Nebraska Update

HOST: A severe winter storm in early April left millions of dollars in damage for eight western Nebraska counties. Those counties are now receiving federal assistance for recovery efforts. Nebraska Public Media’s Sarah Lawlor has more. 052924 Disaster declaration voicer.wav: (48 s)President Joe Biden is declaring a major disaster exists in eight Nebraska counties affected by storms in April. The counties include Banner, Cheyenne, Dawes, Garden, Kimball, Morrill, Scotts Bluff and Sioux. The April storm included thunderstorms, freezing rain, snow and heavy winds. At least $10.5 million in initial damages were reported, according to a press release from Governor Jim Pillen. The costs are mainly for downed power lines and power poles.

More people in Nebraska are waking up hungry, according to a recent report released by “Feeding America”, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization.

Doug Kristensen stepped onto the University of Nebraska at Kearney campus as chancellor in 2002. After 22 years, he's retiring.

Thirteen states across the U.S., including much of the Midwest, introduced bills this year that could give some rights to embryos and fetuses usually associated with people. None passed but people in the fertility world are concerned that lawmakers will try again and what that means for reproductive rights.

According to the Governor’s Policy Research Office, Nebraskans paid 5.3 billion dollars in property taxes in 2023. Pillen wants to cut that amount by 40%, or more than 2 billion dollars. He says he intends to present a plan to cut spending by 500 million dollars through streamlining government operations.

A proposal to divert water from the Platte to the Republican River drew mixed reactions at a public hearing Thursday.

The American Red Cross is regularly busy in the Midwest as a natural-disaster-prone area. But one woman is working doubly hard to ensure one group of people receive the support they need from the organization.

More than 150 people squeezed into the Warner Chamber, just off the Capitol Rotunda to witness Wednesday’s induction ceremony. Everyone wanted to catch a glimpse of the bust of Malcolm X, a Black activist and human rights champion who was born in Omaha.

Sen. Tom Brewer, visiting Ukraine, says residents are tired but still fighting more than two years after Russia invaded.

The higher a Nebraska student’s ACT score is, the more likely they are to go to an in-state college. As that score increases about 30, it becomes more likely that students will go out of state for university. These insights come from a Nebraska Statewide Workforce & Educational Reporting System, or NSWERS, report released this month. Researchers looked at how ACT scores related to college going patterns for about 80,000 to 90,000 students from four years of ACT tests.