Grant Schulte

Associated Press

In this Dec. 12, 2019, file photo workers process chickens at the Lincoln Premium Poultry plant, Costco Wholesale's dedicated poultry supplier, in Fremont, Neb. Rural America continued to lose population in the latest U.S. Census numbers, highlighting an already severe worker shortage in those areas and prompting calls from farm and ranching groups for immigration reform to help alleviate the problem.

Rural Population Losses Add to Farm and Ranch Labor Shortage

There are many theories explaining the population decrease.

In this Jan. 10, 2019, file photo, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson waits to be sworn in at the State Capitol in Lincoln, Neb. The nation's opioid addiction crisis has prompted 48 states to file lawsuits and another to say it is planning to sue the drugmakers, distributors or pharmaceutical companies. Only one state has not done so. The attorney general in Nebraska has been active in combating opioid addiction but so far has remained on the sidelines while other states and thousands of local governments have taken legal action. Some attorneys for local governments in Nebraska question whether it's the right approach.

NE Holds Out on Pursuing Opioid Cases

Every other state has sued, filed administrative charges or promised to sue the companies blamed for the national crisis.

No Toxic Releases in Flooded Midwest

There were no releases of hazardous contaminants at any of eight toxic waste sites.

A conventional beef burger, left, is seen Friday, Jan. 11, 2019, next to 'The Impossible Burger', right, a plant-based burger containing wheat protein, coconut oil and potato protein among it's ingredients. The ingredients of the Impossible Burger are clearly printed on the menu at Stella's Bar & Grill in Bellevue, Neb., where the meat and non-meat burgers are served. More than four months after Missouri became the first U.S. state to regulate the term 'meat' on product labels, Nebraska's powerful farm groups are pushing for similar protection from veggie burgers, tofu dogs and other items that look and taste like meat.

Food Industry Tries to Protect 'Meat'

They just want to make sure people know what they're eating; they "don't want to be the meat police."

In this Nov. 3, 2015 file photo, the Keystone Steele City pumping station, into which the planned Keystone XL pipeline is to connect to, is seen in Steele City, Neb. A federal judge on Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2018, ordered the U.S. State Department to conduct a more thorough review of the Keystone XL pipeline's proposed pathway after Nebraska state regulators changed the route, raising the possibility of further delays to a project first proposed in 2008.

New Review of Keystone XL Ordered

It's not clear whether the additional review will delay the 1,184-mile project.

Report Claims Keystone XL Won't Impact Nebraska

But some opponents fear the project is "just being pushed through" despite warning signs.

Attorney Dave Domina gestures as he questions Tony Palmer, TransCanada senior vice-president, unseen, who testified before the Nebraska Public Service Commission in Lincoln, Neb., Monday, Aug. 7, 2017. The Nebraska Public Service Commission is holding a five-day public hearing to decide whether to approve TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline which would transport oil from tar sands deposits in Alberta, Canada, across Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska.

Keystone Pipeline Execs Grilled in Hearing

Monday's hearing follows a top company executive's suggestion last month that TransCanada officials haven't yet decided whether to proceed with the project.

In this July 29, 2017 photo, Jane Kleeb, president of Bold Alliance, center, landowner Chris Carlson, second right and volunteers, pose for a photo under an array of solar panels they built in a corn field belonging to the Carlsons of Silver Creek, Ne., in the proposed path of the Keystone XL pipeline. Despite new uncertainty over whether TransCanada, the builder of the Keystone XL pipeline will continue the project, longtime opponents in Nebraska aren't letting their guard down and neither are law enforcement officials who may have to react to protests if it wins approval.

Can Keystone XL Survive Low Oil Prices?

Low oil prices and the high cost of extracting Canadian crude from oil sands are casting new doubts on Keystone XL.

A 2014 Santa Monica rally against the Keystone XL Pipeline.

TransCanada Seeks $15B Over Pipeline

A spokesman for the Canadian developer says the November rejection was "arbitrary and unjustified."

Fire crews keep watch over a controlled grass fire at the Homestead National Monument of America in Beatrice, Neb., on Friday, April 22, 2016. University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers used the burn as a chance to test a drone that can start its own fires.

Firefighting Drones Battle Grass Fires

The drone, which is about two feet wide with six rotors — is programmed to drop the balls filled with a chemical powder in a preset pattern to control how the fire spreads.

Nebraska state Sens. Heath Mello of Omaha, left, and Tanya Cook of Omaha, bottom right, react in Lincoln, Neb., Wednesday, April 20, 2016, after lawmakers overrode their Republican governor’s veto to approve a law allowing certain immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children to work in health care, education and dozens of other professions that require state licenses.

State Allows Licenses for Immigrants

Supporters say it's a way to fill jobs in fields with skilled worker shortages, such as manufacturing and nursing.