FUNDING RESTORED FOR NEBRASKA-IOWA PRESCRIPTION DRUG DONATION PARTNERSHIP

LINCOLN- Just a week after stripping approximately $530,000 each year for Nebraska to partner with an Iowa nonprofit for a prescription drug donation program for low-income Nebraskans, all funding has been restored. In a 6-1 vote Thursday afternoon, the budget-writing Appropriations Committee fully restored the program. The funds are designated for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services to identify an eligible nonprofit — the law’s sponsor has said her intent is for Iowa’s SafeNetRx — and set up the program to get safe, donated meds back to low-income Nebraskans.

Gov. Jim Pillen suggested pulling funding in his January budget recommendations. It was one of many recent programs on the governor’s “last in, first out” suggestions list to help plug a nearly half-a-billion-dollar projected budget shortfall. State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha, who supports Hughes’ program, was the lone “no” vote. That was because the committee didn’t immediately restore a requirement that DHHS administer the program.

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LAWMAKERS APPROVE NO LONGER ISSUING FRONT-FACING LICENSE PLATES IN STATE BY 2029

LINCOLN- By the start of Nebraska’s next license plate cycle in 2029, the state could only issue drivers a rear-facing license plate and allow multiyear registrations. State lawmakers gave near-unanimous approval Thursday, on a 46-0 vote, to approve Legislative Bill 97 led by State Sen. John Fredrickson of Omaha. It included the new license plate change from State Sen. Brad von Gillern of the Elkhorn area (originally LB 279) and the multiyear registration allowance from State Sen. Rob Dover of Norfolk (originally LB 543).

Von Gillern said his bill, originally LB 279, could save taxpayer dollars by not issuing dual license plates to about 2 million vehicles in the state. Nebraskans currently pay $4.10 per license plate, leading to potential savings of about $8 million. Nebraskans incarcerated at the Nebraska State Penitentiary manufacture state plates. New car buyers could also save about $6 million to $8 million, von Gillern estimated. His bill could also have an environmental benefit, von Gillern said, reducing 200 tons of aluminum mined. At least 26 other states no longer require front-facing plates.

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STATE ASKS TO OMIT POP AND ENERGY DRINKS FROM SNAP BENEFITS

LINCOLN- Gov. Jim Pillen and other state officials have asked for federal permission to prevent Nebraskans from using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to purchase pop or energy drinks. The change is aimed at directing families toward healthier purchases and protecting Nebraska’s children, Pillen said at a news conference Monday, during which he signed a letter to the United States Department of Agriculture. SNAP provides money to households — adults and children — with little or no income to purchase food. More than 150,000 Nebraskans benefit from SNAP, about 7.5% of residents.

Steve Corsi, chief executive of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Eric Sherman, chief medical officer of Omaha’s Charles Drew Health Center, said sugary, caffeinated drinks are linked to diabetes, tooth decay and obesity, along with behavior and focus issues for children. Sherman said lower-income people have higher rates of obesity and the measure Nebraska requested will help prevent obesity in poorer communities and create opportunities to teach SNAP recipients about healthy diets. More than one-third of residents are obese, according to DHHS.

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STATE SUICIDE MORTALITY REVIEW TEAM PROPOSAL WITH EMPHASIS ON VETERANS, ADVANCES

LINCOLN- State lawmakers are looking to boost action by recent governors to combat suicide in Nebraska through new legislation with an extra focus on veterans and their families. Legislative Bill 414, by State Sen. George Dungan of Lincoln, would house a new suicide mortality review team in the Nebraska Department of Veterans’ Affairs. The team would review the circumstances around any suicides in the state generally, with an extra focus on veterans with the location. Dungan called the bill a “first step” toward working to prevent future suicides and said it would “help Nebraska as a whole.”

LB 414, which advanced 37-0, follows efforts from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, seeking similar reviews at the state and community level. Former Gov. Pete Ricketts, now in the U.S. Senate, joined the “Governor’s Challenge to Prevent Suicide Among Service Members, Veterans and their Families” in 2022. Nebraska joined the suicide mortality review efforts under Gov. Jim Pillen in 2024. 

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STATE SEN. MERV RIEPE STILL THE CENTER OF ATTENTION IN LEGISLATURE

LINCOLN- State Sen. Merv Riepe, the Ralston lawmaker at the nexus of controversy the past three years since returning to the Nebraska Legislature, isn’t afraid to go against his Republican colleagues. Riepe returned to the Legislature in January 2023 after losing a reelection bid to his predecessor in 2018. While his first term was more in line with the then-Nebraska Republican Party, which he notes was different, too — his return has positioned him differently, as more of an independent thinker and pivotal vote on many proposals.

From new abortion restrictions, Medicaid expansion, and gender-related care to sports and bathrooms for transgender students, winner-take-all and criminal justice for teen offenders, the 82-year-old Riepe found a spotlight he says he never intended to seek. “If I’m the 33rd vote to kill something, then I say, ‘OK.’ If I feel strongly about it, I will do that, regardless of what the consequences are,” Riepe told the Nebraska Examiner during a two-hour interview.

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STATE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE NAMES NEW CEO, A UTAH MANUFACTURING LEADER

LINCOLN- A Utah manufacturing expert has been named the next president and CEO of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the largest statewide business lobbying group. Todd Bingham, most recently president and CEO of the 120-year-old Utah Manufacturers Association, is to assume the post in mid-May. He was selected by a search committee that included state chamber board members and business leaders.

Bingham will replace Bryan Slone, who earlier had announced his departure from the chamber following seven years in that position. Slone said he planned to pursue other possibilities in Nebraska, including a possible political bid, though he didn’t provide details. Slone, in a statement, said he was pleased about Bingham’s appointment. He said Bingham’s connections across the country and experience in urban and rural business development make him a great choice to continue the chamber’s work.

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3 REPUBLICANS, 3 DEMOCRATIC INCUMBENTS ADVANCE IN AT-LARGE LINCOLN COUNCIL RACE

LINCOLN- Three Lincoln City Council incumbents, a former councilman, a mayoral hopeful, and a small business owner advanced to the general election, beating out three newcomers for three at-large seats Tuesday. The top vote-getters in Tuesday's primary election included incumbents Sändra Washington and Tom Beckius, with challenger Jerry Shoecraft edging out incumbent Bennie Shobe by 282 votes. Washington garnered 18,387 votes; Beckius 17,884, and Shobe 16,477 -- all Democrats who make up a 6-1 majority in the officially nonpartisan council.

Three Republican challengers -- Shoecraft (16,759 votes) and Stan Parker (15,895 votes), and Maher Aurang Zeb (5,761 votes) -- also advanced. Shoecraft, who served two terms on the City Council in the 1990s, said he's grateful for the opportunity to move on to the general election. Shobe said he expected to be competing with Shoecraft and Parker because he didn't spend as much money. He expects his support to go up in the general election.

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'WALL OF SHAME' STILL USED BY STATE TO CONVINCE DELINQUENT TAXPAYERS TO PAY UP

LINCOLN- A little-known state effort to shame delinquent taxpayers into paying up is still on the job 15 years after it was created. But the state’s worst tax scofflaw in recent years, a former Omaha business owner, remains at the top of the state’s so-called “wall of shame” despite the listing, raising questions about the list’s effectiveness. When it was created by the Nebraska Legislature in 2010, the state was struggling with a budget shortfall, and the public posting of tax scofflaws was billed as a low-cost way to force delinquencies to be paid.

There’s been little publicity about the wall of shame since, despite a similar budget crunch impacting the state this year. As of March 31, nearly 370 individuals and companies from Nebraska and several other states were listed on the Nebraska Department of Revenue’s website as owing more than $20,000 in state taxes. In total, they add up to owing about $22.6 million.

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$45M YOUTH COMPLEX, SAID TO INCLUDE OMAHA'S LARGET BASKETBALL FACILITY, POISED TO OPEN IN LATE 2026

OMAHA- Groundwork is underway for what officials said will be the first tournament-style youth sports facility in northeast Omaha — anchored by a nearly 115,000-square-foot structure launched with $45 million in federal and state dollars. The City of Omaha is to own, maintain, and operate the future Levi Carter Park Activity and Sports Complex along the north shore of Carter Lake in Levi Carter Park. That’s north of downtown, near Eppley Airfield. A ceremonial groundbreaking Wednesday at the site drew politicians, including Gov. Jim Pillen, Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert, and City Councilwoman Juanita Johnson.

Also speaking was former State Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha, who helped lead legislative efforts in 2022 and 2023 to direct public funding to the historically disinvested area he represented. Wayne, who was term-limited at the start of this year, expects the new facility to help level the playing field for families in North Omaha who have not had the same access to higher levels of youth sports as other more affluent areas. “We have redlined youth sports in Omaha,” Wayne said, citing the dearth of athletic complexes in eastern Omaha compared to those that draw crowds and economic development to western Omaha and the suburbs.

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DAN OSBORN STATISTICALLY TIED WITH U.S. SEN. PETE RICKETTS IN POLL

LINCOLN- Former Nebraska U.S. Senate candidate Dan Osborn is statistically tied with U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., in a new poll for a potential second run, according to Osborn’s exploratory committee. The poll of 524 likely midterm Nebraska voters shows Osborn trailing Ricketts by one percentage point, 45% to 46%, well within the survey’s 4.6 percentage point margin of error.

This comes after Osborn’s populist nonpartisan bid against U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., made national headlines in 2024 for turning an expected safe seat into a potential upset. He raised $14 million and forced national Republicans to spend money in a reliably red state.

“This poll is encouraging and matches the frustration I hear every day from people across Nebraska,” Osborn said in a statement. “People are pissed off. They should be. Billionaires like Pete Ricketts and Elon Musk are taking a chainsaw to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, slashing jobs for 80,000 veterans.”

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TRUMP THROWS WEIGHT INTO HYPOTHETICAL MIDTERM RACE WITH ENDORSEMENT OF U.S. SEN. PETE RICKETTS

LINCOLN — President Donald Trump endorsed Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts in a still-hypothetical midterm race against former labor leader Dan Osborn, a registered nonpartisan who has had some Democratic support.

Trump, in a post on Truth Social, said Ricketts has his “Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election.” 

He announced the endorsement Thursday, hours after Osborn released a poll showing him statistically tied with Ricketts. People familiar with the Ricketts endorsement process said it had been in the works for weeks and that Trump decided on the timing.

“Pete is one of the strongest Senators in the Country on Border Security, whereas his potential Opponent, Dan Osborn, is a Radical Left Open Border Extremist, who will put our Country and Safety LAST.” Trump wrote.

Earlier Thursday, Osborn drew headlines statewide about the poll showing him within one percentage point of Ricketts. Osborn announced last week that he was exploring another run for the Senate, this time against Ricketts. Ricketts served two terms as governor before Gov. Jim Pillen.

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ATTORNEY GENERAL TO SEND MORE CEASE AND DESIST LETTERS TO STATE THC SHOPS

LINCOLN- Nebraska's top law enforcement official will send cease and desist letters to 12 THC shops across Kearney and Grand Island, the attorney general announced Thursday, marking the latest escalation of his multi-year legal campaign bent on ridding the state of the hemp-derived substance. In a news release Thursday afternoon, Attorney General Mike Hilgers' office said it would send the legal notices to all THC retailers in the two central Nebraska cities "that have not already been sued."

The letters call on shop owners to "immediately cease all sales of unlawful THC-containing products to Nebraska consumers to avoid litigation."

"The Attorney General’s Office is demanding that each store return a signed document indicating their Assurance of Voluntary Compliance," Hilgers' office said in the news release. "If they do not return a signed settlement, then the office will initiate litigation and will seek penalties and fees to the fullest extent allowed by law."

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DAN OSBORN EXPLORING MIDTERM BID AGAINST U.S. SEN. PETE RICKETTS

LINCOLN- Former Nebraska U.S. Senate candidate Dan Osborn decided Thursday to explore another run for the Senate, this time against Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts in the midterms. The former Omaha labor leader’s announcement of a second possible Senate run comes after his populist bid against U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., in 2024 made national headlines for turning an expected safe race into a potential upset. He attracted an extraordinary fundraising haul for a nonpartisan federal candidate in Nebraska of $14 million, including some late money from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee once they saw his momentum. He lost by about six percentage points.

Osborn told the Nebraska Examiner last month that he had expanded his scope for his next political office run last month after initially thinking about running against Republican U.S. Rep. Don Bacon in the Omaha-based 2nd District or running for governor against GOP Gov. Jim Pillen. The steamfitter who made his name by leading the Kellogg’s strike in Omaha in 2021 and made waves by choosing to pay himself in 2024 with campaign funds chose the race that offered the clearest contrast.

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STATE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE REACHES 3% MARK, FIRST TIME SINCE DURING PANDEMIC

LINCOLN- Nebraska’s unemployment rate has reached 3% according to the latest labor report, up from 2.6% a year ago. The last time the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was at 3% was in December 2020. The rate for January was 2.9%. Prior to the pandemic, Nebraska’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was consistently around 3.0%, ranging from 2.8% to 3.2%.

Nebraska’s preliminary unemployment rate still remains among the lowest nationally, tying for the fifth lowest in the recently released data that reflects February. The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for February is 4.1%, up from 3.9% a year earlier. Labor Commissioner Katie Thurber said the uptick appears to be driven by an increase in the state labor force.

“When someone enters the labor force and begins searching for work, they are classified as unemployed until they find a job,” Thurber said. “Both new entrants and re-entrants into the labor force were up in February, and Nebraska’s labor force is now at an all-time high of 1,077,890 participants.”

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STOTHERT, EWING ADVANCE IN OMAHA MAYOR'S PRIMARY RACE

OMAHA- Incumbent Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert and Douglas County Treasurer John Ewing easily advanced Tuesday to next month’s general election for mayor. Despite outspending Ewing by hundreds of thousands of dollars, former State Sen. Mike McDonnell finished a distant third after angering key parts of both major political parties. The Nebraska Democratic Party censured the then-Democrat last year for casting the critical vote to pass new restrictions on abortion and transgender health care. He also angered the right by withholding his vote for shifting Nebraska to winner-take-all in presidential elections after joining the Nebraska Republican Party.

Stothert is seeking a fourth term as the city’s top elected official, a record in the modern era. She has emphasized her record of results, including changes to make downtown Omaha more appealing and encouraging redeveloping parts of the city that had lagged. While the mayor’s race is nonpartisan, local parties have campaigned for central candidates.

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END IS NEAR, PILLEN SAYS, FOR PERSISTENT 'WAIT LIST' FOR NEBRASKANS WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES

OMAHA- Gov. Jim Pillen said Monday that, by July, his administration expects to accomplish a goal it announced a year ago: elimination of a long-running “wait list” for Nebraskans seeking services for intellectual and developmental disabilities. Last March, the list contained about 2,700 people, and a projected wait for available funds stretched for up to eight years. The governor said the number has been whittled to about 700.

“This is the first time in the last 35 years that this wait list is going to be eliminated,” Steve Corsi, chief executive officer of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, said at a press conference in Omaha that also closed Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month. Pillen, Corsi, and Tony Green, director of the DHHS Division of Developmental Disabilities, updated progress on cutting the wait, the public cost, and what they’ve described as the state’s reimagining of how services are offered to Nebraskans with developmental disabilities to make things work better.

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ATTORNEYS ARGUE AGAINST PREEMPTION LAWSUIT TARGETING MEDICAL CANNABIS LAW

LINCOLN- The new commissioners set to regulate medical cannabis in Nebraska, as well as the ballot sponsors of the successful effort to legalize it in 2024, blasted an ongoing lawsuit against them as “meritless” and seeking to create a “false conflict.” In briefs filed Friday, attorneys for the 11 defendants named in the John Kuehn v. Gov. Jim Pillen case explained why they are seeking to dismiss the case.

Kuehn, a former state senator, former State Board of Health member, and longtime marijuana opponent, filed the case in December. It sought to declare the voter-approved legalization and regulation of medical cannabis unconstitutional. He expanded the case in January to encompass more state officials. The lawsuit’s main argument is that the Nebraska laws are unlawful, or preempted, because of the federal Controlled Substances Act.

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FUNDING PULLED FOR PLANNED PRESCRIPTION DRUG DONATION PROGRAM WITH IOWA

LINCOLN- Nebraska’s anticipated prescription drug donation program partnership with an Iowa nonprofit hit another wrench Wednesday as the Legislature’s budget-setting committee accepted Gov. Jim Pillen’s recommendation to cut the program’s state funding. State Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward, through successful 2024 and 2025 legislation, mandated that the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services identify and work with a nonprofit on such a program. The plan has been to partner with Iowa’s SafeNetRx for a first-in-the-nation multi-state prescription drug donation program. Hughes visited the facility in October 2023.

The SafeNetRx program tailors its services to individuals who can’t afford prescribed medication, regardless of insurance status, with an annual household income at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. Nebraska state senators approved about $530,000 annually for the program in 2024, which hadn’t yet taken off because a federal law took effect last summer, tying up the partnership. Pillen suggested pulling funding in his January budget recommendations. It was one of many recent programs on the governor’s “last in, first out” suggestions list.

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LAWMAKERS TO DEBATE WINNER-TAKE-ALL NEXT WEEK

LINCOLN- The Nebraska Legislature will take up a bill changing the state to a winner-take-all system in the Electoral College on Tuesday afternoon. Speaker John Arch told lawmakers Thursday morning he plans to schedule Sen. Loren Lippincott's priority bill (LB3) for first-round debate on Day 57 of the 90-day legislative session.

Arch said he would allow LB3 to be debated for four hours on general file, or the first round of debate, rather than eight hours, following a procedure he established last year when handling controversial bills. "I believe most members have determined how they will vote on this bill," Arch said. "The measure does not lend itself to amendment, so a general file debate of four hours provides time for arguments for and against to be made for the record."

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LAWMAKERS APPROVE AT-HOME NURSE VISITS FOR POSTPARTUM MOMS, 340B PROTECTIONS

LINCOLN- Nebraska lawmakers overwhelmingly approved legislation Thursday morning to require state officials to seek federal matching funds for targeted nurse home visitation services. Legislative Bill 22, from State Sen. George Dungan of Lincoln, passed 47-0. It expands on Dungan’s “Nebraska Prenatal Plus Program” in 2024, which offers services to Medicaid-eligible mothers to help prevent low birth weights, preterm births, and adverse birth outcomes. Dungan said the bill represents “another step forward in ensuring that we have healthy moms and healthy babies in Nebraska.”

Dungan’s 2025 legislation, which heads to Gov. Jim Pillen, would expand care to include voluntary targeted case management for evidence-based nurse home visitation services, similar to the Family Connects program in Lincoln and Lancaster County and now being piloted in Omaha. The goal is to expand the program statewide, deploying a nurse to the homes of eligible postpartum mothers and children six months of age or younger for one-on-one services.

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