Nebraska
Rural NE county attorneys, public defenders confront 'legal desert' in hiring new lawyers • Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — Three decades ago, Hall County Public Defender Gerald Piccolo could get more than 100 applicants for a job opening just by posting a notice on the bulletin boards at Nebraska’s two law colleges and sharing a notice with the state bar association.
Now, he said, he’s lucky to get a handful of aspiring defense attorneys to apply.
“I haven’t ever received more than 10 applicants for a job in the past 10 years,” Piccolo said.
It’s part of a national trend of fewer law graduates due to decreased enrollment in law schools, which have seen a 21% drop in students since peaking in 2010.
The shortage of potential new prosecutors and public defenders is presenting an even bigger problem in Nebraska’s smaller cities and rural areas, where it’s difficult to convince some college graduates to relocate.
Bill derailed
At Piccolo’s central Nebraska office, for instance, four of his eight lawyer positions were unfilled in 2022 and 2023, and two remain open today.
“It’s just more attractive to live in Lincoln or Omaha than live in Grand Island, Madison County or Scottsbluff,” he said. “It’s easier to stay in Omaha or Lincoln because that’s where the law schools are.”

A bill to address the workforce shortage, however, got derailed in the Nebraska Legislature toward the end of the 2024 session due to a disagreement between the state’s prosecutors and defense attorneys over the incentives that should be offered.
State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, who is a lawyer, had introduced legislation to expand financial incentives offered to “public service” attorneys — like county prosecutors and public defenders — who located in rural areas through the state’s long-running Legal Education for Public Service and Rural Practice Loan Repayment Assistance Program.
That program provides student loan repayment assistance to counties with less than 15,000 residents in an effort to address “legal deserts” in the state.
12 of 93 counties without lawyers
Twelve of the state’s 93 counties currently have no active lawyers, and 18 have three or fewer attorneys, according to the Nebraska State Bar Association.
That shortage is projected to expand to 16 counties with no lawyers, and 32 with three or fewer by 2027, due to retirement of lawyers in rural areas.
“We hear from attorneys in rural Nebraska that they’d like to retire (but) their clients won’t let them.”
– Liz Neeley, executive director, Nebraska Bar Association
“We hear from attorneys in rural Nebraska that they’d like to retire (but) their clients won’t let them,” Liz Neeley, the executive director of the Nebraska State Bar Association told a legislative committee this spring.
That’s because there’s a lack of replacements for them, Neeley said. Some public defender/county attorney jobs have been vacant for six months in rural counties without a single applicant, she said, and a few jobs have been vacant for more than a year.
Under Sen. Conrad’s proposed Legislative Bill 1195, the loan repayment program would be expanded to larger counties, such as Grand Island, Kearney, Hastings and Scottsbluff.
Killed by salary parity
Funding for expanding the program, about $500,000, was projected to come from the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, which has amassed a reserve fund of millions of dollars via legal settlements it obtains from class-action lawsuits.
But LB 1195, as originally proposed, failed to pass. The issue that killed it was salary parity — whether deputy county attorneys should be paid the same salary as deputy public defenders.

“It was really disappointing,” Conrad said. “We were all rowing in the same direction, and then we got tripped up on this parity issue.”
Representatives of the state’s county attorneys argued that the jobs are different, and shouldn’t get the same pay, and that local counties — not the state — should decide what they pay their employees. The parity issue arose during later crafting of the bill, and ended the county attorneys’ support for it.
Nebraska
Hail, rain, snow move into eastern Nebraska, western Iowa
OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – An active weather pattern is moving into the region starting tonight, bringing some snow into the region, according to KTIV’s forecast in Sioux City.
A First Alert 6 viewer sent footage of the storms while traveling on Interstate 80 near West Branch, Iowa.
TUESDAY NIGHT
In Siouxland, a batch of precipitation moves in after midnight. It could initially start as rain, but most of the precipitation will fall as snow. Snow showers will likely last through sunrise on Wednesday morning.
The snow will stay light with accumulations near an inch or less. This could create some slick spots on the Wednesday morning commute. Temperatures will probably fall a bit below the freezing mark.
Copyright 2026 WOWT. All rights reserved.
Nebraska
Shelter in place issued after suspicious object found in mailbox
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — UPDATE: Grand Island Police said around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday that the shelter in place order has been lifted .
GIPD said the item was retrieved by the Nebraska State Patrol Bomb Squad, who is investigating.
The area has also now been reopened.
ORIGINAL STORY:
The Grand Island Police Department has cordoned off a local block and is urging residents to shelter in place.
According to GIPD, officers responded to the 4300 block of Sherwood Road just before 2:00 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. A resident reported finding a suspicious cylindrical object wrapped in duct tape inside a home.
The Nebraska State Patrol Bomb Squad has been called to the scene to investigate the device.
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Nebraska
68 students chosen as Nebraska Young Artist Award winners
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts has announced the winners of the 29th annual Nebraska Young Artist Awards.
The awards recognize 11th-grade students from Nebraska for their talents in visual art, dance, music, theatre, and film and emerging media arts.
Sixty-eight students from more than 40 high schools across the state have been selected as award winners and will be invited to a day of activities on campus March 25.
“Our faculty always look forward to this event,” said Chris Watson, director of recruitment for the college and coordinator of the awards. “They love meeting enthusiastic young artists, working with them and celebrating their talent.”
Students applied for the recognition and submitted an example of their work. Applications were received from 92 students. Hixson-Lied College faculty chose the winners.
Award winners were also asked to nominate the teacher who provided them with the greatest amount of mentoring and support in the development of their special talents.
Each student will receive a certificate and an original piece of artwork commissioned for the event and created by a School of Art, Art History and Design student.
Following is a list of award winners by hometown, with their high school and specialty area(s).
Aurora:
- Calvin Miller, Aurora, music
Beaver City:
- Johnathan Eakin, Southern Valley, visual arts
Bellevue:
- Mami Lloyd, Bellevue West, music
Bennington:
- Liliana Martic, Bennington, music
Eagle:
- Jorie Goings, Waverly, dance
Firth:
- Petra Van Cleave, home school, music
Fremont:
- Xavier Herre, Bergan Catholic, theatre
Fullerton:
- Lylla Sabata, Fullerton, music
Gretna:
- Lillian Bock, Gretna, music
Harvard:
- Allee Jarzynka, Harvard, music
Hendley:
- Lily Jordan, Southern Valley, visual arts
Hooper:
- Leo Arellano, Logan View, visual arts
- Ellsie Meier, Logan View, visual arts
Kearney:
- Kruz Flamig, Kearney, visual arts
- Isaac Hooton, Kearney, visual arts
- Mariah Kaslon, Kearney, visual arts
- Landen Tilley, Kearney, visual arts
Lincoln:
- Alissa Brenning, Norris, dance
- Kali Brewer, Lincoln Southeast, visual arts
- Ava Engel, Lincoln Northeast, dance
- Emalie Fischer, Lincoln North Star, dance
- Adelyn Haden, Lincoln Standing Bear, dance and music
- Audrey Haugen, Lincoln Southwest, theatre
- Andrea Hu, Lincoln East, music
- Logan Lambrecht, Lincoln Southwest, music and theatre
- Mckinzey Lile, Lincoln North Star, dance
- Hayley Marshall, Lincoln Southwest, dance
- Riley Minster, Lincoln East, music
- Joslyn Morgan, Lincoln Southeast, music
- Ariadne Ottoson, home school, music
- Megan Plander, Lincoln Lutheran, theatre
- Lauren Ramey, LPS Arts and Humanities Focus Program, visual arts
- Blake Semrad, Lincoln Southwest, dance
- Emma Shaeffer, Lincoln Southwest, dance
- Taylor Sharpe, Lincoln Southwest, dance
- Hugh Skretta, Lincoln High, music
- Samuel Sulzle, Lincoln Northwest, music
- Brooks Xia, Lincoln East, music
Martell:
- Reese Thomas, home school, music
Norfolk:
- Noah Asbury, Norfolk, music
- Emily Henkel, Norfolk, music; Nathan Kaiser, Norfolk, music
- North Platte: Brett Pfeifer, North Platte, theatre
Omaha:
- Asher Abuhl, Trinity Classical Academy, music
- Adam Campagna, Omaha South, film and emerging media arts
- Liam Cowherd Richardson, Creighton Preparatory, music
- Regina Ho, Millard South, film and emerging media arts
- Connor Holmstedt, Fort Calhoun, music
- Kara Leininger, Duchesne Academy, music
- Jayden Li, Millard North, music; Violet Little, Omaha Central, dance
- Mrethi Magesh, Millard North, dance
- Venkatesan Marichamy, Millard North, dance
- Moyra Matthews, Duchesne Academy, dance and music
- Jackson Mu, Millard North, music
- Gauri Nair, Millard North, dance
- Angela Qi, Millard North, music
- Jackson Ramsey, Gretna East, music
- Tara Richardson, Creighton Prep, music
- Vandana Santhanam, Marian, music
- Caroline Soderlin, Millard North, music
- Akshara Venkatesan, Millard North, dance
- Caleigh Walkenhorst, Millard West, music
Osmond:
- Donovan Heiman, Osmond, theatre
Papillion:
- Emelia Weaver, Papillion-La Vista, music
Pierce:
- Spencer Sindt, Pierce, music
Randolph:
- Brecken Shearer, Randolph, visual arts
York:
- Allison Holmes, York, visual arts
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