SURVIVORS OF CHURCH SHOOTINGS RUN AS GUN-RIGHTS CANDIDATES

SEGUIN, Texas—Stephen Willeford was widely hailed by supporters of the Second Amendment as the model “good guy with a gun” in 2017, when he grabbed an AR-15 rifle and pursued and shot at a gunman killing churchgoers in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

Two and a half years later, the gregarious plumber has embraced the moniker Good Gun Guy Wille in speeches, church security training and now in a campaign for local county commissioner. If he wins, he wants to make Wilson County a “Second Amendment sanctuary” that would defy any restrictions state politicians might put on guns.

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CAN SOLAR POWER COMPETE WITH COAL? IN INDIA, IT'S GAINING GROUND

BHADLA, India—In a dusty northwest India desert dotted with cows and the occasional camel, a solar-power plant is producing some of the world’s cheapest energy.

Built in 2018 by India’s Acme Solar Holdings Ltd., it can generate 200 megawatts of electricity, enough to power all the homes in a middle-size U.S. town. Acme sells the electricity to distributors for 2.44 rupees (3.4 cents) a kilowatt-hour, a record low for solar power in India, a country that data trackers say has the world’s cheapest solar energy.

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FIRST EBOLA, NOW CORONAVIRUS. WHY AN AN OMAHA HOSPITAL GETS THE TOUGHEST CASES.

OMAHA - In the years after the Sept. 11 attacks, officials at Nebraska Medical Center envisioned a time when the nation would need a large, secure treatment center to guard against the threats of bioterrorism and infectious diseases. They spent $1 million to transform an empty wing of the hospital into a 10-bed biocontainment unit, complete with concrete walls, filtered air and video links to the nursing station.

Then they waited.

The beds sat empty for years, until an Ebola outbreak in 2014. The unit became a central player in treating Americans returning from West Africa with the lethal disease. Nurses wearing face shields, water-resistant gowns and three pairs of surgical gloves treated three Ebola patients. When that threat subsided, the unit returned to being a quiet ward used only for training and planning.

Now, the hospital in Omaha is once again playing a key role in an international health emergency, after 13 Americans who tested positive or were exposed to the new coronavirus on a contaminated cruise ship in Japan were hustled off an international flight and transported there for evaluation on Monday.

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SENATORS THROW UNANIMOUS SUPPORT BEHIND CHAMBERS' PRIORITY BILL ON RACIAL PROFILING

LINCOLN - It isn't often an Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers bill gets such an overwhelming response.

It happened Wednesday when the Legislature advanced Chambers' priority bill (LB924), requiring racial profiling anti-bias training for law enforcement, on a 43-0 vote.

The veteran lawmaker said he could have prioritized that bill (LB44), which was introduced last year and failed to advance on a 25-17 vote, for symbolism and symmetry to leave the way he came into the Legislature in 1971, fighting to end the death penalty.

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'SOMETHING DIDN'T LOOK RIGHT': PARENT URGES POLICIES TO PREVENT GROOMING OF VICTIMS

LINCOLN - Lisa Albers doesn't know if a stronger school policy would have prevented her child from being groomed by a substitute teacher.

Future policies, the Grand Island Public Schools board member said, defining what interactions between students and teachers are appropriate — as well as what the consequences are for breaching that trust — will prevent future students from being violated.

Under a bill (LB1080) from Omaha Sen. Steve Lathrop, all public and private schools in Nebraska would be required to adopt policies outlining appropriate conduct between employees and students.

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TOM OSBORNE TESTIFIES AGAINST GAMBLING BILLS; SENATOR SAYS NEBRASKA LOSING MONEY

LINCOLN - Three bills that would expand gambling in Nebraska drew fire from familiar opponents during a hearing before the Legislature’s General Affairs Committee on Monday, including former Husker coach Tom Osborne and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers.

Legislative Resolution 295CA would allow Nebraska voters to decide this fall whether to allow casinos and sports betting in the state. LB 971 would redefine “lottery” to include sports betting, and LB 990 would designate sports betting, fantasy sports and poker as “games of skill” rather than “games of chance,” changing the way they are regulated.

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CONSERVATIONISTS DECRY ENVIRONMENTAL TRUST BOARD'S DECISION TO INCREASE GRANT MONEY FOR ETHANOL FIRM

LINCOLN — Conservationists are up in arms over a decision that calls for directing an extra $1.8 million in grant money to a private company for ethanol pumps at the expense of projects to preserve saline wetlands, duck marshes and a Pine Ridge ranch that features a trout stream.

The Nebraska Environmental Trust board, which distributes grants from state lottery money, voted 7-2 with two abstentions last week to override the recommendations of its own grant review committee.

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HHS OFFICIALS ASK JUDGES TO PAUSE ADDING JUVENILE OFFENDERS TO TROUBLED KEARNEY YOUTH FACILITY

LINCOLN — State officials are asking judges to temporarily stop sending juvenile offenders to the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center-Kearney, saying the troubled facility is at the “maximum safe census.”

Bo Botelho, chief operating officer and general counsel for the Department of Health and Human Services, made the request in a letter sent to judges on Tuesday.

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ACTION PROMISED AT KEARNEY JUVENILE CENTER; NEIGHBOR SAYS RECENT ESCAPES ARE 'VERY CONCERNING'

KEARNEY, Neb. — Neighbor Stephen England can see the state’s largest rehabilitation center for juvenile offenders from the back window of his house on Country Club Lane, where he’s lived for four decades.

He’s seen kids escape from the nearby Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center and run through his backyard. But the population of Nebraska teenagers housed there has changed over the past few years, he said.

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CHERRY COUNTY COMMISSIONER TO CHALLENGE SEN. BREWER FOR SEAT REPRESENTING SAND HILLS

LINCOLN — Cherry County Board member Tanya Storer of Whitman has announced her candidacy to challenge incumbent State Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon to serve District 43 in the Nebraska Legislature.

That sets up a heavyweight fight over who will represent Nebraska’s Sand Hills.

Storer is endorsed by former Gov. Kay Orr, and Brewer has been financially supported in the past by Gov. Pete Ricketts.

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ETHANOL BYPRODUCT STORAGE RAISES A STINK AROUND SMALL COMMUNITY

OMAHA - We’ve all seen ethanol on gas pumps. But after it’s produced there’s a byproduct left behind that can smell. It’s called distillers grain and when the air isn’t still, Jody Weible smells the storage pile a half-mile away.

The byproduct from the AltEn ethanol plant is stored on top of land close to a busy Saunders County road. AltEn ethanol plant manager Scott Tingelhoff said, “If anybody has concerns I think the good neighbor way to handle it is to communicate with them and to talk about it.”

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US HOUSING CRISIS IS MAKING ITS WAY TO THE HEARTLAND

LINCOLN - Earning $40,000 a year in Omaha used to be enough to make rent comfortably. Not anymore.

Housing costs are slipping out of reach for the middle class in smaller and medium-size cities across the U.S., the latest sign that the affordability crisis that started on the coasts is moving inland, according to research released last week by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

From 2011 to 2018, the proportion of households making $30,000 to $45,000 a year that were “cost-burdened” — paying more than 30% of their income on rent — soared the most in metros including Nashville, Tennessee; Greenville, South Carolina; and McAllen, Texas.

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CARTER PREVIEWS 5-YEAR PRIORITIES FOR NU

LINCOLN - University of Nebraska President Ted Carter announced Friday, during his first meeting leading the university system, he is officially a Nebraskan.

"I have a driver's license, I have plates on my car, I've paid some taxes and I've already voted," said Carter, who started at NU on Jan. 1 after emerging last October as the sole finalist to replace Hank Bounds.

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NEBRASKA SUPREME COURT: AUTO INSURANCE MUST PAY POLICYHOLDERS THE SAME AS OTHERS

LINCOLN — The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday that an injured policyholder should get as much coverage from his auto insurance policy as any other person.

The decision was a vindication for Larry Freudenburg, an Alma, Nebraska, man who was severely injured in a 2016 crash in Kansas.

“I’m sure he’ll be very excited to hear the news,” said Jack Lafleur, one of Freudenburg’s attorneys. “He felt very strongly about that.”

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STAFFERS ASSAULTED AT KEARNEY YOUTH CENTER; THREE HOSPITALIZED, SENATOR SAYS February 14, 2020

LINCOLN — State officials confirmed that several staff members were assaulted early Friday at the troubled Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center-Kearney.

The incident occurred in one of the male dorms about 1:30 a.m., according to a joint statement from the Nebraska State Patrol and Department of Health and Human Services, which runs the center.

The staff members received injuries that were not life-threatening and the situation was resolved by law enforcement about 1:55 a.m., the statement said. It did not provide any other details.

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DELIVERED FOOD, STRONG WI-FI AND ISOLATION: QUARANTINED VISITORS START 2 WEEKS AT CAMP ASHLAND

OMAHA - Those quarantined at Camp Ashland will wake or go to bed when they wish, get meals delivered to them and watch television, exercise and read to pass the time.

Federal officials have ratcheted up the Wi-Fi at Camp Ashland to provide those in quarantine with reliable Internet service.

But being cooped up in virtual isolation for about 14 days at the National Guard camp is not a vacation. Protecting them and the public from a coronavirus outbreak is the goal.

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HIGHWAY 275 REOPENS AFTER ELKHORN RIVER FLOODING CLOSED IT DOWN

OMAHA - U.S. Highway 275 in Dodge County is back open to traffic after floodwaters closed a portion of the highway Friday.

On Saturday, the Nebraska Department of Transportation announced in a tweet that the highway reopened between West Point and the Nebraska Highway 91 junction, near Scribner.

The department advised that flaggers are present and drivers should use caution.

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THE FEDERAL PORTION OF MASSIVE UNMC PROJECT IS A BIG ASK - AND NEBRASKA'S NOT THE ONLY ONE ASKING

WASHINGTON — The NExT Project represents a towering, ambitious vision for the future of the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

That vision also comes with a towering, ambitious price tag of $2.6 billion.

Backers of the proposed all-hazard response facility are seeking to line up hundreds of millions in state dollars to be matched by private donations and local contributions, but the project would rely on the federal government for about half its construction cost, and landing such a sum from Uncle Sam is no simple task.

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FEDS, STATE TO HELP FUND REPAIRS OF COLLAPSED IRRIGATION CANAL IN PANHANDLE

LINCOLN - The Panhandle's ag and irrigation community will be getting financial aid to help pay for repairs to a vital irrigation canal that collapsed last year.

The federal Bureau of Reclamation has announced that it will allocate $2.3 million toward the repairs. The loan will be in addition to a $3.8 million grant that Gov. Pete Ricketts has said the state will provide.

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CAPITOL DIGEST: LAWMAKERS HEAR FLOOD VICTIMS' STORIES IN CALL FOR CHANGE IN MISSOURI RIVER MANAGEMENT

LINCOLN - State Sen. Julie Slama of Peru, who introduced the measure, expressed frustration that, since 2004, the corps has balanced flood control with other factors, including protection of endangeredfish and wildlife.

“2019 was a record year for Nebraska in the worst way possible,” she said.

Gov. Pete Ricketts and the governors of Iowa, Missouri and Kansas have been pushing to get more say in managing the Missouri River, after all four states suffered damage from last year’s flooding.

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