LINCOLN — Gov. Jim Pillen’s administration, facing scrutiny for a no-bid emergency contract with a lobbyist to whom he steered more than $2 million in state money, has again changed its story about how and why the contract was awarded.

A governor’s spokeswoman tells the Examiner that agricultural tech CEO Julie Bushell had already been helping the state, free of charge, boost a federal grant application in the waning days of the Biden administration, so it made sense to award the formal contract to her once lawmakers approved the funding for it.

LINCOLN — The Nebraska chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has launched its first federal lawsuits on behalf of migrants at McCook’s so-called “Cornhusker Clink,” which opened a few months ago as an ICE regional detention center.