LINCOLN — Nebraska’s billion-dollar onslaught of federal pandemic funds lit a fire of sorts last year under nonprofits that deal with affordable housing.

They came to this year’s legislative session more organized as a coalition, said Wayne Mortensen of NeighborhoodWorks Lincoln.

A Twin Cities solar co-op and affordable housing group are piloting a new approach to helping renters benefit from solar.

For the past century, the public and private sector appear to have agreed on one thing: the more parking, the better.

As a result, cities were built up in ways that devoted valuable space to storing cars, did little to accommodate people who don’t own cars and forced developers to build expensive parking structures that increased the cost of living.