Jim Pillen appointed Omaha author and performer Jewel Rodgers as Nebraska's new state poet. Rodgers, 27, is the youngest and first African American person to hold that position. And no one could be ...

Nebraska’s next state poet is a fixture around poetry slams and political events in the state’s largest city, having spoken beside mayors and members of Congress. But Jewel Rodgers of Omaha stepped on ...

Daughter of Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers becomes the first African American State Poet in Nebraska history.

Gov. Jim Pillen and first lady Suzanne Pillen introduced Jewel Rodgers of Omaha as the fifth state poet in Nebraska history at a Capitol news conference on Monday. Watching from the sidelines ...

Two weeks after he was hospitalized with seven broken ribs, a fractured vertebrae and a partially collapsed lung after he was thrown from a horse, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen is back at work — with a ...

Jewel Rodgers, the daughter of 1972 Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers, was named this week by Gov. Jim Pillen to be the next Nebraska State Poet. She was selected from four applicants.