - A new year arrives on Wednesday. And it promises to be a momentous year. Ushering in a brand new, and probably dangerous, decade.

We get to decide, and define — perhaps even discover — who we are this coming year.

President Trump's bid for a second four-year term will provide that opportunity.

The 180-degree switch from Barack Obama to Donald Trump was sudden and dramatic. Was that a permanent, or semi-permanent, choice, or an expression of the moment?

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COLLEGES WANT FRESHMAN TO USE MENTAL HEALTH APPS. BUT ARE THEY RISKING STUDENTS' PRIVACY?

The rise in student wellness applications arrives at a time when mental health problems among college students have dramatically risen. Three out of five U.S. college students experience overwhelming anxiety, and two of five students reported debilitating depression, according to a 2018 survey from the American College Health Association.

Despite the epidemic, though, only around 15 percent of undergraduates seek help at university counseling center. These apps have begun to fill students' needs by providing ongoing access to traditional mental health services without barriers such as counselor availability or stigma.

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NEBRASKA'S LARGEST SOLAR POWER PROJECT COMES INTO CLEARER FOCUS WITH OPPD BID REQUEST

OMAHA - The most solar power in state history should flow into the electrical outlets of eastern Nebraska homes and businesses by 2024.

That’s when the Omaha Public Power District aims to finish Nebraska’s largest solar power project, building it in or near the 13 counties OPPD serves. The new solar farms could be located in more than one site.

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NEBRASKA PRISON PROBLEMS: STATE, CORRECTIONS UNION REACH AGREEMENT FOR HIGHER PAY

LINCOLN — Gov. Pete Ricketts and the state prison workers union announced an agreement Friday on wage hikes and a new pay structure aimed at resolving staffing problems in Nebraska prisons.

The long-sought changes target high turnover rates and hiring difficulties in the overcrowded and understaffed prison system. The plan includes an increase in starting wages, plus step increases for employees who remain on the job for designated amounts of time.

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GOV. PETE RICKETTS: STATE TREASURER SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE MINDFUL WITH OUTREACH OFFICE, ADVERTISING

LINCOLN — Gov. Pete Ricketts offered a mild rebuke, and a state lawmaker offered to toughen a state law about advertising by state constitutional officers, in the wake of revelations that State Treasurer John Murante has spent nearly $600,000 on hundreds of ads that prominently feature him.

A Sunday World-Herald story detailed how Murante had opened a state treasurer’s satellite “outreach” office in Omaha about four months ago that is virtually unknown to the public, and how he’s spent nearly $600,000 on public service ads in the past six months with a company for which he used to work.

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LINCOLN PRISON'S HOUSING UNIT DAMAGED IN CHRISTMAS EVE DISTURBANCE OVER ALCOHOL, FOOD

LINCOLN - Inmates at a Lincoln prison damaged a housing unit during a Christmas Eve disturbance that began when staff confiscated food and homemade alcohol, according to a Nebraska Department of Correctional Services spokeswoman.

About 14 inmates at the Diagnostic and Evaluation Center, 3220 W. Van Dorn St., broke furniture, cracked a window and disabled surveillance cameras in the incident that started at 7 p.m., spokeswoman Laura Strimple said in a news release.

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IOWANS (AND NEBRASKANS) BET BIG IN FIRST MONTH OF SPORTS WAGERING

OMAHA - The brand-new sportsbooks at Iowa casinos put up big numbers in their first 3½ months of operation, fueled in part by Nebraskans crossing the border to place bets that are illegal in their home state.

More than $152 million worth of bets were placed at the 19 state-regulated casinos across Iowa between Aug. 15 — the date legal sports betting commenced — through the end of November. In gambling parlance, that’s called the “handle.”

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TRAVELING THE LONELIEST ROAD: A STORY OF MEDICAL CARE IN RURAL AMERICA

BROKEN BOW, NEB- In the first months after her husband's fall, Marlene had helped Earl Kennedy move into a nursing home three minutes from their house in Broken Bow, a town of 3,000, close enough that she could visit him twice a day. But then that nursing home went bankrupt and closed in May, one of more than 260 rural nursing facilities across the country to shut down for financial reasons in the past three years, sending another family on a desperate search for the basic medical care that is disappearing from rural America.

Marlene tried to get Earl into the only other nursing home in Broken Bow, but that facility had managed to stay solvent in part by limiting the number of residents on Medicaid, as Earl was, because the federal program pays nursing homes in Nebraska about $40 less per day than the cost of providing care. The nursing homes in Ainsworth and Minden had already closed, and the one located next to a grain elevator in Callaway was running a waiting list. The best option Marlene could find was a shared room in the town of Cozad, more than 50 miles away down remote two-lane roads, and Marlene had been making the trip back and forth several times each week ever since.

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STATE TREASURER OPENED NEW OMAHA OFFICE IN SEPTEMBER BUT HASN'T ALERTED THE PUBLIC

OMAHA- State Treasurer John Murante opened a west Omaha office nearly four months ago, calling it part of his public “outreach” efforts. But there’s little public about this office.

It’s not listed on the State Treasurer’s website. There has been no press release about it. There’s no signage outside the office building to indicate a state office is inside. There’s not even a mention of the office on the list of tenants by the building’s elevator. The office, which has been open since September, is raising eyebrows among some who watch government spending and transparency. The office costs $58,700 a year, and was leased for 10 years, according to the state’s Department of Administrative Services. 

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NEBRASKA GAMBLING MEASURE GETS BIG BOOST FROM TRIBAL COMPANY

The economic development arm of a Nebraska-based Native American tribe is once again pumping big money into a campaign to legalize casino gambling. Ho-Chunk Inc. is bankrolling the petition ballot drive with nearly $1.5 million contributed so far to the Keep the Money in Nebraska campaign, according to state campaign finance records.

The campaign would allow Nebraska voters to decide next year whether to allow commercial gambling at the state’s licensed horse racing tracks in Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, Columbus, South Sioux City and Hastings. Ho-Chunk Inc. is the economic development corporation of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.

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NEBRASKA MEDICAID EXPANSION PLAN WOULD REIN IN STATE COSTS; CRITICS SAY IT CUTS COVERAGE, BENEFITS

LINCOLN — Nebraska Medicaid would save nearly $360 million over five years under a controversial plan submitted for federal approval. The plan would create a two-tier benefits system for expanding Medicaid to some 94,000 more low-income Nebraskans. It also would end retroactive coverage for most Medicaid patients.

Together, the changes would rein in spending on adult Medicaid services by about 4.3% annually, according to state Medicaid officials. But Sarah Maresh, with Nebraska Appleseed, said the final plan poses the same barriers to health care that were part of the draft proposal. It also delays the expansion of Medicaid until Oct. 1 next year. 

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AFTER SYSTEM FAILED TO STOP OPS STUDENT'S ABUSE, EDUCATION COMMISSIONER WANTS CPS TO SHARE REPORTS

OMAHA- The message has been drummed into teachers’ heads. If you see something, say something. But when a teacher at Davis Middle School in Omaha phoned the state child abuse hotline and reported troubling behavior by fellow teacher Brian Robeson, no one investigated. Robeson continued to sexually abuse his 14-year-old former student for seven months before the abuse was discovered by her neighbor. The outcome may have been different, however, had another agency been tipped off.

Robeson’s actions could have been investigated by the Nebraska Department of Education, which has the power to discipline certified educators for actions that fall short of sexual assault but violate professional ethics. Nebraska Commissioner of Education Matt Blomstedt, who leads that department, said he never knew of the CPS call.

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PIANO TEACHER'S $7.5M DONATION TO GO TO RALSTON DEVELOPMENT

RALSTON — City leaders have announced a $7.5 million gift from the estate of an area piano teacher that will go toward revitalizing a downtown area near Ralston Arena. The donation from LaDonna Johnson, who died in 2016, will go to the Hinge project. The project's master plan, approved by the City Council last month, includes filling empty retail spaces and adding green spaces and urban housing options.

Johnson’s gift has already funded the project's master plan and several studies related to it and will allow the city to do things such as complete infrastructure improvements, acquire property and conduct streetscape work

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HEMP PROPOSAL SUBMITTED BY STATE ALLOWS FOR 270 GROWERS IN NEBRASKA

LINCOLN- The Nebraska Department of Agriculture submitted its state hemp plan to the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday. 

If approved, the plan, which lays out the rules and regulation for the program, calls for the state to collect $236,000 in license fees to administer the program for 270 cultivator licenses, 30 processor-handler licenses and 15 broker licenses. The plan allows for 400 cultivation sites. 

Application fees range from $100 to $150, with licensed cultivator site registration fees at $400 to $600 per site, and processor-handler site registration at $800 to $1,200 per site. The plan calls for the department to be granted primary regulatory authority over the production of hemp in Nebraska. The department would sample, or require USDA-approved samplers, to test plants within 15 days of the anticipated harvest date.

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ONE OF 10 NEBRASKA-APPROVED HEMP CROPS WAS DESTROYED LAST MONTH AFTER TESTS REVEAL TOO MUCH THC

LINCOLN - One of 10 growers granted hemp licenses this year from the Nebraska Department of Agriculture was forced to shred their crop Nov. 26 because of the too-high THC level it produced.

The licensed growers, Justin and Hilari Courtney, are from Richardson County.

The department reported that of the other nine licensees, six completed the harvest, one did not plant a crop this year, one donated the plants to a university to finish the project and one was given an extension to finish up.

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NEBRASKA STATE FAIR DIRECTOR PROMISES MORE ACCOUNTABILITY ON SPENDING

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — The executive director of the Nebraska State Fair told the State Fair Board at its last meeting about changes she has implemented to be more accountable for how the fair spends money.

Lori Cox told the board Friday that there will be more transparency between her and her staff and a chain of command that will be followed about spending and expenses. Weekly meetings about the budget will be held involving all departments, she said, and board members will be in that chain of command.

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AMERICANS BROADLY ACCEPT CLIMATE SCIENCE, BUT MANY ARE FUZZY ON THE DETAILS

Americans remain shaky on the details of climate science even as they have grown increasingly concerned about human activity warming the Earth, according to a national poll by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) that probed the public’s understanding of climate change.

The rising alarm is one of the poll’s most dramatic findings. In just five years, the percentage of people calling climate change a “crisis” has jumped from 23 percent to 38 percent.

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DENTISTS WARN THAT MEDICAID AUDITS COULD HARM CHILDREN'S DENTAL CARE IN NEBRASKA

LINCOLN — National and state dental leaders are raising the alarm over Medicaid audits that they say threaten the care of young children in Nebraska with mouths full of rotting teeth.

The audits led one pediatric dentist in Lincoln to stop seeing Medicaid patients, a step that left the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department’s dental program without anyone to treat the most severe cases.

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