LINCOLN — Legislative changes this year to annual bumps in Nebraska’s minimum wage mean workers’ increase next year will be 29 cents less than what voters approved in 2022.

New data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released this month indicates a 3.6% annual rise in the Consumer Price Index for goods and services between August 2025 and August 2026 for the Midwest region. That’s the indicator voters approved to calculate minimum wage bumps beginning in 2027, after Nebraska’s minimum wage hit $15 this year. 

Rushville residents: Don’t be surprised if unannounced, out-of-town visitors come calling.

That’s what happens when a Hollywood writer inserts your community into the storyline of a DC Comics superhero – in Rushville’s case, the Green Lantern. “Don’t underestimate the dedication of the superhero comic fan,” said Alex Grand, comic book historian and author of “Understanding Superhero Comic Books.” “People will come.

They want to experience what their superheroes experience.”

From mortgages to auto loans to credit cards, borrowing is set to get even pricier.

But the Federal Reserve’s decision on Sept. 16, 2026, to hike its baseline interest rate also highlighted an increasingly confounding dilemma: It can raise the price of money across the economy, but it can’t determine which sectors are most affected.

That means the rate increase may further slow the weaker parts of the economy, such as housing, while barely affecting the strongest, namely the relentless investment in artificial intelligence.

Robert Thayer looked up from his computer as a churning weedwacker-like sound interrupted the silence of his west Omaha home. As he noticed his grass swaying, he thought: That must be the drone.

The tech worker walked out his front door to find a blue-and-white robot hovering above his yard. 

He watched with amusement as the drone dropped a brown box containing the allergy medicine he had ordered 90 minutes earlier. Then, the machine’s powerful propellers blew the box from his lawn into the street.