By Erin Bamer | Reporter

“We all know our pets touch our hearts, and they’re part of our lives, and they’re part of our families … But then to see a cat that just hung around the Capitol all the time and got to know everybody, it’s really kind of an amazing story and a heartwarming story and a wonderful thing as an artist to get to do something like that.” - Boise artist Benjamin Victor, who agreed to sculpt a bronze statue of Cameron the “Capitol Cat” outside the Nebraska State Capitol.

Cameron the Capitol Cat, once a mainstay of the Nebraska State Capitol, lounges outside the Capitol building. Aug. 7, 2024. (Photo by Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

By Zach Wendling

LINCOLN — The Nebraska State Capitol’s unofficial feline mascot could soon become a permanent fixture outside the historic building he brought warmth and love to for a decade.

Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers. June 30, 2023. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

ELECTION 2026

By Zach Wendling

LINCOLN — The Nebraska attorney general has waded into a fight in Lincoln over three proposed city charter amendments, opining that if a measure has enough valid signatures, Lincolnites must be given a chance to weigh in this November.

Two students walk the halls at a former Omaha Public Schools elementary school building that has been replaced. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)

COMMENTARY

By Lynn Nejezchleb

Between 2022 and 2025, Nebraska’s school funding system underwent a major shift. After decades of lagging near the bottom nationally in state support for local classrooms, the state significantly stepped up its financial investment.

The backroom of the Lancaster County Election Commission office on April 24, 2026. (Juan Salinas II/Nebraska Examiner)

ELECTION 2026

By Juan Salinas II

LINCOLN — Two new Nebraska political parties have submitted their constitutions and leadership to the Secretary of State’s Office as the next formal step toward becoming official parties in the state.

A voter drops off a ballot on primary Election Day at the Salt Lake County Government Center on Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (Photo by Marco Lozzi for Utah News Dispatch)

D.C. BUREAU

By Shauneen Miranda

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a procedural victory to President Donald Trump on an executive order to curb mail-in voting, but the administration is still fighting a separate ruling that limits a portion of the order and remains in effect — complicating the administration’s temporary win.

Derrick Clark, 51, stands in front of the Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 6, 2026. Over the past few years, Clark and many other diabetes patients in Mississippi were getting regular care through subsidized Affordable Care Act health insurance plans. But Congress allowed so-called federal enhanced subsidies to expire at the end of last year, forcing Clark and more than 200,000 other Mississippians to give up their coverage. (Photo by Shalina Chatlani/Stateline)

HEALTH

By Shalina Chatlani

EDWARDS, Miss. — Every now and then a freight train rumbles through, creaking and groaning on the rusted tracks that run along the edge of the largely deserted downtown. On some days, that train is just about the only thing moving.

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