The Nebraska Legislature finished its 2025 regular session with widely varying opinions about how well senators handled the state's business.

State Auditor Mike Foley has issued audit letters to eight local government units in the past six weeks highlighting alleged financial malpractice. The offenses include a Nemaha County commissioner using a county gas pump to fill his personal vehicle, a Custer County employee who recorded work hours while at her children’s school events and Pleasanton village employees who used their 11% rebates from village expenses at Menards for personal purchases. Foley says he didn’t remember there being so many cases during his previous term as auditor between 2007 and 2015.

The Nebraska chapter of the nation’s oldest Latino advocacy group is closing its doors for now.

Farmers continued to take on more debt through the first quarter of 2025, prolonging a trend from last year. That’s as farm incomes have shrunk over the last couple of years, and some worry President Trump’s tariffs could make economic conditions tougher.

The Nebraska Legislature wrapped up its 2024 regular session Monday with praise for its work, mixed with caution.

A proposal banning certain forms of hemp and so-called synthetic cannabis was passed over Friday before a vote could be taken. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Kathleen Kauth, made the decision after it appeared there would not be the votes necessary to overcome a filibuster attempt. Progressives filed motions to stop an amendment clarifying that the bill wouldn’t supersede the medical marijuana initiatives Nebraskans passed in November from being added to the bill. Sen. Ben Hansen, who voted for the bill on the first two rounds, said without the amendment, he couldn’t support it moving forward.

Gov. Jim Pillen celebrated new laws he said would protect children online, and lawmakers approved extending tax deductions for private education to pre-college levels.

CHI Good Samaritan hospital in Kearney just upgraded its NICU. Tele-health neonatologists and new equipment can provide more specialized care, lower the number of babies that need to be transferred to Lincoln or Omaha hospitals.

It's reported that a new prison complex north of Lincoln is over budget and behind schedule. Bids on the new prison must be in by the end of the day Tuesday, June 3. Nebraska Public Media’s Dale Johnson asked Rob Jeffreys, Director of Nebraska’s Department of Corrections, what happens after all the bids are in.

The Nebraska Legislature advanced a measure dealing with college testing, amid recrimations about another attempt to approve a lower minimum wage for teen workers.