OMAHA — A new $50 million Creighton University student residence hall opened last week, adding to the private university’s continued transformation of parts of Omaha’s urban core.

The 151,000-square-foot Magis Hall, intended exclusively for sophomores, will be home to 409 students living in four-person apartment-style suites. Each floor has lounges, study rooms and gathering spots. Fall classes started Aug. 18.

LINCOLN — Lincoln voters on Nov. 3 will determine the fate of a $17 million volleyball facility that supporters say would boost the city’s status as a youth sport destination.

Fans tout the proposed N4VB (Nebraska for Volleyball) complex as an economic development project that would generate about $22 million in total annual impact by its third year and also serve underrepresented youth through free or reduced-cost programming.

Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent on environmental cleanup, more than half the yards in a section of Omaha that used to surround a lead smelter still have enough contamination to cause high blood-lead levels in kids, according to tests by the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica.