LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse will make a national debut in bookstores next year.
The Nebraska Republican known for his opposition to Donald Trump has signed a deal with St. Martin’s Press for a book about the difficulty young people have in transitioning to adulthood. The publisher said Tuesday the book will be released in May 2017.
The book draws from Sasse’s experience as Midland University’s president in Fremont. It offers a critical view of what he views as his students’ passivity and inability to solve problems without adult help. Sasse acknowledges the role of video games, phones and “helicopter parenting,” but argues cultural problems are the root cause.
The book is entitled, “The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming of Age Crisis — and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance.”
Partly sunny, with a high near 65. Northwest wind 6 to 10 mph becoming east northeast in the afternoon.
Tonight
A 40 percent chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 38. Breezy, with a north wind 7 to 12 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 29 mph.
Wednesday
Mostly sunny, with a high near 51. North wind 8 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.
Wednesday Night
Patchy frost after 1am. Otherwise, clear, with a low around 32. Light and variable wind becoming south southeast around 6 mph after midnight.
Thursday
Areas of frost before 8am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high near 63. South wind 6 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.
Pacesetter – Mid-Plains Community College President Ryan Purdy receives the Pacesetter of the Year award from Erin Edlund, director of the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations District 5, during the district’s annual conference in Kansas City, Mo. on Oct. 2.
Mid-Plains Community College President Ryan Purdy has been named as the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations District 5 Pacesetter of the Year for 2016.
The Pacesetter of the Year award recognizes a community college president or CEO who has demonstrated special leadership and support in community college marketing and public relations.
It is awarded annually in each of NCMPR’s seven districts. District recipients automatically become a nominee for the national award, which is presented at the national conference every spring.
As a nominee for District 5, Purdy was up against community college presidents from Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, the Canadian province of Manitoba, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Purdy became president of MPCC in May of 2013 after spending more than a year as the college’s interim president.
Since taking over the helm, Purdy has been instrumental in growing enrollment from 7,837 in 2012 to 9,150 in 2015 – making MPCC the only community college in Nebraska with positive enrollment increases.
He has also focused resources to deliver a 60 percent rating in full-time student retention, accomplishing the growth with either no increase or a reduced local property tax asking for the past seven years.
Purdy has supported the development of new programs in health occupations, including Fire Science, and helped implement new curriculum for the college’s Associate Degree of Nursing program.
He put into action significant distance learning upgrades – raising the number of download sites from three to seven.
Purdy was a driving force behind a newSundayCollege two-year, associate degree program which utilized the newly expanded distance learning system to provide that programming throughout MPCC’s 20,500-square-mile service area.
Purdy has also been instrumental in committing more than $3 million in equipment upgrades to the college’s career and technical programs.
He has continuously been at the forefront of working with local communities to raise the funds required to build new campuses. In July, MPCC broke ground on an almost $2 million campus in Valentine. Purdy spent countless days and repeated trips meeting with community leaders to secure $1 million for that project.
At the state level, Purdy has spent the past two years as chair of the CEO Council that represents Nebraska’s five community colleges. During the 2015-16 legislative session, he repeatedly was asked to provide testimony related to the state’s portion of the funding formula. He focused on several bills that attempted to provide property tax relief, but in doing so, would have severely damaged the growth potential for the state’s community colleges.
During the legislative session, he was also requested to be in Lincoln to serve as the leader of the Nebraska community college system and to help convince opponents to consider the consequences of the bill.
President Purdy was recognized with the Pacesetter award during the annual NCMPR District 5 conference in Kansas City, Mo. on Oct. 2. The national conference will beMarch 27-29in Charleston, S. C.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska health officials are exploring how to use technology to provide mental health and substance abuse treatment for rural patients who must otherwise travel for hours to access behavioral health care.
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services released a report last week assessing the state’s behavioral health needs.
The department’s deputy director, Linda Wittmuss, says data pulled from census statistics, studies, focus groups and surveys will inform the department’s strategy from 2017 to 2020.
She says the plan will include innovative ways to use technology. For example, through telehealth, a patient could talk to a doctor on a screen for medication management consultations or follow-up therapy sessions through a webcam.
Dr. Joseph Evans, assistant clinical director of the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska, says telehealth has become a national movement.
KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man has escaped from a canal in Kearney.
The Kearney Volunteer Fire Department said in a news release Monday that firefighters and two vehicles were sent around 1:45 p.m. Sunday to the scene west of the University of Nebraska at Kearney campus. Someone had reported that an elderly man was in the water and could be drowning.
The department says the man had gotten out of the water by the time firefighters arrived. They helped him up a steep canal bank, and he was taken to a hospital.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A corn disease that is new to the heartland is infecting Kansas crops.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed the presence of the bacterial leaf streak in a swath that goes from Pratt County to Edwards County in late August.
Justin Gatz, a Preston-area farmer and crop consultant, says the disease probably contributed to this year’s decline in corn yield, but that weather was also a factor.
Kansas State University said that the department began a survey of cornfields across the region after the disease was discovered in samples submitted to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2014. It’s unknown how it entered the U.S.
The disease has been found in about a dozen states, including Nebraska, Colorado and Oklahoma.
NEW YORK (AP) — You probably already use Facebook at work. Now, Facebook is creating a separate version aimed at helping you do actual work instead of catching up on baby photos and political chatter.
Facebook is launching a communications tool Monday for businesses, nonprofits and other organizations. Called Workplace, the platform is ad-free and isn’t connected to existing Facebook accounts. Instead, employers sign up as an organization. Businesses have to pay, but Facebook is offering it to schools and nonprofits for free.
Organizations have used Workplace, previously called Facebook at Work, on an invite-only basis for the past 18 months. Facebook says more than 1,000 places use it, up from 450 six months ago.
Besides group chats and video calls, Workplace has live video and a news feed, much like the regular Facebook.
KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — The Kearney Public Schools board is set to decide what will become of the former Kearney High School building.
The board is expected on Monday to select one of three proposals for the building, including one from a local church that appears to have board support.
That bid from First Baptist Church would offer $260,000 to take the building as is and consider donating the south slope of the property to the city for use as a park.
The two other proposals include one from a construction company that would require the school district to pay for the cost of asbestos removal, and another from a group of investors that would pay various amounts for different portions of the school.
