Nebraska Update

The state of Nebraska ( along with more than a dozen other states) has joined onto Tennessee lawsuit that questions whether the Biden Administration has the authority to expand Title IX protections to include transgender students and staff. I talk with the daughter of a transgender student, Governor Pete Ricketts and several lawyers to help outline the state's position, it's opposition and what's at stake for transgender students if the lawsuit were to succeed.

The evolution of Nebraska’s Volleyball team may be the most visible effect of Title IX in Nebraska. By providing more funding and access to facilities, the team grew into a national powerhouse. Two of the team’s founders – Nancy Colson and Terry Pettit – discuss what the early days of Title IX was like.

Four decades ago, a town in Kansas and a town in Colorado competed to become home to a giant meatpacking plant that, at the time, was the largest of its kind in the world. Here’s what has happened to them since.

There have been 66 drug-related cases dropped in Lancaster County because more than $1 million worth of drugs were stolen from the state patrol evidence room in Lincoln.

Anna Idigima and her boyfriend George Weaver Jr. allegedly stole and distributed drugs from a Nebraska State Patrol evidence room where Idigima was employed. Some of the drugs reportedly caused the death of nine people. A federal grand jury indicted the pair for selling schedule two controlled substances. They appeared before a federal judge pleading not guilty.

Dr. Eleanor Rogan with the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s College of Public Health leads a group 13 scientists and health officials from UNMC, UNL, Creighton and area health departments. The group has tested water and the air around the AltEn plant, which produced ethanol using pesticide-contaminated seed corn until it closed earlier this year. Several major leaks led to the closure, and a plan put together by seed companies to clean it up was released this week.

The Genoa Indian School in Nebraska closed in the 1930's, but the known death toll of children at the school is still growing. Nebraska Public Media's Jackie Ourada has more on the latest research into one of the country's largest Native American boarding schools and who might be buried there.

Peterson says his office will not criminally pursue any abusers because the statute of limitations has expired. Those are legal frameworks that set when a criminal action must be taken. Still, Peterson has a message to churches. “Don’t ever put the reputation of your association, your church organization, above protecting the children," he said.

Ranchers in Nebraska are rebelling against the “Big Four” meat companies by planning their own beef processing plant. They’re seeking a transformation for themselves, the industry and western Nebraska.

The chair of the Nebraska Legislature's Appropriations Committee says the state faces a choice between throwing money at the state penitentiary to rehabilitate a 150-year old facility or building a new prison somewhere else.

The 111-page remedial action plan was submitted to the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy earlier this week by the AltEn Facility Response Group. It’s made up of six different seed companies who used to supply the plant with seed corn used in the ethanol production process. The plan is part of the Nebraska Voluntary Cleanup Program and does not include AltEn, which ceased operations in Mead in February. Former State Senator Al Davis is part of the Perivallon Group, an organization monitoring the clean-up of the former plant.