Humanities Desk | NET Radio

Dozens of active-duty and veteran Marines gathered in the basement of the governor's mansion to celebrate the military branch's 250th birthday, complete with birthday cake cut by a sword. Nebraska Department of Veterans' Affairs Director John Hilgert said it symbolizes the Marines' role as a band of warriors committed to carrying the sword so the nation may live in peace. Pillen said he's heard appreciation for the U.S. military while on trade and diplomatic missions around the world.

The professors and students who take part in the trip aren't allowed to reveal exactly what they found, but whatever they did collect is transferred to the Defense P-O-W/M-I-A Accounting Agency lab at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, where a group of scientists there work on identifying missing service members. Belcher says these missions teach students about the importance of having a name and identity, and that there's an unspeakable loss when that's taken from someone missing in action.

Former President Joe Biden is scheduled to speak in Omaha Friday evening as part of the Nebraska Democratic Party's annual Ben Nelson Gala. Biden's speech will mark a rare public appearance for the 46th president, who has largely stayed out of the spotlight during his post-presidency. Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb said she was able to get Biden to come to Omaha due to his special connection to the state party. Kleeb also serves as the Democratic National Committee's Vice Chair.

School bonds had a relatively successful night overall, with voters in the Wausa, Logan View, Sterling and Minden School Districts approving tax increases to construct new school buildings and improve athletic facilities. In the Ashland-Greenwood School District, voters approved an override of the district's property tax levy. However, in Columbus and Stanton, voters rejected bonds aimed at funding construction for new buildings.

Despite tariff concerns and low grain prices, Nebraska ag producers are on track for a good year overall. Net farm income in the state is projected to reach around 8.4 billion dollars, up from just under 6 billion dollars last year. Increased livestock receipts and government payments represent the bulk of the additional income, which were enough to offset lower crop receipts and production expenses.

Each year, the Star City Hearse Club does their Halloween Hearse Tour. They are becoming a Halloween staple, but they want to do more.

Next year will be a time of belt-tightening in the state capitol. That's the sentiment from fiscal committee leadership ahead of the 60-day session that begins in January. Changes from the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act are estimated to cost the state more than $200 million in revenue over the next two years. That, combined with lower-than-expected state tax revenues over the summer, means the Legislature will likely make additional cuts to the biennial budget it passed in the spring. Revenue Committee Chair Brad von Gillern said some ways of raising revenue, such as reversing income tax cuts or rolling back business tax incentives, should be off the table.

Republicans have tried to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government funded at previous levels through late November, but it's failed 13 times to receive the 60 votes needed in the Senate to pass. Democrats say they want to negotiate an extension of tax credits for people who receive health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Speaking with the press Wednesday, Ricketts said that won't happen until after the government is reopened.

Gov. Jim Pillen is in Isreal this week to promote Nebraska trade and U.S. defense technology. The governor attended a swearing in ceremony for new troops in the Israeli army and visited the Nova Festival Memorial, which commemorates the victims of the Oct. 7 attacks. Pillen said he met with people in western Galilee who have endured thousands of warnings to take shelter over the last 18 months, but said the recent ceasefire negotiated by President Donald Trump has made things calm again.

Not as many younger people are joining clubs like Rotary and Sertoma. A group of neighbors in the southeastern Nebraska town of Crete want to change that in their community, by bringing together people — young and old. Former state senator Laura Ebke helped found the group Crete Connect just a few days after the shooting death of political activist Charlie Kirk. Ebke spoke with Nebraska Public Media's Jackie Ourada about the community effort to bring neighbors back together.

Several weeks after Nebraska awarded its first medical cannabis cultivation licenses, the Omaha Tribe Cannabis Commission voted to award the tribe itself with vertical licensure. That allows the tribe to participate in all parts of the cannabis process, including the cultivation, manufacturing and sale of cannabis.

The Nebraska Storytelling Festival held its fourth annual event last Thursday in Lincoln. Ten Nebraskans got up on stage and told a story from their lives; all centered around the theme of “Lost and Found.”

The Nebraska Investment Finance Authority estimates that around two-thirds of households are unable to afford Nebraska's median home price, due in part to a shortage of around 120 thousand housing units in the state. For people with disabilities, the number of available units is much smaller. Omaha area resident Kathy Hoell said the availability of safe and accessible housing is "almost nonexistent."

Calvert Elementary third graders successfully campaigned to make the honeybee Nebraska's state insect, and a bill was signed by the governor in 1975. Auburn Creative District Director Leslie Clark says she invited Willey to continue that theme, inspired by his message of connection to the community.

According to the USDA, The national herd is at a 75-year low, as the country has lost more than 150,000 cattle operations since 2017. At the same time, demand has grown by around 9% in the past decade, leading to record high beef prices. The new plan would streamline grazing permits and begin enforcing compliance of products with a “Made in the USA” label.

Barr Middle School and Walnut Middle School met on the gridiron on Oct. 16, exactly 100 years from the first time the rivals faced off. People from both sides of the matchup reflect on what the game means to the community and how it's changed through the years.

Nebraska Lottery Sales were down by more than 36 million dollars in fiscal year 2025 compared with the previous fiscal year. In 2004, Nebraska voters approved a constitutional amendment requiring that lottery proceeds are distributed among the Nebraska Environmental Trust Fund, the Nebraska State Fair Board, legislatively directed education programs and the Compulsive Gamblers Assistance Fund.

On Oct. 17th, 2000, Gina Bos was last seen leaving a pub in downtown Lincoln. She has been missing ever since. Her sister, Jannel Rap, advocated for the day to be turned into a state holiday. The Unicameral passed legislation last year to make that happen. Law enforcement officers and family members read off names of missing persons in Nebraska, including some who haven't been seen since the 1970s.

The Rural Mainstreet Index, a metric created by Creighton University professor Ernie Goss, is at its lowest level since May 2020. The index comes from a monthly survey of bank CEOs in rural areas across a ten-state region. Goss says a combination of tariffs and weak grain prices are hurting economic activity. However, Nebraska's year-to-date exports on agricultural goods and livestock are up by nearly 50%, despite a sharp decline in trade with China. Goss says the state's strong livestock industry could be to thank.

The fight over medical cannabis access continued in Nebraska Wednesday, as dozens of advocates spoke out against proposed regulations from the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission. More than 71% of voters in the state supported legalizing the use of up to five ounces of marijuana for medical purposes by qualified patients in the November 2024 election. The proposed regulations provide a pathway for patients to access that in theory, but many at Wednesday's hearing said the restrictions amount to a de facto rejection of the voters' intent.

Advocates for All Nebraskans, a nonprofit lead by former Nebraska Republican Party chair Eric Underwood, introduced its fourth and fifth petitions of the 2026 election cycle Tuesday. One of the proposed constitutional amendments would require all elections in the state to be conducted exclusively through paper ballots that are counted by hand. The other would give all five of the Nebraska's electoral votes to the statewide winner instead of the current congressional district allocations. Lincoln radio host Doug Fitzgerald said the petition drives have national implications that cannot be overstated.

Omaha's AfroCon was this past Saturday. A convention that focuses on all things nerdy, it also centers creating and maintaining community within North Omaha.

Nebraska's capital city may soon have a new requirement for the owners of cryptocurrency ATMs. Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird announced Thursday she will be proposing an ordinance that would require crypto or Bitcoin ATM owners to post a sign warning users of scam risks associated with the machine. According to data from the Lincoln Police Department, the number of local fraud cases involving cryptocurrency has more than doubled since its categorization began in 2021.

AfroCon is back in Omaha for its seventh year in a row this Saturday. Planned and put on by Omaha nonprofit, the House of Afros, Capes and Curls, the goal is to provide a place where people of color are openly welcomed and can feel comfortable to indulge in their ‘nerdy' interests.

Nebraska's largest casino operator is expanding its facilities once more, thanks in part to its refinancing of $300 million in startup loans. Since Nebraskans voted to legalize casino gambling at racetracks in 2020, WarHorse Gaming – a wing of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska's economic development corporation, Ho Chunk Inc. – has taken full advantage. WarHorse currently operates casinos in Lincoln and Omaha, and a new location is being planned for South Sioux City. CEO Lance Morgan said the ability to refinance startup loans at a lower interest rate shows investor confidence and will help the operation continue to grow.

U.S. Rep. Mike Flood discusses the federal government shutdown, ACA tax credits, agriculture economic assistance and the Farm Bill.

The first two medical cannabis cultivator license applications have been approved in Nebraska. Nancy Laughlin-Wagner on behalf of Midwest Cultivators Group in Omaha and Patrick Thomas of Raymond will each receive an offer of licensure to grow and cultivate up to 1250 flowering marijuana plants for medical purposes. Their applications were among the four that were randomly selected to be scored by the members of the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission's evaluation team, which includes all three commission members: Chair Monica Oldenburg, Lorelle Mueting and J. Michael Coffey.

If you turn on a faucet on the Santee Sioux reservation, the water that comes out looks normal enough. But there's a good chance the sink it's pouring into is discolored or corroded. Drink the water, and you're putting yourself at risk of negatively impacting your memory, attention, or motor skills, particularly if you're very young or very old. That's because the water here has a dangerously high level of manganese, a naturally occurring mineral that can't be boiled away. The tribe has issued a drinking water advisory to the reservation recommending tap water not be consumed due to manganese detected at more than ten times above the EPA Health Advisory level.

Jane Goodall spent her life studying the behavior of primates – their relationships, their behaviors, their emotions. But they weren't the only animals she admired. For more than twenty years, the great sandhill crane migration drew the legendary primatologist to the center of Nebraska. Author and photographer Alan Bartels told Nebraska Public Media's Jackie Ourada about his friendship with Jane Goodall that began after a visit she made here.

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.

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.

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.

With federal government funding set to expire at the end of the day Tuesday, one Nebraska congressman isn't holding out hope of avoiding a shutdown. Rep. Mike Flood, a Republican who represents Nebraska's 1st Congressional District, said Sunday that compromise with the Democrats, at least in the short term, seems unlikely. “Sadly, at this time, I'm not hearing about anything that gives me hope that we're going to be able to get past this, basically because Senator Schumer in the Senate says he's not there, the Democrats don't want to do this,” Flood said.

Dozens of Pete Ricketts supporters made for standing room only inside the Mechanical Room, a speakeasy located in the basement of a brewery in downtown Beatrice, Wednesday evening. Nebraska's junior senator began his campaign speech highlighting his record of reducing taxes and improving public safety during his eight years as the state's governor. “We were able to cut the state income taxes for Nebraska families,” he said. “We were able to eliminate the state income tax on Social Security and also eliminate the state income tax on military retirement benefits.”

It's been a rough year for Nebraska row crop producers, with low corn prices and China's refusal to buy soybeans leaving many producers in the red, despite relatively high yields. But speaking in York Wednesday, Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs said there are big wins on the horizon for American agriculture. Lindberg attended a roundtable with ag producers on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, ahead of a joint review on the agreement scheduled for next summer. Lindberg says the review process includes three steps – looking to get a better deal, putting buyers and sellers in the same room and ensuring that foreign governments are living up to their commitments.

Omaha-based Union Pacific may soon become the first transcontinental railroad company in the United States, thanks to a proposed merger with Norfolk Southern. But the move has some rail employees worried about worker safety and a lack of government oversight. Nebraska Public Media's Brian Beach visited Union Pacific's Bailey Yard in North Platte to learn more.

The 2026 general election may be more than a year away, but the U.S. Senate race in Nebraska is already heating up. Dan Osborn, the industrial mechanic and independent candidate who made national waves for his closer-than-expected race with Sen. Deb Fischer in 2024, is back on the campaign trail – this time against another Republican incumbent, Sen. Pete Ricketts. Osborn may have lost to Fischer by more than 6 percentage points, but in a state that hasn't elected a non-Republican to the Senate since 2006, the close margin elevated his profile and motivated supporters heading into the next election cycle. “It just started with an idea, and we turned it into getting 47% of the vote in Nebraska,” he said Monday of his 2024 campaign, interrupted by cheering and applause from the crowd.

The Kearney Regional Medical Center – owned by Bryan Health – and Cancer Partners of Nebraska are coming together to open the Kearney Cancer Center, a 25,000-square-foot facility dedicated to cancer treatment. The center includes a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner to detect early signs of cancer, a linear accelerator for delivering radiation to treat tumors, and infusion bays with views of Yanney Park for chemotherapy patients. It will also offer on-site lab and diagnostic imaging, access to national clinical trials and certified mastectomy fitting.

The Otoe-Missouria tribe called Southeast Nebraska home for over three hundred years but was displaced by the U-S in 1881, and forcibly moved to Red Rock, Oklahoma. Now there are efforts from the tribe to reconnect with their spiritual homeland through art.

The field of Democratic candidates in Nebraska's 2nd Congressional district just got bigger. James Leuschen, the former policy director for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, launched his campaign Thursday. “I'm running for Congress because I know firsthand what Nebraska families are up against,” he said. “Donald Trump's tax and tariff policies are sowing chaos and making life more expensive for families here. As a dad to three kids and son to an aging parent, I see how the cost of groceries, child care, elderly care, and housing continue to go up under Trump's policies, and relief is nowhere in sight.”

Bryan Health opened a time capsule from 1987 on Tuesday afternoon, showcasing old medical supplies and the health system's history of innovative healthcare.

A report from the auditor's office says Mayor Paul Murrell used city-owned vehicles for personal use and highlights payments of nearly $50,000 to the mayor's personal business for work performed at a municipal nursing home. When questioned about the personal vehicle, state auditor Mike Foley says Murrell provided a sales tax form that didn't match the vehicle used as evidence against him.

Rep. Mike Flood, who represents the state's first district, says avoiding a government shutdown is the first priority of Congress as the new fiscal year approaches in October. He says that will require negotiations with Democrats to put a budget together and ensure the government is funded.