By Zach Wendling | Reporter
After 18 months and multiple searches, the Nebraska Public Employees Retirement Systems may soon have a new executive director.
An auditor with the Nebraska State Auditor’s Office speaks with Nebraska State Employees Retirement Systems executive director John Murante during Monday’s NPERS board meeting. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
By Erin Bamer
LINCOLN — A year-and-a-half after John Murante left his post as director of Nebraska’s Public Employees Retirement System, the board is poised to recommend his potential replacement.
Supporters of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people gather outside the Nebraska State Capitol every Saturday to honor the homeland in its continued resistance to Russian invasion, including this weekend on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, marking the four-year mark of the war. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
ICYMI
By Zach Wendling
LINCOLN — The U.S. House of Representatives, in a bipartisan way Thursday, passed the first major aid package to Ukraine under President Donald Trump since he returned to the White House.
Javier Saldaña Jr., at the time representing the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, signs the final beam of a OneWorld Community Health Centers training center that’s under construction in South Omaha. The facility is funded in part with a $9.5 million award from the North and South Omaha Recovery Grant program that Saldaña guided as part of his DED responsibilities. (Courtesy of OneWorld)
ICYMI
By Cindy Gonzalez
OMAHA — A key manager of a Nebraska grant program that’s investing multimillions into historically disadvantaged North and South Omaha neighborhoods has left state government to join the administration of Omaha Mayor John Ewing Jr.
Defocused monitors from a broadcast studio. (Stock image from broadcastertr via Getty Images)
COMMENTARY
By George Ayoub
I wanted to be Walter Cronkite. So did other broadcast journalism majors in the late 1960s. Known as the most trusted man in America, “Uncle Walter,” as we affectionately called him, was the gold standard in broadcast news, with his rich baritone and his signature tag line, “And that’s the way it is …” followed by the day’s date.
Amanda Taylor, a patient advocate, speaks to reporters after making the first medical cannabis purchase in Alabama on June 3, 2026, at Callie’s Apothecary in Montgomery, Alabama. Taylor has multiple sclerosis and says the natural medicine will relieve her nausea, vomiting and tremor symptoms. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector)
HEALTH
By Anna Barrett
Amanda Taylor, a patient advocate, bought the first medical cannabis product in Alabama Wednesday morning at Callie’s Apothecary in Montgomery.
A gray whale and her healthy calf swim in the Pacific waters off Washington. Gray whale calf counts have plummeted, and last year were the lowest on record, according to NOAA Fisheries estimates. (Image courtesy of NOAA Fisheries/ Alaska Fisheries Science Center)
ENVIRONMENT & AGRICULTURE
By Hal Bernton
Raymond, Washington — Doug Nussbaum is a retired logger whose morning rituals include a walk down to the bluff behind his house that overlooks a bend in the Willapa River.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Work requirements waiver sought for Dawson County | Zach Wendling
Petitions seek to restructure Lincoln city elections | Zach Wendling
Pillen celebrates law boosting private energy help | Erin Bamer
COMMENTARY
OPINION: Good on those calling bad ideas bad | George Ayoub
EDITOR'S CHOICE
DHHS reviewing federal Medicaid work requirements rule | Zach Wendling
Powell-Harding race added to DCCC program | Juan Salinas II
Five passengers facing hantavirus risk head home | Aaron Sanderford
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