RAVENNA, Neb. (AP) — So many students and staffers have called in sick that school’s been canceled in the central Nebraska city of Ravenna (ruh-VA’-nuh).
Officials say 15 of 70 staff members and 100 of 460 students called in sick Thursday.
There will no school for four days in a row. The district called off classes for Friday, to be followed by the weekend and the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday on Monday.
Superintendent Dwaine Uttecht says flu is the primary illness going around.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers have rejected an attempt to end secret-ballot voting for legislative leaders.
The proposed rule change would have required senators to disclose their votes when picking committee leaders and their speaker. The measure failed on Thursday, with 12 senators voting for it and 33 against.
Some conservative lawmakers argue the Legislature should have to vote publicly when picking leaders as a matter of transparency.
Democrats and some Republican lawmakers say the proposal is attempt by state and county GOP officials to exert control over them. They also say it could lead to resentment and retaliation and make the Legislature more partisan.
Republicans outnumber Democrats 35-13 in the officially nonpartisan Legislature, yet Democrats hold five of the 14 standing-committee chairmanships. Speaker Galen Hadley is a Republican.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A monthly survey of bankers suggests the economy will remain weak in rural parts of 10 Midwestern and Western states because of low grain and oil prices.
The region’s overall economic index improved slightly to 50.9 in January from December’s neutral score of 50. The index ranges from 0 to 100. Any score above 50 suggests growth while a score below 50 suggests decline.
Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says growth is being restrained in rural areas because of low corn and fuel prices. But bankers say ethanol plants haven’t slowed production much.
Despite the concerns, rural businesses have adding some jobs. The January hiring index was 52.8, down from December’s 55.2.
Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska senator is proposing a bill that would bar public school employees and other government workers from collecting union dues.
Sen. Laura Ebke of Crete introduced the measure on Thursday.
The legislation is likely to enjoy support from conservative groups while facing opposition from public sector unions, a major constituency for the Democratic Party. Ebke is a Republican who has served on the Crete School Board and took office in the Legislature this month.
The bill would apply to collective bargaining agreements that are finalized after the measure becomes law.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson is targeting human traffickers and ingestible marijuana in his first package of legislative priorities.
Peterson on Thursday threw his support behind two bills during a news conference at the Capitol.
One measure by Sen. Jim Scheer of Norfolk would increase penalties for pandering and johns who solicit prostitutes. It also would provide court-supervised support for minors who are trafficked, and allow victims to sue their traffickers.
The second bill by Sen. Matt Williams of Gothenburg proposes increased penalties for possession of K2 and ingestible marijuana.
Current laws treat possession of edibles and K2, dubbed synthetic marijuana, as equivalent to possessing less than an ounce of marijuana. The measure’s supporters aim to eliminate those distinctions, linking marijuana in all forms to cognitive abnormalities.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts is calling on a state education board member to resign in the wake of bigoted comments about President Barack Obama that appeared on his blog.
Ricketts said Thursday that he was “deeply disappointed” by the posting that referred to Obama as a “half breed.”
State Board of Education member Pat McPherson has disavowed the comments which appeared on his “Objective Conservative” blog.
McPherson says he didn’t write the piece but took responsibility for not editing it before it was posted earlier Monday by someone he wouldn’t name.
Ricketts says he respects the will of voters, but it’s clear the controversy will hinder the State Board of Education from meetings its goals.
The Nebraska Democratic Party had called on Ricketts to condemn the posting.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts has named three finalists from a national search to lead the state’s embattled corrections department.
The candidates unveiled Thursday are Bryan Brandenburg of Palmer, Alaska , who recently served as a director in his state’s corrections department; Scott Frakes of Olympia, Washington, the deputy director of the Washington Department of Corrections; and Daniel Ronay of Tallahassee, Florida, a vice president for Correctional Healthcare Companies.
Nebraska’s prisons department has faced criticism because of sentences that were miscalculated and the state’s handling of Nikko Jenkins. Jenkins begged for a mental health commitment while incarcerated, and killed four people in Omaha after he was released.
Candidates were identified with help from Ford Webb Associates, a national search firm. Ricketts will interview each finalist.
CHADRON, Neb. (AP) — A 25-year-old woman has pleaded not guilty to allegations that she stole thousands of dollars from her former employer in Chadron.
Danielle Fry, of Red Cloud, on Tuesday entered her pleas to four counts of felony theft.
Court documents say that a representative of Sandstone Real Estate contacted the Nebraska State Patrol in February and reported that he thought a former employee had embezzled from the business. Fry worked as a secretary and receptionist at Sandstone from August 2009 until Dec. 12, 2013. According to the documents, a CPA report said $56,500 was missing from Sandstone’s bank deposits over the period of January 2011 to January 2014.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A longtime Nebraska senator who has fought for decades to eliminate the death penalty is trying again.
Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha introduced a repeal measure for the 38th time on Wednesday.
Chambers is the longest-serving state senator in Nebraska’s history, having served from 1971 to 2009. He left the Legislature due to term limits but was elected again in 2013.
His measure would replace the death penalty with a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. In the bill, Chambers rails against the death penalty as a failure that has harmed the state’s reputation for fairness, decency and the dignity of human life.
Last year, his repeal bill was voted out of committee but killed on the floor by a legislative filibuster.
