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Nearly half of Nebraska foster kids suffered parental substance abuse, report shows

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Nearly half of Nebraska foster kids suffered parental substance abuse, report shows


OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – A new report shows nearly half of the children in the custody of Nebraska DHHS were removed from their home because of parental substance abuse.

The Foster Care Review Office’s annual report to the Nebraska Legislature also indicated that most families in the child welfare system struggle to access the treatment they need.

Julie Larson, of Malcolm, knows the impact of addiction firsthand. Her adult daughter has struggled on and off with substance abuse for years and is unable to reliably care for her 7-year-old child, Emory.

“We would have Emory for a period of time when she was in treatment. She’d get out of treatment, do well for a period of time, and then relapse,” said Larson.

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Emory has been living with Larson and her husband for more than two years. Larson is her parental delegate, but now they are working to gain guardianship of Emory.

“It got to the point where I just felt like the relapse was too much and Emory needed a more stable environment,” said Larson.

Julie Larson, of Malcolm, and her husband are working to gain guardianship of their 7-year-old granddaughter, Emory.(Julie Larson)

Larson said getting the guardianship process started was intimidating. “I didn’t know where to go, where to start,” said Larson.

A recommendation from Emory’s school to contact Lutheran Family Services led them to join the free Kinship Navigation program.

“They take you step by step through everything that needs to be done, including getting services for the child, getting services for the grandparents that are taking in the child, and getting through the legal system without having to retain that attorney,” said Larson.

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Larson said the program has lifted an emotional and financial burden off her family. The process has also helped Emory understand what is happening.

“We’ve been very open and honest with her about her mother’s addiction and substance abuse. Going through the guardianship program, she loves when our navigator comes, she draws little pictures for her. She understands that once this program is complete, that it will be a more permanent home for her,” said Larson.

Larson added, the program has also helped them gain a better understanding of addiction and has made it easier for them to speak with their family and friends about it.

“Nobody chooses to be an addict or an alcoholic or a substance abuser. It just sneaks up and it gets these claws in you that are very, very difficult to get out of,” said Larson.

Lutheran Family Services also offers treatment programs for adults struggling with substance abuse, including parents who have had their children removed from the home or are at risk of removal.

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“If they are not successfully tending to everything that comes with addiction, then they won’t be able to provide a healthy home for their children,” said Jamie Rich, Clinical Supervisor of the Adult Behavioral Health Program & Treatment Court Program at Lutheran Family Services.

LFS offers outpatient treatment with therapy, groups, and medication-assisted treatment, regardless of someone’s income or if they have insurance.

“My team’s job is to work with the parents to help them find the resources and treatment they need to get well, to find a solid recovery program and to be able to reunify with their family,” said Rich.

Rich said she’s seen countless stories of parents getting sober and regaining custody of their children but said it can take time to get there.

“It’s a disease that effects so much of the person’s life and those around them. Recovery is a process and sometimes a very long process. The more support and the more resources that we can build around a person, the more chance they have for success,” said Rich.

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Parental substance abuse can lead to child abuse and neglect, according to the Nebraska child advocacy center, Project Harmony.

“It’s not unusual for children to be experiencing more than one type of abuse, including possible addiction of parents. What that means is those caregivers as well as those children are much more vulnerable to other types of abuse when there’s substance abuse happening,” said Colleen Brazil, the VP of Children’s Services at Project Harmony.

Parental substance abuse can lead to child abuse and neglect, according to the Nebraska child...
Parental substance abuse can lead to child abuse and neglect, according to the Nebraska child advocacy center, Project Harmony.(Erin Sullivan)

Brazil said that this can impact a child’s brain development. “When children have adverse childhood experiences, they become adults that then maybe struggle with mental health, addiction, and chronic health conditions,” said Brazil.

Project Harmony conducts forensic interviews with children to identify abuse and offers preventative resources for families. They also stress the importance of kids having other adults looking out for changes in behavior and making a call if concerns arise.

“That would be calling child protective services. We don’t have to know that something is definitely happening to make that call. I think it’s important to keep in mind that we won’t regret that we’ve made a call to check on a child, we might regret if we haven’t,” said Brazil.

Both Lutheran Family Services and Project Harmony can connect families with mental health services for kids as well.

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York lottery player wins $3,125 in Nebraska Pick 4 drawing

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York lottery player wins ,125 in Nebraska Pick 4 drawing


LINCOLN, Neb. (KSNB) – One lucky player who bought a Nebraska Pick 4 ticket for the Wednesday, Dec. 10, drawing is holding a ticket worth $3,125.

The ticket was sold at Pump & Pantry No. 16 at 109 Lincoln Avenue in York. The winning numbers from Wednesday’s Nebraska Pick 4 drawing were 02, 00, 01, 05.

Winning Nebraska Lottery tickets expire 180 days after the drawing. Tickets with total prize amounts of $501 to $19,999 must be claimed by mail or at a regional lottery claim center. Additional information about claiming prizes can be found at nelottery.com or by calling 800-587-5200.

Nebraska Pick 4 is a daily lotto game from the Nebraska Lottery. Players select four numbers, each from a separate set of digits from 0 through 9, for a chance to win up to $6,000. Players choose one of six bet types to set their play style and potential prizes. The odds of winning the $3,125 prize in Nebraska Pick 4 are 1 in 10,000.

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Emmett Johnson leaves Nebraska with sterling legacy, All-America status

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Emmett Johnson leaves Nebraska with sterling legacy, All-America status


LINCOLN, Neb. — One month ago, on the heels of a breakthrough performance by Emmett Johnson against UCLA, Nebraska launched a Heisman Trophy push for the junior running back.

Johnson enjoyed the limelight. Fans flocked to see him during an appearance in downtown Lincoln and at the high school championship games inside Memorial Stadium. He traveled home to Minneapolis during the Huskers’ bye week and visited his high school, Academy of Holy Angels. He had stopped in previously, but this trip was different.

“It was like a celebrity came to the school,” Holy Angels coach Jim Gunderson said.

In the final two games of the regular season with Nebraska, Johnson rushed for 320 yards, but the Huskers lost them in ugly fashion against Penn State and Iowa to cap a 7-5 regular season. As fast as the Heisman campaign began, it was over — but worthwhile, nonetheless.

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Johnson ran this season in part so that running backs at Nebraska who follow him can fly. He leaves Nebraska with a sterling legacy.

On Wednesday, Johnson became the first Nebraska player to receive first-team All-America mentions since linebacker Lavonte David in 2011 — and the fourth running back in the past 70 years, matching Mike Rozier (1982 and ’83), Jarvis Redwine (1980) and Jeff Kinney (1971). His final year ranks among the top five in school history by a running back. Stack it alongside Rozier’s 1983 Heisman season, Lawrence Phillips in 1994, Ahman Green in 1997 and Ameer Abdullah in 2013.

Nebraska coach Matt Rhule and his staff aim to use Johnson’s success to help bring backs to Lincoln who can finish what he started.

“It’s very much not in vogue anymore not to wait your turn,” Rhule said. “Sometimes, it’s like, ‘I’ll just go here and do this, just go there.’ But guys like Emmett had chances. And they stayed. And he deserves everything that he’s getting.”

Johnson was named the Big Ten running back of the year, a first at Nebraska. Last Friday, he declared for the 2026 NFL Draft, foregoing his final season of eligibility and the Dec. 31 Las Vegas Bowl.

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What separated Johnson this year?

• His 1,130 yards in Big Ten play were the most by a Power 4 back in conference play. He stands alone with 1995 Heisman winner Eddie George as the only Big Ten players to total 1,100 rushing yards and 300 receiving yards in one season of league play.

• Johnson led the nation by accounting for 40.8 percent of his team’s total yards.

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• He was the fourth FBS player since 2017 to average 120 yards rushing and 30 yards receiving.

• His 1,821 yards from scrimmage and 1,451 rushing ranked second and third, respectively, in the FBS.

In form true to his roots, Johnson proved wrong skeptics who believed he could not handle 20 carries per game in Big Ten play.

“He has always had that chip to prove people wrong and be great,” Gunderson said. “This is how he envisioned it going, and he wasn’t going to be denied.”

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Four years ago, on a Sunday in mid-December, less than a week before the signing period opened, Johnson accepted a Nebraska scholarship offer. Ron Brown extended it.

A month earlier, Scott Frost, the Nebraska coach from 2018 to 2022, fired four offensive assistants. Brown, with 24 years of experience as a Nebraska assistant under three head coaches, was elevated late in that season from offensive analyst to running backs coach. He reviewed tape of Johnson, who scored 42 touchdowns and rushed for 2,500 yards at Holy Angels in 2021.

And Brown wondered why no big school had snatched up Johnson.

“I was perplexed,” Brown said. “Because when I saw Emmett play, I thought, ‘This guy is special.’”

Brown had recruited Abdullah from high school in Alabama to Nebraska in 2011. And Brown coached Abdullah in his back-to-back 1,600-yard seasons as a junior and senior before an NFL career that continues this year in its 11th season. In Johnson, Brown saw some of Abdullah’s vision, change of direction, endurance and ability to recover.

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Brown quizzed Gunderson, the Holy Angels coach, about Johnson.

“I probably threw 100 questions at him,” Brown said, “looking for something that might be a little bit off, something that I had missed.”

Nothing.

“Coach Brown could just see the intangibles,” Gunderson said, “the stuff that isn’t measured. He saw the potential and the kind of kid who was going to work and who believed in himself.”

Johnson started six games as a redshirt freshman in 2023. He started five in 2024 and found his rhythm in the Nebraska offense when Dana Holgorsen arrived as coordinator last season. In December 2024, Johnson considered entering the transfer portal.

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Holgorsen’s commitment helped get him to stay.

“ I think he just wanted to know that somebody had a plan for him,” Gunderson said.


The plan was never to leave Nebraska early. Johnson simply wanted the chance to receive a heavy workload.

He got 32 offensive touches against Cincinnati in the 2025 opener, 24 against Michigan, 23 against Maryland and 29 against Northwestern. In November, after quarterback Dylan Raiola was injured, Johnson stacked three games with 31 opportunities apiece and a 27-touch effort against Penn State.

“This dude really did what he said he was going to do,” Nebraska tight end Luke Lindenmeyer said.

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His reliability never came into question.

“I’m so proud of Emmett, man,” senior cornerback Ceyair Wright said. “I think his success is a product of who he is as a person, how he treats people and the work that he puts in.”

Emmett Johnson shouldered a heavy load late in the season, garnering 27-plus touches in each of his final five games for Nebraska. (Harry How / Getty Images)

His humility and care for others rate as Johnson’s most admirable trait. Johnson said he wanted to share credit with his teammates for the accomplishments of this season. He rushed for 177 yards in the first half against Iowa and 217 for the game. But he stressed in the aftermath that he felt badly for older teammates who played their final games in Lincoln on Black Friday.

Turns out, he was among them. Johnson takes pride, he said, in building a new reputation for Nebraska running backs — more than a decade after Abdullah departed, three decades after Green and 42 years after Rozier’s Heisman.

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“It matters a lot,” Johnson said, “because Nebraska is a special place. I want to be able to have recruits look at this place and know it’s special. It is special. I’m blessed to be the one doing that and helping. It’s bigger than just football.

“There are a lot of great humans here. That’s what I want to help push.”





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Nebraska lands commitment from DL Jayden Travers adding to early Top 5 recruiting class

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Nebraska lands commitment from DL Jayden Travers adding to early Top 5 recruiting class


Baltimore (Md.) St. Frances Academy 2027 defensive lineman Jayden Travers announced his commitment to Nebraska on Wednesday evening during the broadcast of the Overtime National Championship game.

The Panthers are playing Draper (Utah) Corner Canyon.

The 6-foot-4, 260-pound Travers becomes commit No. 7 for Matt Rhule and the Huskers in the 2027 class, adding to a haul the Rivals Industry already ranked No. 5 nationally early in the cycle.

Nebraska offered Travers in May and he got a chance to visit Lincoln during the fall. He spoke about his decision prior to kickoff with Rivals.

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“The culture there is amazing for football,” Travers said. “The coaching. They really care about your well-being. I like the defensive front they run. It’s somewhere I can play and develop at.”

The Rivals Industry tabs Travers as the nation’s No. 56 defensive lineman.

“He is from an extremely tough neighborhood in Baltimore and he has worked his butt of to be in this position for change. very dedicated to the sport and natural leader,” St. Frances head coach Messay Hailemariam said.

Hailemariam likes the decision for Travers as well.

“He felt great about the coaches and his chance at being developed for Sundays,” Hailemariam said before talking about what stands out about about him as a player. “Extremely strong and can use his hands extremely well.”

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Other offers for Travers included Michigan, Miami, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Texas A&M, South Carolina and Syracuse.



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