A survey of business executives suggests economies in the Midwest and Plains are still growing weakly, and more job losses are expected. Creighton University economics professor Ernie Goss says he expects unemployment rates to continue to rise for the region. Goss oversees the survey, which includes supply managers and business [...]
USDA officials say $35 million in grants and loans will go to renewable energy and efficiency projects and $2.3 million of that is coming to Nebraska. Wind turbines, geothermal systems, biomass corn stoves, and the conversion of diesel irrigators to electric are among the 170 Nebraska projects receiving funds.
[...]A booming Nebraska economy is apparently one of the by-products of Cornhusker success on the football field. Lincoln native Alex Blankenau developed a study for the Platte Institute for Economic Research, a Nebraska-based research group. Blankenau’s study indicates there is a bigger economic jump following standout Nebraska seasons when compared [...]
How does your business measure its performance? How do you stack up with your competitors? The Nebraska Edgerton Program offers an opportunity for you to conduct your very own assessment of seven key areas of performance excellence: leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, measurement analysis and knowledge management, workforce [...]
State Sen. Arnie Stuthman will be one of the seasoned veterans of the Nebraska Legislature when the 2009 session gets under way in January, a vantage point he hopes to use to put the brakes on some legislative proposals. “I’ll have to take over the responsibility of Sen. Chambers,” the [...]
Texas oilman-turned-wind power advocate T. Boone Pickens brought his alternative energy campaign to Lincoln Tuesday. (Editor’s note: Pickens has invested $10 billion in his own wind power project in the Texas panhandle.) Nebraska ranks sixth nationally in wind potential but only 20th in using wind to generate electricity. Gov. Dave [...]
Secretary of State John Gale stopped in Grand Island Tuesday morning for a business roundtable to explain the duties his office performs for businesses. Asking for a show of hands, Gale learned that several of the businesspeople meeting with him were notaries public.
He pointed out that notary laws have [...]
The farm economy in the Great Plains states are a bright spot in the otherwise gloomy national economic picture. In states like Nebraska, the housing market is holding up just fine, the banks are making plenty of loans, and employers keep adding jobs. Retail spending in the middle of the [...]
The Lincoln Business & Industrial Products Show is considered one of the largest and diversified Business Expos in the Midwest. This year, the show will be held October 1-2 at the Lancaster Event Center. Admission and parking are free.
According to event organizers, the expo will give attendees the opportunity [...]
State and local water officials are considering new irrigation restrictions in the Republican River basin in the wake of a lawsuit that has undercut Nebraska’s efforts to comply with a three-state river compact. Talks between state and local officials started recently, prompted by a lawsuit nine residents of the basin [...]
According to Nebraska Cattlemen leaders, the ethanol hearing hosted Monday by Senators Ben Nelson and Tom Harkin in Omaha was a great opportunity to hear all sides of the energy debate. But Michael Kelsey, Nebraska Cattlemen executive vice president, said the state’s largest industry, beef, was not been invited to [...]
Nebraska’s farm real estate value rose sharply during 2007, extending a trend that began in 1993, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service’s Nebraska field office in Lincoln. Farm real estate value on Jan. 1, 2008, averaged $1,460 per acre, a record high. This is up $230 per acre, [...]
The national unemployment rate in July rose to 5.7% from 5.5% in June. The highest unemployment rates can be found in Ohio (7.2%); California (7.3%); Illinois (7.3%); Rhode Island (7.7%); Mississippi (7.9%); and Michigan (8.5%). Nebraska had the lowest jobless rate at 3.4%.
[...]What does it take to become a top overall community? The Nebraska Community Improvement Program (NCIP) has the answers. For 45 years, NCIP, a program of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, has assisted communities with meeting challenges and building on strengths and resources to form a vision for the [...]
The Nebraska Department of Economic Development has provided more than $1 million to help first time home buyers in central Nebraska. The Housing Development Corporation in Hastings received a $388,000 grant. With the money it is creating a new program it is called the Regional Workforce Initiative. It will allow [...]
or being a community that says it needs its young people to stick around, Grand Island has a funny way of showing it. That’s what Mike Henke, general manager of the Grand Island human resources firm Associated Staffing, concluded after talking to groups of Grand Island high-schoolers. Many high-schoolers say [...]
An Omaha World-Herald review has found that Nebraska residents, on average, pay more in taxes and fees when they buy a car here than they would in any neighboring state but Kansas. It’s worse in Omaha and several other Nebraska cities because of a local sales tax and a wheel [...]
The Grand Island Area Chamber of Commerce will host the 2008 summer/fall conference for the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce Executives at Midtown Holiday Inn on Thursday and Friday. Chamber of Commerce leaders from across the state of Nebraska will attend this event.
Local presenters will share information regarding youth community [...]
A person close to Gov. Dave Heineman confirmed on Aug. 2 that state and local officials are negotiating with Yahoo to build a data center in the Omaha metropolitan area. Negotiators are “at a very serious stage,” and Yahoo might decide within five or six weeks, the person said. The [...]
The estimated median size of Nebraska towns — 320, which is about the population of Maxwell — may be the lowest ever. And the smallest towns will disappear “if not in a literal sense, then a figurative sense” because of dwindling services and population, said David Drozd, of the University [...]
Births in Nebraska have hit their highest level in 26 years, and state demographers expect the numbers only to increase in years to come. In fact, current estimates call for Nebraska births by 2015 to hit levels last seen a half-century earlier, in the final years of the baby boom. [...]
Members of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s Leadership Nebraska class visited two Scottsbluff operations Wednesday, where they learned about the sugar beet industry and research being conducted at the University of Nebraska Panhandle Research and Extension Center. During the previous two days of travel, they were introduced to [...]
Two Cuban trade ambassadors visited the Panhandle last week to learn about Nebraska’s dry edible bean industry.
The Cuban officials met with scientists and technicians at the University of Nebraska Panhandle Research and Extension Center Wednesday afternoon, then toured Kelley’s dry bean processing facility at Mitchell.
[...]The Nebraska Legislature’s Speaker Mike Flood joined western Nebraska senators in touring the Nebraska Panhandle on Monday and Tuesday. Senators John Harms, Phil Erdman and LeRoy Louden accompanied Flood on his visit. Flood, who is from Norfolk, touted western Nebraska’s efforts to come together to fight for completion of a [...]
The economy of Nebraska is so far escaping the recession woes that are plaguing other states. That was the message Gov. Dave Heineman said he’s getting from his constituents across the state. The governor stopped briefly in McCook earlier this week to feel the business pulse of the community. “People [...]
Driving south out of the agricultural town of Ainsworth, Neb., you can’t miss its newest crop: wind turbines, three dozen of them, with steel stalks 230 feet high and petal-like blades 131 feet long, sprouting improbably from the sand hills of north-central Nebraska, beside ruminating cattle. Six renewable energy technicians [...]
Sid Salzman counts himself among the lucky ones. After spending more than a year studying wind patterns, NPPD offered the group a 20-year contract to erect 36 wind turbines across about 11,000 acres, the majority of which Salzman owns. The Ainsworth Wind Energy Facility, which began operation in September 2005, [...]
Nebraska’s farm real estate value rose sharply during 2007, extending a trend that began in 1993, according to the USDA. Farm real estate value on January 1, 2008, averaged $1,460 per acre, a record high. This is up $230 per acre or 19% higher than last year’s level.
Cropland value [...]
A top immigration official said federal agencies are working on an agreement that could make it tougher for illegal immigrants to get jobs. Jock Scharfen is acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. O n Tuesday he said in Lincoln that his agency is working with Immigration and Customs [...]
The economy of Nebraska is so far escaping the recession woes that are plaguing other states. That was the message Gov. Dave Heineman said he’s getting from his constituents across the state. The governor stopped briefly in McCook earlier this week to feel the business pulse of the community. “People [...]
mbers of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s Leadership Nebraska class visited two Scottsbluff operations Wednesday, where they learned about the sugar beet industry and research being conducted at the University of Nebraska Panhandle Research and Extension Center. During the previous two days of travel, they were introduced to [...]
Sparsely populated areas of Nebraska with no cell phone service could be helped by a new policy from the Public Service Commission. It is making millions of dollars available for new cell towers.
For years, a roughly 7% phone surcharge that Nebraskans pay has mainly been used to bolster landline [...]
Despite growth among minority populations, 73 of Nebraska’s 93 counties have seen their numbers shrink in recent years. Newly-released census estimates show a majority of Nebraska counties lost population between 2000 and 2007.
Madison County is among them, having lost 1,089 between 2006 and 2007 after a Tyson beef processing [...]
Gov. Dave Heineman says problems of illegal immigration need a unified resolution from the federal government. Heineman spoke Friday at the Fremont Rotary. He says there can’t be 50 states and thousands of cities doing it differently.
Heineman wouldn’t comment specifically on the city’s recently defeated proposed ordinance that would [...]
A Nebraska court has backed a 2007 ruling ordering an Omaha employer to pay workers’ compensation to an illegal immigrant.
A three-judge panel of the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Court has affirmed a ruling made by a Douglas County trial judge in March 2007. It requires Sun Valley Landscapes to pay [...]
The recent failure of IndyMac Bancorp left long lines of Californians scurrying to withdraw their money. Nebraska banking industry professionals said Nebraska banks remain secure. Some are even offering additional insurance deposits in excess of Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. protections. A program referred to as CDARS, Certificate of Deposit Account [...]
Gov. Dave Heineman today announced the departure of Commissioner of Labor Fernando “Butch” Lecuona III of Lincoln as the head of the Nebraska Department of Labor. Lecuona is resigning to pursue other opportunities, but will continue to serve through Sept. 12.
Lecuona was first appointed State Labor Commissioner in 1997 [...]
Motorists can safely drive cars and pickups over any open highway bridge in Nebraska, a state roads official said Thursday. Even if an open bridge is listed as structurally deficient on the National Bridge Inventory, it’s safe for passenger vehicles, said Mary Jo Oie, spokeswoman for the Nebraska Department of [...]
The state grew its total number of jobs in June. The data from Nebraska Workforce Development showed Nebraska’s estimated seasonally adjusted state unemployment rate increased to 3.3% in June, up 0.2% from last year’s, up 0.1% from May.
The number of jobs in Nebraska has increased by 8,847 since June [...]
More than 125 people from several nations will visit Nebraska Sept. 10-13 to talk business and trade. Gov. Dave Heineman said the delegates will participate in the state’s first-ever “reverse trade mission.” The event was devised to encourage international companies to explore business opportunities in Nebraska.
The schedule features several [...]
A University of Nebraska-Lincoln student is challenging the ballot language for a measure that would bar some kinds of affirmative action in Nebraska. Jeff Hall is suing Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning and Secretary of State John Gale in Lancaster County District Court.
Hall is asking the court to review [...]
While other states slash their budgets to offset weak tax revenues, Nebraska lawmakers may begin getting pressure to cut taxes. A committee made up of key state senators was told on Wednesday that revenue growth during the fiscal year that ended last month outpaced the historical average for the fifth [...]
A University of Nebraska-Lincoln student is challenging the ballot language for a measure that would bar some kinds of affirmative action in Nebraska. Jeff Hall is suing Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning and Secretary of State John Gale in Lancaster County District Court.
Hall is asking the court to review [...]
Gov. Dave Heineman today announced the departure of Commissioner of Labor Fernando “Butch” Lecuona III of Lincoln as the head of the Nebraska Department of Labor. Lecuona is resigning to pursue other opportunities, but will continue to serve through Sept. 12.
Lecuona was first appointed State Labor Commissioner in 1997 [...]
Cities such as Fremont, Neb., that are trying to pass local laws banning illegal immigrants should instead press their federal elected officials to update the country’s immigration system, State Sen. Ray Aguilar of Grand Island said Thursday. Aguilar is Nebraska’s voice on a bipartisan national immigration task force meeting this [...]
A company founded by former presidential candidate Ross Perot plans to build a $23 million facility in Lincoln and hire 150 more people. The project announced Tuesday will make Lincoln one of Perot Systems’ largest U.S. employment centers. About 1,000 people already work in Lincoln for the company.
It provides technology [...]
More people locally are declaring bankruptcy, even as signs point to less economic turmoil in Nebraska than nationally. According to statistics compiled by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nebraska, bankruptcy filings were up 20% statewide in the first six months of 2008 compared with the same period [...]
The Nebraska Public Power District plans to add more than 400 megawatts of wind power — roughly equal to a mid-sized coal-fired plant — to its energy portfolio over the coming decade. NPPD, the state’s largest electric utility, would not own the turbines but would work with private developers on [...]
The Nebraska Medical Center has been named among the United States’ best hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. The news magazine’s 2008 list of America’s Best Hospitals ranks the Omaha hospital 39th in the nation for cancer care and 41st for neurology and neurosurgery.
[...]Ed O’Boyle of Five Points Bank in Grand Island and Barry Sandstrom at Home Federal Bank in Grand Island say there is a big difference between community banks and a few of the banks and brokerage houses that have been making all the recent headlines. Both men told The Independent [...]
