Scheduled donations, which account for 90% of all blood donations, have dropped sharply in recent weeks. As a result, the blood supply has fallen by several thousand units in just a week, raising concerns that the decline could worsen as we enter trauma season. This period between Memorial Day and Labor Day brings an increase in severe injuries from car accidents, ATV crashes, sports-related injuries and other summer activities. In fact, AAA reports that fatal crashes involving teen drivers rise by 30% during this time, often called the “100 deadliest days.” A single person injured in a serious car accident can require up to 100 units of blood.

“For a person suffering from severe bleeding – and the emergency medical responders caring for them – stopping the bleeding and stabilizing them is a race against an unforgiving clock,” says Dr. Emily Coberly, medical director for the Red Cross. “Every minute matters. For each minute that passes without blood transfusion, the risk of death increases by 11% for patients suffering from hemorrhagic shock. That’s why having a readily available blood supply is critical.”

Securing appointments in the coming weeks is critical to maintaining a healthy blood supply for all patients depending on transfusions. Make an appointment to give now by visiting RedCrossBlood.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS or by using the Red Cross Blood Donor App. 

All who come to give by May 31 will get an exclusive Red Cross beach towel, while supplies last. Those who come to give June 1-28, 2026, will receive a $15 e-gift card to a merchant of choice, plus be automatically entered for a chance to win one of two $7500 gift cards. See RedCrossBlood.org/June for details.

Summer challenges

A sharp drop in scheduled donations is especially troubling now, during a season when blood collection can be difficult due to end of the school-year activities, travel and school breaks, as well as severe weather and heat that can disrupt blood drives entirely. Large-scale sporting events in the coming months can also add pressure to the blood supply at a time when every donation is crucial. Now is the time to make and keep blood donation appointments to ensure blood products are readily available for people living with chronic illness, new mothers, surgery patients and those facing traumatic injuries.

“Every unit of lifesaving blood on an ambulance, emergency medical helicopter or in a hospital didn’t get there by accident. It’s there because someone rolled up their sleeve to give blood,” adds Coberly.

How to donate blood

Simply download the American Red Cross Blood Donor App, visit RedCrossBlood.orgor call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) to make an appointment or for more information. All blood types are needed to ensure a reliable supply for patients. A blood donor card or driver’s license or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age in most states (16 with parental consent where allowed by state law), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements.

Blood donors can save time at their next donation by using RapidPass^® to complete their pre-donation reading and health history questionnaire online, on the day of their donation, before arriving at the blood drive. To get started, follow the instructions at RedCrossBlood.org/RapidPass or use the Blood Donor App.

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides comfort to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; distributes international humanitarian aid; and supports veterans, military members and their families. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or CruzRojaAmericana.org, or follow us on social media.

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By Anila Yoganathan

Flatwater Free Press

This story is made possible through a partnership between Flatwater Free Press and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.

NEBRASKA CITY — Standing before the Otoe County Board and a room of neighbors, Wynee Benedict ticked through a long list of concerns.

Do we have enough water for them? Who pays for their power? What if they create a heat island?

The source of Benedict’s worries: data centers. Since learning their county could become home to a new data center, Otoe County has been abuzz with questions and concerns like Benedict’s, leading some residents to call for a temporary ban on the industry. 

That’s effectively what the board did Tuesday, voting to suspend the permits needed for a new data center for up to a year, according to commissioner Chuck Cole. The pause is intended to give county officials more time to study the issue and update its regulations. 

Opposition to data centers is growing in Otoe County, and around the country. The massive, resource-guzzling buildings needed to power artificial intelligence and our digital infrastructure have emerged as a galvanizing issue. Local governments from California to Maine have adopted or are considering temporary bans. And at least 14 states so far this year have weighed statewide moratoriums.  

Elsewhere in Nebraska, Madison County earlier this month set requirements for data centers to get a special permit, which allows added oversight and public input. In Gage County, the planning and zoning commission will hold a hearing on a data center moratorium in June, according to reporting by the Beatrice Daily Sun.

And more will likely follow suit thanks to a recent change in state law forcing counties to make a decision on some projects within a certain amount of time, said Jon Cannon, executive director of Nebraska Association of County Officials. The goal, according to the bill’s supporters, was to prevent counties from needlessly delaying projects. But the law could have an unintended consequence. 

“I think that you’re likely to see a number of counties that say, ‘We need to get our regulations in order,’ and … they may put moratoriums on a lot of things, not just data centers,” Cannon said.

Data centers are just the latest in a long line of controversial developments, like wind and solar, that counties in Nebraska and other states have grappled with. And much like those other developments, attitudes toward data centers could vary from county to county, Cannon said. He advises developers to be transparent with residents in rural Nebraska about large projects, including data centers, as soon as possible.

“When people are aware of something coming to town, because, ‘Oh, my neighbor told me that he just signed this big contract for a right of way,’ when people find out that way, they get very excited, and not in a good way,” Cannon said.

In Otoe County, residents who spoke at the county board meeting appeared to have different views on whether to temporarily ban data centers.

“We have said ‘no’ to a lot of things, almost a knee-jerk reaction. Maybe we need to say ‘yes’ to a few things,” resident Jim Nemec said at the meeting, adding that he understood the need for a temporary ban to study the issue. “But I also worry about the intention or impression it gives. Are we sending out the impression that business is closed here?”

Others echoed concerns expressed by Benedict, who referenced reporting by the Flatwater Free Press about a proposal by Google to build a massive new Nebraska data center. The center could require more than triple the electricity the entire city of Lincoln uses during the hottest months of the year, when electricity use spikes. 

The proposal, detailed in documents shared at a private utility meeting in January, did not identify a specific location. However, Flatwater reported that a potential partner in the overall project — the Omaha-based private energy developer Tenaska — had optioned large chunks of land in southeast Nebraska, including Otoe and Gage counties. The news sparked discussions in both counties.

In the 500-person village of Adams, nearly 70 people filled the local community center on a Sunday in late April. Organizers shared what they had heard about the potential project, including plans for a large private natural gas plant to power a new data center. They also relayed general information about data centers and residents speculated about the potential impact on local water sources. They strategized about how they could make their voices heard and discussed the potential for a countywide moratorium in Gage County.

“We have been going with the assumption that this would be for a natural gas power plant as well as a data center, and so the No. 1 concern there is going to be the water,” said Anna Wolken, a Gage County resident who helped organize the meeting. “Both the natural gas power plant would be using water, and then the data center would be using water from there, too.”

Residents will be able to voice their concerns at the county’s planning and zoning commission hearing for the moratorium in June.

Nationally, energy demand has emerged as a leading issue. In Virginia, home to more operating data centers than any other state, the primary electric utility has had to postpone connecting some new data centers because they don’t have enough power or transmission infrastructure, said Joe Lerch, director of local government and policy at Virginia Association of Counties.

“Electricity use has been the biggest issue in Virginia,” Lerch said.

Nebraska lawmakers, at the prompting of Gov. Jim Pillen, moved earlier this year to minimize the energy impact on Nebraskans. They passed a bill allowing for the creation of private power generation built for the purpose of serving a large industrial customer to hook up to the grid. While the new law is not exclusively for data centers, it’s largely viewed as being for that industry.

Tenaska, the private energy developer, provided input on the legislation, and the company’s CEO spoke in favor of the bill during a legislative hearing. 

BOX Tenaska still optioning land

Earlier this year, Flatwater reported that private energy developer Tenaska has struck tentative agreements with landowners in southeast Nebraska to potentially purchase their land. The company has continued to do so. The acreage tally is now up to:

• At least 1,509 acres in Gage County (previously at least 1,000 acres)
• Nearly 680 acres in Lancaster County (previously at least 450 acres)
• At least 1,123 acres in Cass County (previously at least 860 acres)
• At least 1,454 acres in Otoe County (previously nearly 300 acres)

And Tenaska is likely not the only company looking to power new data centers. Troy Uhlir, a Madison County commissioner, said that Minnesota-based renewable energy company Geronimo Power has expressed interest in locating in Madison, Wayne and Pierce counties to support data center development.

It’s hard to know how much data centers are impacting Nebraska. There’s no centralized information source for their location, ownership and water usage. 

But that is expected to change. 

Lawmakers approved a separate bill this year aimed at increasing transparency. It requires data centers to annually report the names of their owners and developers, physical size, location, annual electricity demand, annual water usage and any sales and use tax exemptions and incentives they receive. 

That information will likely be helpful to local officials, like those in Otoe County, as they weigh regulations. 

Benedict is happy that the commission voted for the moratorium. Now, she and her neighbors are turning their attention to research these developments’ impacts to share when the county committee comes back with a draft. 

“We needed regulations on the books prior to a data center coming to this county,” Benedict said. “We don’t want to have to play catch up and regulate something that’s already here.”

The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraska’s first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.

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Formed on August 28, 2025, Partners In Community, LLC was created to facilitate the transition of the historic First Presbyterian Church facility into a permanent home for a vital umbrella of community missions. Operating regionally under the name The Center, the independent entity will directly serve the residents of Richardson County, Nebraska, and Brown County, Kansas.

The facility will act as a “forever home” for four distinct pillars of community support and culture:

The Presbyterian Performing Arts & Conference Center, Mission Angel Food, Seniors at the Center, Respite Commons.

“We retain the ‘Presbyterian’ name to honor nearly two centuries of service, but we move forward as an independent entity dedicated solely to our neighbors,” said Rick Martin, President and Project Manager. “I am honored to introduce this vision not just as a representative of a new organization, but as a neighbor who shares our collective pride in the heritage of Richardson County.”

Grand Opening Event: “Community Amplification.”

To celebrate this milestone, The Center will host its maiden event kickoff on Sunday, June 7, 2026, at 2:00 PM, officially opening the 2026 Season under the theme of “Community Amplification.”

The premier performance will feature:

Brian Hoppe on the historic pipe organ; Michele Gaskill on the Boston-Steinway Piano and The Clefsmen, celebrating their landmark 60th anniversary this year, directed by June Bower and accompanied by Glenda von Behren.

The event is free and open to the public.  Preserving History, Building the Future Since assuming stewardship, leadership has worked tirelessly to revitalize the historic venue. Upgrades include reconfiguring rooms for modern conference use, meticulously maintaining the historic pipe organ and Boston-Steinway piano, and installing state-of-the-art streaming capabilities to broadcast future cultural events globally.

The work is guided by a local Board of Directors and supported by an Advisory Board with local, national, and international networks.

To ensure professional stewardship during this transitional phase, The Center has partnered with the Richardson Foundation while its independent non-profit status is being finalized. All current donations are being directed through the Richardson Foundation (designated for The Center) to ensure donors receive proper tax-deductible credit.

“We thank each and every one of you for standing with us in prayer, emotional support, and financial considerations to make our dream a reality,” Martin added. “Please come to your Center a place to gather, grow, and celebrate.”

The post Historic Falls City Church re-imagined as “The Center” for arts and community serves-maiden event set for June 7, 2026 appeared first on THE FALLS CITY JOURNAL.

Flatwater Free Press

Ella Ricker was sitting in her elementary school orchestra class when she first considered a career in teaching. Her orchestra teachers at Lincoln Public Schools made learning to play music so fun, she wanted to share that joy with others. 

As a teacher, Ricker said, seeing her students excited to play their instruments and perform in school concerts was her favorite part of the job. But it was also only one part of a growing list of responsibilities in a profession in which she said a good work-life balance had become unattainable.

So, after nine years with LPS and 14 years into her career, Ricker left the profession last May — she would have to rely on income from pet-sitting until she could find something else. But a year later, she now watches people’s pets for a living, sometimes earning more than she did as a teacher, she said.

Ricker’s decision to quit teaching is an increasingly common one in Nebraska.

As of May 15, only 27,840 of the nearly 45,500 Nebraskans licensed to teach here have actually worked as teachers in the state this school year, according to a Flatwater Free Press analysis of state Department of Education data.

That means roughly 40% of certified Nebraska teachers aren’t teaching in public or private classrooms this academic year.

That number includes the normal churn, like retirements and teachers moving out of state or up into administrative roles, the department said. But it also includes many like Ricker — teachers who have exited the profession.

The Flatwater Free Press spoke with 13 former teachers who have left teaching. Many cited unsustainable, high-stress work environments with frequent expectations for unpaid labor and limited schedule flexibility. They noted shrinking student attention spans, additional learning requirements and feeling unsupported by parents or school leaders.

The teachers who spoke to Flatwater have retired early or left teaching for a range of careers in higher education, business, therapy, self-employment, healthcare and/or nonprofit work. Most said they would not return to the profession or would need to see major changes before doing so.

“Teaching is a relatively high-quit, turnover line of work,” said Richard Ingersoll, a former high school teacher himself who is now a professor of education and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.

“The conventional wisdom is long that we have these shortages, that we don’t produce enough people … and then you look at the data and you find that, well, there’s actually a whole lot of people out there,” Ingersoll said. “The problem isn’t so much that we don’t produce enough (teachers), it’s that we lose too many.

“The issue is, well, can we keep them in the first place? But also, what does it take to get them to come back in?”

Ricker’s story mirrors others’ who say they had little choice but to leave the field. She frequently had to stay past school hours to attend mandatory meetings and trainings, she told Flatwater, without acknowledgment in her paycheck or from administrators for the extra time. That lack of recognition and support, she said, coupled with years of rising work demands, led her to quit after the 2025 school year.

“Every year I was teaching, they kept putting on more and more, like, things that we needed to do, more requirements we needed to meet,” Ricker said. “But we didn’t have any more time to do them.”

She knows other teachers who have left after feeling similarly burnt out. Many, she thinks, were dedicated educators who would worry about their students after school, then spend their evenings preparing for the next day’s classes.

“But there’s nothing to show for it at the end of the day, you know?” Ricker said. 

***

Nebraska’s teacher shortage has shown improvement, the state reported in its most recent teacher vacancy survey. Unfilled positions, classified as any left vacant or filled by someone other than a fully qualified teacher, dropped by around 669 to 489 from last school year to this year — a marked improvement from the over 900 reported in the 2023-2024 school year. The number of fully vacant positions has also decreased annually since.

But these survey reports can be imperfect indicators of how the state is actually trending, said Tim Royers, president of the state teachers union, the Nebraska State Education Association. He said the surveys are structured around posted positions that go unfilled.

“But I know that there’s districts across the state that have simply not posted a position because they know they won’t fill it, right?” Royers said. “So that doesn’t show up on that report.”

The problem is a national one. A 2025 survey from researchers at the University of Missouri found that 78% of teachers surveyed have considered or plan to leave teaching since the 2020 pandemic. Ingersoll said the profession has become more taxing as the demands on teachers have increased. “But, the time, the resources, the tools, the autonomy to meet the demands” haven’t. Teachers, he said, rarely get a say into the key decisions that impact their job.

Josh West, who taught math for seven years at Lincoln and Elkhorn Public Schools, said teaching became notably less enjoyable after the pandemic. Fewer students seemed to apply themselves, he said, and there was little support from the district to hold students accountable for their own progress in school.

He constantly worried over his students’ success, to the point where it wore on his mental health. He felt he was failing as an educator.

“I felt like I wasn’t making much of a difference,” West said. “It was making me anxious. I was not happy. I was emotionally exhausted at the end of every day.”

After the 2023 school year, West quit teaching with no backup plan. It was a big risk, he said, and it wasn’t easy to leave the job for which he’d obtained a degree or his position as a track and cross-country coach.

“You feel like you’ve gave up almost a decade of your life at that point,” West said. “You’ve put in all these years, and you’re almost starting from scratch again. And it was a scary feeling, not knowing for sure where I’d even be working.”

The hardest part for West: The feeling that he was giving up on his students. Those relationships are what he misses most about teaching, he said. Everything else made it easy to leave — the pressures from parents and principals, the feeling of running on empty with little time for life beyond work.

West eventually found a job with the state Department of Health and Human Services, where he took a small pay cut. He said it was worth it. Now, West works as an analyst for an insurance company, making more money than he ever did as a teacher, he said.

Teachers will leave the profession with no guarantee of a raise, with many taking a pay cut, said Gema Zamarro, a professor in education reform and economics at the University of Arkansas. They will sacrifice pay for a chance at a more manageable job, she said.

After the 2024 school year, Kate Geiger left her job as a special education teacher at a public elementary school in Omaha for an office manager position at an engineering firm. She also teaches yoga at an Omaha yoga studio, something she has done since she began teaching.

The career change has improved her schedule, mental health and salary.

“I’ve never cried at work,” she said. “I get lunch every single day if I want it.”

She recalls a moment in teaching where she wondered if she would have the time to attend a family member’s funeral. “That’s silly, right? But it was just, I mean, it was so hard to be able to do that stuff,” she said, especially when many students relied on her for individualized support. 

People don’t realize the extent to which teachers’ workloads have grown in the last decade, said Kathy Poehling, the president of the Omaha Education Association, a local affiliate of the state teachers union. There is greater stress on teachers, she said, especially those in special education. They have more paperwork and complex regulations to navigate.

Geiger agrees the job changed in her eight years as a special education teacher. She said she loved her school and, for the majority of her career, enjoyed going to work. But her last year of teaching was so stressful, she said, that she was literally ripping strands of hair from her head.

“I struggled moving out of education because I really felt like I was making a difference in the world,” Geiger said. “But I was just like, I think, at my breaking point.”

Special education jobs continue to be the most difficult for schools to fill, topping the list for unfilled teacher positions reported by the state since at least 2009. Other specialized areas, including foreign language, music and advanced math and science, trend high on that list — industries that seek these skills tend to offer more competitive pay and benefits than teaching.

Many of the teachers with whom Flatwater spoke said they didn’t pursue the job for the pay, but cited money as another factor in their decision to leave. 

According to a National Education Association report published in April, Nebraska’s starting salary for teachers, around $40,000, ranks second to last nationwide, above only Montana.

“I knew teaching wasn’t the best-paying job going into teaching,” West said. “But when you have all this other extra stuff on top of that, it’s just one other thing to add on the list of like, ‘Wait, why am I not doing another job that’s gonna pay more and will probably be better for my mental health?’”

***

Multiple superintendents from public schools across the state said in emails and interviews with the Flatwater Free Press that they have been able to fill teacher vacancies in recent years, but that it has been challenging. The number of applicants continues to decline, they say — or there are none at all.

Royers said one of the best ways to tackle this shortfall is to focus hiring efforts on the overlooked group of people already certified to teach in Nebraska, by addressing the concerns that drove them out of the profession in the first place.

“We’re ignoring what we (as an organization) feel is a group that is job ready, has the skills, clearly, at one point, had the passion,” Royers said. 

Ricker said she would have to see more support before ever considering a return to teaching orchestra. She’s still debating whether to renew her teaching certificate, which would expire in July.

It was hard to give up her health insurance as a teacher, she said, but the career switch has given her the ability to enjoy more of life. She can travel or watch events like the recent lunar flyby from home. “I’ve definitely noticed I’m happier and more calm this year,” she said.

Kael Welch, who taught for five years at Millard Public Schools and another five at Phoenix Academy in Omaha, said she thinks younger professionals have become better at prioritizing a work-life balance, whereas she never felt like she had that choice.

“I just thought it was expected of me to take all this work home and spend my own money in the classroom and spend my own free time, you know, doing things for work,” she said.

Welch’s sister, Erin Lane, taught fourth grade at Blair Community Schools for 15 years. 

She retired early in 2022, a year after the school had returned to in-person learning after the coronavirus pandemic. But many of the responsibilities asked of teachers during the pandemic continued once it ended, she said, due to new technology and cleanliness requirements. Student behaviors also grew more disruptive and difficult to manage, she said.

Yet Lane said she loved when she would help a student learn something. She can still recall little details about her former students, like what they liked to read, and students whose graduation parties she’s now invited to. That was the magic in teaching, she said, when she knew she had made a lasting impact on a student. 

Now, Lane said, those rewarding moments are too easily forgotten. “It feels like that’s kind of been beaten out of us,” she said. “And, if you don’t have that, then you’re really missing what teachers used to love about teaching.”

The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraska’s first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.

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In the Republican primary for Richardson County sheriff, Rick Hardesty received 764 votes while Nicholas C. Aitken received 580 votes. One write in vote was recorded.

Falls City voters narrowly favored Kevin Malone in the mayoral primary race. Malone received 374 votes while Kenny Killingsworth received 370 votes. Dennis Miller received 148 votes, Mark A. Galaska received 26 votes and one write in vote was recorded.

In the Falls City Council Ward 2 race, Sean Nolte received 105 votes, Robert D. Olberding received 79 votes and Terry Kermoade received 67 votes.

In the Humboldt mayoral race, Kevin Burnison received 118 votes, Jan Wilhelm received 56 votes, Ted B. Schuler received 25 votes and James Cherry received 12 votes.

Richardson County voters in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate favored Pete Ricketts with 1,014 votes. Todd Knobel received 102 votes, Debb Axtell Schultz received 104 votes, Mac Stevens received 43 votes and Eric Mortimore received 32 votes.

In the Republican gubernatorial primary, Jim Pillen received 876 votes in Richardson County. Gary L. Rogge received 140 votes, John Walz received 115 votes, Sheila J. Korth-Focken received 71 votes, Jacy Todd received 39 votes and Sal Holguin received 19 votes.

Republican voters favored Adrian Smith for Congressional District 3 with 925 votes over David P. Huebner with 343 votes.

In the Republican secretary of state race, Scott Petersen received 677 votes while Bob Evnen received 512 votes.

Joey Spellerberg received 1,108 votes in the Republican state treasurer race.

Mike Hilgers received 1,120 votes in the Republican attorney general race.

Mike Foley received 1,138 votes in the Republican state auditor race.

On the Democratic ballot, Cindy Burbank received 269 votes in the U.S. Senate race while William J. Forbes received 85 votes.

Becky Kelly Stille received 326 votes in the Democratic Congressional District 3 race.

Lynne Walz received 293 votes in the Democratic gubernatorial race while Larry Marvin received 62 votes.

Sarah J. Slattery received 290 votes in the Democratic secretary of state race while Lee M. Cimfel received 49 votes.

Daniel Ebers received 323 votes in the Democratic state treasurer race.

Jocelyn Brasher received 324 votes in the Democratic attorney general race.

In the State Board of Education District 5 race, Angie Eberspacher received 566 votes, Lana Daws received 497 votes and Michaela Conway received 433 votes.

According to unofficial totals, 1,889 ballots were cast in Richardson County. Of those, 1,357 were Republican ballots, 372 were Democratic ballots, eight were Libertarian ballots, three were Legal Marijuana NOW ballots and 149 were nonpartisan ballots

The post UnOfficial Election Results for the May 12, 2026 Primary Election appeared first on THE FALLS CITY JOURNAL.

According to building plans submitted to the City of Falls City for permit requests, the project represents an investment of approximately $1,130,000. Not included in this estimate are parking lot and sidewalk upgrades to be completed at the conclusion of the interior remodel. The conversion reflects Hy-Vee’s long-term commitment to serving Falls City and strengthening access to local grocery options.

The upgraded store will include new and expanded services designed to better meet everyday shopping needs while maintaining the convenience of a neighborhood grocery store. Planned improvements include:

• A 20-foot full-service meat counter offering expanded selections

• A broader selection of national and regional name-brand grocery items

• A limited-service deli counter offering prepared sandwiches, pizza, and rotisserie chicken

• A specialty candy shop within the store

• Additional refrigerated and frozen food space

A bakery with cake decorator will also be added as part of the full-service Hy-Vee format to complement, not replace, the strong local bakery offerings already serving Falls City.

To accommodate these new features, parts of the existing sales floor will be reconfigured. Some general merchandise aisles will be reduced or removed to allow more space for food offerings, fresh departments, and coolers.

Local Leadership Retained

The store’s leadership will remain local, with Clint Sailors serving as Store Director of the new Hy-Vee in Falls City. The expanded store offering is expected to create five (5) new full-time positions and as many as thirty (30) new part-time positions.

Community Partnership

Falls City EDGE is partnering with the City of Falls City and Falls City Chamber of Commerce and Main Street to share project updates and support the successful transition of this important community asset. The conversion is viewed as a key step in maintaining strong local retail services and supporting the overall vitality of Falls City’s business environment.

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The combined ceremony will include 108 graduates from Beatrice, 665 from Lincoln, 448 from Milford and 104 dual credit students. There will be a total of 1,390 degrees conferred including 701 associates degrees, 152 diplomas and 537 certificates.

Tickets are not required and there is no limit to the number of guests per graduate. Guests are invited to sit in any non-reserved section in the 100-level of the arena with handicap seating available on the main concourse. PBA enforces a clear-bag policy, which limits the size and type of bag allowed in the venue.

Paid parking is available at Park & Go parking garages and metered street parking around PBA. Accessible parking is also available at Park & Go with the drop-off area located on the south side of PBA (R Street).

State Senator Jason Prokop will deliver the commencement address. A native of Crete, he represents District 27 in the Nebraska Legislature, brining decades of public policy experience and a deep commitment to Nebraska. Before joining the Legislature, Prokop built an accomplished career across the public and nonprofit sectors. He currently serves as Director of First Five Nebraska, a nonprofit focused on early childhood care and education. Prokop oversees the organization’s policy and communications work. Prior to that, he served as External Affairs Manager at the Nebraska Department of Transportation. Earlier in his career, he spent several years in Washington, D.C., serving in senior positions for U.S. Senator Ben Nelson. Prokop also served as Chief of Staff to the CEO at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

The ceremony will be live streamed if family and friends are unable to attend in-person.

The post SCC to Graduate Record-Number 1,325 Students on May 5 appeared first on THE FALLS CITY JOURNAL.

If you have a questions please feel free to contact the Falls City Police Department at (402)245-4422.

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A novel got its author run out of Lincoln. Nearly a century later, the city is giving the story a second chance.

A new theatrical adaptation of Mari Sandoz’s “Capital City” is set to premiere at the Lied Center in Lincoln.

By Tynan Stewart, Flatwater Free Press

It was the summer of 1940, and Mari Sandoz was done with Lincoln. 

The Nebraska-born author, who had lived in the capital off and on since 1919, denied her upcoming move to Denver meant she was “running away,” telling the Omaha World-Herald she was relocating to research her next book. But Sandoz also admitted that, yes, she had been getting angry phone calls for months. She had been hissed at and spit on in public. Someone had even slipped a threatening note under her door. She later described the contents to a reporter: “‘Better lay low. You’re the next candidate for a concentration camp.’”

The harassment started shortly after the publication of Sandoz’s second novel, “Capital City,” in 1939. The book, which satirized the politics and society of a fictional Midwestern college town that closely resembled Lincoln, sold poorly but aroused the ire of her neighbors with its scathing depiction of a citizenry sympathetic to fascist movements in Europe.

“Sandoz was essentially run out of town for writing this book,” said Karim Muasher, an actor and theater director.

While Sandoz never moved back to Lincoln, her novel will soon have a second shot in the Star City thanks to Muasher and his co-artistic director, Carrie Brown. Their New York-based theater company, Animal Engine, is producing a stage adaptation of “Capital City” that will premiere at the Lied Center on April 9. Muasher and Brown, along with their occasional collaborator Jay Dunn, wrote the script, designed the set and will also star in the production.

The Lied approached Animal Engine a few years ago to commission a Nebraska-focused work. Sandoz, as a historically significant Nebraska author, was a clear choice, and eventually they settled on “Capital City.”

“We were just completely taken by how relevant and modern the book felt,” Muasher said. “It really felt like it was written in the current day.”

After premiering in Lincoln, Animal Engine’s production of “Capital City” will also visit Fremont, Falls City and Auburn as part of the Lied Center’s Arts Across Nebraska program, which aims to increase access to the performing arts in the state’s rural areas. The center is also working with the Lancaster County Youth Services Center to stream a performance for incarcerated kids and to organize an in-person Q&A with the artists.

INFO BOX: Upcoming performances

April 9-12 – Lied Center, Lincoln

April 14 – Fremont Opera House, Fremont

April 16 – Prichard Auditorium, Falls City; 7:00 PM

April 17 – Auburn Public Schools Central Office Auditorium, Auburn

More information at www.liedcenter.org/education/arts-across-nebraska

Jane Schiermeyer Hansen, director of education and community engagement at the Lied Center, said the performing arts center tries to prioritize works with a connection to Nebraska whenever it can.

“I think Nebraskans are really interested in Nebraska stories,” she said.

Is ‘Capital City’ really about Lincoln?

Technically, the novel that ruined Sandoz’s reputation in Lincoln isn’t set in Lincoln — or even Nebraska, for that matter.

The story actually takes place in Franklin, a fictional city in the imaginary state of Kanewa, a portmanteau of Kansas-Nebraska-Iowa. Sandoz, who was known for conducting intensive research for her books, studied multiple state capitals in the Midwest, including Des Moines, Topeka and Jefferson City. Her fictional capital also has aspects seemingly borrowed from Omaha, such as an annual coronation of upper-class socialites as “the emperor and empress of the land of Kanewa” — possibly modeled on a similar ceremony organized by the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben.

“She had no one capital city in mind, but wanted to reveal what she saw as a trend in the capital cities of the Middle West, towns that produced little, that had little commerce, but lived off the state capitol and the adjacent university — parasites, just as Washington, D.C., seemed to her the archparasite,” wrote Helen Winter Stauffer, a longtime University of Nebraska at Kearney professor, in her biography of Sandoz, “Mari Sandoz: Story Catcher of the Plains.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msNHusaDuAE 

Despite Sandoz’s repeated assertions that “Capital City” was allegorical and not modeled on any single location, some Lincolnites didn’t believe her. A 1939 review in the Nebraska State Journal observed that the book contained “many men and women who will be recognized, rightly or wrongly, by many readers.” It also didn’t help that Sandoz borrowed one of Lincoln’s most distinctive landmarks — a capitol building with a “high white tower.”

Brown, who grew up in Lincoln and studied theater at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said she immediately recognized the setting.

“When I read it, there was, like, no doubt in my mind,” Brown said. “This is not an amalgamation. This is just Lincoln. There’s nothing about the city that isn’t Lincoln.”

‘Rhyming with the present day’

Although the backlash to “Capital City” was ugly and excessive, it’s not hard to see why some residents resented Sandoz. It wasn’t just the novel. As she was planning her move to Denver, Sandoz told a reporter: “I don’t like Lincoln, and that is no secret. But I didn’t like it 20 years ago.”

Sandoz was also an unapologetic liberal, sympathetic to the labor movement and the poor, while Lincoln was at the time decidedly conservative. (Lancaster was one of only two counties in Nebraska that voted for Republican Herbert Hoover in the 1932 presidential election.) “Capital City” is a harsh portrayal of both local and state politics and ends with the election of a demagogic far-right governor who declares martial law and deploys the National Guard, though most of the populace is too preoccupied with a college football game to notice or care.

Lincoln’s political leanings have shifted in the decades since, if not its obsession with football. But many of the novel’s themes still feel timely.

“We were really excited by the historical time period and by the parallels that we can find between the late ‘30s and now,” Muasher said. “They say that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes, and this book is definitely rhyming with the present day.”

Muasher said the story’s association with Lincoln is ultimately a positive thing for local audiences, and he hopes people who have read “Capital City” will come out to see the play.

“What you’re gonna see on stage is actually inspired in part by the place that you live in,” Muasher said. “The fact that it’s a historical piece I think is gonna dull some of the hurt feelings.”

A return to the Lied Center

This won’t be Animal Engine’s first time performing in Lincoln.

In 2023, the theater company brought its original play “Henrietta Solway,” which is based on the fiction of Willa Cather, to the Lied Center, kicking off the relationship that would lead to their current collaboration. Before that, Muasher and Brown visited the city for a high school tour with their show “Petunia and Chicken,” another adaptation of Cather’s work.

“I got to go back to Northeast (High School) and perform for my drama teacher, which was really cool,” Brown said.

Performing at the Lied Center is particularly special for Brown. Her family first moved to Lincoln in 1993 when she was 10, and she remembers the performing arts center as a formative part of her childhood. At the time, it was still relatively new, having opened in 1990.

“We had some family friends that lived in Lincoln, and the Lied Center was one of the first places that they pointed out to us,” she said. “In some ways, performing at the Lied Center is just as cool for me as opening up on Broadway.”

Last summer, Animal Engine visited Lincoln for a few weeks to work on the production of “Capital City,” and Brown found herself pointing out familiar places to Muasher and Dunn.

“If I hadn’t grown up in Lincoln, I don’t think I would have seen so much in the book as I did,” Brown said.

The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraska’s first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.

The post A novel got its author run out of Lincoln. Nearly a century later, the city is giving the story a second chance. A new theatrical adaptation of Mari Sandoz’s “Capital City” is set to premiere at the Lied Center in Lincoln appeared first on THE FALLS CITY JOURNAL.

The training will be held at Nebraska ESU 4, 2301 Dahlke Ave, Auburn, NE 68305. 8:00am – 5:00 pm on April 14. 

7.8 hours of Continuing Education Contact Hours awarded by Iowa Western Community College, Iowa Board of Nursing Provider #6.

This interactive session will provide participants with essential knowledge and practical tools to better serve those who have served. Key topics include:

The No Wrong Door approach emphasizes that every point of contact—whether in healthcare, education, social services, or the broader community—plays a vital role in connecting veterans and their families to the help they need. Participants will leave better equipped to respond with confidence, compassion, and competence.

This training is ideal for professionals across sectors, as well as community members committed to supporting veterans.

Cost is $20.00, payable at the door. Please email Jill Kuzelka at jjstnc@diodecom.net to reserve your spot

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