The Nebraska Legislature began its 2022 session with proposals on abortion, guns, and other topics.

Thunder Valley Development Corporation Director Tatewin Means says transitional and supportive housing could serve 800-1,000 people at a time.

“I’m excited to see more trails and more options for people,” Lincoln cyclist Lorenz Taylor said, “especially you know if they can get something on the outskirts of town. I live in west Lincoln so if they can get something out there, I’d be super excited about that even more, instead of having to pack my bike up and go to the center part of town or the south side of town to hit a trail head.”

Jalene Carpenter is CEO of the Nebraska Healthcare Association and says closures occurred, in part, due to a lack of funding.

Governor Ricketts reinstated an extra $20 per day payment to assisted living facilities starting early next year.

But it’s too late for Arapahoe's assisted living facility, where Alan Thomas stays. His wife, Heidi is a teacher and works part-time as a registered nurse at Good Samaritan Society in Arapahoe.

The Nebraska State Fair and its stakeholders formed ‘The 1868 Foundation’ to deliver a remodeling proposal. In the plan released Wednesday, the foundation asked for $25 million from the state’s infrastructure fund to revamp its campus at Grand Island’s Fonner Park.

Heading into the holiday week, COVID-19 cases dropped 2% over the last two weeks. Hospitalizations are also down. The Nebraska Public Health Lab Right reports on average that omicron makes up less than 10% of COVID cases. However, the lab notes that could change dramatically in the coming days.

That changed, when the National Weather Service confirmed 22 tornadoes touched down in Nebraska from December 15th storms.

The storms were a part of a ‘serial derecho,’ or a large band of hurricane-like thunderstorms. Forecasters say the storm’s destructive path began in central Nebraska, then moved northeast.

After an extended period of time with brown water, Lyons repaired its temporary, mobile filter. Terry Uding is the utilities manager for Lyons and said the amount of manganese in the town’s water has improved in the last week after mending its provisional filter.

Nebraska’s Department of Environment and Energy is discovering more information about the damaging effects of high levels of manganese in drinking water and asks municipalities to test for the toxin. Uding said fixing that issue and the like can be problematic.

COVID-19 cases statewide are rising to levels seen just before and after the state’s biggest peak last year. According to CDC data, more than 1,000 Nebraskans test positive each day. The last time Nebraska saw a 7-day average above 1,000: late October 2020 and early January 2021.