Nebraska Update

Officials at Bryan Medical Center in Lincoln say they’re frustrated by a resurgence of coronavirus in the Lincoln area and have had to re-open their COVID treatment department.
Bryan Medical Center is currently treating 25 COVID-positive patients and an additional seven patients who are in need of critical care but are no longer COVID positive. CEO John Woodrich says things have changed over the past few weeks.

In March of last year, millions of students packed up their bags and returned home from their college towns. Yet, school was expected to continue. Auditorium lectures were replaced with Zoom lectures, and classmates were replaced with family pets and younger siblings. Lauren Dietrich with Nebraska Public Media News reports on the past and future of remote learning at Nebraska colleges with the fall semester less than a month away.

The University of Nebraska Medical Center has a new endowed professor and director for its American Indian Health Department in its College of Public Health. Jackie Ourada, with Nebraska Public Media News, spoke with Dr. Siobhan Wescott, who hopes to address Native American health and healing in her new role.

The heat index is expected to reach more than one-hundred degrees for most of this week in Nebraska. Heat-related illnesses should be a concern, especially for children and seniors.

The Department of Education wants a second draft of the standards, which have generated controversy over their sex education components, to be made public in the first part of August

COVID-19 cases are trending in the wrong direction, and Nebraska infectious disease experts point to the Delta variant as the lead suspect in the state. Will Bauer of Nebraska Public Media News reports.

The pandemic had reached all-time lows just over one month ago. Cases stood in the high 20s, but now the Delta variant has come on strongly in the state. COVID cases are up 42% in the past week. From over one month ago, cases are up 440%. Dr. Angela Hewlett is the Medical Director of the Nebraska Biocontainment

Impact of the $26 billion opioid settlement

Event organizers at the Lancaster Event Center say this week's National High Schools Finals Rodeo will bring in $16 million dollars of much-needed economic impact. Jackie Ourada, with Nebraska Public Media News, squeezed into some Lincoln's stores that are juggling an influx of rodeo customers.

Pay, morale contribute difficulties filling slots in agencies

In late June, Gov. Pete Ricketts announced the deployment of 25 troopers to Del Rio, Texas at the request of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who declared an emergency at the border. Thursday, State Patrol Superintendent John Bolduc said the troopers were returning home. Bolduc said they’d assisted in more than 500 vehicle stops and 25 vehicle inspections that resulted in several arrests for drugs and weapons. They also helped in more than 15 arrests for human smuggling and for sexual offenses against minors, and helped turn over 1,600 migrants to Customs and Border Protection. Capt. Jason Scott, who led the deployment, talked about finding migrants wandering around in the brush country without food or water. Scott said most seemed to feel like they were being rescued.