Good morning, Lincoln. Here's what you should know today.
Felons OK'd to vote
Less than three weeks from election day, the Nebraska Supreme Court is directing the Secretary of State and election commissioners to "comply in all respects with the provisions of LB20," a law passed by the Legislature this year to restore voting rights to people with felony convictions who have completed their sentences.
In a rare move, the state’s high court issued a 90-page decision Wednesday where each of the justices gave separate opinions, just two of them dissenting.
The court ordered election commissioners to begin registering to vote those who complete the registration application and directed Bob Evnen, the Secretary of State, to rescind any direction to election commissioners that said otherwise.
The Nebraska Department of Education released the average test scores of students who graduated in May of 2024 on Wednesday, revealing how students across the state fared on the exam that measures college readiness in English, reading, math and science.
In 2024, 95% of Nebraska public and private school graduates took the test, with an overall average score of 19.1, down slightly from last year's statewide average score of 19.2. Nationally, only 36% of students took the exam. The national average score also dropped by one-tenth of a percentage point, going from 19.5 last year to 19.4 this year.
Windstream agrees to upgrade
One of the telecommunications providers responsible for a string of 911 outages in Nebraska over the last year has agreed to make more than $1 million worth of upgrades to its infrastructure and network, settling with state regulators who in turn agreed to dismiss a complaint they had filed against the company.
Windstream, the Arkansas-based provider responsible for three 911 service outages in Nebraska between September 2023 and January, will avoid paying millions of dollars in fines or having its carrier designation revoked as a result of the settlement, which regulators unanimously approved Wednesday morning.
The settlement requires Windstream to undertake a series of upgrades to fortify its 911 network — at a cost $1.02 million — before Dec. 31, 2025. The company would be subject to penalties of $1,000 per day if it fails to take the agreed-upon actions before the deadline, according to the agreement.
That’s it for Thursday, Oct. 17. Stay in the know with Lincoln’s longest-standing news source at and we will see you back here tomorrow.