Chris Dunker's memorable stories from 2021
A months-long investigation into issues at the AltEn ethanol plant near Mead dominated Chris Dunker's top stories list, but the Josh Fight was among the highlights.
(5) updates to this series since Updated
At the start of the year, I had never heard of AltEn nor had I ever been to Mead. By the end of the year, photographer Justin Wan and I had ma…
It took months and a lot of convincing to get Stan and Evelyn Keiser to go on the record about how their property had been affected by AltEn, …
I had no hand in writing this story about the Battle of the Joshes and Little Josh's supreme victory (Journal Star intern Libby Seline did exc…
A year ago, I got to spend a day on 6N, one of several intensive care units at Bryan Health that was inundated with COVID patients. It was an …
This story was the culmination of months of tagging along as researchers waded through fields and across creeks in search of clues for where p…
The warning was part of a monthly test of the Emergency Alert System that was mistakenly sent out to mobile devices, the Nebraska State Patrol said Wednesday.
Taking over leadership from Princeton University, UNL is the steward for a $51 million grant involving 1,200 physicists from 19 different institutions, all working to unveil more of the universe’s secrets.
Preparing AltEn for a cold and snowy winter is continuing, the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy said in a Dec. 28 video posted to its YouTube channel.
Near Lincoln, approved projects include extending high-speed service into the Eagle, Holland, Martell and Sprague areas.
The proposals introduced Wednesday for how to spend $1 billion in stimulus funds included new University of Nebraska facilities, providing grants to farmers and ranchers, retaining teachers and furthering cancer research.
While Regent Jim Pillen said he has "long opposed mandates" at NU, Wednesday's statement is the first time the gubernatorial candidate has publicly come out against the mask and testing policy at UNL.
A U.S. District Court judge said the University of Nebraska-Lincoln violated a student's civil rights in responding to a report of sexual harassment with deliberate indifference.
As hospitalizations have spiked, the percentage of Nebraskans testing positive for COVID has skyrocketed from 11% to 27% -- a potential harbinger of more hospitalizations to come over the next month.
A Topeka landowner who initially agreed to buy biochar from AltEn told the Journal Star he wasn’t aware of the former ethanol plant’s operations and history of running afoul of state environmental regulations until earlier this month.
The timetable for expanding sales to Husker games is not defined in the agenda items that will go before NU regents next week, but beer would be sold at next month's Big Ten wrestling meet in Lincoln.
The director of the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy said the bill would grant the agency more authority to stop bad actors from polluting, but declined to say whether it would have stopped the spreading contamination at AltEn sooner.
Despite questions about whether it was germane, Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue found support for an amendment providing $1 million to the University of Nebraska to continue research.
A U.S. District Court judge will likely decide next week whether or not to freeze assets of AltEn's parent company at the request of seed companies cleaning up the site.
U.S. District Court Judge Brian Buescher ordered AltEn to stop transferring, selling, "or otherwise concealing any and all cash funds, assets, or any real or personal property," with some exceptions.
