By Erin Bamer | Reporter
“I’ve flown on four missions to space, and I know how hard that crew and the teams on the ground worked … They made something incredibly complex and difficult look easy.” - Arizona U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly.
From right to left, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Christina Koch, mission specialist; Victor Glover, pilot; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist wave to family and friends as they prepare to depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building to board their Orion spacecraft atop NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at Launch Complex 39B, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis II mission will take Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back aboard their Orion spacecraft from Launch Complex 39B, with a two hour launch window opening at. (Photo courtesy of NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
EDUCATION
By Zach Wendling
The historic astronauts behind the recent Artemis II mission could soon receive one of the highest civilian awards under a new federal bill from a former astronaut and a retiring Nebraska representative.
Nebraska legislative, executive and judicial branch employees joined on the front steps of the Nebraska State Capitol on Thursday, June 25, 2026, donning red, white and blue in the shape of Nebraska and an homage to the American flag ahead of the United States’ 250th birthday. (Photo courtesy of the Office of the Capitol Commission)
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
By Zach Wendling and Cindy Gonzalez
LINCOLN — Judges, lawmakers and Nebraskans representing all three branches of government converged on the steps of the State Capitol Thursday to form a human American flag shaped in the likeness of their home state.
USDA released state SNAP payment error rates which will determine if states have to pay a portion of federal nutrition assistance benefits. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
SOCIAL SERVICES
By Cami Koons
The majority of U.S. states will soon have to pay 5% to 15% of federal nutrition assistance benefits in their state, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s release Wednesday of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payment error rates.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 29, 2024. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom)
D.C. BUREAU
By Jacob Fischler
State courts cannot find liability for labeling shortcomings in pesticides and similar products because such products are covered by federal law, the U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday in a decision backing agricultural giant Monsanto.
A family waits in line to apply for asylum at the southern border between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in 2023. (Photo by Corrie Boudreaux for Source NM)
D.C. BUREAU
By Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court sided Thursday with the Trump administration’s request to turn away asylum seekers who present themselves at ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Erika Christensen, left, with her husband, Garin, and her daughter in New York in 2018. Christensen and her husband founded Patient Forward, a nonprofit organization that advocates for later abortion access, after she had to fly to Colorado from New York to terminate a pregnancy with severe complications in 2016. (Photo courtesy of Erika Christensen)
ABORTION POLICY
By Kelcie Moseley-Morris
Kate Dineen assumed she would always have access to reproductive healthcare because of where she lived. It came as a shock when she was denied an abortion in 2021 because of gestational limits to the procedure in Massachusetts law.
An election worker processes mail-in ballots for the California state primary election at the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center on June 05, 2026, in City of Industry, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
ELECTION 2026
By Jonathan Shorman
A federal judge on Thursday blocked major portions of President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting voting by mail, finding he had exceeded his constitutional authority.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Gov. Pillen creates property tax ‘hotline’ | Zach Wendling
Nebraska barred from restricting soda purchases from SNAP | Juan Salinas II
All 18 UNMC hantavirus patients return home | Cindy Gonzalez
COMMENTARY
UFC Freedom 250 plot highlights emerging trends | Gina Ligon, Austin Doctor
EDITOR'S CHOICE
Mom of eight faces fears beyond deportation | Cindy Gonzalez
Planned grocery store aims to feed, uplift Omaha’s Black community | Cindy Gonzalez
Why are there so many independent candidates in Nebraska? | Juan Salinas II
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