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After a month-long trial involving hours of surveillance video and surprise testimony from Ramos himself, attorneys made their final arguments Monday morning. Ramos is charged with killing fellow inmate Michael Galindo during a prison riot at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution in 2017. Prosecuting attorney Corey O’Brien presented the state’s case and said the video evidence of Galindo’s death was enough to charge Ramos with first-degree murder.

Nebraskans in District Two now have a new group to help people in the state learn about policies that affect their cost of living.

State employee union members filled the capitol rotunda on their lunch break Thursday to express concerns with the governor’s order ending remote work next month. Nebraska Association of Public Employees executive director Justin Hubly said the union renewed its demand to bargain with the Pillen administration and has given them until December 12th to respond.

On a given night in 2007, the state’s homeless population was about 35-hundred people. Last year, that total fell to about 22-hundred. Lee Heflebower is the chair of the Nebraska Commission on Housing and Homelessness. She says a new strategy to rehouse people has streamlined the process in Nebraska.

Next year’s FAFSA is delayed due to changes required by the FAFSA Simplification Act. Typically, the application is available on Oct. 1. This year, the U.S. Department of Education announced the form will come out by Dec. 31. At Lexington High School, faculty are trying to help students prepare for the delayed release.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said the first year's results on his effort to reduce property taxes were not not what he hoped for.

No consensus has been reached on how to honor children’s remains if they are found at the Genoa U.S. Indian Industrial School in Central Nebraska. By sifting through old documents in 2021, the Genoa Reconciliation Project estimated that 100 children died at the school. Diseases were the main causes of death. According to Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs executive director, Judi gaiashkibos, the NCIA hosted a call with 40 Native American tribes across the country last Thursday. All of those nations had youth enrolled in the Genoa federal boarding school.

Over 100 billion pounds of food goes to waste every year in America. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm to Food Bank is trying to cut down on that waste by connecting local farmers and food pantries, but its future depends on how much funding is included for the program in the next farm bill.

The University of Nebraska Board of Regents heard concerns from the public about proposed budget cuts and approved the NU interim president at their meeting on Friday. With a $58 million budget shortfall looming, the university system has been searching for ways to cut costs. Current NU President Ted Carter said campuses conducted zero-based budget reviews that were due to his office on Dec. 1. These reviews are intended to look at administrative functions, like information technology and facilities.

For three weeks, jurors in a murder trial in Saline County District Court have been witnesses to a prison riot. Surveillance footage captured during the 2017 uprising at the Tecumseh Correctional Facility plays a central role in determining whether inmate Eric Ramos took part in the murder of a fellow prisoner. Bill Kelly with Nebraska Public Media has been in court for much of the trial. A transcript of his conversation with Morning Edition host Dale Johnson follows.

Expecting mothers during 32 to 36 weeks and adults 60-years-old and older should get the RSV vaccine, according to CHI Health doctors. Dr. Michael Schooff, primary care medical director for CHI Health, said RSV can have a severe impact on infants and older adults. “They can get into a bronchiolitis or a pneumonia. Deeper and more severe infections in the lung can lead to difficulty breathing,” Schooff said. “People might need to go to the ER. Sometimes people need to be hospitalized and have help with breathing during these illnesses. And yes, sometimes it is fatal.”

Summary: Indigenous women from throughout Nebraska and parts of Iowa have been sewing and working on traditional garments for six months—all leading up to a first-of-its-kind fashion show.

Nebraska schools are wrestling with the problem of cellphones distracting students.

Climatologists are predicting a warmer and wetter than average winter this year thanks to El Nino, a climate pattern of warm air over the Pacific Ocean. Eric Hunt with the Nebraska State Climate Office said despite warmer temperatures, Lincoln is likely to receive more snowfall than the previous two winters. “I would basically tell anybody Grand Island and east, and particularly South of the Platte, to prepare for more snow than what we've had in the last couple of years,” Hunt said.

Newly released state assessment scores show Nebraska’s schools improved this past school year. Across the state, 58% of students were proficient in English Language Arts, 61% in math and 70% in science. These numbers are higher than before the pandemic. “Hopefully we can build on this momentum and work with our schools to really address issues of high quality materials that we're seeing have an impact in our classrooms, quality instruction, and really continue to help teachers teach because as everybody truly knows, that's where the magic happens in education,” Nebraska Department of Education Commissioner Brian Maher said.

Two Nebraska educators received a $25,000 surprise this past week. The teachers caught the attention of a national organization because of their teaching methods and love for the job. “I could think of 15 other people before myself that would receive an award in this school because this place is just filled with the best educators in Nebraska,” Leslie McIntosh, one of the recipients, said. “I couldn’t believe it.”

The tradition of harvesting an evergreen for the official Christmas tree of Omaha is almost one-hundred years old. It’s a trek that used to start across the country, but has transitioned to a more local journey.

Supporters of a plan to replace Nebraska's income and property taxes say they're hiring a petition circulation firm to try and get on next year's ballot.

The University of Nebraska Board of Regents is looking for a new president to run the NU system. Chairman Tim Clare discusses the search, his recommendation for interim president and more. Clare said the application for the position is open for candidates. “We are now in a position where we're full steam ahead with trying to get candidates in," Clare said.

Northern Nebraska’s Santee Sioux Reservation is still without safe drinking water after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a no-drink order in 2019. But in recent weeks, some progress has been made. The Santee Sioux tribal council voted to pursue funding for a pipeline bringing clean water from South Dakota in September, but several bureaucratic and financial hurdles need to be cleared before safe drinking water becomes a reality in Santee once more.