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Walz touts Nebraska roots in visit to his home state where there's a battle over one electoral vote
Tim Walz played up his Nebraska roots in his first trip back to his home state since becoming the Democratic vice presidential nominee, and then drew sharp contrasts between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
Republicans block bill to outlaw bump stocks for rifles after Supreme Court lifts Trump-era ban
Senate Republicans have blocked bipartisan legislation that would have outlawed bump stocks after the Supreme Court struck down a ban on the rapid-fire gun accessory.
AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Nebraska's presidential and state primaries
Nebraskans will cast presidential primary ballots Tuesday in a reliably Republican state that could nonetheless be decisive in the race for the White House.
Pete Ricketts sworn in as Nebraska senator, replacing Sasse
Former Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts was sworn into the U.S. Senate on Monday, replacing Republican Sen. Ben Sasse as the Senate returns from several weeks of recess and begins a new session of closely-divided government.
Nebraska struggling to OK ban despite anti-abortion history
Nebraska Republicans are facing a challenge to get enough votes in the Legislature to enact an abortion ban, even though they are expected to easily retain control.
All eyes on Nebraska Gov. Ricketts to replace Sen. Sasse
Speculation is rampant that Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts is the most likely person to replace U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, who appears ready to resign to become president of the University of Florida.
GOP candidates stress urgency at annual Nevada cookout
At the 7th annual Basque Fry in Gardnerville, a lineup of GOP national heavyweights and local Nevada politicians fired up a crowd of 1,500 Republicans with a message of urgency.
Abortion ruling prompts variety of reactions from states
When the U.S. Supreme Court in June overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established a right to abortion, it sparked legal changes and court challenges in states nationwide.
Nebraska GOP state Sen. Flood wins ex-congressmanโs seat
Nebraska state Sen. Mike Flood has won a special election to replace former U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, a fellow Republican who was sentenced to two years of probation earlier in the day for a conviction on charges that he lied to federal agents.
Takeaways: Trump's big defeat; election denial backfiring
Former President Donald Trumpโs crusade for vengeance suffered two devastating blows when Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger won their primaries despite rejecting Trumpโs entreaties to reverse his 2020 election loss.
Iowa GOP open to non-Trump prospects as 2024 gets underway
Former President Donald Trumpโs persistent flirtation with another White House run is doing little to discourage other potential Republican candidates from stepping up their activity in Iowa, the state that will formally launch the nomination process.
Battle heats up over remaining federal rental assistance
A debate is playing out across the country as the Treasury Department begins reallocating some of the $46.5 billion in rental assistance from places slow to spend to others that are running out of funds.
Ex-congressman set for sentence same day replacement picked
Nebraska voters will elect a new member of Congress on the same day a judge in California is scheduled to sentence the Republican who resigned from the position to a possible federal prison sentence.
US Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska announces resignation
Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska says he will resign from office, effective March 31, after a California jury convicted him of lying to federal authorities about an illegal campaign donation from a foreign national.
House leaders call on Nebraska Rep. Fortenberry to resign
Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry is facing growing pressure from congressional leaders and Nebraskaโs GOP governor to resign after a California jury found him guilty of lying to federal authorities about an illegal $30,000 campaign donation from a Nigerian billionaire.
Jury set for Nebraska congressman's trial on donation charge
A jury of eight women and four men has been seated in the trial of a little-known Republican congressman from Nebraska whoโs accused of lying to federal authorities about illegal campaign contributions from a Nigerian-born billionaire.
Austin to governors: Guard troops must get COVID-19 vaccine
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in letters to seven governors, is reaffirming the need for members of their states' Army and Air National Guards to get the mandatory COVID-19 vaccine or lose their Guard status.
GOP state officials push back on employer vaccine mandate
Republican governors, lawmakers and attorneys general are forming a wall of opposition to President Joe Biden's plan to require vaccinations or COVID-19 testing at all private employers of 100 workers or more.
In the GOP, voter ID is a slam dunk ... except in Nebraska
Conservative activists in Nebraska are turning to voters to enact a voter identification requirement, an issue that state lawmakers have blocked multiple times even though it's now common in other Republican-led states.
States scale back virus reporting just as cases surge
Several states scaled back their reporting on COVID-19 this month just as cases across the country tripled with the delta variant of the virus spreading quickly among the unvaccinated.
President Biden announces โzero toleranceโ policy to curb violent crime
Declaring that the federal government was โtaking on the bad actors doing bad things to our communities,โ President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced a series of efforts to stem a rising national tide of violent crime.
Nebraska death sentences continue despite no execution drugs
Nebraska prosecutors have been successful in getting death sentences for convicted murderers, but as the state adds to its death row population, many who oversee the state's capital punishment largely ignore the fact that Nebraska has no lethal injection drugs and very likely wonโt get any for years, if ever.
As other states close prisons, Nebraska may build a big one
FILE - In this Friday, Oct. 25, 2019, file photo guards observe inmates at the Nebraska State Penitentiary, in Lincoln, Neb. Nebraska officials are pushing for a new, $230 million prison to relieve inmate overcrowding, even as prison officials in other states close prisons. Similar attempts to reduce Nebraska's prison population have repeatedly stalled because of opposition from prosecutors and law enforcement. At a minimum, he said, the state needs to replace its oldest prison, the Nebraska State Penitentiary, built in 1869. Nebraska's inmate population grew 27% between 2009 and 2019, while the state's overall population rose by 7%.
The Latest: Wash. state warns hospitals on VIP vaccinations
The state crossed that mark Monday, exactly a year after officials reported the first case of a coronavirus infection in Massachusetts. โ Marylandโs acting health secretary says the stateโs hospitals have received less than half of their expected allocations of second doses of the coronavirus vaccine for front-line health workers this week. Schrader says state officials were talked with the federal Department of Health and Human Services all weekend trying to figure out what happened. The CDC says Iowa has delivered 190,689 first vaccine doses to individuals, or 6,044 per 100,000 people, the third lowest rate in the nation. Ad___PRAGUE โ The Czech Republic is not planning to limit use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for elderly people like some other European Union nations.
States impose new rules, plead with public to stop spread
Pete Ricketts warned that he could impose tighter social-distancing restrictions before Thanksgiving if hospitalizations continue to rise. In Washington state, elective procedures such as joint and heart valve replacements and some cancer surgeries could be postponed to make room for coronavirus patients, said Washington State Hospital Association CEO Cassie Sauer. Even so, health officials are trying everything they can to slow the spread and address an even worse surge that many say is inevitable. New York Gov. New York state has averaged nearly 5,500 new cases per day over the past seven days.
Some GOP governors shift on mask mandates as hospitals fill
โIf our health care system exceeds capacity, itโs not just COVID-19 weโll be fighting. GOP governors in Ohio and West Virginia have also recently strengthened existing mask mandates, while Mississippi's governor expanded the stateโs partial mandate to cover more counties. Still, 13 other states with GOP governors still have no statewide mask mandates, and many of them have affirmed their opposition in recent days even as cases, hospitalizations and deaths rise in their states. โI donโt think mask mandates are appropriate,โ Nebraska Gov. โMask mandates will likely have the opposite effect of what was intended,โ Rep. Steven Holt, chair of the Iowa House Judiciary committee, wrote on his Facebook page.
Virus surge breaking infection records across the US
Cases per day are on the rise in 49 states, and deaths per day are climbing in 39. A month ago, the U.S. was seeing about 730 COVID-19 deaths per day on average; that has now surpassed 970. He said this summerโs Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota was โabsolutely unnecessaryโ and helped spread the virus beyond that state. โ North Carolina reported its highest single-day increase in coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, with 3,119 people โ 8% of those tested โ testing positive for the virus. โ Kentucky posted a record daily high for new confirmed cases, at 2,700, as the governor implored people to wear masks to counter the accelerating outbreak.
The Latest: Hong Kong, Singapore plan 'air travel bubble'
Hong Kong and Singapore say they have agreed to a bilateral air travel bubble, re-establishing travel links as coronavirus infections in both cities decline. -- Maryland will reduce indoor operations for bars and restaurants from 75% to 50% in response to rising coronavirus cases and increased hospitalizations. Maryland also reported 1,338 new coronavirus cases Tuesday โ the seventh straight day of at least 1,000 cases. ___WASHINGTON โ The U.S. has surpassed 1 million new confirmed coronavirus cases since the start of November. The El Paso County sheriffโs office says two of the employees were hospitalized over the weekend as coronavirus cases surged at the facility.
As cases rise, states say they'll work with Biden on virus
Gary Herbert speaks as he joins state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn at a press conference at the Capitol in Salt Lake City, clarifying the state's mask mandate on Monday, Nov. 9, 2020. Minnesotaโs per-capita new case counts are better than neighboring Wisconsin and the Dakotas, which have some of the countryโs highest transmission rates, but have still raised alarm with the state's health officials. In Idaho, where 1 of every 223 residents tested positive for the virus over the last week, Republican Gov. With Trump still not conceding the race, some Republican governors have greeted Bidenโs efforts in a more measured way. In Oklahoma, where cases also are on the rise, Republican Gov.
Midwestern states with few virus rules have low unemployment
Midwest governors credit their lack of restrictions for low unemployment rates, but economists and others say other factors might be more important in the states low jobless rates. That would be very deadly and push unemployment rates back up,โ said Ernie Goss, an economist at Creighton University in Omaha. That contrasts with states that rely on tourism, such as California, Nevada and Hawaii, which have the nationโs highest unemployment rates. More recently, though, many of those rural areas have seen some of the nationโs highest virus rates. Despite the low unemployment figures, all of the states now have fewer jobs than before the pandemic hit.
The Latest: Australia prioritizes air service to 3 countries
That means health care professionals account for about 15% of all Mexicoโs confirmed coronavirus cases, and about 18% of all COVID-19 deaths. Active-service health care workers largely mirrored Mexicoโs over-all fatality rate of almost 67 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. The stateโs average number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased from 476 cases a day on Sept. 29 to 685 cases on Oct. 13. Before then, the only confirmed coronavirus death in a Missouri veterans home was in April in north St. Louis County. There were an additional 1,121 confirmed cases, bringing the total to 102,614 since the pandemic began.
Nebraska to end nearly all social distancing restrictions
Pete Ricketts will end nearly all of his state's social-distancing restrictions on Monday even as the number of new coronavirus cases has trended upward over the last few months. โWe are loosening the restrictions further on Sept. 14,โ Ricketts said at a news conference. Nebraska will also allow smaller indoor facilities, such as bars, restaurants, churches, gyms and hair salons, to operate with no formal restrictions. For several days before that, the state's public health data system wasn't receiving results even though laboratories were processing tests. Nebraska ranks 15th highest in the rate of positive cases as of this week, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.