News

He Said, She Said Before Monday, all state senators had not been in the same room since March 25. As the COVID interrupted legislative session came to order, a certain awkwardness was to be expected until the ship righted itself. From the vantage point of a 55" flat...

Beginning of the end Tomorrow, senators return for the 44th day of this 60-day legislative session. While not cornteened, the 49 senators will be socially distanced and plexiglassed until the final gavel drop on August 13. Coincidentally, tomorrow's agenda shows 44...

Are you kidding me? It's going to happen. Speaker Scheer has summoned the whole Capitol Gang to return a week from Monday, in hopes of completing the final seventeen days of this COVID interrupted legislative session by August 13. The process will not be normal;...

$$$ Enjoy the fireworks last night? Then you will get a real kick out of the remaining 17 days in the Unicameral’s session beginning July 20. Let’s begin with that top-of-mind topic – Tax Receipts! To be more precise, Nebraska’s Net General Fund tax receipts for the...

Hot potato Nebraska prisons are the second most crowded in the country. Right behind Alabama. Ugh! Last year, we housed 5,369 inmates in facilities designed for 3,535. In 2015, the Legislature enacted a host of sentencing reforms to reduce the prison population. They...

A little of this and some of that Nebraska's unemployment rate decreased from 8.7% in April to 5.2% in May. The lowest in the nation. The tax rate on motor fuels will increase from 29.3 cents per gallon (Jan 1 – Jun 30, 2020) to 33.2 cents per gallon (Jul 1 – Dec 31,...

Get Nebraska Growing Governor Pete Ricketts announced he will distribute $387 million in grants from the federal Cares Act for Get Nebraska Growing initiatives as part of the $7.8 billion in federal assistance that has come to Nebraska to aid the state’s coronavirus...

Listen With the deaths of George Floyd in Minnesota and James Scurlock in Nebraska, the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee will hold listening forums in Omaha and Lincoln to hear from members of the public about community policing and racial equity. The forums will...

Federal support, fewer restrictions The Federal COVID-19 Supplemental Appropriations package provides Nebraska $10.8 billion, plus another $1.6 billion in Economic Impact Payments. Last week, Governor Ricketts outlined the plan to distribute these funds under the...

Precautions Speaker, Jim Scheer, believes COVID-19 cases in Lincoln and Nebraska have peaked. He intends to resume the 2020 legislative session on July 20 and adjourn Sine Die, August 13. Many state senators fall into the susceptible old coot category, and they...