Nebraska Update

The first two hearings for programs up for elimination at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln began Wednesday. The Academic Planning Committee heard arguments for keeping the community and regional planning program and the landscape architecture program.

As $27.5 million in reductions loom over the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus, students in programs proposed for elimination shared their concerns with how the loss of their programs would hurt the state. The potential cuts are in response to the state legislature allocating less funding than the university needed in its budget for the next two years.

The Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission will not meet its Oct. 1 deadline to begin granting registrations for marijuana cultivators. During its meeting Tuesday, commission chair Dr. Monica Oldenburg said the commission’s evaluation team was unable to provide recommendations for licensure after two of its members resigned. Earlier this week, Commissioners Bruce Bailey and Kim Lowe resigned from their positions on the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission at the request of Gov. Jim Pillen. That also meant losing their roles on the Medical Cannabis Commission, which includes the Liquor Control Commission members.

One of the familiar NPR hosts you wake up to on “Morning Edition” is A Martinez, who works out of Culver City, California. Martínez came to NPR four years ago from the world of sports talk radio. He told Nebraska Public Media's “Morning Edition” host Dale Johnson that he has come to appreciate the importance of nationwide public media, especially in rural states like Nebraska.

The modified Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act will go into effect as of Wednesday this week. The law requires businesses with between 11 and 19 employees to provide their employees with at least 40 hours of paid sick leave per year, and those with 20 or more employees will need to provide at least 56 hours of paid sick leave.

Advocates for All Nebraskans, a group that wants to lower property taxes in Nebraska, announced a new petition Monday asking the state to play a bigger role in funding public education. The latest proposed statutory amendment would establish a minimum base salary of $50,000 for all certified public-school teachers and asks the state to fulfill its constitutional obligation to fund K-12 education. Teachers with 12 or more years of experience would receive a minimum salary of $62,000. According to a 2025 report from the National Education Association, Nebraska’s average teacher starting salary is $38,811, which ranks 49th among the 50 states.

Gov. Jim Pillen announced Monday that Nebraska will opt in to a federal tax credit for those donating to scholarship-granting organizations. Those scholarships can go to help students attending private schools or those in public schools needing extra resources like tutoring. The tax credit was passed under the “One Big Beautiful Bill” earlier this year.

The state of Nebraska, the city of Omaha and the community of North Omaha proudly took notice Saturday. People cheered, chanted and held up their cell phones hoping for a decent video of one of the greatest boxers of all time, Terence “Bud” Crawford, as he moved down a parade route in downtown Omaha.

The Cultural Centers of Lincoln Collaborative is one step closer to its new home. The building, located on a site at 21st and Vine streets, will connect four initiatives: the Good Neighbor Community Center, the Asian Community and Cultural Center, El Centro de las Américas and the Malone Center.

The Trump Administration asked states to find the lowest-cost option in the latest program to build broadband infrastructure in rural areas. That opens the door for more types of technology, which some worry could be less reliable in the long-term.