WHAT’S AT STAKE?

Bowl eligibility goes to the winner. Wisconsin is looking to extend its bowl streak to 22 seasons, third-longest in the nation. Nebraska has lost four straight after a 5-1 start and is looking to go to a bowl for the first time since 2016, the longest drought in the Power Four. The Badgers, losers of three straight, have clinched bowl eligibility the last two years with wins over Nebraska.

KEY MATCHUP

Nebraska QB Dylan Raiola vs. Wisconsin pass defense. Raiola will be playing his second game with new offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen as the play-caller. The freshman has struggled against Big Ten opponents. He’s thrown just three touchdown passes and been intercepted eight times over the last six games. Wisconsin has one of the best pass defenses in the conference and has allowed just three TD passes in six games.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Wisconsin: QB Braedyn Locke, like Raiola, has struggled and will have a new offensive coordinator following the firing of Phil Longo. The Badgers have scored a combined 33 points during their three-game losing streak, with Locke completing 49.4% of his passes (49 of 99) with two TDs and four interceptions.

Nebraska: DE Ty Robinson, a sixth-year player, will need to be his best in his final home game going against a Wisconsin offensive line that has allowed just 11 sacks. He’s one of the most disruptive defensive linemen in the Big Ten, with 10 tackles for loss and six sacks.

FACTS & FIGURES

Wisconsin has won 10 straight meetings with Nebraska, including all nine since the Freedom Trophy was introduced in 2014. The Badgers are 11-1 against Nebraska since the Huskers joined the Big Ten in 2011. … Nebraska is 0-8 under second-year coach Matt Rhule when trying to win a sixth game to become bowl-eligible. … Badgers have allowed only two plays of 40-plus yards, tied with Ohio State for fewest in the country. … Wisconsin’s Tawee Walker is averaging 97.3 rushing yards per game in his six Big Ten starts.

(WOWT) – Stabbed at least a dozen times, the body of 17-year-old Mary Kay Heese was discovered along a country road in 1969.

In an update to an exclusive First Alert 6 investigation, the detective who helped solve the decades-long cold case is speaking out.

“It’s been a dark cloud over Wahoo for a long time. There’s a lot of people who remember that,” Saunders County Attorney Investigator Ted Green said.

For nine years, Detective Green has learned much about the victim’s life and how it came to an end.

“She fought some, there was a struggle,” Green said.

The suspect, Joseph Ambroz, was 22 years old in 1969 and paroled from prison for about six months when he came to live with his mom in Wahoo.

“I still don’t understand how she got in the car because that wasn’t Mary Kay’s personality,” Kathy Tull, the victim’s cousin, said in an interview.

Detective Green believes a party grove was the destination.

“And she’s just thinking its ok a couple of guys I know from the restaurant and we’re going out for a ride,” Green said.

Green reveals that Mary Kay likely got in the car with the suspect and another young man who was with them.

“He committed suicide in 77 so if he wasn’t an active participant or just didn’t realize what was going to happened all of a sudden it just happened,” Green said.

A tip line set up by the victim’s cousin led to a lake west of Wahoo where the suspect’s car may have been dumped in 1969 where dive teams found a large metal object.

“It’s everybody’s hope the golden nugget you hope had been there. But there’s evidence I can’t discuss that there’s something there,” Green said.

Evidence that remains in the lake because Green got estimates of up to $400 to pull it from the muddy, murky water.

But Green said he has plenty more evidence, including an autopsy after exhuming the body of the victim with a forensic pathologist from the Offutt Military Identification Lab adding expertise.

“There’s DNA available, its just I’ve got to go off of we have available to us,” Green said.

Though forensics will play a part in this case, it appears solved the old-fashioned way.

“This is a case that didn’t have anything glaring but had small pieces along the way. This is all gum shoe, all gum shoe work,” Green said.

Green would not respond when asked if he has found a murder weapon.

The 1969 murder of a small town high school Junior led to hundreds of interviews and tips over 55 years, and the investigation narrowed from ten suspects to one.

“Well been able to exclude everybody mentioned as a suspect way back when except for this guy,” Green said.

Even though the suspect is in custody, the case is not closed.

If you have information on the murder of Mary Kay Hesse, call the Saunders County Attorney’s Office at 402-443-5613.

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LINCOLN — Seven behavioral health care providers have been selected to launch a new certification program designed to improve mental health and substance use care across the state — and provide around-the-clock crisis help for Nebraskans.

Called the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics initiative, the effort has been described as “transformational.” To start, it will involve: CenterPointe, Community Alliance, Heartland Counseling Services, Heartland Family Services, Lutheran Family Services, South Central Behavioral Health Services and The Well.

“This is a significant step for Nebraska,” said Matt Ahern, interim director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Medicaid and Long-Term Care division. “We’re really excited about this model because it incentivizes a more integrated care — a whole person approach rather than segmenting behavioral health from physical health and everything else happening in a person’s life.”

Serves all

Selection of providers, announced Wednesday, follows passage last year of Legislative Bill 276, the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Act, sponsored by State Sen. Anna Wishart of Lincoln and signed into law by Gov. Jim Pillen. 

CCBHCs emerged from the Excellence in Mental Health Act, a federal law signed in 2014 to improve the nation’s mental health system. The model ensures that clinics provide a wide array of services, such as crisis response, medication management, psychotherapy and community and peer support.

In return, providers are allowed to participate in a restructured payment model that better accounts for costs associated with services, according to a DHHS news release. Certified clinics are required to serve anyone who requests care for mental health or substance use, regardless of their ability to pay, place of residence or age. 

Over the next year, the Nebraska DHHS divisions of Behavioral Health and Medicaid and Long-Term Care will work with the seven provider organizations to develop services needed to meet the state requirements and federal criteria determined by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 

Programs are to be up and running by January 2026.

“The CCBHC model allows a clinic to truly focus on delivering the quality of care and breadth of services a person needs,” said Thomas Janousek, director of DHHS Behavioral Health. “It focuses on reducing administrative barriers for providers which ultimately results in better care for the individuals it serves.”

‘No-brainer’

By launching the initiative, Wishart said, the state is “transforming” the way Nebraskans access mental health and substance abuse care, in a coordinated and comprehensive way that fills service gaps.

“This is a monumental step toward building healthier and stronger communities,” she said Wednesday.

Wishart has said she expects the CCBHCs to reduce emergency room visits and incarcerations. Data from other states that have implemented such clinics have shown reductions in law enforcement involvement and hospital usage, state officials have said.

Pillen has called the legislation a “no-brainer” for Nebraska. His testimony at a legislative hearing in early 2023 surprised some, as the Republican governor stepped across the political aisle to speak on behalf of a bill introduced by a Democrat, Wishart. 

At the time, Pillen said that Nebraskans “must come together to solve tough problems.”

After completing the certification program, a provider is to be recognized as a CCBHC, offering integrated physical and behavioral health services to Nebraska families. Services are to include: around-the-clock crisis support; easy access to mental health and substance use care; tailored treatment plans; specialized care for veterans and military personnel; peer support; comprehensive psychiatric rehabilitation.