Aug. 10 | Cities reconsider cameras, party ballot access

From the Nebraska Public Media Newsroom, this is the Nebraska update. Coming up, several Nebraska cities are rethinking their agreements with companies that operate automatic license plate readers. Plus, Nebraska Public Media News kicks off an education series this week focused on artificial intelligence in Nebraska classrooms. We found there are varying levels of acceptance and knowledge of the new technology. We grew into this. We know how to use it in many ways that they don't. They haven't wrapped their minds around what it can do and how it can be good but also how it can be bad. Those stories just add. I'm Jackie Aretha. It's Monday, August 10th. On this day in 1997, the city of Hastings celebrated its first Kool-Aid days. The annual weekend celebration honors the popular powdered drink mix Kool-Aid. It was created by Edwin Perkins in 1927 and later became the official soft drink of Nebraska. The news is next. Nebraska Update is funded in part by Moral Hall. For a century, the museum and its elephant hall have focused on the science and natural history of Nebraska. For info on exhibits and the renovations taking them into the next hundred years, museum.un.un.edu slash elephant hall. Two Nebraska cities are reconsidering their use of surveillance cameras. As Theodore Ball reports, both cities faced stark opposition from constituents about privacy concerns. Shadron City Council recently voted for a resolution that brokered a five-year agreement between the state and its police department, allowing the department to continue its use of flock cameras outside the city. Constituents and attendance were unanimously against its use. Shadron Police Chief Rick Hickstein says if the council hadn't voted in its favor, it wouldn't have prevented its use. I do not own those cameras. I would contact flock, let them know what transpired here today, and just to comply with the state, would move them. basically. Take them out of the state right away and I put them somewhere in the city is shattered if I'm being quite frank. I still have a contract with them. I'm still paying with taxpayer money for these things. I would hate to pay for something we're not utilizing. Ord is another city rethinking the automated license plate readers. The city voted last week to remove them. I'm Theodore Ball, Nebraska Public Media News. The Nebraska Secretary of State's office has cleared the way for the Nebraska Working People Party and the America First Party to form ahead of Nebraska's midterm elections. Both groups have gathered enough signatures to qualify to field candidates in the November elections. First, though, the parties must submit a party constitution, bylaws and list of officers to the Secretary of State's office by August 27th. Candidate names must be submitted by September 1st. Five people were arrested on suspicion of fraud connected to three Lincoln Charter Amendment petitions. Maddie Ames has more on the arrests. Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wilchin said his office flagged more than 13,000 signatures out of the 30,000 submitted as suspected fraud. Those signatures were for three proposed Lincoln Charter amendments from the group Good Government Lincoln. The group...

run by former state tax commissioner and state senator, Tony Fulton, hoped to change Lincoln elections. All of the people arrested were out-of-state residents. Those suspects are from Nevada, Florida, Washington, D.C., and Missouri. According to the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office, I'm Maddie Ames, Nebraska Public Media News. A judge in Lincoln ruled Friday that an effort to force the Nebraska Democratic Party to put up a U.S. Senate candidate for the November election is unlikely to... succeed. Molly Ashford has the latest on the lawsuit brought by Democratic primary loser William Forbes. In her ruling denying a motion for a temporary injunction, Lancaster County Judge Susan Strong said the lawsuit filed by Forbes is unlikely to succeed. Forbes lost in the primary to Cindy Burbank, who later dropped out. Forbes claims state law requires political parties to fill vacancies on the ballot, something the Nebraska Democratic Party disagrees with. Strong seemed more receptive to the Democratic Party's understanding of state statutes and said forcing a political party to act against its will raises serious constitutional concerns. The case will proceed under an expedited schedule as the deadline for the party to replace Burbank is September 1st. For Nebraska Public Media News, I'm Molly Ashford. The use of artificial intelligence is growing in classrooms, with national data showing more teachers and students using it. Jolie Peel reports on how this technology is impacting learning. About 84% of teachers reported using an AI tool in the 2023-24 school year, and 64% of teenagers reported using it last year, with 90% of college students using it. Jim Jordan Martin, who is teaching business at Wilbur Clitonia for the first time this year, says he finds AI can be helpful as he creates materials for a new subject, but he questions how much some teachers use AI. I have worked with teachers who have admitted to me that they will have AI great essays that they need to look over. And so there comes kind of a question at that point, is there an ethical line that we've breached there? Martin says teachers need to be role models to their students on how to use AI. You can read more of our AI in education series at Nebraskapublicmedia.org slash news. I'm Jolie Peel, Nebraska Public Media News. The State Board of Education delayed approving a new Omaha Middle School on Friday because its website mentioned abolition and its framework. The Republican board member said it the overthrowing of the government. Darnisha Phillips, the founder of Identity Preparatory Academy in North Omaha, told concerned members that it was taken down. In our initial design phase, our website utilized exploratory language like libertory and abolitionists to express our desire to build joyful, secure learning spaces that practically interrupted those negative pipelines. However, through our ongoing collaborative journey alongside North Omaha families, that structure evolved. changed. There were two Democrats against postponing, saying the school had all the necessary pieces for approval. The board will vote in a special meeting on Tuesday.

Many Nebraska kids are diving back into the books this week as the fall semester begins. And Nebraska Public Media News is spending this week diving into how Nebraska's schools and classrooms are handling the evolving use of artificial intelligence. Education reporter Jolie Peele joins me to talk about a series that we're kicking off this week. Good to have you here, Jolie. Glad to be here, Jackie. And yes, we've been hearing more recently about how schools are or aren't embracing AI. I've been spending most of the summer tracking the varying feelings around the use of AI in education, how different schools are using the technology, and really how many people in this space, parents, students, educators, college institutions are adapting to this escalating change in education. These tools aren't necessarily locked away for just adults to use. If you have a smartphone, a computer, you can easily access an AI chatbot or AI resource to generate what you want. And that's had a massive effect on our education spaces. Some for better, some for worse, according to what I found. So this week you'll hear a series of newscast stories that all focus on how different schools, whether those are K through 12 schools or college institutions, are adapting to and using this new technology. Okay, we'll learn more throughout this week, but did you find any common threads during these last few months of your reporting? I think the biggest theme I heard in every conversation was how people want any AI use to be human-centric. What that means is that the AI is there to help reinforce a skill, not replace it. For example, one teacher told me how she noticed students who are using Grammarly, which is an AI editing software, started to not know basic grammar. Things like capitalizing the first letter of a sentence or the letter I when it stands alone. There's also a lot of educators, parents, and students who want to see more training when it comes to AI and implementing it in education. Megan Wissing was just one parent and teacher who told me that. I think it's important for kids to know what it is, to know what it's capable of doing, but kind of like a driver's license. You need the proper training to use it. Also, people wanted to make sure that using AI was a choice, not a requirement for students and teachers. Yeah, it seems like there could be varying opinions on how to go about this, especially in education. When I was in elementary school in the early 2000s, I remember when we first got computer labs and now many students have their own laptops, but of course that can vary from school to school. Have you seen a drastic difference in how some schools maybe embrace AI and maybe some aren't as of right now? I definitely have. Most schools have at least a policy against using AI for cheating, but there's also schools that are trying to embrace AI with the idea that it's here. Students are using it, whether the school wants them to use it or not. So they want to make sure they are using it responsibly. I think that mindset is becoming more common. I also want to mention that students are thinking critically about AI, and it's not just college students. Landry Krause, who will be a freshman at the Consolidated District Syracuse of Oka Dunbar, was part of a national conference.

where students from every state worked out a bill on AI use in schools. It covered parents, students, teachers, and more. We grew into this. We know how to use it in many ways that they don't. They haven't wrapped their minds around what it can do and how it can be good, but also how it can be bad. It's definitely a conversation everyone has thoughts on. Absolutely. And before we go, can you briefly run down what listeners will hear and read this week? Sure, this kicks off on Monday when people will hear more about the general feelings some people I interviewed had toward AI. There were different levels of acceptance and different levels of use. Tuesday, you'll hear about the varying ideas surrounding AI policy and use in the classroom. Wednesday and Thursday, we'll examine how this technology is or isn't being used in Nebraska's K-12 schools and colleges. And then on Friday, we'll have an interesting one about safety issues that have come up with AI. This doesn't surround plagiarism concerns, even though that's still... serious. But we look at how generative AI has escalated issues when it comes to creating photos of students. Many younger people are also using AI chatbots as pseudo-counselors or friends. So we'll dive into that on Friday. All right. Very interesting. Thanks for your work on this Jolie. Looking forward to reading your stories this week at Nebraskapublicmedia.org slash news. Thanks. The Nebraska update is Nebraska Public Media's daily news podcast. Follow wherever you listen, so you never miss an update. Share your story ideas and news tips with us online at Nebraskapublicmedia.org slash news tip. This episode was produced by Andy Herman with music from KJ. Tedder. I'm your host, Jackie Orata. History has a way of repeating itself. The years and headlines change, but the questions don't. Join us to connect the past to today's conversations about politics, farming, food, and justice. Once again, a podcast from Nebraska Public Media.