LINCOLN, Neb. (KCAU) — To get ahead of any flooding along the Missouri River, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen declared a state of emergency Monday for counties along the river.

By declaring a state of emergency, state funds and resources will be freed up for immediate use if the need arises.

“The proclamation confers authority to Nebraska’s Adjutant General to activate those resources, to protect lives and property,” the release reads in part.

After excessive rainfall in northeast Nebraska, northwest Iowa and southeast South Dakota, Siouxland communities are experiencing unprecedented flooding with most expected to flow into the Missouri River.

The Nebraska Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Corps of Engineers are providing Pillen with updates on the status of the Missouri River. The agencies are continuing to monitor the situation and how communities are being impacted and will continue to monitor as the water’s crest continues downstream in the coming days.

Over the weekend, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds requested assistance to member states in an Emergency Management Assistance Compact. Pillen authorized the deployment of a military helicopter and four-member National Army Guard crew to assist in recovery efforts.

An copy of the proclamation can be found below.

FARGO — The state of Nebraska has always been a popular place for North Dakota State football. The Bison are hoping that trend continues in the Class of 2025.

Lincoln East defensive back Mikhale Ford gave the Bison his verbal commitment Monday, June 24, after his official visit this week.

“Every single coach showed me so much love, it was too much of an opportunity to pass up. The amount of love was incredible. It feels like home.” Ford said.

Ford is a 6-foot-1, 170-pound cornerback and safety that racked up 46 tackles, two interceptions and four pass breakups at Lincoln East High School last season.

NDSU was the first to offer Ford a Division I scholarship at the end of February. Northern Iowa, South Dakota, Illinois State and North Dakota all followed with offers.

Lincoln East High School has a couple of special ties to NDSU. The builder of the Division I dynasty, Craig Bohl is an alum of Lincoln East, as is Bison basketball great Sam Griesel.

Ford’s commitment marks the third straight year that NDSU has landed a player out of the state of Nebraska. Redshirt freshman running back

CharMar “Marty” Brown

is from Omaha’s Creighton Prep, while incoming freshman

wide receiver Jackson Williams

hails from Millard West in Omaha.

“It’s nice to know I’ve got a few guys from Nebraska here,” Ford said. “I’ve got close with Marty Brown, and it’s cool to bring the culture up to Fargo.”

Ford’s speed is another factor that made him attractive to college recruiters. A tremendous track athlete, his speed has made him a rising defensive back.

The Nebraska High School Football Prospect Twitter account reported on Ford: “He stood out all season, technique in coverage is at a high level. He has elite speed and should weigh close to 175 in camps. He will increase tackles and is a clear talent.”

Ford says he thinks he can fit in seamlessly with the Bison defense.

“NDSU has a defense where we can really move around,” Ford said. “You might see me at safety, nickel, corner. Wherever it is, I’m involved and making a play and helping my team succeed.”

Ford’s commitment is the fourth defensive back for the Bison in the Class of 2025, joining Westhope (N.D.)’s Walker Braaten, Elvin Ampofo from Eaglecrest, Colorado, and Kendrick Carter from Dallas. NDSU now has seven defensive players in this current class.

“I’m excited to be a part of something special and can’t wait to get to work,” Ford said.

Dom Izzo is the Sports Director at WDAY-TV. He began working for WDAY in 2006 as the weekend sports anchor and was promoted to Sports Director in 2010.

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.

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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, 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.