By Paul Hamel <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/02/08/state-approved-use-of-pesticide-coated-seed-corn-for-ethanol-plant-a-decade-ago/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

LINCOLN — Courtroom arguments have been delayed until July 19 in the legal challenge to Nebraska’s new law that restricts abortion and transgender health care for minors.

That means that Legislative Bill 574 — which limits abortions to 12 weeks of gestation — remains in effect for now.

The abortion ban was immediately effective upon the&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/05/22/nebraska-gov-jim-pillen-signs-abortion-gender-care-restrictions-into-law/#:~:text=LINCOLN%20%E2%80%94%20Nebraska%20Gov.,fight%20until%20the%20very%20end.&amp;text=Legislative%20Bill%20574%2C%20proposed%20by,the%20final%20round%20of%20debate.">signature of Gov. Jim Pillen</a>&nbsp;on May 22. The portion of the bill that bans gender-affirming surgeries for minors doesn’t go into effect until October.

After a 15-minute court hearing held via Zoom on Monday morning, Lancaster County District Court Judge Lori Maret decided to continue the court challenge until July 19 at 10 a.m.

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and the ACLU of Nebraska, who are representing a physician and clinic that perform abortions, maintain that&nbsp;LB 574 violates the Nebraska Constitution’s requirement that legislation be confined to a single subject.

They are asking the judge to either rule the law unconstitutional or issue a temporary injunction against it going into effect until their lawsuit is decided.

Meanwhile, lawyers with the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, which is defending the new law, are asking the judge to throw out the legal challenge to LB 574.

They maintain that the two aspects of the bill — abortion and transgender rights — are compatible&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/06/09/nebraska-attorney-general-says-planned-parenthood-trying-to-tell-legislature-how-to-do-its-job/">because they both deal with health and welfare, and the powers of the state medical officer.</a>

During the brief court hearing Monday, Maret rejected a request by Planned Parenthood/ACLU to argue the request for a preliminary injunction.

The judge said she wanted to&nbsp;hear the arguments on the motions together, at one hearing, rather than some arguments Monday and others July 19.

“Why would I want to hear something twice? That doesn’t seem very efficient to me,” Maret said.

In an affidavit filed Monday, Dr. Sarah Traxler, the medical director for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, said the clinic was one of three abortion providers in Nebraska and had performed 4,631 abortions in the past three years.

Of those, 32% were after 12 weeks of gestational age, she said.

“Legal abortion is one of the safest procedures in contemporary medical practice,” Traxler wrote, and is a common practice, with one in four women having an abortion by age 45.

She said many women don’t know that they’re pregnant until after the first trimester, or 14 weeks.

For women living in poverty or without insurance, Traxler said, the financial and transportation barriers would prevent many from obtaining an abortion prior to 12 weeks.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/6/1686653935804.png" alt=" Omahans rally in support of abortion rights at Memorial Park a year ago, just after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. View is to the west along Dodge Street. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)" />
 <figcaption> Omahans rally in support of abortion rights at Memorial Park a year ago, just after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. View is to the west along Dodge Street. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)</figcaption>
 </figure>By Paul Hamel <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/02/08/state-approved-use-of-pesticide-coated-seed-corn-for-ethanol-plant-a-decade-ago/">Nebraska Examiner</a>LINCOLN — Courtroom arguments have been delayed until July 19 in the legal challenge to Nebraska’s new law that restricts abortion and transgender health care for minors.That means that Legislative Bill 574 — which limits abortions to 12 weeks of gestation — remains in effect for now.The abortion ban was immediately effective upon the&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/05/22/nebraska-gov-jim-pillen-signs-abortion-gender-care-restrictions-into-law/#:~:text=LINCOLN%20%E2%80%94%20Nebraska%20Gov.,fight%20until%20the%20very%20end.&amp;text=Legislative%20Bill%20574%2C%20proposed%20by,the%20final%20round%20of%20debate.">signature of Gov. Jim Pillen</a>&nbsp;on May 22. The portion of the bill that bans gender-affirming surgeries for minors doesn’t go into effect until October.After a 15-minute court hearing held via Zoom on Monday morning, Lancaster County District Court Judge Lori Maret decided to continue the court challenge until July 19 at 10 a.m.Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and the ACLU of Nebraska, who are representing a physician and clinic that perform abortions, maintain that&nbsp;LB 574 violates the Nebraska Constitution’s requirement that legislation be confined to a single subject.They are asking the judge to either rule the law unconstitutional or issue a temporary injunction against it going into effect until their lawsuit is decided.Meanwhile, lawyers with the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, which is defending the new law, are asking the judge to throw out the legal challenge to LB 574.They maintain that the two aspects of the bill — abortion and transgender rights — are compatible&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/06/09/nebraska-attorney-general-says-planned-parenthood-trying-to-tell-legislature-how-to-do-its-job/">because they both deal with health and welfare, and the powers of the state medical officer.</a>During the brief court hearing Monday, Maret rejected a request by Planned Parenthood/ACLU to argue the request for a preliminary injunction.The judge said she wanted to&nbsp;hear the arguments on the motions together, at one hearing, rather than some arguments Monday and others July 19.“Why would I want to hear something twice? That doesn’t seem very efficient to me,” Maret said.In an affidavit filed Monday, Dr. Sarah Traxler, the medical director for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, said the clinic was one of three abortion providers in Nebraska and had performed 4,631 abortions in the past three years.Of those, 32% were after 12 weeks of gestational age, she said.“Legal abortion is one of the safest procedures in contemporary medical practice,” Traxler wrote, and is a common practice, with one in four women having an abortion by age 45.She said many women don’t know that they’re pregnant until after the first trimester, or 14 weeks.For women living in poverty or without insurance, Traxler said, the financial and transportation barriers would prevent many from obtaining an abortion prior to 12 weeks.

Legal arguments in challenge to new abortion ban put off until July

BEIRUT (AP) — A helicopter accident in northeastern Syria over the weekend left 22 American service members injured, the U.S. military said Tuesday, adding that the cause of the accident was under investigation and that no enemy fire was involved.

The military statement said the service members were receiving treatment and 10 were moved to “higher care facilities” outside the region.

“A helicopter mishap in northeastern Syria resulted in the injuries of various degrees of 22 U.S. service members,” it said. “No enemy fire was reported.”

A spokesman for the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/syria-us-troops-drone-attack-6194dca97f594e3609914637463c4ce3">There are at least 900 U.S. forces in Syria</a>&nbsp;on average, along with an undisclosed number of contractors. U.S. special operations forces also move in and out of the country, but are usually in small teams and are not included in the official count.

U.S. forces have been in Syria since 2015 to advise and assist the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the fight against the militant Islamic State group. Since the extremist group was defeated in Syria in March 2019, U.S. troops have been trying to prevent any comeback by IS, which swept through Iraq and Syria in 2014, taking control of large swaths of territory.

However, IS sleeper cells remain a threat. There are also&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/islamic-state-group-europe-middle-east-syria-prisons-c1a74b4dc864830bf37037a45ec5182e">about 10,000 IS fighters held in detention facilities in Syria</a>&nbsp;and tens of thousands of their family members living in two refugee camps in the country's northeast.

Over the past years, U.S. troops have been subjected to attacks carried out by IS members and Iran-backed fighters there. In late March, a drone attack on a U.S. base killed a contractor and wounded five American troops and another contractor. In retaliation, U.S. fighter jets struck several locations around the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, which borders Iraq.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the time that the strikes were a response to the drone attack as well as a series of recent attacks against U.S.-led coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

In a related development, Syrian Kurdish-led authorities announced Saturday that hundreds of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/islamic-state-syria-sdf-kurds-alhol-628730e580697497696f13855b3931f6">IS fighters held in prisons around the region will be put on trial</a>&nbsp;after their home countries refused to repatriate them.

BEIRUT (AP) — A helicopter accident in northeastern Syria over the weekend left 22 American service members injured, the U.S. military said Tuesday, adding that the cause of the accident was under investigation and that no enemy fire was involved.The military statement said the service members were receiving treatment and 10 were moved to “higher care facilities” outside the region.“A helicopter mishap in northeastern Syria resulted in the injuries of various degrees of 22 U.S. service members,” it said. “No enemy fire was reported.”A spokesman for the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/syria-us-troops-drone-attack-6194dca97f594e3609914637463c4ce3">There are at least 900 U.S. forces in Syria</a>&nbsp;on average, along with an undisclosed number of contractors. U.S. special operations forces also move in and out of the country, but are usually in small teams and are not included in the official count.U.S. forces have been in Syria since 2015 to advise and assist the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the fight against the militant Islamic State group. Since the extremist group was defeated in Syria in March 2019, U.S. troops have been trying to prevent any comeback by IS, which swept through Iraq and Syria in 2014, taking control of large swaths of territory.However, IS sleeper cells remain a threat. There are also&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/islamic-state-group-europe-middle-east-syria-prisons-c1a74b4dc864830bf37037a45ec5182e">about 10,000 IS fighters held in detention facilities in Syria</a>&nbsp;and tens of thousands of their family members living in two refugee camps in the country's northeast.Over the past years, U.S. troops have been subjected to attacks carried out by IS members and Iran-backed fighters there. In late March, a drone attack on a U.S. base killed a contractor and wounded five American troops and another contractor. In retaliation, U.S. fighter jets struck several locations around the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, which borders Iraq.U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the time that the strikes were a response to the drone attack as well as a series of recent attacks against U.S.-led coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.In a related development, Syrian Kurdish-led authorities announced Saturday that hundreds of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/islamic-state-syria-sdf-kurds-alhol-628730e580697497696f13855b3931f6">IS fighters held in prisons around the region will be put on trial</a>&nbsp;after their home countries refused to repatriate them.

US military: 22 American troops injured after helicopter accident in Syria 

JUNE 12, 2023 (GRAND ISLAND, NEB.)&nbsp;&nbsp;— Troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol arrested one person after locating 55 pounds of suspected cocaine during an encounter on Interstate 80.

The incident occurred Friday at approximately 7:45 a.m. when a trooper observed a vehicle with a license plate violation parked at the eastbound I-80 rest area near York. During the encounter with the driver, the trooper became suspicious of criminal activity. A search of the vehicle, a BMW X5, revealed 55 pounds of suspected cocaine hidden in the spare tire compartment.

The driver, Nicandro Garcia-Perez, 38, of Chino Hills, California, was arrested for possession of cocaine, possession with intent to deliver, and no drug tax stamp. He was lodged in York County Jail.

JUNE 12, 2023 (GRAND ISLAND, NEB.)&nbsp;&nbsp;— Troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol arrested one person after locating 55 pounds of suspected cocaine during an encounter on Interstate 80.The incident occurred Friday at approximately 7:45 a.m. when a trooper observed a vehicle with a license plate violation parked at the eastbound I-80 rest area near York. During the encounter with the driver, the trooper became suspicious of criminal activity. A search of the vehicle, a BMW X5, revealed 55 pounds of suspected cocaine hidden in the spare tire compartment.The driver, Nicandro Garcia-Perez, 38, of Chino Hills, California, was arrested for possession of cocaine, possession with intent to deliver, and no drug tax stamp. He was lodged in York County Jail.

Troopers Find 55 LBs of Cocaine at I-80 Rest Area Near York

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Federal Railroad Administration recently completed a review of Norfolk Southern's safety culture in the wake of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/pennsylvania-ohio-evacuations-fires-5d399dc745f51ef746e22828083d8591">February's fiery derailment</a>&nbsp;in Ohio, and officials plan to follow up with similar investigations of all the major freight railroads over the next year.

A report will be released soon on what&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ohio-train-derailment-norfolk-southern-safety-investigation-2c819f2c469102332d4b1abf4c6e8923">investigators found</a>&nbsp;at Norfolk Southern after the Feb. 3 derailment — which prompted the evacuation of half of East Palestine, Ohio — and several other recent derailments. That crash near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/railroad-safety-derailments-tank-car-ohio-minnesota-c60f33b64e9c7dc05768a78ae20f3ce5">sparked intense interest</a>&nbsp;in railroad safety nationwide and prompted&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ohio-train-derailment-congress-6288cdfb0b4381de4c9bfb05199b8ba6">proposed reforms in Congress</a>.

The head of the FRA, Administrator Amit Bose, said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer recently that in addition to individual reports on Union Pacific, BNSF, CSX, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City, the agency will also produce an industrywide report on common issues and trends.

Railroad unions have been raising concerns that operating changes the railroads have made over the past six years have made the trains that haul hazardous materials and goods of all kinds across the country more dangerous.

The unions say the deep staff cuts railroads have made, combined with their increasing reliance on&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/railroad-crossing-elimination-grants-transportation-department-dce25564812f3a550bde46b5b2976c1e">longer trains</a>, have increased the chance of safety problems. They say inspections are being rushed, preventative maintenance may be neglected and overworked employees are more likely to be fatigued.

The railroads&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-aab7d3084a8d17d8d721d2cb750be323">have defended their practices</a>&nbsp;and said they haven't sacrificed safety to become more efficient. The industry also emphasizes that it remains the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/palestinian-territories-ohio-canada-business-accidents-d57651e17b2f9e0163c50298106950a3">safest way</a>&nbsp;to transport hazardous materials over land.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/derailment-ohio-safety-norfolk-southern-railroad-171b7d3f8e0dbced1336efafb098badf">Norfolk Southern</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/railroad-safety-ohio-derailment-hazardous-materials-74d7aec638500c52d1eb9fda0acf9f26">all the major railroads</a>&nbsp;have announced a number of steps they are taking to improve safety though&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/rail-accidents-transportation-pete-buttigieg-ohio-pennsylvania-f1cd9d79cdd66b1f45d1dcdf1e53ff58">regulators</a>, and lawmakers have called for them to do more.

Federal regulators have said that safety data hasn't changed enough to show that the railroads' new operating model is unsafe. The figures do show that the rate of accidents per every million miles freight trains travel increased from 15.572 to 16.695 over the past decade even though the total number of incidents declined as railroads hauled less freight. The rate of accidents inside railyards also worsened from 11.044 in 2013 to 15.517 last year.

There have also been concerns raised about the safety of today's long trains that routinely stretch more than two miles. Bose said that the FRA&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/railroad-safety-derailments-long-trains-fra-ceaf4f56fedbdba6ce9374166b41b895">recently warned</a>&nbsp;railroads to be careful about the way they assemble long trains to reduce the risk of derailments.

The freight railroads favor longer trains because they allow them to deliver the same amount of freight with fewer crews and locomotives.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1678141665059.png" alt="&nbsp;Union Pacific train derailment on March 4 in Sumner County, Kansas -photo courtesy KWCH" />
 <figcaption>&nbsp;Union Pacific train derailment on March 4 in Sumner County, Kansas -photo courtesy KWCH</figcaption>
 </figure>OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Federal Railroad Administration recently completed a review of Norfolk Southern's safety culture in the wake of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/pennsylvania-ohio-evacuations-fires-5d399dc745f51ef746e22828083d8591">February's fiery derailment</a>&nbsp;in Ohio, and officials plan to follow up with similar investigations of all the major freight railroads over the next year.A report will be released soon on what&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ohio-train-derailment-norfolk-southern-safety-investigation-2c819f2c469102332d4b1abf4c6e8923">investigators found</a>&nbsp;at Norfolk Southern after the Feb. 3 derailment — which prompted the evacuation of half of East Palestine, Ohio — and several other recent derailments. That crash near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/railroad-safety-derailments-tank-car-ohio-minnesota-c60f33b64e9c7dc05768a78ae20f3ce5">sparked intense interest</a>&nbsp;in railroad safety nationwide and prompted&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ohio-train-derailment-congress-6288cdfb0b4381de4c9bfb05199b8ba6">proposed reforms in Congress</a>.The head of the FRA, Administrator Amit Bose, said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer recently that in addition to individual reports on Union Pacific, BNSF, CSX, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City, the agency will also produce an industrywide report on common issues and trends.Railroad unions have been raising concerns that operating changes the railroads have made over the past six years have made the trains that haul hazardous materials and goods of all kinds across the country more dangerous.The unions say the deep staff cuts railroads have made, combined with their increasing reliance on&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/railroad-crossing-elimination-grants-transportation-department-dce25564812f3a550bde46b5b2976c1e">longer trains</a>, have increased the chance of safety problems. They say inspections are being rushed, preventative maintenance may be neglected and overworked employees are more likely to be fatigued.The railroads&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-aab7d3084a8d17d8d721d2cb750be323">have defended their practices</a>&nbsp;and said they haven't sacrificed safety to become more efficient. The industry also emphasizes that it remains the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/palestinian-territories-ohio-canada-business-accidents-d57651e17b2f9e0163c50298106950a3">safest way</a>&nbsp;to transport hazardous materials over land.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/derailment-ohio-safety-norfolk-southern-railroad-171b7d3f8e0dbced1336efafb098badf">Norfolk Southern</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/railroad-safety-ohio-derailment-hazardous-materials-74d7aec638500c52d1eb9fda0acf9f26">all the major railroads</a>&nbsp;have announced a number of steps they are taking to improve safety though&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/rail-accidents-transportation-pete-buttigieg-ohio-pennsylvania-f1cd9d79cdd66b1f45d1dcdf1e53ff58">regulators</a>, and lawmakers have called for them to do more.Federal regulators have said that safety data hasn't changed enough to show that the railroads' new operating model is unsafe. The figures do show that the rate of accidents per every million miles freight trains travel increased from 15.572 to 16.695 over the past decade even though the total number of incidents declined as railroads hauled less freight. The rate of accidents inside railyards also worsened from 11.044 in 2013 to 15.517 last year.There have also been concerns raised about the safety of today's long trains that routinely stretch more than two miles. Bose said that the FRA&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/railroad-safety-derailments-long-trains-fra-ceaf4f56fedbdba6ce9374166b41b895">recently warned</a>&nbsp;railroads to be careful about the way they assemble long trains to reduce the risk of derailments.The freight railroads favor longer trains because they allow them to deliver the same amount of freight with fewer crews and locomotives.

Federal regulators promise safety review at all major freight railroads

COLUMBUS, Kan. (AP) — Students spread out in their rural Kansas classroom, answering questions with a partner about invaders atop elephants attempting to sack Rome more than 2,000 years ago.

“Do you want to read?” one of the third graders, Parker, asked his partner after the lesson on the Punic Wars. “Because I’m not really good.”

Bekah Noel told her students to jot down answers for their partners if they needed extra help writing or spelling. Halfway through the school year, with some of her students reading nearly 200 words per minute and others struggling to sound out around 10, she has had to make a lot of tweaks like this.

Exiting from the pandemic, the assumption might be that Noel’s students should be among the least scathed. The tiny, 900-student school system in Columbus pivoted to remote learning briefly in March 2020 before going back in person that fall, initially without masks. While some U.S. students spent&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-education-covid-46cb725e08110f8ad3c1b303ec9eefad">a year or more learning online</a>, pandemic school in rural Kansas was as normal as it got.

But the upheaval still took a toll. Students and teachers got sick, social distancing made it hard to teach kids in small groups, and the pace of teaching ground to a crawl. Three years later, Noel has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/school-reading-test-science-1fc4a95538b6b5c72b447a2935ee0f87">more third graders than ever</a>&nbsp;who are reading below grade level. That’s the true elephant in the room.

“I have kids,” Noel said midway through the year, “that legitimately cannot read.”

Noel is used to adapting to students’ needs, and she has been pulling out all the strategies in her toolkit. She pairs strong and struggling students, reads questions aloud and jots down dictated answers for students to rewrite in their own handwriting.

As the pandemic was raging, the district also adopted a new strategy: a reading curriculum that is heavy on phonics — a stressful gamble that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/phonics-science-reading-c715dea43f338f163715b01b83bb1066">the science-backed curriculum</a>&nbsp;might help kids catch up.

There are signs the changes are helping, particularly for older students. Educators from other schools have been coming to observe the changes. But this is third grade, the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/reading-third-grade-phonics-d0f7143c1a09bff3cf9a89a15d00ca09">last year students are typically taught to read</a>.

AS VIRUS SPREAD, ‘EVERYBODY WAS STRESSED OUT'

During a group session in October, third grader Emmett Mayfield and a classmate dismantled the word “athletic” with paraprofessional Jessica Seitz. Columbus used federal pandemic relief money to double the number of paraprofessionals assigned to help its small groups of struggling students.

“How many syllables do we have?” she asked. Emmett answered: “Three.”

It was part of a lesson on closed syllables, a term that refers to a vowel being followed by a consonant. This matters because it creates a short vowel sound, meaning the letter “A” in the word is pronounced as “ah.” If it was a long vowel, it would sound more like the name of the letter.

“Make a fist,” Seitz instructed. “We are closing that door. The consonant is stopping that vowel from saying its name.”

This type of lesson is a common one now that the district emphasizes the so-called science of reading that is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/reading-scores-phonics-mississippi-alabama-louisiana-5bdd5d6ff719b23faa37db2fb95d5004">gaining momentum nationwide</a>. Schools piloted two new reading curriculums for a few weeks in November and December of 2020, as COVID-19 case levels soared.

Spared initially, small towns in rural Kansas were&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-kansas-coronavirus-pandemic-c924f4f1ecc5f561e9b4fd6e6bdd0e33">so overwhelmed</a>&nbsp;that hospitals had to fly patients hundreds of miles away for treatment. Parker’s mom, Chelsea Brinson, a medical assistant, was testing droves of COVID samples at a clinic. “Everybody was stressed out,” said Brinson, who now works as a nurse’s assistant in the district.

Students started masking. But that meant mask breaks were added to the already disrupted schedule.

Reading specialist Kelly Walters asked the overwhelmed teachers whether they wanted to put the reading pilot on hold.

“One hundred percent of our staff said, ‘No, we want to move forward,’” recalled Walters, who struggled so much to learn to read herself that she suspects an undiagnosed case of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/reading-adhd-dyslexia-learning-disability-8636d7537cb25b8df1faf135301f9d92">dyslexia</a>&nbsp;was to blame.

The program they picked weaves phonics and other reading changes throughout the curriculum. No longer are those elements mostly isolated to worksheets. Staff praised it, which was encouraging to Walters, who tested the materials on her youngest child, just 3 at the time, while&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/reading-adhd-dyslexia-learning-disability-8636d7537cb25b8df1faf135301f9d92">stuck at home early in the pandemic</a>.

“As a mom, who was a struggling reader, to give that gift —” she said, and then stopped and corrected herself. “I shouldn’t have said it was a gift, because it’s not a gift. It’s a right.”

THIRD GRADERS WERE READING LIKE FIRST GRADERS

In late November, Noel taught a science lesson on the skeletal system. Like the rest of the curriculum, it also incorporated reading instruction, with “structure” among the vocabulary words she highlighted.

“Have you ever seen a house being built before?” Noel asked. The students blurted out examples before she continued: “And they’ll have the wood up first, and it will be like beams.”

She then asked whether the word “structure” was a noun, verb, adjective or adverb. Why, she then asked, was it one of the vocabulary words in a lesson on the skeletal system?

Parker shared his answer: “Because our spine holds up the rest of our body.” Noel rewarded him with a fist bump.

Parker started the year reading at the level of a first grader. He was, Noel, said, “embarrassed.” Midway through the year he seemed stuck, learning new skills and then seeming to forget it all. Staff were worried. He was flagged for a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/special-education-disability-depression-adhd-82c09d1d97b05c63cff195077d0c4fb9">special education assessment</a>.

When the pandemic first closed schools in 2020, Parker was a kindergartener. His mom recalled “freaking out,” trying to figure out what to do with him. To get him to do schoolwork, his grandmother or someone else had to sit beside him at all times. Otherwise, Parker said, he would “squirrel off.”

Columbus and many other rural school systems reopened that fall. With strong opposition to masks locally, the district instead added “sneeze guards” to desks. But in-person school was far from normal. The pandemic had hobbled one of teachers’ most effective tools: small groups.

Typically, they would pull kids from different classes to create groups targeting specific skills, Noel said. But with COVID, they were trying to keep each of the classes separated to limit the spread of disease. And then there was COVID itself. Between illnesses and quarantines, students and staff were missing two weeks or more of school multiple times throughout the year.

“It was taking us two days to do something that would have taken us one,” Noel said.

Noel was infected twice, forced to miss school again just this past fall&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-flu-rsv-child-care-guidelines-4ca836af42cf3bbee4ac6e101c467a71">because of a COVID-sickened child</a>. Parker caught COVID in first grade, missing two weeks of school.

Across the country, federal data show, the disruptions wrought by the pandemic were accompanied by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-health-government-and-politics-covid-education-39e01a570b560c685b5340078c8dcdee">widespread learning setbacks</a>, even in states that saw students return quickly to in-person learning. Among those showing the largest learning losses are this year’s crop of third graders, who were in kindergarten when the pandemic hit, a foundational year for learning to read.

Now Noel’s students and other third graders are under pressure to master reading ahead of later grades, where literacy is key to learning everything else.

By late January, it was time to show off at “Books and Breakfast,” with parents, grandparents, preschool-age siblings and friends visiting Highland School to see what the children were learning. The students sprawled around the school building, eating doughnuts and reading books to their special guests.

As Emmett read aloud from “Grumpy Monkey,” he got some help with the word “discovery” and plowed ahead, reading clearly how the bananas were “too sweet.”

“I used to didn’t like to read,” said Emmett, who started the year reading more like an early second grader, “but I just started reading.”

At home, though, he is still resisting reading, said his mother, Jessica Mayfield, a 39-year-old hospital lab technician. She blames it in part on those “awful” days of virtual learning. There were meltdowns, and she fretted even then that he would fall behind, with those early years of school so “crucial.”

Mayfield, herself an avid reader, doesn’t know what more the district could have done. “I think,” she said, “it’s just to be expected.”

Assessments showed 13 of Noel’s 24 students are reading below grade level. Many of them are kids who moved to the district in the middle of this school year. Nine have been getting the most intensive so-called tier-three level of support. Some of her students scored so highly they were evaluated for the gifted program. In a rarity, none fell in the middle tier group of kids needing just a little extra help.

It’s a trend seen elsewhere around the country as the pandemic&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/school-reading-test-science-1fc4a95538b6b5c72b447a2935ee0f87">widened the gap between higher- and lower-performing students</a>.

Noel is working harder than ever to keep her advanced students from getting bored, assigning them special projects. Grace Epler, an advanced reader who is prone to finishing assignments early, sometimes spends her free time making up math problems, helping her classmates or playing educational games on her iPad.

State tests are looming, and it weighs heavily on Grace.

“They compare this school to all the other elementary schools in Kansas, and it scares me,” she said at lunchtime, her wrist in a pink splint after a swing mishap. “I might get, like, five wrong.”

This even though she reads nearly anything put in front of her. She is particularly partial to a book the kids wrote and illustrated themselves that documented what they will miss most about their soon-to-close school, a building filled with quirks like a toilet in an old shower stall.

Many kids in Noel’s class are progressing, but not as much as she would like.

“Those highs grew even more,” Noel said. “And the lows, they grew, but they’re still quite a bit lower.”

One day in April, Emmett and Parker were taking a turn in the small group getting extra reading help. After talk of the basketball and softball seasons, the small group took turns reading a book called “A Prince Among Donkeys,” with lots of words and spelling patterns they’ve seen before.

Parker rested his hand on his forehead, reading: “To Adam’s surprise, Emma smelled.” Then, a quick correction: “smelled” to “smiled.”

Imperfect though it was, something had happened over these months of phonics drills and small-group work. When the special education testing came back, not only did it show he didn’t qualify, but he also made so much progress he was close to reading at the level of a beginning third grader.

“I actually do like reading now,” Parker explained. He described evenings spent on the couch with his mother, practicing. He and Emmett are now obsessed with the same book series about a superhero cat. “It’s just fun to do.”

When Parker finished his turn reading, he had the choice of picking who would go next. But he didn’t choose Emmett or any of the other kids.

“Can I pick myself?” he asked. And he kept reading.

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTHCOLUMBUS, Kan. (AP) — Students spread out in their rural Kansas classroom, answering questions with a partner about invaders atop elephants attempting to sack Rome more than 2,000 years ago.“Do you want to read?” one of the third graders, Parker, asked his partner after the lesson on the Punic Wars. “Because I’m not really good.”Bekah Noel told her students to jot down answers for their partners if they needed extra help writing or spelling. Halfway through the school year, with some of her students reading nearly 200 words per minute and others struggling to sound out around 10, she has had to make a lot of tweaks like this.Exiting from the pandemic, the assumption might be that Noel’s students should be among the least scathed. The tiny, 900-student school system in Columbus pivoted to remote learning briefly in March 2020 before going back in person that fall, initially without masks. While some U.S. students spent&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-education-covid-46cb725e08110f8ad3c1b303ec9eefad">a year or more learning online</a>, pandemic school in rural Kansas was as normal as it got.But the upheaval still took a toll. Students and teachers got sick, social distancing made it hard to teach kids in small groups, and the pace of teaching ground to a crawl. Three years later, Noel has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/school-reading-test-science-1fc4a95538b6b5c72b447a2935ee0f87">more third graders than ever</a>&nbsp;who are reading below grade level. That’s the true elephant in the room.“I have kids,” Noel said midway through the year, “that legitimately cannot read.”Noel is used to adapting to students’ needs, and she has been pulling out all the strategies in her toolkit. She pairs strong and struggling students, reads questions aloud and jots down dictated answers for students to rewrite in their own handwriting.As the pandemic was raging, the district also adopted a new strategy: a reading curriculum that is heavy on phonics — a stressful gamble that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/phonics-science-reading-c715dea43f338f163715b01b83bb1066">the science-backed curriculum</a>&nbsp;might help kids catch up.There are signs the changes are helping, particularly for older students. Educators from other schools have been coming to observe the changes. But this is third grade, the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/reading-third-grade-phonics-d0f7143c1a09bff3cf9a89a15d00ca09">last year students are typically taught to read</a>.And time is running out.___AS VIRUS SPREAD, ‘EVERYBODY WAS STRESSED OUT' During a group session in October, third grader Emmett Mayfield and a classmate dismantled the word “athletic” with paraprofessional Jessica Seitz. Columbus used federal pandemic relief money to double the number of paraprofessionals assigned to help its small groups of struggling students.“How many syllables do we have?” she asked. Emmett answered: “Three.”It was part of a lesson on closed syllables, a term that refers to a vowel being followed by a consonant. This matters because it creates a short vowel sound, meaning the letter “A” in the word is pronounced as “ah.” If it was a long vowel, it would sound more like the name of the letter.“Make a fist,” Seitz instructed. “We are closing that door. The consonant is stopping that vowel from saying its name.”This type of lesson is a common one now that the district emphasizes the so-called science of reading that is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/reading-scores-phonics-mississippi-alabama-louisiana-5bdd5d6ff719b23faa37db2fb95d5004">gaining momentum nationwide</a>. Schools piloted two new reading curriculums for a few weeks in November and December of 2020, as COVID-19 case levels soared.Spared initially, small towns in rural Kansas were&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-kansas-coronavirus-pandemic-c924f4f1ecc5f561e9b4fd6e6bdd0e33">so overwhelmed</a>&nbsp;that hospitals had to fly patients hundreds of miles away for treatment. Parker’s mom, Chelsea Brinson, a medical assistant, was testing droves of COVID samples at a clinic. “Everybody was stressed out,” said Brinson, who now works as a nurse’s assistant in the district.Students started masking. But that meant mask breaks were added to the already disrupted schedule.Reading specialist Kelly Walters asked the overwhelmed teachers whether they wanted to put the reading pilot on hold.“One hundred percent of our staff said, ‘No, we want to move forward,’” recalled Walters, who struggled so much to learn to read herself that she suspects an undiagnosed case of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/reading-adhd-dyslexia-learning-disability-8636d7537cb25b8df1faf135301f9d92">dyslexia</a>&nbsp;was to blame.The program they picked weaves phonics and other reading changes throughout the curriculum. No longer are those elements mostly isolated to worksheets. Staff praised it, which was encouraging to Walters, who tested the materials on her youngest child, just 3 at the time, while&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/reading-adhd-dyslexia-learning-disability-8636d7537cb25b8df1faf135301f9d92">stuck at home early in the pandemic</a>.“As a mom, who was a struggling reader, to give that gift —” she said, and then stopped and corrected herself. “I shouldn’t have said it was a gift, because it’s not a gift. It’s a right.”___THIRD GRADERS WERE READING LIKE FIRST GRADERS In late November, Noel taught a science lesson on the skeletal system. Like the rest of the curriculum, it also incorporated reading instruction, with “structure” among the vocabulary words she highlighted.“Have you ever seen a house being built before?” Noel asked. The students blurted out examples before she continued: “And they’ll have the wood up first, and it will be like beams.”She then asked whether the word “structure” was a noun, verb, adjective or adverb. Why, she then asked, was it one of the vocabulary words in a lesson on the skeletal system?Parker shared his answer: “Because our spine holds up the rest of our body.” Noel rewarded him with a fist bump.Parker started the year reading at the level of a first grader. He was, Noel, said, “embarrassed.” Midway through the year he seemed stuck, learning new skills and then seeming to forget it all. Staff were worried. He was flagged for a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/special-education-disability-depression-adhd-82c09d1d97b05c63cff195077d0c4fb9">special education assessment</a>.When the pandemic first closed schools in 2020, Parker was a kindergartener. His mom recalled “freaking out,” trying to figure out what to do with him. To get him to do schoolwork, his grandmother or someone else had to sit beside him at all times. Otherwise, Parker said, he would “squirrel off.”Columbus and many other rural school systems reopened that fall. With strong opposition to masks locally, the district instead added “sneeze guards” to desks. But in-person school was far from normal. The pandemic had hobbled one of teachers’ most effective tools: small groups.Typically, they would pull kids from different classes to create groups targeting specific skills, Noel said. But with COVID, they were trying to keep each of the classes separated to limit the spread of disease. And then there was COVID itself. Between illnesses and quarantines, students and staff were missing two weeks or more of school multiple times throughout the year.“It was taking us two days to do something that would have taken us one,” Noel said.Noel was infected twice, forced to miss school again just this past fall&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-flu-rsv-child-care-guidelines-4ca836af42cf3bbee4ac6e101c467a71">because of a COVID-sickened child</a>. Parker caught COVID in first grade, missing two weeks of school.Across the country, federal data show, the disruptions wrought by the pandemic were accompanied by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-health-government-and-politics-covid-education-39e01a570b560c685b5340078c8dcdee">widespread learning setbacks</a>, even in states that saw students return quickly to in-person learning. Among those showing the largest learning losses are this year’s crop of third graders, who were in kindergarten when the pandemic hit, a foundational year for learning to read.Now Noel’s students and other third graders are under pressure to master reading ahead of later grades, where literacy is key to learning everything else.___KIDS START CATCHING UP, BUT SLOWLY By late January, it was time to show off at “Books and Breakfast,” with parents, grandparents, preschool-age siblings and friends visiting Highland School to see what the children were learning. The students sprawled around the school building, eating doughnuts and reading books to their special guests.As Emmett read aloud from “Grumpy Monkey,” he got some help with the word “discovery” and plowed ahead, reading clearly how the bananas were “too sweet.”“I used to didn’t like to read,” said Emmett, who started the year reading more like an early second grader, “but I just started reading.”At home, though, he is still resisting reading, said his mother, Jessica Mayfield, a 39-year-old hospital lab technician. She blames it in part on those “awful” days of virtual learning. There were meltdowns, and she fretted even then that he would fall behind, with those early years of school so “crucial.”Mayfield, herself an avid reader, doesn’t know what more the district could have done. “I think,” she said, “it’s just to be expected.”Assessments showed 13 of Noel’s 24 students are reading below grade level. Many of them are kids who moved to the district in the middle of this school year. Nine have been getting the most intensive so-called tier-three level of support. Some of her students scored so highly they were evaluated for the gifted program. In a rarity, none fell in the middle tier group of kids needing just a little extra help.It’s a trend seen elsewhere around the country as the pandemic&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/school-reading-test-science-1fc4a95538b6b5c72b447a2935ee0f87">widened the gap between higher- and lower-performing students</a>.Noel is working harder than ever to keep her advanced students from getting bored, assigning them special projects. Grace Epler, an advanced reader who is prone to finishing assignments early, sometimes spends her free time making up math problems, helping her classmates or playing educational games on her iPad.State tests are looming, and it weighs heavily on Grace.“They compare this school to all the other elementary schools in Kansas, and it scares me,” she said at lunchtime, her wrist in a pink splint after a swing mishap. “I might get, like, five wrong.”This even though she reads nearly anything put in front of her. She is particularly partial to a book the kids wrote and illustrated themselves that documented what they will miss most about their soon-to-close school, a building filled with quirks like a toilet in an old shower stall.Many kids in Noel’s class are progressing, but not as much as she would like.“Those highs grew even more,” Noel said. “And the lows, they grew, but they’re still quite a bit lower.”___READING ‘ACTUALLY’ BECOMES FUN One day in April, Emmett and Parker were taking a turn in the small group getting extra reading help. After talk of the basketball and softball seasons, the small group took turns reading a book called “A Prince Among Donkeys,” with lots of words and spelling patterns they’ve seen before.Parker rested his hand on his forehead, reading: “To Adam’s surprise, Emma smelled.” Then, a quick correction: “smelled” to “smiled.”Imperfect though it was, something had happened over these months of phonics drills and small-group work. When the special education testing came back, not only did it show he didn’t qualify, but he also made so much progress he was close to reading at the level of a beginning third grader.“I actually do like reading now,” Parker explained. He described evenings spent on the couch with his mother, practicing. He and Emmett are now obsessed with the same book series about a superhero cat. “It’s just fun to do.”When Parker finished his turn reading, he had the choice of picking who would go next. But he didn’t choose Emmett or any of the other kids.“Can I pick myself?” he asked. And he kept reading.___

This school reopened quickly after COVID. Kids' reading was still behind

By CINDY GONZALEZ <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/nebraska-no-1-in-labor-force-participation-rate-no-2-in-low-unemployment-rate/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

OMAHA — Concert-goers lined up from places ranging from Texas, Minnesota and even the United Kingdom when the Steelhouse opened recently as Omaha Performing Arts’ third major venue.

Hotels and diners in the area welcomed the $100 million-plus music hall to the downtown neighborhood via social media that also let visitors know their businesses were just a skip away.

It’s the kind of bustle that calls for job reinforcements and support staff. And according to new employment data and industry experts, it’s a momentum growing in leisure, recreation and arts circles elsewhere in Nebraska, too.

“We have seen the industry come roaring back since COVID,” said Joan Squires, president of Omaha Performing Arts, also known as O-pa. “We’ve rehired the positions we had to lay off and we’ve added.”

Indeed, the latest from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that employment in Nebraska’s leisure and hospitality industry not only surpassed the pre-pandemic high earlier this year, but around March it exceeded 97,000 for the first time.&nbsp;

The seasonally adjusted job count in leisure and hospitality —&nbsp; a “supersector” that includes arts, entertainment, recreation, lodging and food services — dipped a bit later but has been trending around the all-time high for the last few months.

To be sure, many say that competition for workers overall remains fierce, and if not addressed, could hamper further economic growth.

Still, those familiar with leisure and hospitality view the milestone in that industry as particularly notable given the disproportionate blow the pandemic dealt to the businesses that depend upon social and public interaction.

“This is the sector that took the biggest dive nationwide, so it’s a good mark for Nebraska,” said Michael Lucci, senior policy adviser of the Platte Institute of Nebraska.

In the few months after the virus struck in early 2020, the state’s leisure and hospitality industry saw a drastic drop of about 40,000 positions.&nbsp;

Lucci said Nebraska has performed 13th best nationally in terms of job growth in the leisure&nbsp; and hospitality market since the pandemic-induced plunge.&nbsp;

He said 31 states have yet to get back to the employment levels they saw in those areas before March 2020.

More broadly — and considering employment in all economic sectors including leisure — Nebraska regained its pre-pandemic footing last fall.

Today, 1.04 million Nebraskans are employed.

Bryan Slone of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that while such recovery is good news, he notes that Nebraska still has between 50,000 and 80,000 open jobs.

Federal data shows two available Nebraska jobs for every unemployed person looking. With the&nbsp; state’s unemployment rate consistently&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/nebraskas-latest-unemployment-rate-drops-slightly-as-state-yearns-for-more-workers/">among the lowest</a>, Slone said it’s been tough to gain traction.

Various factors play into the worker shortage that’s also impacting states nationwide, say Slone and others. Many older workers didn’t return to the labor force after the pandemic struck.

<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/02/13/nebraskas-shifting-workforce-demands-amid-brain-drain-should-sound-alarm-researcher-says/">Fewer working age</a>&nbsp;Nebraskans are in the pipeline compared to decades past. And&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/05/22/foreign-born-huskers-contribute-8-of-state-economic-input-report-says/">immigration</a>&nbsp;has not been as robust.

Said Slone: “It’s going to require a lot more people to live and work in Nebraska.”

Even within the leisure and hospitality industry, not every sector is feeling the same bounce.

Zoe Olson, executive director at the Nebraska Hospitality Association, says restaurants and hotels, for example, continue to struggle to get workers back.

Industry leaders, she said, don’t expect a return to the old days and are adjusting to a “new normal” — that includes trimming hours of operation and automating more services.

Robotic busboys have entered the local scene, she said, and customers more often place orders via electronic devices than a live waiter.

With customer experience still being the driver of hospitality-focused businesses, Olson said, merchants are leaning on creativity. She cited an app that tracks when a car pulls up for a pickup order, enabling the restaurant staff to pack the freshest meal possible.

“We just don’t have the bodies,” Olson said. “We are looking at how to do things differently, and technology will play a big part.”

Meanwhile, arts and recreation subsectors may have rebounded faster relative to many states because Nebraska was not as restrictive during the pandemic, Lucci said.

Squires said public events and leisure activities satisfy pent-up demand.

“Entertainment and the arts bring people together,” she said. “They want shared experiences.… It takes them away from everyday stresses.”

Mike Markey, CEO of Nebraska Arts Council, said he sees arts programming bouncing back among nonprofits, but increasingly with a boost from public grants.

Historically, Markey said, the council receives no more than 30 grant requests in a spring cycle, and this season got 42.

Stephanie Coley, program manager at the West Nebraska Arts Center in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, said attendance at arts programs, camps and exhibits have “blossomed” at the center and doubled in some cases.

The challenge in her relatively small operation, she said, is that the few full-time staff workers and a growing volunteer team can’t keep up with demand.

“We’ve been getting people who have lived here 40 years and hadn’t been in before,” Coley said. “Morale is back. It’s exciting.”

Nebraska’s tourism director, John Ricks, says demand for recreation and other state attractions is rising. Tourism spending in the state grew, he said, from nearly $3.6 billion in 2021 to $4.4 billion in 2022.

Nebraska hosted about 500,000 more overnight guests in 2022 than the year before.

And, said Ricks, Memorial Day weekend, an indicator of how parks and recreational attractions will perform during the year, was “really strong.”&nbsp;

The amount of travel-generated jobs still lags from earlier highs, though, Ricks said, primarily because of competition for labor.

He said many young workers are taking on double shifts, and businesses are doing more with less. For example, Ricks said, many hotels don’t automatically clean and service rooms daily.

O-pa — boosted by big entertainment venues such as the Holland Performing Arts Center and the Orpheum Theater — expects to increase its annual economic impact from $48 million to $61 million now that its Steelhouse entertainment hall has opened.

Squires said the Steelhouse added five full-time positions and 92 part-time jobs to the overall payroll.

With other attractions including newly transformed downtown Omaha parks and the Kiewit Luminarium science museum along the banks of the Missouri River, Squires said she’s eager for further growth in the leisure and hospitality market.

Slone, the chamber leader, said he sees potential, as well, but notes the need to find better ways to recruit labor and nurture talent.&nbsp;

“The trendline is getting better,” Slone said. “We still have a pretty significant workforce need.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/6/1686581022107.png" alt=" Steelhouse live entertainment venue, which is Omaha Performing Arts’ third major facility in the downtown of Nebraska’s biggest city, opened this year, bringing jobs and business to the area. (Courtesy of Tom Kessler)" />
 <figcaption> Steelhouse live entertainment venue, which is Omaha Performing Arts’ third major facility in the downtown of Nebraska’s biggest city, opened this year, bringing jobs and business to the area. (Courtesy of Tom Kessler)</figcaption>
 </figure>By CINDY GONZALEZ <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/nebraska-no-1-in-labor-force-participation-rate-no-2-in-low-unemployment-rate/">Nebraska Examiner</a>OMAHA — Concert-goers lined up from places ranging from Texas, Minnesota and even the United Kingdom when the Steelhouse opened recently as Omaha Performing Arts’ third major venue.Hotels and diners in the area welcomed the $100 million-plus music hall to the downtown neighborhood via social media that also let visitors know their businesses were just a skip away.It’s the kind of bustle that calls for job reinforcements and support staff. And according to new employment data and industry experts, it’s a momentum growing in leisure, recreation and arts circles elsewhere in Nebraska, too.“We have seen the industry come roaring back since COVID,” said Joan Squires, president of Omaha Performing Arts, also known as O-pa. “We’ve rehired the positions we had to lay off and we’ve added.”Indeed, the latest from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that employment in Nebraska’s leisure and hospitality industry not only surpassed the pre-pandemic high earlier this year, but around March it exceeded 97,000 for the first time.&nbsp;<h2>‘Good mark’</h2>The seasonally adjusted job count in leisure and hospitality —&nbsp; a “supersector” that includes arts, entertainment, recreation, lodging and food services — dipped a bit later but has been trending around the all-time high for the last few months.To be sure, many say that competition for workers overall remains fierce, and if not addressed, could hamper further economic growth.Still, those familiar with leisure and hospitality view the milestone in that industry as particularly notable given the disproportionate blow the pandemic dealt to the businesses that depend upon social and public interaction.“This is the sector that took the biggest dive nationwide, so it’s a good mark for Nebraska,” said Michael Lucci, senior policy adviser of the Platte Institute of Nebraska.In the few months after the virus struck in early 2020, the state’s leisure and hospitality industry saw a drastic drop of about 40,000 positions.&nbsp;Lucci said Nebraska has performed 13th best nationally in terms of job growth in the leisure&nbsp; and hospitality market since the pandemic-induced plunge.&nbsp;He said 31 states have yet to get back to the employment levels they saw in those areas before March 2020.More broadly — and considering employment in all economic sectors including leisure — Nebraska regained its pre-pandemic footing last fall.Today, 1.04 million Nebraskans are employed.<h2>‘Going to require a lot more…”</h2>Bryan Slone of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that while such recovery is good news, he notes that Nebraska still has between 50,000 and 80,000 open jobs.Federal data shows two available Nebraska jobs for every unemployed person looking. With the&nbsp; state’s unemployment rate consistently&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/nebraskas-latest-unemployment-rate-drops-slightly-as-state-yearns-for-more-workers/">among the lowest</a>, Slone said it’s been tough to gain traction.Various factors play into the worker shortage that’s also impacting states nationwide, say Slone and others. Many older workers didn’t return to the labor force after the pandemic struck.<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/02/13/nebraskas-shifting-workforce-demands-amid-brain-drain-should-sound-alarm-researcher-says/">Fewer working age</a>&nbsp;Nebraskans are in the pipeline compared to decades past. And&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/05/22/foreign-born-huskers-contribute-8-of-state-economic-input-report-says/">immigration</a>&nbsp;has not been as robust.Said Slone: “It’s going to require a lot more people to live and work in Nebraska.”Even within the leisure and hospitality industry, not every sector is feeling the same bounce.Zoe Olson, executive director at the Nebraska Hospitality Association, says restaurants and hotels, for example, continue to struggle to get workers back.Industry leaders, she said, don’t expect a return to the old days and are adjusting to a “new normal” — that includes trimming hours of operation and automating more services.Robotic busboys have entered the local scene, she said, and customers more often place orders via electronic devices than a live waiter.With customer experience still being the driver of hospitality-focused businesses, Olson said, merchants are leaning on creativity. She cited an app that tracks when a car pulls up for a pickup order, enabling the restaurant staff to pack the freshest meal possible.“We just don’t have the bodies,” Olson said. “We are looking at how to do things differently, and technology will play a big part.”<h2>Takes away ‘everyday stresses’</h2>Meanwhile, arts and recreation subsectors may have rebounded faster relative to many states because Nebraska was not as restrictive during the pandemic, Lucci said.Squires said public events and leisure activities satisfy pent-up demand.“Entertainment and the arts bring people together,” she said. “They want shared experiences.… It takes them away from everyday stresses.”Mike Markey, CEO of Nebraska Arts Council, said he sees arts programming bouncing back among nonprofits, but increasingly with a boost from public grants.Historically, Markey said, the council receives no more than 30 grant requests in a spring cycle, and this season got 42.Stephanie Coley, program manager at the West Nebraska Arts Center in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, said attendance at arts programs, camps and exhibits have “blossomed” at the center and doubled in some cases.The challenge in her relatively small operation, she said, is that the few full-time staff workers and a growing volunteer team can’t keep up with demand.“We’ve been getting people who have lived here 40 years and hadn’t been in before,” Coley said. “Morale is back. It’s exciting.”<h2>Double shifts, more with less</h2>Nebraska’s tourism director, John Ricks, says demand for recreation and other state attractions is rising. Tourism spending in the state grew, he said, from nearly $3.6 billion in 2021 to $4.4 billion in 2022.Nebraska hosted about 500,000 more overnight guests in 2022 than the year before.And, said Ricks, Memorial Day weekend, an indicator of how parks and recreational attractions will perform during the year, was “really strong.”&nbsp;The amount of travel-generated jobs still lags from earlier highs, though, Ricks said, primarily because of competition for labor.He said many young workers are taking on double shifts, and businesses are doing more with less. For example, Ricks said, many hotels don’t automatically clean and service rooms daily.O-pa — boosted by big entertainment venues such as the Holland Performing Arts Center and the Orpheum Theater — expects to increase its annual economic impact from $48 million to $61 million now that its Steelhouse entertainment hall has opened.Squires said the Steelhouse added five full-time positions and 92 part-time jobs to the overall payroll.With other attractions including newly transformed downtown Omaha parks and the Kiewit Luminarium science museum along the banks of the Missouri River, Squires said she’s eager for further growth in the leisure and hospitality market.Slone, the chamber leader, said he sees potential, as well, but notes the need to find better ways to recruit labor and nurture talent.&nbsp;“The trendline is getting better,” Slone said. “We still have a pretty significant workforce need.”

Nebraska’s leisure & hospitality industry hits record job stride after pandemic plunge

On Friday, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced a new security assistance package, according to a statement from the agency.

This package, which totals up to $2.1 billion and includes critical air defense and ammunition capabilities, is being provided under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI).

<a href="https://media.defense.gov/2023/Jun/09/2003238573/-1/-1/0/UKRAINE-FACT-SHEET-JUNE-9.PDF">Click here to </a>see the $40 billion list of security assistance.

This&nbsp;USAI&nbsp;package&nbsp;illustrates the continued commitment to both&nbsp;Ukraine’s critical near-term&nbsp;capabilities as well as&nbsp;the&nbsp;enduring&nbsp;capacity of Ukraine’s Armed Forces to defend its&nbsp;territory and deter Russian aggression&nbsp;over the long&nbsp;term.

Unlike Presidential Drawdown authority, which DoD has continued to leverage to deliver equipment to Ukraine from DoD stocks at a historic pace, USAI is an authority under which the United States procures capabilities from industry or partners. This announcement represents the beginning of a contracting process to provide additional priority capabilities to Ukraine.

The capabilities in this announcement include:

The United States will continue to work with its Allies and partners to provide Ukraine with capabilities to meet its immediate battlefield needs and longer-term security assistance requirements.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/6/1686400612176.png" alt="Airmen load weapons cargo bound for Ukraine onto a C-17 Globemaster III during a security assistance mission at Dover Air Force Base, Del., Sept. 14, 2022.-Photo By:Air Force Staff Sgt. Marco A. Gomez" />
 <figcaption>Airmen load weapons cargo bound for Ukraine onto a C-17 Globemaster III during a security assistance mission at Dover Air Force Base, Del., Sept. 14, 2022.-Photo By:Air Force Staff Sgt. Marco A. Gomez</figcaption>
 </figure>On Friday, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced a new security assistance package, according to a statement from the agency.This package, which totals up to $2.1 billion and includes critical air defense and ammunition capabilities, is being provided under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI).<a href="https://media.defense.gov/2023/Jun/09/2003238573/-1/-1/0/UKRAINE-FACT-SHEET-JUNE-9.PDF">Click here to </a>see the $40 billion list of security assistance.This&nbsp;USAI&nbsp;package&nbsp;illustrates the continued commitment to both&nbsp;Ukraine’s critical near-term&nbsp;capabilities as well as&nbsp;the&nbsp;enduring&nbsp;capacity of Ukraine’s Armed Forces to defend its&nbsp;territory and deter Russian aggression&nbsp;over the long&nbsp;term.Unlike Presidential Drawdown authority, which DoD has continued to leverage to deliver equipment to Ukraine from DoD stocks at a historic pace, USAI is an authority under which the United States procures capabilities from industry or partners. This announcement represents the beginning of a contracting process to provide additional priority capabilities to Ukraine.The capabilities in this announcement include:<ul>
 <li>Additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems;</li><li>HAWK air defense systems and missiles;</li><li>105mm and 203mm artillery rounds;</li><li>Puma Unmanned Aerial Systems;</li><li>Laser-guided rocket system munitions;</li><li>Support for training, maintenance, and sustainment activities.</li>
 </ul>The United States will continue to work with its Allies and partners to provide Ukraine with capabilities to meet its immediate battlefield needs and longer-term security assistance requirements.

U.S. sending Ukraine another $2.1 billion in additional military aid

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Donald Trump’s</a>&nbsp;indictment on charges of mishandling classified documents is set to play out in a federal court in Florida. But hundred of miles away, part of Trump’s defense is well underway in a different venue — the halls of Congress, where Republicans have been preparing for months to wage an aggressive counter-offensive against the Justice Department.

<a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2023-06-09-jdj-to-garland-re-mal.pdf">Click here to read the</a>&nbsp;House Judiciary Committee response

The federal indictment against Trump, unsealed Friday, includes&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-florida-indictment-highlights-857476c71e98e91521212a826efc8816">37 counts</a>, including allegations that the former president intentionally possessed classified documents, showed them off to visitors, willfully defied Justice Department demands to return them and made false statements to federal authorities about them. The evidence details Trump's own words and actions as recounted by lawyers, close aides and other witnesses.

The Republican campaign to discredit federal prosecutors skims over the substance of those charges, which were brought by a grand jury in Florida. GOP lawmakers are instead working, as they have for several years, to foster a broader argument that law enforcement — and President Joe Biden — are conspiring against the former president and possible Republican nominee for president in 2024.

“Today is indeed a dark day for the United States of America,” tweeted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, soon after Trump said on his social media platform Thursday night that an indictment was coming. McCarthy blamed Biden, who has declined to comment on the case and said he is not at all involved in the Justice Department’s decisions.

McCarthy called it a “grave injustice” and said that House Republicans “will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.”

Republican lawmakers in the House have already laid extensive groundwork for the effort to defend Trump since taking the majority in January. A near constant string of hearings featuring former&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fbi-republicans-security-clearance-congress-3c061c936425c735a3eac12f431b0386">FBI agents</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-politics-united-states-government-us-republican-party-business-6e34ad121a1e52892b782b0b7c0e59c3">Twitter executives</a>&nbsp;and federal officials have sought to paint the narrative of a corrupt government using its powers against Trump and the right. A GOP-led House subcommittee on the “weaponization” of government is probing the Justice Department and other government agencies, while at the same time Republicans are investigating Biden’s son Hunter Biden.

“It’s a sad day for America,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, a leading Trump defender and ally in the House, said in a statement on Thursday evening. “God bless President Trump.”

Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs was more strident. “We have now reached a war phase,” he tweeted. “Eye for an eye.”

Democrats say the Republicans are trafficking in conspiracy theories, with potentially dangerous consequences. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both Democrats from New York, issued a joint statement Friday urging calm around the Trump case, saying everyone should “let this case proceed peacefully in court.”

Recent Republicans rhetoric “not only undermines the Department of Justice but betrays the essential principle of justice that no one is above the commands of law, not even a former President or a self-proclaimed billionaire,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

Key elements of the GOP strategy are to discredit the prosecutors and investigate the investigators — a playbook that Republicans employed during Trump’s presidency as his own Justice Department probed his connections to Russia, and also used in April when Trump was charged in a hush money investigation in New York.

In the days leading to the New York indictment, House Republicans laid out a full-on campaign against Alvin Bragg, the Democratic district attorney in Manhattan who brought the case against the former president.

Charging that the prosecution was “pure politics,” Jordan held a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-bragg-house-judiciary-hearing-indictment-8447027e482d30c94550daeb13b6dc12">field hearing</a>&nbsp;near Bragg’s New York offices to examine what they said were his “pro-crime, anti-victim” policies. Jordan is also the top Republican on the weaponization subcommittee.

As special counsel Jack Smith was preparing this week to release the indictment, Trump's allies on Capitol Hill were working overtime to prepare the defense of the former president. Jordan issued a series of letters to the Justice Department, demanding documents related to his investigation into Trump’s handling of classified records. Jordan cited the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/durham-report-fbi-trump-clinton-2016-campaign-f3039e651eeb35a09091c363419e6766">recent report</a>&nbsp;by special counsel John Durham that found that the FBI rushed into its investigation of ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and routinely ignored or rationalized evidence that undercut its premise.

In the June 1 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Jordan requested information about the ongoing investigation in order to “ensure any ongoing investigations are not poisoned by this same politicization.”

Just as the indictment was unsealed on Friday, Jordan sent another letter to Garland, this time laying out testimony from a former FBI official who testified to the committee about the raid at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. The Ohio Republican wrote that Steven D’Antuono, a former assistant director at the FBI’s Washington Field Office, told the committee the Justice Department “was not following the same principles” as previous raids.

Defending Trump also has the potential to ease tensions among House Republicans as they face their own troubles on Capitol Hill, after a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gas-stoves-republican-revolt-freedom-caucus-1952006c4f6fa7a727cf635208d851d1">conservative-led revolt</a>&nbsp;over the recent debt ceiling deal divided the party this week and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/house-republicans-speaker-mccarthy-gas-stoves-efe22cb525349daf704828ad777b403e">halted most legislation</a>&nbsp;from passing on the floor.

But even if Republicans are able to shape public perception of the probes, there is one thing they cannot do — control the outcome of Trump's trial. The former president is at great legal risk, no matter what the public believes, under two indictments — and potentially more as prosecutors in Georgia and Washington investigate his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Still, some Republicans maintain that the multiple indictments could help Trump improve his standing in polls of Republican voters and solidify the impression that the government is conspiring against him.

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina told CNN she believes the indictment “handed Donald Trump the nomination” in the 2024 GOP primary.

And as the House panel has ramped up its efforts to defend the former president, the word “weaponization” has taken root among Trump’s Republican allies. Nearly every GOP lawmaker used the term — as did a member of Trump's legal team hours before the charges were unsealed to the public.

“It puts a stamp of reality on something that really is unreal in terms of the weaponization of the Department of Justice,” said James Trusty, one of Trump’s lawyers, on ABC Friday morning. Trump announced later in the day that Trusty was leaving his team.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas tweeted that “the weaponization of our Department of Justice against enemies of the Biden admin. will do enormous damage to the rule of law &amp; have a lasting impact.”

Cruz’s GOP colleagues in the Senate were more muted, with Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and others who have criticized the former president declining to weigh in on the indictment.

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the only GOP senator to vote to convict Trump in both of his impeachment trials, was a rare voice of criticism. While Romney stressed that Trump is entitled to presumption of innocence, he said he believes the charges are serious and Trump brought them on himself.

“These allegations are serious and if proven, would be consistent with his other actions offensive to the national interest,” Romney said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Donald Trump’s</a>&nbsp;indictment on charges of mishandling classified documents is set to play out in a federal court in Florida. But hundred of miles away, part of Trump’s defense is well underway in a different venue — the halls of Congress, where Republicans have been preparing for months to wage an aggressive counter-offensive against the Justice Department.<a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2023-06-09-jdj-to-garland-re-mal.pdf">Click here to read the</a>&nbsp;House Judiciary Committee responseThe federal indictment against Trump, unsealed Friday, includes&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-florida-indictment-highlights-857476c71e98e91521212a826efc8816">37 counts</a>, including allegations that the former president intentionally possessed classified documents, showed them off to visitors, willfully defied Justice Department demands to return them and made false statements to federal authorities about them. The evidence details Trump's own words and actions as recounted by lawyers, close aides and other witnesses.The Republican campaign to discredit federal prosecutors skims over the substance of those charges, which were brought by a grand jury in Florida. GOP lawmakers are instead working, as they have for several years, to foster a broader argument that law enforcement — and President Joe Biden — are conspiring against the former president and possible Republican nominee for president in 2024.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">My statement on the unprecedented indictment of President Trump by Biden&#39;s DOJ: <a href="https://t.co/NtSd8hwqqy">pic.twitter.com/NtSd8hwqqy</a>&mdash; Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) <a href="https://twitter.com/RogerMarshallMD/status/1666988328523034624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 9, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Joe Biden has used his Justice Department to go after parents as “domestic terrorists,” to spy on Catholic parishes, to terrorize &amp; harass prolife Christians - and tonight to indict his top political opponent, Trump. He has trampled the rule of law to benefit himself. He has led…&mdash; Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) <a href="https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1666958453225529378?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 9, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Joe Biden has now indicted his top political opponent. Full on Banana Republic stuff.&mdash; Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) <a href="https://twitter.com/Eric_Schmitt/status/1666981314572984320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 9, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Most Republicans believe we live in a country where Hillary Clinton did very similar things and nothing happened to her.&mdash; Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) <a href="https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1667892656184127488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 11, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>“Today is indeed a dark day for the United States of America,” tweeted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, soon after Trump said on his social media platform Thursday night that an indictment was coming. McCarthy blamed Biden, who has declined to comment on the case and said he is not at all involved in the Justice Department’s decisions.McCarthy called it a “grave injustice” and said that House Republicans “will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.”Republican lawmakers in the House have already laid extensive groundwork for the effort to defend Trump since taking the majority in January. A near constant string of hearings featuring former&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fbi-republicans-security-clearance-congress-3c061c936425c735a3eac12f431b0386">FBI agents</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-politics-united-states-government-us-republican-party-business-6e34ad121a1e52892b782b0b7c0e59c3">Twitter executives</a>&nbsp;and federal officials have sought to paint the narrative of a corrupt government using its powers against Trump and the right. A GOP-led House subcommittee on the “weaponization” of government is probing the Justice Department and other government agencies, while at the same time Republicans are investigating Biden’s son Hunter Biden.“It’s a sad day for America,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, a leading Trump defender and ally in the House, said in a statement on Thursday evening. “God bless President Trump.”Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs was more strident. “We have now reached a war phase,” he tweeted. “Eye for an eye.”Democrats say the Republicans are trafficking in conspiracy theories, with potentially dangerous consequences. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both Democrats from New York, issued a joint statement Friday urging calm around the Trump case, saying everyone should “let this case proceed peacefully in court.”Recent Republicans rhetoric “not only undermines the Department of Justice but betrays the essential principle of justice that no one is above the commands of law, not even a former President or a self-proclaimed billionaire,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.Key elements of the GOP strategy are to discredit the prosecutors and investigate the investigators — a playbook that Republicans employed during Trump’s presidency as his own Justice Department probed his connections to Russia, and also used in April when Trump was charged in a hush money investigation in New York.In the days leading to the New York indictment, House Republicans laid out a full-on campaign against Alvin Bragg, the Democratic district attorney in Manhattan who brought the case against the former president.Charging that the prosecution was “pure politics,” Jordan held a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-bragg-house-judiciary-hearing-indictment-8447027e482d30c94550daeb13b6dc12">field hearing</a>&nbsp;near Bragg’s New York offices to examine what they said were his “pro-crime, anti-victim” policies. Jordan is also the top Republican on the weaponization subcommittee.As special counsel Jack Smith was preparing this week to release the indictment, Trump's allies on Capitol Hill were working overtime to prepare the defense of the former president. Jordan issued a series of letters to the Justice Department, demanding documents related to his investigation into Trump’s handling of classified records. Jordan cited the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/durham-report-fbi-trump-clinton-2016-campaign-f3039e651eeb35a09091c363419e6766">recent report</a>&nbsp;by special counsel John Durham that found that the FBI rushed into its investigation of ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and routinely ignored or rationalized evidence that undercut its premise.In the June 1 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Jordan requested information about the ongoing investigation in order to “ensure any ongoing investigations are not poisoned by this same politicization.”Just as the indictment was unsealed on Friday, Jordan sent another letter to Garland, this time laying out testimony from a former FBI official who testified to the committee about the raid at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. The Ohio Republican wrote that Steven D’Antuono, a former assistant director at the FBI’s Washington Field Office, told the committee the Justice Department “was not following the same principles” as previous raids.Defending Trump also has the potential to ease tensions among House Republicans as they face their own troubles on Capitol Hill, after a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gas-stoves-republican-revolt-freedom-caucus-1952006c4f6fa7a727cf635208d851d1">conservative-led revolt</a>&nbsp;over the recent debt ceiling deal divided the party this week and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/house-republicans-speaker-mccarthy-gas-stoves-efe22cb525349daf704828ad777b403e">halted most legislation</a>&nbsp;from passing on the floor.But even if Republicans are able to shape public perception of the probes, there is one thing they cannot do — control the outcome of Trump's trial. The former president is at great legal risk, no matter what the public believes, under two indictments — and potentially more as prosecutors in Georgia and Washington investigate his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection.Still, some Republicans maintain that the multiple indictments could help Trump improve his standing in polls of Republican voters and solidify the impression that the government is conspiring against him.Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina told CNN she believes the indictment “handed Donald Trump the nomination” in the 2024 GOP primary.And as the House panel has ramped up its efforts to defend the former president, the word “weaponization” has taken root among Trump’s Republican allies. Nearly every GOP lawmaker used the term — as did a member of Trump's legal team hours before the charges were unsealed to the public.“It puts a stamp of reality on something that really is unreal in terms of the weaponization of the Department of Justice,” said James Trusty, one of Trump’s lawyers, on ABC Friday morning. Trump announced later in the day that Trusty was leaving his team.Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas tweeted that “the weaponization of our Department of Justice against enemies of the Biden admin. will do enormous damage to the rule of law &amp; have a lasting impact.”Cruz’s GOP colleagues in the Senate were more muted, with Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and others who have criticized the former president declining to weigh in on the indictment.Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the only GOP senator to vote to convict Trump in both of his impeachment trials, was a rare voice of criticism. While Romney stressed that Trump is entitled to presumption of innocence, he said he believes the charges are serious and Trump brought them on himself.“These allegations are serious and if proven, would be consistent with his other actions offensive to the national interest,” Romney said.

Trump's GOP defenders in Congress leap into action after indictment

LINCOLN — A judge on Friday rejected an effort by a friend and partner of deceased businessman Aaron Marshbanks to file a late claim against the businessman’s estate, which is wrapped up in perhaps the largest case of bank fraud in state history.

Lancaster County Judge Holly Parsely ruled Friday that&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/05/02/friend-business-partner-of-marshbanks-wonders-where-assets-went-in-massive-bank-fraud-case/">Brandon Dallmann, who said he was a friend and business partner</a>&nbsp;of Marshbanks, missed a deadline for filing a claim against the estate and had provided no good reason why that happened.

“Deadlines exist for a reason and they must be enforced if good cause for the delay in presenting a claim cannot be found,” the judge wrote in a seven-page ruling.

Marshbanks, a former treasurer for the Lincoln Christian school board and an investor in rental properties, was found dead under suspicious circumstances on Nov. 2 inside a downtown Lincoln parking garage.

In the aftermath of his death, dozens of financial institutions filed claims against his estate, alleging that he, along with his financial adviser, had obtained millions of dollars of loans — many unsecured — via fraud.

The claims by the more than two dozen parties add up to more than $50 million, which those in the banking industry have said is the largest bank fraud in state history.

In settling the claims against his estate, a Jan. 24 deadline was set.

Dallmann, who was a partner in several of Marshbanks’ limited liability companies, failed to meet that deadline. He instead filed his claim on Feb. 6 and asked the court to grant an exception.

At a court hearing last month, Dallmann said he was seeking to convert some of his holdings in cryptocurrency into real estate and had “traded” $2 million in assets to Marshbanks to do that.

He said he had been told by the attorney for Marshbanks’ widow that the estate would probably be insolvent and that it would be a waste of time to file a financial claim.

But later Dallmann, who said he had initially helped the widow with the estate, obtained his own attorney and filed a claim.

Dallmann testified that he did not know whether or not his $2 million was ever invested in real estate.

Marshbanks, according to court records, owned dozens of rental properties in Omaha, Lincoln, Council Bluffs and Louisiana.

But it has been unclear where the millions he obtained through fraudulent bank loans ended up.

Just recently,&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/06/03/bank-purchases-half-finished-luxury-home-acreage-of-deceased-businessman-who-defrauded-banks/">a bank that had loaned him $2.5 million</a>&nbsp;to build a luxury home, “barndominium” and massive backyard pond purchased the 5,000-square-foot home and complex near Walton at a foreclosure sale. The bank is seeking to sell the acreage.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/6/1686565102310.png" alt="Lincoln tech consultant Brandon Dallmann, at left, confers with his attorneys after a court hearing last month concerning the estate of a deceased friend and business partner implicated in the largest bank fraud in state history. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner)" />
 <figcaption>Lincoln tech consultant Brandon Dallmann, at left, confers with his attorneys after a court hearing last month concerning the estate of a deceased friend and business partner implicated in the largest bank fraud in state history. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner)</figcaption>
 </figure>By Paul Hamel <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/02/08/state-approved-use-of-pesticide-coated-seed-corn-for-ethanol-plant-a-decade-ago/">Nebraska Examiner</a>LINCOLN — A judge on Friday rejected an effort by a friend and partner of deceased businessman Aaron Marshbanks to file a late claim against the businessman’s estate, which is wrapped up in perhaps the largest case of bank fraud in state history.Lancaster County Judge Holly Parsely ruled Friday that&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/05/02/friend-business-partner-of-marshbanks-wonders-where-assets-went-in-massive-bank-fraud-case/">Brandon Dallmann, who said he was a friend and business partner</a>&nbsp;of Marshbanks, missed a deadline for filing a claim against the estate and had provided no good reason why that happened.<h2>‘Deadlines exist for a reason’</h2>“Deadlines exist for a reason and they must be enforced if good cause for the delay in presenting a claim cannot be found,” the judge wrote in a seven-page ruling.Marshbanks, a former treasurer for the Lincoln Christian school board and an investor in rental properties, was found dead under suspicious circumstances on Nov. 2 inside a downtown Lincoln parking garage.In the aftermath of his death, dozens of financial institutions filed claims against his estate, alleging that he, along with his financial adviser, had obtained millions of dollars of loans — many unsecured — via fraud.The claims by the more than two dozen parties add up to more than $50 million, which those in the banking industry have said is the largest bank fraud in state history.<h2>Deadline was missed</h2>In settling the claims against his estate, a Jan. 24 deadline was set.Dallmann, who was a partner in several of Marshbanks’ limited liability companies, failed to meet that deadline. He instead filed his claim on Feb. 6 and asked the court to grant an exception.At a court hearing last month, Dallmann said he was seeking to convert some of his holdings in cryptocurrency into real estate and had “traded” $2 million in assets to Marshbanks to do that.He said he had been told by the attorney for Marshbanks’ widow that the estate would probably be insolvent and that it would be a waste of time to file a financial claim.But later Dallmann, who said he had initially helped the widow with the estate, obtained his own attorney and filed a claim.Dallmann testified that he did not know whether or not his $2 million was ever invested in real estate.Marshbanks, according to court records, owned dozens of rental properties in Omaha, Lincoln, Council Bluffs and Louisiana.But it has been unclear where the millions he obtained through fraudulent bank loans ended up.Just recently,&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/06/03/bank-purchases-half-finished-luxury-home-acreage-of-deceased-businessman-who-defrauded-banks/">a bank that had loaned him $2.5 million</a>&nbsp;to build a luxury home, “barndominium” and massive backyard pond purchased the 5,000-square-foot home and complex near Walton at a foreclosure sale. The bank is seeking to sell the acreage.<h2>Receiver appointed</h2>Also recently, a district court judge, at the request of state banking officials, appointed a receiver to sort out and distribute any Marshbanks assets held by his financial adviser, Jesse Hill of Hickman.In December, the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/12/29/state-banking-officials-seek-to-freeze-accounts-of-financial-adviser-involved-in-alleged-bank-fraud/">moved to freeze the assets of Hill</a>&nbsp;and his firm, First SOJO Capital Group LLC.The department alleged that Hill&nbsp;had committed multiple violations of the State Securities Act, including false claims of financial assets and fabrication of financial statements.No charges have been filed against Hill. The FBI, as well as the state banking department, continue to investigate.