For once, the drumbeats of division receded and Americans of every ornery opinion gathered to witness history in President Barack Obama’s second-term inauguration.

Hours before Monday’s pageantry, people on foot spilled out of Metro stations near the White House and streamed toward festivities, official vehicles sealed off intersections and commuters packed coffee shops, among the few businesses open on the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.

A steady stream of people headed toward the National Mall, but there wasn’t the same early morning crush of humanity of Obama’s first swearing-in. No one expected a repeat of those unprecedented crowds, nor quite the same excitement. But for many thousands, it was not a day to be missed.

A 22-year-old man is dead after a rollover crash in southeast Nebraska.

The Nuckolls County Sheriff’s office says Drew Cassell was killed around noon Saturday in the crash about 43 miles southeast of Hastings.

The Nelson man was driving on a country road when his vehicle went into a ditch and rolled.

The sheriff’s office says Cassell was not wearing his seatbelt.

All eyes are on the NASA rover Curiosity. It is poised to begin drilling into a Martian rock soon.

There’s less attention being paid to another Mars rover — Opportunity. The older rover is quietly embarking on its tenth year of exploration.

Compared to Curiosity, Opportunity is smaller and doesn’t carry the same high-tech tools. But since landing in January 2004, it has made many discoveries including that Mars was once warmer and wetter than today.

Opportunity and its twin Spirit were only supposed to explore for three months, but both outlasted their original mission. Opportunity remains healthy and is studying interesting rocks in a massive crater. Spirit lost communication with Earth in 2010 shortly after getting stuck in Martian sand.

Lawmakers will consider a bill this year that would give Nebraska-based companies an edge over out-of-state companies when bidding on state contracts.

State Sen. Heath Mello of Omaha introduced the “Buy Nebraska Act.” He proposed the measure after he was contacted by a south Omaha data-entry firm, which had lost out on a Nebraska Game and Parks Commission contract by less than $20. The contract went to an out-of-state business.

Mello says 46 other states have some type of resident-bidder preferences in either their laws or procurement rules, and his bill is intended to keep jobs in Nebraska.

The state awards more than $2 billion in contracts for goods and services each year. Mello says the state doesn’t track how much of that money flows out of Nebraska.