WASHINGTON — Small business owners and community leaders from rural regions in Western states including Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Utah pressed lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week to preserve clean energy tax credits on the chopping block in the Republicans’ “one big beautiful” mega-bill, now in the Senate.

In old Western movies, the bad guys always had a bandana covering their face before they held up a stagecoach. In more modern movies, the bad guys have nylon stockings over their faces before they rob a bank or kidnap an heiress.

In today’s real world, ICE agents cover their faces before they storm into a restaurant, a packing plant, or a home to take an immigrant away from their work and family.

Pharmacies are more than just stores – they’re vital links between people and their health care.

LINCOLN — A majority of Nebraska Democrats and one Republican in the officially nonpartisan Legislature on Wednesday blocked merging a proposal that would have slowed the state’s voter-approved minimum wage increases with a bill set to weaken voter-passed paid sick leave protections.