No injuries are reported after a fire broke out at a vacant building in Omaha. The blaze broke out late Sunday night near Park Avenue and Jackson Street. A fire crew on the second floor of the burning building declared a mayday until they could find an exit. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
A large brush fire is under investigation in Pottawattamie County. The fire broke out yesterday near I-80 between Council Bluffs and Underwood. No injuries have been reported.
A Red Flag Warning is issued for parts of north central Nebraska due to critical fire weather concerns. This comes after stronger winds from the west-to-southwest have got up to around 25-miles-per-hour. The National Weather Service in Hastings says the warning means that "a combination of strong winds, low relative humidity, and warm temperatures can contribute to extreme fire behavior. "The warning is issued from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. today.
Nebraska teachers may soon get a pay raise. A proposal in the legislature would raise the minimum salary for teachers in the state to 50-thousand-dollars. According to the National Education Association, Nebraska is 50th in the nation for average base pay for educators.
A Nebraska organization is appealing a ruling that allows the U.S. Department of Justice to access nonpublic voter information. Common Cause officials say they will continue their fight to protect voters' sensitive, non-public data from being handed over to bureaucrats for partisan gain. The Department of Justice sent a letter to the Nebraska Secretary of State's office last September requesting voters' addresses, driver's license numbers, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers. Common Cause filed a lawsuit to stop the release of voter data.
A new candidate is running for the Nebraska Legislature. Joe Johnson has filed his paperwork to represent District 41, which includes the Buffalo, Hall, Howard, Sherman, Valley, Greeley, Boone and Wheeler counties. The Republican is running "on a foundation of faith, family, and conservative common sense." He began his career as a city administrator and now works as a business development professional for a Nebraska-based engineering firm. Johnson says that it would be an honor to "earn the trust of voters and serve as their voice in the Nebraska Legislature."
Congresswoman Ashley Hinson says more than 18-point-seven-million dollars are coming to Iowa. The funding will be for development projects in Iowa's Second Congressional District. Three million will be for the North Iowa Corridor Workforce Housing Initiative in Cerro Gordo County.