Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen is seeking a Secretarial Disaster Declaration from the U.S. Department of Agriculture following wildfires that impacted the state in March and April. The request covers Garden, Grant, Lincoln, and Morrill counties. Officials say the declaration would help pay for damage to roads, bridges and power infrastructure.
Another wildfire is impacting the Nebraska panhandle. The South Fork Fire broke out yesterday afternoon near the Soldier Creek Wilderness, and the flames forced the closure of Highway 20. As of last night, the fire had burned nearly 800 acres, and officials say debris from previous wildfires are fueling the blaze.
Iowa's executive branch data will be moving from physical servers to Amazon Web Services. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds says the change will upgrade the state's data storage from an outdated IT system to a secure cloud managed by Cognizant Government Solutions. State officials say the it's expected to save the state more than 525-million dollars over the next decade. About 200 state employees with the Division of Information Technology will be laid off, but will receive job offers from Cognizant later this month.
The Nebraska state auditor is raising concerns after a review of the state's WIC program. The program provides health food at no cost, nutrition information, referrals to Nebraska families and more. Mike Foley says the program is allowing some high-income families to collect benefits intended for those in need. He also added that several homeowners with houses valued at more than half-a-million dollars are collecting benefits as well. Foley and his audit team are seeking additional reviews and reforms to the program.
Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson is seeking more help to fight reckless drivers and street takeovers. Hanson says if someone is using a vehicle as a deadly instrument on the road, he wants to impound that vehicle for 10 days. The sheriff says additional offenses should lead to longer impound times for offenders' vehicles.
The head of the Lincoln Public Schools is getting a pay raise. The Board of Education voted unanimously to approve a 15-thousand-dollar salary increase for Superintendent John Skretta. Skretta will now make 348-thousand-dollars during the upcoming school year. He was named full-time superintendent last year.