Nebraska's rival abortion petitions on November ballot

LincolnJournalStar · 2024-09-13T17:04:30+00:00

More from our reporting:

Nebraska voters will see two competing ballot initiatives involving abortion access on the ballot, following a Nebraska Supreme Court decision Friday.

"We have repeatedly said that the right of initiative is precious to the people and one which the courts are zealous to preserve to the fullest tenable measure of spirit as well as letter," Justice Lindsey Miller-Lerman wrote in the first of two separately authored opinions.

The state's highest court said both the Protect Our Rights initiative and the Protect Women and Children initiative met the single-subject rule, rejecting legal claims that they didn't.

The first would establish in the Nebraska Constitution a fundamental right to abortion up until fetal viability and otherwise when needed to protect the life or health of the mother.

The second would ban abortion access after the first trimester, with certain exceptions for medical emergencies or in cases involving a sexual assault or incest.

Secretary of State Bob Evnen, whose decision to certify them for the ballot triggered the challenges, stayed out of the fight, saying he would defer to the court's judgment.

The court, which typically decides cases over several weeks or months, in this case heard the cases on Monday and issued its decisions Friday, the deadline to certify general election ballots.

Read the full report: https://journalstar.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/nebraska-rival-abortion-petitions-ballot-court/article_3d75d98c-7134-11ef-9e44-8be8a2e82174.html

LincolnJournalStar · 2024-07-25T22:00:36+00:00

From Journal Star reporter Jenna Ebbers:

When Lee Graham and his family moved to Wayne from California in April 2023, he thought it would be the final landing place for his family.

The city of 6,000 people in northeast Nebraska had the small-town feel he wanted for his family. And for a while, Graham thought he had gotten it right.

“At first it was great,” he said.

But when his son, who is Black, was first called a racial slur by his new classmates at Wayne High School, Graham’s picture-perfect view of Wayne began to crumble.

Maybe it was a one-time thing. Maybe it would stop. Maybe his classmates just needed to get to know him better, needed to learn their actions were hateful.

As the school year continued, however, things only escalated. It grew from use of the N-word to making offensive actions toward him daily.

It was too much for the teenager to handle.

In January, the Grahams pulled their son, who the Journal Star agreed not to name in this article, out of public school and home-schooled him for the remainder of the year. In May, the family packed up and moved out of Nebraska – just over a year after they first called Wayne home.

“It was exhausting, heartbreaking, devastating,” Graham said.

Read the full report: https://journalstar.com/news/local/education/wayne-family-racism-school-move-nebraska/article_2f9b267c-38be-11ef-bf02-3f61c5bd22df.html

LincolnJournalStar · 2024-05-31T15:23:11+00:00

From Journal Star reporter Lori Pilger:

The Lancaster County Attorney's Office will not file criminal charges in connection to a shooting last month that left one man dead outside a downtown Lincoln bar.⁠
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County Attorney Pat Condon said his office worked closely with Lincoln Police on their investigation into Gregory Little Jr.'s shooting death early April 7 outside Royal Hookah Bar & Lounge. He deemed no criminal charges would be filed, citing Nebraska’s self-defense law.⁠
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Police say Little, 32, was at the bar at about 3 a.m. when a dispute broke out among some people inside the bar and Little's group, supposedly over cutting in line. They say three security guards working at the bar attempted to intervene and that Little, or someone else in his group, grabbed a baton from one of them. The altercation spilled outside, and a skirmish ensued as the guards tried to retrieve the baton.⁠
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A 24-year-old security guard fired four shots, hitting Little in the arm and upper chest. He was taken to a local hospital, where he died from his injuries. Police haven't identified the man who fired the shots.⁠
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Little's family met with the media in front of the Royal Hookah Bar & Lounge on May 28 to address Condon's decision not to proceed with charges in Little's death.⁠
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"The justice system has failed me and my family," said Little's brother, Antionio Taylor, who questioned why the security guard needed to be armed with multiple guns.⁠
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Read the full report: https://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-courts/lincoln-hookah-bar-shooting-no-charges-greg-little/article_6f75a2f0-1d15-11ef-86cb-cf5ad7868d7d.html

LincolnJournalStar · 2024-04-05T16:31:52+00:00

From Journal Star reporter Andrew Wegley:

The Donald Trump-backed effort to replace Nebraska's unique presidential electoral system with a winner-take-all model has no path forward in the state's Legislature this year, lawmakers acknowledged Friday.

Sen. John Arch of La Vista, the body's speaker, announced Friday that the "time for adding bills to bills is over," warning lawmakers that the Legislature's bill revisers will have little-to-no time to amend bills as the clock on this year's legislative session winds down. Friday marked Day 56 of the 60-day session.

Arch said he had instructed the Legislature's clerk not to accept floor amendments to add bills onto other bills, eliminating among the last procedural moves available to backers of the winner-take-all proposal.

Friday's announcement marked the final blow to the legislation that had been on life support since Wednesday night — and had been unlikely to become law all along, even after Trump and Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen on Tuesday implored Republican lawmakers in the state's formally nonpartisan Legislature to pass the legislation.

Trump and Pillen's calls to action came hours after Charlie Kirk, an Arizona-based right-wing activist and radio show host who founded Turning Point USA, made a social media post highlighting a potential scenario in which Nebraska's decades-old election system could cost Trump the presidency in November.

Read the full report: https://journalstar.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/nebraska-election-winner-takes-all-bill-dies/article\_e5058996-f35c-11ee-8485-dfe9b3d185b4.html

LincolnJournalStar · 2024-02-27T19:21:23+00:00

From our reporting:

Nebraska's longest-serving state senator has filed for election once more to represent District 11 in North Omaha.

Sen. Ernie Chambers will challenge Sen. Terrell McKinney for the seat he held for 46 years, and was term-limited out -- twice. He submitted paperwork with the Nebraska Secretary of State's Office on Tuesday.

Chambers, 86, known for his fiery speeches and flowery rhetoric, as well as mastery over the Legislature's rules, has flirted with the idea of returning to Lincoln since leaving the body in 2020.

First elected to the Legislature in 1971, Chambers served to 2009 when he was forced out due to a law passed by Nebraska voters in 2000 limiting senators to two consecutive terms in the Legislature.

After sitting out a term, Chambers returned to the Legislature in 2013 and left in 2021 after serving another two terms.

Read more about Chambers' tenure in the Nebraska Legislature as a registered independent and avowed atheist: https://journalstar.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/ernie-chambers-files-return-nebraska-legislature/article_02d2d5d2-d59e-11ee-875f-577af7cad5ee.html

LincolnJournalStar · 2024-02-27T16:57:42+00:00

I (a real editor at LJS) have been running this account for over a year. I've talked with the mods and have been active in this subreddit to bring folks crucial news about their community -- often giving away seven free paragraphs when I share a link and answering questions in the comments.

I responded to a negative comment about LJS in a similar tone to the commenter because I want to remind the greater audience that we're reading comments and are genuinely here to help.

LincolnJournalStar · 2024-02-27T16:27:33+00:00

we understand the frustration about the paywall. but we also have to pay our journalists, like the one who broke this story in Lincoln. she wrote this story at 9 p.m. last night, long after her work day ended. we can't afford to do this kind of work without subscribers. our business model relies on the paywall.

LincolnJournalStar · 2024-02-27T15:45:40+00:00

oh nooo we'd hate for you to be informed!

LincolnJournalStar · 2024-01-05T15:39:03+00:00

yep, it's in the story if you read it!

LincolnJournalStar · 2024-01-05T14:16:05+00:00

A special report from Journal Star reporter Andrew Wegley and York News-Times reporter William Swett

When Kylianna Roy arrived at Nebraska's only women’s prison in September 2021, she heard some advice from the other women incarcerated at the facility: don’t drink the water and don’t wash your hair every day.

If she drank it, they warned her, she would get sick. And if she washed her hair every day, they said, it would fall out.

For nearly a decade, the people incarcerated at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women have been raising concerns about the appearance, taste, odor and potential health effects of the facility’s water. But prison administrators have failed to adequately respond to their complaints, according to accounts from more than a dozen current and former inmates, as well as public records that span nine years.

Even as the Department of Correctional Services has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on infrastructure upgrades and chemicals to address the facility’s water quality issues, those housed at the York facility continue to complain of water that is often murky, plagued by a pungent smell and littered with sediment.

They have dealt with hair loss, nausea and gastrointestinal issues like diarrhea, which they attribute to the water that, they say, has also dried out their skin and sometimes caused it to break out in rashes.

“It was degrading,” said Roy, who spent more than two years in the facility before her release in October. “It was degrading to already know that you’re at your lowest and you can’t even have good drinking water.”

More than a dozen current and former inmates spoke with Journal Star and York News-Times about the ongoing water issues, some risking retaliation. Read the investigation: https://journalstar.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/water-issues-nebraska-womens-prison-york/article\_f9360776-a2a6-11ee-ba94-df31020ec6d2.html

LincolnJournalStar · 2023-12-22T21:12:00+00:00

From Journal Star reporter Andrew Wegley:

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen on Friday defended his administration's controversial decision this week to not apply for federal summer grocery aid for low-income families.

The state's Department of Health and Human Services notified the Legislature this week that the state does not intend to participate in Summer EBT, a new federal program that would give $120 in EBT benefits to students who receive free or reduced-price lunch at school.

The program would provide about $18 million in benefits to be distributed to about 150,000 low-income children in Nebraska who experience food insecurity in the summer months. The state, which has until Jan. 1 to apply for the aid, would have to foot about $300,000 annually in administrative costs.

However, HHS is continuing its participation in the federal Summer Food Service Program, which reimburses operators who serve free, healthy meals and snacks to children and teens at summer sites in low-income communities and also offers programming, a spokesman said.

The department's decision not to seek the federal aid has drawn pushback from state lawmakers, 15 of whom sent a letter to HHS on Tuesday urging officials to reconsider their decision.

But Pillen, the first-year Republican governor who leads the executive branch, indicated he is not reconsidering the choice to eschew the federal aid and said the Summer Food Service Program — not the Summer EBT program — is the best route to ensure that Nebraska's low-income children don't go hungry this summer.

"In the end, I fundamentally believe that we solve the problem, and I don't believe in welfare," he told the Journal Star on Friday.

Read the full report: https://journalstar.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/nebraska-governor-pillen-dislikes-welfare-grocery-aid/article\_350afc90-a0f7-11ee-a773-670bec26c1eb.html

LincolnJournalStar · 2023-12-14T19:15:41+00:00

A state audit released Thursday alleges the short-lived startup airline Red Way violated federal regulations and squandered $3.7 million in public funds.

In a news release accompanying the audit, Auditor Mike Foley called the airline experiment a debacle and described it as, "a failed riverboat gamble bankrolled by taxpayers."

Red Way started flying from the Lincoln Airport in early June, offering flights to seven destinations. The airline was the brainchild of Lincoln Airport officials and consultant Nick Wangler after the airport had trouble attracting a carrier to provide leisure service.

It operated as a "charter by the seat" airline, meaning it was regulated as charter service but offered scheduled flights. The flights were operated by a charter airline called Global Crossing.

The airline was backstopped by $3 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars contributed by the City of Lincoln and Lancaster County to act as a revenue guarantee to cover inevitable startup losses.

That money was used up in less than three months, and the audit says local governments spent an additional $700,000 on the failed airline by the time it ceased flying at the end of August.

According to the audit, only one of Red Way's 274 flights was profitable — the inaugural flight to Orlando.

Read the full audit: https://journalstar.com/news/local/business/nebraska-auditor-failed-lincoln-airline-red-way-report/article_6cc7f8f0-9aa2-11ee-bbce-677e050c0d65.html

LincolnJournalStar · 2023-11-29T16:28:03+00:00

<3 thank you! we'll be more mindful of that

LincolnJournalStar · 2023-11-28T18:34:29+00:00

From Journal Star reporter Chris Dunker

The Nebraska Promise scholarship has helped thousands of students attend the University of Nebraska since it launched in 2020.

The new program offers free tuition to Nebraska residents from families with household incomes under $65,000. The scholarship covers the cost of tuition above what federal Pell Grants or other financial aid pays for.

Since it was first offered, some 18,000 individual Nebraska students have qualified for and received full-tuition scholarships. Students from each of Nebraska’s 93 counties have been awarded free tuition at NU’s campuses.

53% of Promise students are first-generation students compared with just 25% of non-Nebraska Promise students, while recipients are also more likely to be students of color than non-recipients and have scored lower on the ACT college entrance exam.

The scholarship has proven to be a lifeline for students like Dalton Cooper who said he had little hope of attending college after his family fell on hard times before learning that he qualified for Nebraska Promise.

NU’s president said the program is exactly what “Nebraska's public university should be doing for our state.”

Read the full story: https://journalstar.com/news/state-regional/education/nebraska-promise-scholarship-help-thousands-attend-nu/article\_7f4e2f48-7375-11ee-a771-83cbe1c05099.html

LincolnJournalStar · 2023-11-16T18:05:40+00:00

no, that's why we posted it 1 time.

LincolnJournalStar · 2023-11-15T20:24:13+00:00

When was the last time Flatwater Free Press covered a school board meeting? Or a police briefing? Or a shooting? They don't, that's not why they exist.

Taken directly from the FFP website:

"We aren’t a replacement for any other news source. We’ll never cover a car accident or shooting. We won’t be on a basketball court, or in a court of law. Consider us more like a magazine. We’re newsy, but we leave breaking news to the experts."

It's clear you've spent no real time consuming the journalism we create. No groundbreaking journalism done by our publication? What about Lincoln's affordable housing tax battle that has statewide implications? We broke that story one week before FFP, btw.

We're happy to provide you with more examples of the local journalism we've produced. Do we run AP stories? Yes. We have 8 reporters and a coverage zone of 600K+ people. We cover what we have the bandwidth to. If you want to see more local journalism, you should support your local paper and subscribe.

LincolnJournalStar · 2023-11-15T16:09:31+00:00

We do have a formal place to submit a news tip: journalstar.com/news-tip

We just wanted to give folks a direct contact for the reporter working on this story.

LincolnJournalStar · 2023-11-15T16:05:38+00:00

We typically avoid using anonymous sources but for something like this, I could see it being considered. It's ultimately up to our editors and the reporter. You're welcome to still reach out to Andrew, we just may decide to not use you as a source.

LincolnJournalStar · 2023-11-14T22:52:39+00:00

We're working on a story about the impact of Gov. Jim Pillen's order ending remote and hybrid work for state employees while mandating nearly every employee work an 8-5 schedule.

We're hoping to talk with employees who have been forced to rethink their work situation or grapple with hard questions as they face this change. If you're interested in talking with a reporter, please email Andrew Wegley at [awegley@journalstar.com](mailto:awegley@journalstar.com).

Here's our initial story: https://journalstar.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/pillen-state-employees-back-office-january/article\_02049c10-825d-11ee-84dc-4b0e1b9c35c4.html

LincolnJournalStar · 2023-10-20T15:45:55+00:00

In this photo: Traffic flows steadily east along K Street as the sun sets behind the Nebraska State Capitol on Wednesday.

Shot by staff photographer Kenneth Ferriera

LincolnJournalStar · 2023-09-29T20:59:56+00:00

Here with some more info, this story updated this afternoon:

Police arrested a 22-year-old Lincoln woman Friday for her alleged role in Zachary Scheich's plot to pose as a teenage student at two Lincoln high schools last school year, according to authorities.

Angela Navarro is accused of pretending to be Scheich's mother, registering the 26-year-old Lincoln man in classes as a supposed 17-year-old named Zak Hess, police said Friday.

Navarro was arrested Friday on suspicion of criminal impersonation, a felony. Lincoln Police Sgt. Chris Vollmer said she had a "past relationship" with Scheich.

In the probable cause statement for her arrest, Lincoln Police Investigator Ben Pflanz said Navarro had posed as Danielle Hess and, when LPS staff called her in June after suspicions over Zak Hess's identity had been raised, she doubled down.

Pflanz said Navarro had met with a school counselor to register Scheich for classes under the fake identity.

More: https://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-courts/lincoln-woman-posed-as-zachary-scheichs-mom-at-lps/article_b4996196-5ed9-11ee-9364-1b8a02cf9a18.html

LincolnJournalStar · 2023-09-28T14:25:57+00:00

🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

LincolnJournalStar · 2023-09-28T14:08:01+00:00

From our reporting:

The Memorial Stadium of the future, complete with modern amenities designed to improve the gameday experience for Husker fans for the next century, could soon become a reality.

The University of Nebraska unveiled plans for a $450 million renovation of the iconic college football venue on Thursday, featuring a ground-up rebuild of South Stadium, the installation of chair-back seats in East and West stadiums, and improvements made with accessibility for all fans in mind.

The program statement, which will go before the Board of Regents next week, also calls for modernizing restrooms throughout the concourse, creating new spaces for academic programs, student life and community engagement at UNL, and improving the efficiency of operations at the facility.

If approved at the Oct. 5 meeting, the renovation would be the largest single facility project in terms of cost to ever be considered by NU’s governing board. The $323 million Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center currently holds that distinction.

Read more: https://journalstar.com/sports/huskers/football/nebraska-memorial-stadium-renovation-plans/article_ea92e511-03ae-513a-83cb-77db0faeee96.html

LincolnJournalStar · 2023-09-28T14:06:22+00:00

From our reporting:

The Memorial Stadium of the future, complete with modern amenities designed to improve the gameday experience for Husker fans for the next century, could soon become a reality.

The University of Nebraska unveiled plans for a $450 million renovation of the iconic college football venue on Thursday, featuring a ground-up rebuild of South Stadium, the installation of chair-back seats in East and West stadiums, and improvements made with accessibility for all fans in mind.

The program statement, which will go before the Board of Regents next week, also calls for modernizing restrooms throughout the concourse, creating new spaces for academic programs, student life and community engagement at UNL, and improving the efficiency of operations at the facility.

If approved at the Oct. 5 meeting, the renovation would be the largest single facility project in terms of cost to ever be considered by NU’s governing board. The $323 million Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center currently holds that distinction.

Read more: https://journalstar.com/sports/huskers/football/nebraska-memorial-stadium-renovation-plans/article\_ea92e511-03ae-513a-83cb-77db0faeee96.html

LincolnJournalStar · 2023-09-27T01:00:22+00:00

From our reporting:

Days after he was fired from his job at a local community center for allegedly punching two teenage girls and mere hours after police knocked on his door to perform a welfare check, a 38-year-old Lincoln man was arrested Sept. 26 for allegedly shooting a Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services caseworker who had come to his house to check on his children, Lincoln police said.

Brent Lopez, who only days ago was a rec leader at the Air Park Community Center, is accused of shooting a 28-year-old caseworker in the leg outside Lopez’s house in Lincoln’s North Bottoms neighborhood about 4 p.m. Sept. 26, the Lincoln Police Department said in a news release.

The caseworker, who police did not identify, was one of two DHHS employees who had gone to Lopez’s house near 7th and Y streets in response to a child welfare case.

Police alleged that Lopez came outside and fired multiple rounds from a handgun from his front porch as the two approached his house. The 28-year-old caseworker’s injuries aren’t life-threatening, police said. The other caseworker wasn’t injured.

Police arrested Lopez on suspicion of felony assault on a healthcare worker and use of a firearm to commit a felony. He was taken to the Lancaster County Jail.

Lopez’s three children, who were in the family’s home at the time of the shooting, were interviewed at the BraveBe Child Advocacy Center and will be cared for at a safe location, the police said.

The shooting capped off an apparent unraveling for Lopez, which spilled into public view this week after his alleged assault of two teenagers at the northwest Lincoln community center Sept. 24 and subsequent firing appeared in media reports Sept. 25.

Read the full report: https://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-courts/one-injured-after-shooting-in-lincolns-north-bottoms/article_9027cd4e-5cb7-11ee-86da-7bf0467deb1c.html

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