My daughter recently brought home a monarch caterpillar. We cared for it in a container making sure it had a supply of fresh milkweed leaves and kept its cage clean. It seemed perfectly content to munch on leaves all day. After a few days it hung upside-down from the lid of the cage and we waited for it to form a chrysalis, and eventually convert to a butterfly.

Over the past year, Nebraska has been enjoying rapid growth, creating lots of great-paying job opportunities here in the Good Life. We have the second lowest unemployment rate in the nation at 2.6%. That’s the lowest rate our state has seen since 1999. Right now, we have over 40,000 jobs available on the State of Nebraska’s jobs site: NEworks.nebraska.gov. These are some of the reasons why WalletHub recently ranked Nebraska as the #2 state in the U.S. to find a job.

Not long ago the Secretary of Agriculture announced a bold initiative that would cut the environmental footprint of US agriculture in half by the year 2050. The date was February 20, 2020. The cabinet official was the Trump administration’s Sonny Perdue. Governor Pete Ricketts had little if anything to say about the ambitious “New Innovation Initiative for USDA” at the time, even though its objectives included radical goals for “conserving sensitive and marginal lands to enhance carbon sinks”. The governor’s wait-and-see approach at that time seemed prudent as details of the Initiative were to be hammered out through stakeholder input.

I hope your summer is going well. It has been a joy to be back on the farm with my family, but the work of my district and Nebraska still needs my attention. As I am sure many of you are aware, the Department of Education has drafted new Health Education Standards that despite three months of feedback from parents, NDE has not been responsive to their objections and concerns. But Nebraskans can always count on parents and local school boards to take action. Please contact your local school board members with your concerns.

When the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, the American colonies still needed to win the Revolutionary War to truly gain their independence from the British Empire. The war continued another seven years until September 3, 1783. One of the deadliest threats to the Continental Army, however, was not the British Army, it was disease, especially smallpox.

As America emerges from the Fourth of July weekend, there’s another important reminder this month of why we should cherish our freedom and liberty. July marks the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). CCP officials have already been holding celebrations to paint a positive image of their work on the world stage. While the CCP pushes propaganda on the anniversary of its founding, it’s important that Americans understand how the communist regime operates.

Without a doubt, hands down, the single most difficult aspect of being a parent is trying to administer fairness amongst children. Compound that with five voices and it's downright impossible.

On March 13, 2020, I issued a proclamation declaring a State of Emergency related to the coronavirus pandemic. The State of Emergency existed over the last year to help Nebraska mobilize resources to respond to the pandemic. This is a separate measure from the State’s Directed Health Measures (DHM), which ended a few weeks ago. The DHMs had included quarantine directions and other restrictions that varied over the course of the event. This week, I announced that the State of Emergency would end on June 30, 2021, removing the last official pandemic measure issued by the State of Nebraska.

For most of us, seeing the doctor means making a trip to the local clinic to see our primary care physician in person, but an increasing number of patients are seeing their doctor remotely by telehealth, using two-way video telecommunication technology.

When I talk about how important the agriculture industry is to our state, I often mention that one in four Nebraska jobs wouldn’t exist without it. But that is only part of the story: These jobs contribute more than $25 billion to our economy each year, and 96% of our nearly 50,000 farms and ranches are owned by Nebraska families.