SMALLER CITIES CRY FOUL ON CORONAVIRUS AID

Mayors of small cities facing big budget shortfalls say they were unfairly cut out of the $2.2 trillion stimulus law, and they are drawing support in Congress to make them eligible for direct aid in future rounds of coronavirus legislation.

Localities are seeing increased strain on first responders and police departments, in addition to bearing the cost of purchasing personal protective equipment. Meanwhile, revenue streams from sales taxes and income taxes have slowed and unemployment claims are surging. But the rescue law stipulates that only counties and cities with populations over 500,000 residents can apply directly for the $150 billion in emergency funding for state, local and tribal governments.

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CORONAVIRUS IMPACT WILL GUIDE NEW LEADERS OF KEY OMAHA PHILANTHROPIC GROUPS

OMAHA - Rachel Jacobson sat in the sun-drenched picture window of Lola’s just as the coffee-drinking crowd was switching to wine and matinee-goers were lining up at the nearby concessions counter. Outside, Dodge Street traffic zipped by.

On both sides of the glass was a city full of life and possibility, a scene set for a rising star like Jacobson. The 41-year-old is tapped to cross a bigger stage this summer, leaving the independent art-house theater she started, Film Streams, for the big-money, big-projects nonprofit Heritage Services. Film Streams is a local amenity. Heritage builds local amenities.

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UNL PARTNERING WITH ETHANOL ORGANIZATIONS TO MAKE THOUSANDS OF GALLONS OF HAND SANITIZER

LINCOLN - The University of Nebraska-Lincoln and some partners have started producing ethanol-based hand sanitizer to distribute at no cost to hospitals.

UNL said Tuesday that Hunter Flodman, an assistant professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering at the university, worked with the Food and Drug Administration, the Nebraska Ethanol Board and others to enable ethanol producers to supply their product for hand sanitizer. Hospitals, doctors, nursing homes, ambulance crews and others are struggling to find hand sanitizer, which is in short supply because so much is being used to combat COVID-19.

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CORONAVIRUS WILL FORCE CHANGES AT POLLING PLACES THIS YEAR

LINCOLN - Election Day in the time of the coronavirus will be different. All registered voters in Nebraska will receive an invitation to vote by mail, if they wish, in order to avoid crowd contact at polling places.

But polling places will be carefully sanitized for the May 12 election and social distancing standards — at least 6 feet of separation — will be applied.

Lancaster County Election Commissioner David Shively is sending out 140,000 invitations to registered voters to apply for mail ballots this year, in addition to the 31,000 mailed to voters whose names are on the permanent early vote list.

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CORONAVIRUS LIKELY TO FORCE SOME SMALL CHURCHES TO PERMANENTLY CLOSE

LINCOLN - The coronavirus is likely to force hundreds of small churches across the country — and as many as 50 in Lincoln — to close as the pandemic endures and donations dwindle. That is the view of the Rev. Jim Keck of First-Plymouth Congregational Church.

“Small churches are going to be in real peril,” Keck said. “It can be an existential threat like a restaurant. A typical small American church is just making its bills every week. If donations fall off, a church can close, like a restaurant.”

 The average Protestant church in the U.S. has an attendance of 73 people, Keck said. With, say, an annual budget of $120,000, the church can pay for its minister, a secretary and cover its operational bills. If the money collected drops to $70,000, the church would have funds for a part-time minister and to pay its bills.Falling below that amount, it would likely have to consider closing its doors, Keck said.

Those numbers are estimates and would vary from church to church and state to state. But the principle of dwindling donations against unchanging expenses will apply to all, including many Lincoln churches.

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SEN. VARGAS LEADS EFFORT TO PROTECT MEATPACKING WORKERS

In an effort to protect Nebraska workers who labor shoulder-to-shoulder on meatpacking production lines from the coronavirus, Sen. Tony Vargas of Omaha has reached out to his colleagues in the Legislature to engage their support. Vargas sent fellow senators a copy of a letter to meatpacking companies prepared by the Heartland Workers Center in Omaha that attempts to help "identify best practices" that can assist in shielding the largely immigrant workforce.

"I don't think we can tell yet" whether workers are being adequately protected," Vargas said Wednesday during a telephone interview. "What we know is it's not business as usual."

The goal is to protect workers while keeping them employed and maintaining operation of the essential service of helping provide the nation's food supply, the senator said.

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NU TO CLOSE CAMPUSES TO ALL BUT CERTAIN EMPLOYEES WHO MUST BE PHYSICALLY PRESENT

LINCOLN - The University of Nebraska has closed its campuses to all employees except for those designated as having to be physically present on campus. Employees have until Friday to arrange the transition, according to a statement released Tuesday evening.The closure applies to the entire NU system and will continue at least two weeks, according to the statement.

Anyone who is expected to report to work will receive a personal letter. This could include health care workers, public safety officers and dining and housing workers.

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OLD STRATCOM HQ WILL GET A LONG-OVERDUE UPGRADE AS 55TH WING MOVES IN

OMAHA - Offutt Air Force Base’s “Island” is about to get a makeover.

The Island is what insiders call the hilltop headquarters building planned by (and until last year, named for) Gen. Curtis LeMay, who led and shaped the Air Force’s Strategic Air Command from Offutt in its early years.

Late last year the U.S. Strategic Command, SAC’s post-Cold War successor as the holder of the keys to the nuclear arsenal, decamped with its 3,300 employees down the hill to a new $1.3 billion command-and-control building.

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PROPERTY TAX BILL IN LIMBO WITH NEBRASKA SESSION ON PAUSE

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers who are seeking to lower property taxes won some extra time to make a deal with opponents last month when the coronavirus pandemic brought their session to a halt, but so far it doesn’t appear that anyone is budging.

Key lawmakers said they’re still working behind the scenes from their homes to craft a proposal with enough support to pass in the one-house Legislature. The current version faces an uphill fight because of united opposition from Nebraska’s public schools, leaving some lawmakers frustrated.

School officials said they welcome portions of the bill that would substantially boost state funding for K-12 education, but they don’t trust lawmakers to maintain that commitment in future years. They also object to the bill’s proposed restrictions on their taxing authority, arguing that it would reduce their flexibility and eventually hurt their ability to educate students.

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STATE SHUTDOWNS HAVE TAKEN AT LEAST A QUARTER OF U.S. ECONOMY OFFLINE

WASHINGTON - At least one-quarter of the U.S. economy has suddenly gone idle amid the coronavirus pandemic, an analysis conducted for The Wall Street Journal shows, an unprecedented shutdown of commerce that economists say has never occurred on such a wide scale.

The study, by the economic-analysis firm Moody’s Analytics, offers one of the most comprehensive looks yet at how much of the world’s largest economy has shut down in the past three weeks. It also analyzes counties big and small—from Manhattan to tiny Gilpin County, Colo.—to estimate how a concentration of government shutdown orders in the counties that produce a disproportionate share of the nation’s goods and services has weighed on the national picture.

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LOBBYIST'S CHALLENGE: BRING BACK THE SMALL TALK

WASHINGTON - Much of Capitol Hill has gone quiet due to the new coronavirus, but that doesn’t mean lobbyist Glenn LeMunyon is short on work. Like many in Washington, the work of those involved with the government goes on.

Mr. LeMunyon’s email inbox has exploded since he last stepped foot on the Hill March 13. Congress is currently debating an infrastructure bill that affects his clients, and he is looking for opportunities. There is, however, an important ingredient missing from the daily grind: small talk. Videoconferencing and phone calls fill up his day, but these interactions can be impersonal and don’t always offer the right setting for a conversation that builds camaraderie and trust.

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EDITORIAL; DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR SALE OF BEER AT MEMORIAL STADIUM

LINCOLN - A mid dire forecasts of lost revenue, Bill Moos isn't opposed to turning to an unlikely savior to rescue the University of Nebraska's athletic program.Beer. More specifically, the sale of beer inside Memorial Stadium -- and the Devaney Center, Pinnacle Bank Arena and Haymarket Park.

The time has come to allow it.

And in doing so, we can end the charade. It's no secret that fans have forever been imbibing while tailgating, much of that taking place from the parking lots of what is known as a dry campus.

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RICKETTS ENCOURAGES VOTE BY MAIL, EYES GRADUAL EASING OF COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS POSSIBLY IN MAY

In a rare divergence of opinion from the views expressed by President Donald Trump, Gov. Pete Ricketts on Wednesday urged Nebraskans to take advantage of the opportunity to vote by mail in the May 12 primary election.

"It's a great way for people to be able to vote" at a time when Nebraskans confront the coronavirus pandemic threat, Ricketts said. "I'd encourage people to take advantage of that," the governor said.

With the threat of the virus likely to peak in Nebraska during the last week in April, Ricketts said, he would begin to consider reevaluating and perhaps relaxing some restrictions now in place in the state after that period, but only on a gradual basis.

"We would do it in phases (to) make sure we don't see a bounce-back by the virus," he said.

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NEBRASKA HITS 523 CORONAVIRUS CASES, 14 DEATHS; KEARNEY YOUTH CENTER TESTING YIELDS MORE CASES

LINCOLN- Two more deaths had been reported in Nebraska by Wednesday evening as the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, rose to 523.

Lincoln recorded its first death from the virus, a man in his 50s with underlying health issues, according to local officials. Madison County also recorded a death, a man about age 70, according to the Elkhorn Logan Valley Public Health Department. He, too, had underlying health problems. A total of 14 people have died in the state.

Also on Wednesday, the results of testing all 282 staff and youth at the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center in Kearney were released. According to the Nebraska Division of Public Health, one additional staff member and three youths tested positive.

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RICKETTS ISSUES EXECUTIVE ORDER TO GIVE COVID PATIENTS' ADDRESSES TO FIRST RESPONDERS

LINCOLN- Gov. Pete Ricketts issued an executive order Wednesday that appears to be intended to allow 911 dispatchers statewide to alert first responders whenever they’re being sent to the address of a person with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The Nebraska State Fraternal Order of Police and the Nebraska Sheriffs Association had asked for the order. They want county and state public health officials to give 911 dispatchers a list of addresses of people with COVID-19, and for dispatchers to alert police, firefighters and paramedics when they are being sent to those addresses.

Sarpy County started doing it last week. The Douglas County Attorney’s Office had said it was not allowed under state law. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had issued guidance saying that the federal health information privacy law, HIPAA, did not prohibit sharing the information.

Ricketts’ executive order, signed Tuesday, says that Nebraska state law is more restrictive than federal law. The order temporarily suspends the applicable state statutes “which prohibit the disclosure of reports or information about cases of communicable diseases in such a way that an individual’s identity could be ascertained are temporarily suspended solely in order to permit the Department of Health and Human Services and the local public health departments to use or disclose identifiable health information when they have a good faith belief that such use or disclosure would prevent and lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of a person or the public” from COVID-19.

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HOW OMAHA'S HEALTH SYSTEMS, NOT YET STRAINED, ARE CONSERVING SUPPLIES

OMAHA - The Omaha metropolitan area’s three large health systems are all taking steps to conserve supplies, including prioritizing testing to people at greatest risk, decontaminating health care workers’ N95 masks with UV light to extend their life, and partnering with local makers to obtain plastic face shields and cloth covers for medical masks.

None reported being in the kind of dire straits that have emerged in places harder hit by the virus. But staying on the hunt for supplies that are in demand high across the country is a challenge, Methodist Health System officials said. Supply managers are also spending additional time vetting various sources to make sure that the products they’re offering meet federal requirements.

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NEBRASKA MEDICINE ADDS ANOTHER SURGE TENT FOR POSSIBLE COVID-19 PATIENTS, JUST IN CASE

OMAHA - What started with one temporary surge tent outside the Nebraska Medical Center’s emergency room has mushroomed in a week’s time into a small tent city.

Nebraska Medicine’s emergency preparedness team on Tuesday finished setting up a second patient tent that can provide additional surge capacity, if needed, for patients with symptoms of COVID-19. A third structure will serve as a workspace for staff.

The two patient tents will provide additional space where health care workers can see people with respiratory symptoms consistent with the illness caused by the novel coronavirus separately from those visiting the emergency room for other reasons.

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TIGER AT NYC's BRONX ZOO TESTS POSITIVE FOR CORONAVIRUS

NEW YORK (AP) - A tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the new coronavirus, in what is believed to be the first known infection in an animal in the U.S. or a tiger anywhere, federal officials and the zoo said Sunday.

The 4-year-old Malayan tiger named Nadia — and six other tigers and lions that have also fallen ill — are believed to have been infected by a zoo employee who wasn't yet showing symptoms, the zoo said.

The first animal started showing symptoms March 27, and all are doing well and expected to recover, said the zoo, which has been closed to the public since March 16 amid the surging coronavirus outbreak in New York.

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NEBRASKA NATIONAL GUARD WILL HELP EXPAND COVID-19 TESTING IN GRAND ISLAND, WHERE CASES ARE RISING 50% A DAY

The Nebraska National Guard will be deployed to Grand Island this week to set up a temporary coronavirus testing tent.

Additional state resources are flowing to the central Nebraska area with a growing number of coronavirus cases. The state will provide more staff to track down those who came into contact with infected people, work with Grand Island employers on quarantining sick workers and communicate to the public the need to stay home and practice social distancing. 

The Grand Island medical community, Mayor Roger Steele and Central District Health Department Director Teresa Anderson have said a two-week stay-at-home order could help the area get a handle on its current outbreak.

At a press conference Monday, Anderson said Gov. Pete Ricketts doesn’t favor that approach.

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LINCOLN SEES BIGGEST SINGLE-DAY JUMP IN CORONAVIRUS CASES

LINCOLN- Lancaster County's confirmed number of COVID-19 cases jumped Monday by the most in a single day, bringing the total of lab confirmed cases in Lincoln to 31. 

And with the increase in cases, Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department are now recommending cloth face masks be worn when people are out in public, including grocery store and pharmacy visits, and anywhere they will encounter other people. Gaylor Baird also emphasized that masks are one supplemental tool in the fight, and physical distancing and hand-washing are more important than ever. 

The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department reported 13 new cases Monday, with the patients ranging in age from 29-71.

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