Latest Appearances of the University in the Media

The University Featured Around the Globe

In The News is an archive of stories from media throughout the U.S. and around the world. As such, the links to these stories may degrade over time as news websites outside of the university's control are updated. (Copyright law does not allow us to provide a 'snapshot' of someone else's website.) If you'd like to have us update a link to go to a new location for a story, just send us an email with the new address of the story in the body of the email.

Recent stories
Mar 24 2025	Lincoln Journal Star: UNL receives grant for sports betting education The university has received a $29,450 grant from the National Council on Problem Gambling for sports betting education, the Lincoln Journal Star reported March 24. Jon Gayer, assistant director of drug and alcohol education at Nebraska, and Brian Petrotta, assistant professor of sports media and communication, were interviewed for the story. Petrotta has a fellowship with ESPN to study sports betting messaging on sports broadcasts and is working with Gayer and Campus Recreation on sports betting education.
Mar 24 2025	KETV: Federal cuts could impact U.S. Drought Monitor Mark Svoboda, director of the university’s National Drought Mitigation Center, was interviewed for a March 24 KETV story on how cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration might affect the U.S. Drought Monitor. He said there hasn’t been a disruption in data yet, but he is concerned about additional cuts to staff. “You need the data and the people to make it as good as we can make it,” he said.
Mar 24 2025	KMTV: Executive order raises concerns over government overreach, constitutional rights Eric Berger, Earl Dunlap Distinguished Professor of Law, was interviewed for a March 24 KMTV story on President Trump’s recent executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate attorneys involved in lawsuits against the federal government for alleged misconduct. Berger said he believes the order is unconstitutional. “A core American right is the right to criticize the government and to file a lawsuit challenging governmental action that you believe to be illegal,” he said. “So threats against the right to do that really strike at the core of the First Amendment.”
Mar 24 2025	KOLN/KGIN: National Weather Service suspending balloon launches in Omaha Eric Hunt, a climatologist with Nebraska Extension, was interviewed for a March 24 KOLN/KGIN story on the National Weather Service suspending the release of weather balloons at its Omaha and Rapid City, South Dakota, offices due to a lack of staffing. Hunt said the move could hurt weather forecasting in the area. “When you start removing those measurements, you lose the capability to get a full diagnosis of what’s going on,” he said.
Mar 24 2025	KLKN: NWS cuts back on weather balloons in Nebraska Adam Houston, professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences, was interviewed for a March 24 KLKN story on the National Weather Service suspending the release of weather balloons at its Omaha and Rapid City, South Dakota, offices due to a lack of staffing. The NWS is also cutting down on launches at its North Platte office, KLKN reported. “There is no other data, so there is no replacement for it,” Houston said. “If you’re missing the data to initialize these forecasts, then the forecasts are going to suffer.”
Mar 24 2025	Public News Service: Curriculum is meant to help teens navigate social media Researchers from the university’s College of Education and Human Sciences and Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts have created a new curriculum to educate youth about online media literacy, a kind of driver’s ed for navigating the digital landscape. Public News Service published a March 24 article on the curriculum. Guy Trainin, professor of education in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education, was interviewed for the story.
Mar 24 2025	The Fence Post: Husker grad student surveys resilience in Nebraska's Sandhills Kyle Martens, a doctoral student in natural resource sciences, has incorporated his passion for rural communities into his research by creating an online survey to explore resilience in Nebraska’s Sandhills. The Sandhills Resilience Survey measures participants’ views and opinions on natural resources, the economy and their communities to gauge resilience in the region. The Fence Post ran a March 24 article on the project.
Mar 23 2025	Lincoln Journal Star: Lost funding hurting Nebraska researchers, college students The Lincoln Journal Star published a March 23 article on how losses in federal funding are disrupting opportunities for Nebraska researchers and college students. The Innovation Lab for Irrigation and Mechanized Systems, which closed in late February, and a UNL-UNMC collaboration with Columbia University that recently lost its funding were highlighted. John Westra, director of the Panhandle, Research, Extension and Education Center; Derek McLean, dean of the Agricultural Research Division; and Mike Boehm, Harlan Vice Chancellor for IANR, were also interviewed.
Mar 23 2025	KMTV: UNL expert weighs in on solar farm concerns Bing Chen, professor of electrical and computer engineering, was interviewed for a March 23 KMTV story on a solar farm being proposed near the village of Brock, Nebraska. Chen said he thinks solar farms like this should be dual purpose — meaning arrays are higher than ground level to allow wildlife to thrive and crops to be grown underneath — but that such farms are more expensive. “There will be a cost differential to raise it higher,” he said. “Are they willing to invest this for the betterment of the overall agricultural community of Brock?”
Mar 23 2025	Omaha World-Herald: Lincoln neighborhood creates 'pollinator playground' Kay Walter, professor emerita of University Libraries, and her partner, Tim Rinne, launched the Hawley Hamlet Neighborhood Garden in 2011 and have seen it grow to 24 households this year. Many participants have added native plant species to their gardens, attracting birds, bees and butterflies. The Omaha World-Herald published a March 23 article on the project. The Lincoln Journal Star picked up the article.
Mar 22 2025	The New York Times: Everyone in the city needs soundproofing, even spiders Brandi Pessman, a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Biological Sciences, and Eileen Hebets, George Holmes Professor of biological sciences, recently published a study demonstrating that the webs of funnel-weaving spiders transmit vibrations differently in response to increased local environmental noise. This flexibility in web transmission properties suggests that the spiders may intentionally spin their webs differently to manage surrounding noise and receive crucial sensory information. Stories on the research have appeared in KHGI, Earth.com and The New York Times.
Mar 21 2025	SFGate: The creatures of Yellowstone's boiling pools Husker researchers were involved in a recent study showing that the wetsalts tiger beetle can withstand the heat of Yellowstone National Park’s hot springs due to a heat-resistant shield on its abdomen. The study was led by Kelly A. Willemssens, a recent doctoral graduate at Nebraska who is now a lecturer at Clemson University. Leon Higley, a professor in the School of Natural Resources at Nebraska, was also part of the research team. SFGate published a March 21 article on the study.