News & Features | Net Radio

What may be the world’s largest collection of clown dolls is in a northeast Nebraska city with a population of just over 1,000 people.

The Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska is traveling around the state this summer to hold listening sessions with recipients of a $25.5 million legislative fund.

Rocco’s Pizza and Cantina was buzzing Thursday afternoon on the first day of the annual College World Series Jell-O shot challenge. Fans from across the country can buy five-dollar Jell-O shots in their favorite school’s color and for each shot purchased, one dollar is donated to a food bank in the university’s hometown, while 50 cents goes to an Omaha food bank. Owner Kevin Culjat said the competition began in 2018 and has grown each year since.

Senators Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts are cosponsors of legislation to overturn a U.S. Department of Education rule extending Title Nine protections to include gender identity. The Congressional Review Act allows Congress the ability to overrule federal regulations from government agencies by passing a joint resolution. The resolution can be vetoed by the president and would need a two-thirds majority of the House and Senate to override the veto.

An environmental justice program is hoping to expand into new cities throughout the state.

The Forbes Advisor team analyzed more than 20 metrics from 95 cities across the country, considering affordability, availability, amenities and safety. Kasey Ogle with Nebraska Appleseed, an organization that advocates for affordable housing, says conditions are difficult for renters in Nebraska and she is surprised to see Lincoln at the top of the Forbes ranking.

The five-member board, led by Gov. Jim Pillen, voted unanimously to approve the results. Secretary of State Bob Evnen said the 2024 primary was a historic election for Nebraska, as it was the first to require voter ID.

The prospect of precision agriculture has existed for decades, but many of the technologies and techniques that will enable it have been slow to catch on.

Nonpublic schools now have more flexibility in choosing books through the state’s textbook loan program. That’s a change from when they could only request what the public school in their district asked for.

The overdue farm bill is finally making its way through Congress, after the House agriculture committee recently advanced a proposal. Food assistance is likely to be one of the biggest sticking points as the draft moves forward.

At a series of town halls across the state, Governor Jim Pillen has said he wants to reduce property taxes in Nebraska by 40% by expanding the sales tax base in a special legislative session this summer. Ernie Goss, an economics professor at Creighton University, said high property taxes hurt economic growth more than high sales taxes.

Kansas City musician Nate Hofer took his pedal steel guitar 30 feet down into an inter-continental ballistic missile silo to record a hopeful reminder that nuclear war is not inevitable.

The Omaha Summer Arts Festival is host to around 130 art booths, live music, local food vendors and a hands-on children’s fair. This weekend is the festival’s 50th anniversary, but it’s also its final year.

A survey of manufacturing supply-chain managers in the Midwest found that economic growth slowed in the month of May. Creighton economics professor Ernie Goss, who leads the Mid-America Business Conditions Index, said high inflation and fewer exports are resulting in lower growth in the manufacturing industry.

The human papillomavirus, or HPV, is a sexually transmitted, cancer-causing infection that can be largely prevented by a series of vaccinations in children. Nebraska Public Media’s Kassidy Arena reports the state does well in starting that series, but not as well in completing it.

At 82 years old, Rick Hubbard is hitting the highways of America to raise awareness of political dysfunction.

A Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Court judge ruled a former Papillion firefighter is entitled to compensation for mental injury. Nebraska Public Media’s Sarah Lawlor has more.

Dead Timber State Recreation Area is set to receive more than a half million dollars for a redevelopment project. The park north of Scribner received a $589,000 grant from the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.

In 2019, major flooding altered the Platte River near its junction with Highway 75, creating a large sandbar and restricting the channel size to a third of what it had been previously. Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District general manager John Winkler says the sandbar makes communities like Louisville and Cedar Creek, which are upstream, more susceptible to additional flooding.

Gov. Jim Pillen said Friday that if legal costs get too high, he would abandon the Perkins County Canal proposal.