FAB 50:
A CAREER IN FILM
Business Journal
LIFELONG CREATIVE MARGAUX TOWNE BUILDS A LIFE FANTASTIC
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CELEBRATING 50 YEARS
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY ACROSS NEBRASKA & BEYOND
MBJ.COM
VOLUME 52, No. 25
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JUNE 12, 2026
Lincoln’s Long Game
LEIRION GAYLOR BAIRD BETS BIG ON LINCOLN’S FUTURE BY DAISY HUTZELL-RODMAN
Three days from now, Nebraska Public Media will flip the switch on KOOO-FM 101.9, powering on its first dedicated public radio signal in Omaha — a goal the organization has pursued for more than 20 years.
The heart of Lincoln is under construction. Three blocks of Lincoln’s O Street between 13th and 16th streets have been closed since mid-May for water main replacement and utility work. This detour for those going to Bourbon Theatre or Sultan’s Kite signals the opening phase of Project “O” Street, a generational reinvestment in the city’s main thoroughfare running through fall 2026. The disruption is temporary; the ambition behind it is not. Leirion Gaylor Baird is in her second term as Lincoln’s 52nd mayor and the city’s third female mayor. She came to Lincoln from Portland, Oregon; New Haven, Connecticut; and San Francisco. She didn’t plan to stay. She did; and what she’s building here — a nearly 10-acre destination park, a new central library, a reconstructed main street, a path to the U.S. Conference of Mayors presidency in 2027 — announces someone who has fully committed to the long game in a city she once arrived at by accident. The daughter of two public school teachers from the Pacific Northwest, Baird worked her way through Yale, earned a graduate degree at Oxford and spent early career years at a
DECKER ON PAGE 08
BAIRD ON PAGE 06
A CLOSER LOOK:
PUBLIC MEDIA’S CHAMPION DECKER LEADS NPM INTO OMAHA AND AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
LINCOLN GROWTH REPORT:
PART 2 OF 3
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• ECONOMICS • SPORTS