A look back at 2018’s top stories

2018 has come to an end, bringing with it the end to a year-long investigation into a Lincoln home explosion. 

That explosion, which claimed the lives of Jim and Jeanne Jasa, ruled a murder suicide, bringing closure to a neighborhood and a city. 

That’s something that can’t be said for the family of Sydney Loofe. 

The accused killers of the 24-year-old Lincoln woman, Aubrey Trail and Bailey Boswell making their way through the courts on a case that brought national attention to Nebraska. 

Trail has a trial date set for June.

Three high profile murders made headlines, with Lincoln mother Jessica Brandon found shot in her home. Three suspects are now facing murder charges. 

Three other suspects were named following the death of Stacy Talbot, who was found shot in the chest in the Belmont neighborhood in October. 

The man accused of pulling the trigger, Jesse Wilson, was captured by a SWAT team in New Mexico.

A gang related brawl in the College View neighborhood in March brought the city its third homicide with the shooting of Edgar Union Jr. 

He was the father to five children. A 16-year-old faces charges for firing the shot that killed him. 

2018 also brought about the state’s first execution by lethal injection. 

Carey Dean Moore was put to death, 39 years after shooting two cab drivers in Omaha, despite outcry that the state used illegally obtained drugs to do so.

The shooting deaths of 17 students at a Florida high school prompted Lincoln parents to demand safer schools. Government, school and law enforcement came together to bring six new school resource officers to Lincoln Public Schools.

State elections saw a red wave wash over the state with Governor Pete Ricketts leading a host of Republicans who were reelected to officer. 

Nebraskans also chose to expand medicaid coverage in the state. Locally voters chose term limits for the Mayor’s office, which will see incumbent Chris Beutler leaving the job in 2019.

2018 also brought the passing of another Nebraska Governor, Charlie Thone, who died at 94 years old.

It was a year of controversy at the state’s largest university, with political tensions manifesting into back-and-forth between state legislators and university officials.

University of Nebraska- Lincoln students also protested one of their own, asking for the expulsion of Daniel Kleve, whose self-proclaimed white supremacist beliefs went viral online. 

More controversy in the form of a chicken plant approved to be built in rural Lancaster County, despite months of objections by landowners who fear what impact such an operation would have on the environment.

A year of high flu activity reached Nebraska, claiming the life of a five-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy. 

The first cases of AFM, or acute flaccid myelitis, were diagnosed in Nebraska children, all of whom were successfully treated.

Lincoln made national news, following the death of two-year-old Caleb Acuna, killed in a tragic bouncy pad accident. 

The Capitol City also made national headlines for the viral video of an attempted cat-snatching from a Lincoln porch.

A year of weather disasters in the U.S. saw members of Nebraska Task Force 1 and Lincoln Electric System workers deployed to provide relief to communities across the country.

In sports, Scott Frost’s tenure as the Husker’s head football coach got off to a rough start, the team losing it’s first six games of the year before coming together down the stretch to finish four and eight.

Also on the gridiron, two former Huskers saw action in the Super Bowl. Nate Gerry and Philadelphia Eagles knocking of Rex Burkhead and the New England Patriots in thrilling fashion. 

Nebraska Volleyball overcame early season struggles to surge to the team’s third national championship appearance in as many years, losing to Stanford in five sets, but winning the support of an entire state in the process.