News

Last year’s quiet arrival of a foreign wasp known as the Asian giant hornet is no longer a secret outside of Washington state. Within the past few days, all the major TV networks have broadcast stories of the arrival of the wasp to the Pacific Northwest. Known to entomologists as Vespa mandarinia, it has been named by the press the ‘murder hornet’.

We’ve all been made aware of our declining bee population. While this is extremely serious, there’s something more to consider. In the last 50 years, our continent has lost anywhere from 29% to 30% of our bird population. Forty percent of the world’s bird population is in decline. 74 percent of the 1,469 bird species are at risk of extinction.

• Candis Elizabeth Conditt, of Omaha, was arrested April 23 by Omaha police on a motion to revoke for possession of a controlled substance, penalty group one (less than one gram). She was later charged with possession of a controlled substance, penalty group one (less than one gram) and possession of drug paraphernalia.