The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services is planning to pause SNAP benefits. The move will take effect today due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.The U.S. Department of Agriculture notified the state that the federally funded SNAP benefits for November would be delayed if the shutdown continues.
Authorities are on the lookout for a suspect who fled from a hospital. Officials say a man who was arrested after shooting at law enforcement near Herman left Memorial Community Hospital in Blair after he was taken there under an emergency mental health committal yesterday. The man is a five-foot-eight-inch-tall white male in his mid-20s, wearing a green jacket, green pants, and black rubber boots.
The Blair City Council is denying a conditional use permit for a disaster relief nonprofit. The council voted last night to reject plans for Rapid Response to establish its headquarters in the Deerfield neighborhood. Neighbors argued that the nonprofit has brought unwanted noise and other distractions to the area.
Randy Feenstra, the Republican U.S. congressman representing Iowa’s 4th District, is running for governor. The congressman will forgo a reelection bid to the safe Republican House seat he holds to run for the top of the ticket in Iowa. His official launch event comes after a monthslong exploratory campaign spent amassing support following Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds making a surprise announcement in April that she would not seek a third term. Republicans control the U.S. House by a razor-thin margin, but Feenstra represents Iowa’s most reliably Republican district, so losing an incumbent in the 2026 race for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District is unlikely to hurt Republicans' efforts to retain control of the U.S. House.
A man accused of fatally stabbing a Catholic priest at his home beside a church in a small Nebraska town has pleaded guilty to murder and other charges. Kierre Williams changed his plea at a hearing Tuesday to guilty to murder, burglary and weapons charges. He will be sentence Nov. 12 for the December 2023 killing of the Rev. Stephen Gutgsell. The 65-year-old priest was stabbed during a break-in at the rectory beside St. John the Baptist Church in Fort Calhoun where he served. The first-degree murder charge Williams pled guilty to calls for a sentence of life in prison without parole.
Google and NextEra Energy are collaborating to restart the Duane Arnold Nuclear Energy Center. Located near Palo, the center, closed since 2020, is Iowa's only nuclear facility, and would be used to power AI infrastructure. NextEra Energy chairman and CEO John Ketchum says it's expected to create thousands of jobs and provide the state with around nine billion dollars in economic benefits. A Strategic Economic Research study says it would provide around 900 jobs in Linn County and bring over 320 million in annual economic output.