Nebraska
Nebraska For Us, Omaha-area pantries sound alarm about food insecurity
OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – Metro organizations are sounding the alarm about growing food insecurity.
Cars lined up around the block Saturday morning in North Omaha at a drive-thru food pantry hosted by Black Men United. This comes after Nebraska’s GOP delegation proposed cuts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds in their version of the Farm Bill.
Bettie White had been waiting here since 3 a.m., to make sure she can get what she needs.
“I enjoy this place… Everything is good and this is one of my favorite places,” says White.
Black Men United is now hosting this drive-thru food pantry twice a month, plus pop-up events, based on the need they see in the community.
“We will literally have to close the doors, because as long as they’re open, they’re coming,” says Willie Hamilton, Black Men United CEO. Hamilton says about 500 items were handed out Saturday morning.
One in seven Nebraskans depend on SNAP benefits, and one in five children in the state are food-insecure. It’s why the coalition Nebraska For Us is sounding the alarm about cuts to SNAP benefits.
“What so many people don’t understand is that SNAP benefits are funded through the Farm Bill. So when the House Agriculture Committee passed it out of committee this year, their version of the Farm Bill, it included $30 billion worth of cuts to SNAP benefits,” says Angie Lauritsen, the coalition’s state director.
Nebraska For Us focuses solely on economic policy that affects hard working middle-income Nebraskans.
The bill limits the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ability to make increases to the Thrifty Food Plan — its estimated family food budget that determines SNAP benefits.
“When the Ag Committee had an opportunity to vote on an amendment that would have saved those $30 billion worth of cuts, Congressman Bacon voted against that, to keep the cuts,” says Lauritsen. “A lot of people have the assumption that (SNAP benefits), it’s like thousands of dollars a month that are going towards needy families. It’s, I want to say, around $147 a month that are going to these families. It’s not a lot.”
At a time where grocery prices remain high, advocates say access to SNAP is crucial.
“For every SNAP dollar that’s spent, there’s $1.97 in economic return to local communities. So it’s really important that we hold programs like this to assist people like this who may not qualify for SNAP due to their immigration status or their income level,” says Rasna Sethi with OpenSky Policy Institute.
“We shouldn’t have to talk about this, since this is one of the most impoverished communities. People are coming from north, south. We’ve got so many homeless folks coming in as well, so the need is there,” says Hamilton.
The Farm Bill passed out of committee last month.
It’s not exactly clear when the bill will be brought up again, but Nebraska For Us expects it will be sometime after the election.
Copyright 2024 WOWT. All rights reserved.
The future of data centers in Nebraska took center stage at a North Omaha town hall Thursday evening.
The event was hosted by State Sens. Terrell McKinney and Ashlei Spivey, who alongside Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh sponsored a bill in the Nebraska Legislature that looked to help regulate data centers.
Parts of their bill were adopted and passed in LB1010, which requires reports on annual power usage, water usage and ownership.
“Having this passed in a package showed a lot of bipartisan work,” Spivey told a crowd of attendees at Nelson Mandela Elementary School.
The proposed regulations were shaped in part by Bold Nebraska, an advocacy group focused on eminent domain and clean energy. Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party and founder of Bold Nebraska, said before the bill passed there were “zero laws on the books” to address a boom in data centers.
“If one is coming into the community, we wanted to make sure that there were some basic transparency things in place,” Kleeb said.
Political discussions around data centers heated up in recent months following reporting by the Flatwater Free Press that showed Google is considering a data center in Nebraska that could require more than three times the amount of power the entire city of Lincoln uses at peak demand in the summer.
The Nebraska Legislature recently passed another bill, LB1261, that allows private developers to build and own power plants to serve a large industrial customer, including data centers. That bill was proposed by the governor’s office and celebrated by Gov. Jim Pillen.
“Our state is once again taking a bold and strategic step – one that will create an environment that attracts business and multibillion dollar investment, while legally preserving Nebraska’s unique and consumer-friendly public power model,” Pillen said at the time.
At Thursday’s town hall, McKinney called LB1261 “the bogeyman bill.”
“It’s a bill that the governor pushed through the legislature to allow for data centers to create their own power,” McKinney said. “It’s a bill that I stood on the floor and said this is going to harm our communities.”
LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Hundreds of people are without power in southeast Nebraska after a severe storm passed through Thursday morning.
The Lincoln Electric System outage map showed 115 customers without power across the city at 11:36 a.m.
Norris Public Power District’s outage map also shows 45 customers affected by the storm. As of 11:36 a.m., there were nine active outages.
According to the Nebraska Public Power District outage map, 657 customers were affected by the storm. Most of the affected customers were near Plattsmouth in southeast Nebraska. As of 11:37 a.m., 27 customers remain without power.
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Mandatory evacuations have been ordered near Crawford, including Fort Robinson State Park, as the South Fork Fire continues to spread in western Nebraska.
According to the City of Crawford, evacuations are currently underway for an area north of Crawford that includes the area south of Dodd Road, west of Dodd Road, and FF Street.
Fort Robinson has also been evacuated.
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission said Fort Robinson State Park and Peterson Wildlife Management Area have been temporarily closed due to the fire.
The fire has burned approximately 9,000 acres and is currently 0% contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
Nebraska Game and Parks said the park and the WMA will remain closed until further notice to support firefighting operations and protect public safety.
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