Warm Weather Wilin' 🐗

Happy Friday Ledgers,

If you're a night owl or someone plagued by sleep terrors, your unconventional habits just paid off. While others were dutifully chasing their physician-recommended eight hours, you witnessed a celestial spectacle—a total lunar eclipse. This event occurs when the Earth aligns perfectly between the sun and the moon, casting a shadow that transforms our lunar neighbor into a deep red "blood moon."

According to my crystal-loving aunt, such an eclipse is prime time for deep self-reflection and transformative change. The eclipse reached totality around 1:28 a.m. and lasted approximately an hour, offering those with clear skies and minimal cloud cover a mesmerizing view.

So, the next time someone tells you that nothing good happens after midnight, remind them of the night you watched the moon blush. ☺️

In this week’s issue:

• YA SWINE: Lincoln-based DARO raises $1.1M in funding to combat swine disease

• What To Do: Hoops, Guinness, and a Healthy Recovery

• Sportz: March Madness: Mayhem, Mania, Matchups, and Miracles

• Neighborhood Watch: Pixelated Perfection 🏡👀

Question for you all — what is the best thing to do on Mother’s Day in Lincoln? Asking for a friend. Reply back to this email and let us know! 🤰

- Landon

YA SWINE

DARO secures $1.1M to transform disease detection

Startups hit different in Nebraska. No AI-washing, no overhyped buzzwords—just real solutions to real problems. And this week, Lincoln-based DARO made waves in agtech by closing a $1.1 million seed round to tackle one of the industry's toughest challenges: livestock disease detection.

A smarter way to protect herds… Founded in 2023 by Kristen Bernhard, DARO is bringing cutting-edge surveillance systems to the swine industry, offering whole-herd pathogen monitoring that’s faster, more accurate, and less invasive than traditional testing methods. Instead of relying on individual blood samples or oral fluids, DARO’s system can be used to detect diseases across thousands of pigs—providing real-time insights that could prevent outbreaks before they happen.

What’s next?.. The $1.1M round was led by Invest Nebraska with backing from MOVE Venture Capital, Nebraska Angels, and other investors. The company plans to launch its technology for swine producers later in 2025, with an eye on expanding its disease monitoring capabilities across the broader livestock industry. Poised to have a significant impact, the company plans to start with swine producers before expanding into other livestock sectors.

By the Numbers:

• $1.2 billion – Annual cost of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) in the U.S. pork industry from 2016 to 2020.

• 6th — Nebraska’s ranking in pork production nationwide

• 80% increase – PRRS-related financial losses nearly doubled over a decade, climbing from $664 million to $1.2 billion.

• $8.49 to $26.10 per pig – Estimated economic loss per infected pig, depending on disease severity.

Why It Matters:
Startups like DARO don’t just solve problems—they drive innovation, attract talent, and strengthen local economies. Agtech may not always grab headlines, but in Nebraska, where agriculture IS your back yard, this kind of homegrown innovation is a big deal.

WHAT TO DO

Hoops, Guinness, and a Healthy Recovery

Boys State Basketball
If you found yourself mildly irritated by last week’s extra downtown foot traffic, consider this your second chance to recalibrate. March is for basketball—any level, any time, anywhere. This weekend, after a great run of girls' state, we embrace the next chapter with NSAA Boys Basketball State Championship at PBA.

Snag tickets to a game (or two), soak in the purity of high school hoops, and witness the true March Madness: parents of teenage athletes losing their minds in real time.

💡 Tip: Take your parent who’s obsessed with sports. They’ll love it and you’ll be the favorite child (if only for the day).

🍀 An Early St. Patrick’s Day
Let’s be honest—no one is thriving when St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Monday. Instead of making questionable life choices that lead to a Tuesday "flu," you’ll celebrate properly this Saturday at one of two essential spots:

• McKinney’s Annual Street Festival – Lincoln’s go-to Irish pub, packed with pints, green everything, and the energy of a crowd leaning way too hard into their 0.8% Irish heritage. Festivities kick off at 11:00 AM, while the “kilt contest” begins at 5:00 PM. We’ll see your pale legs out there 🦵

• The Killigans at The Bourbon – Lincoln, St. Paddy’s, and The Killigans—a love triangle stronger than anything Sarah J. Maas ever gave us. The show starts at 7:00 PM, with GA tickets at $15 ($18 day of).

💪 A Healthy Sunday
After a day of Guinness and questionable decisions, Sunday is about recovery. The weather looks perfect, so you’ll get outside (or just exercise in general) and pretend last night never happened. Here’s the plan:

• Move – Walk, run, or bike one of Lincoln’s trail loops (Holmes, Pioneers, or Antelope Creek Trail)

• Exercise Class - Want to stay inside? Hit up a Pilates or cycle class at Fly Fitness. P.S. don’t be nervous if your legs shake uncontrollably in Pilates, apparently this is actually a good thing?

• Compete – Grab a friend and play tennis or pickleball at Woods Tennis Center or Irvingdale Park

• Refuel – Pick up a smoothie or healthy snack at NEW DAY, Cafe Botanica, or the OG → Juice Stop (PB & Green till I die)

A little sweat, a little sunshine, and by Monday, no one will suspect a thing.

SPORTZ

Sporting headlines from around the capital.

• 🤼 Wrestling: Ridge Lovett is officially the first Husker to win back-to-back Big Ten wrestling titles since 2015

• 🤸 Gymnastics: Taylor Christopulos is a 2025 Nissen-Emery finalist 👏

• ⚾️ Baseball: Nebraska Baseball took down Wichita State 5-4 to complete the sweep

•  🏀 NCAAMB: Brice Williams was selected as first-team All-Big Ten honors 👑

NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH

2701 S 35th St, Lincoln, NE 68506

Pixelated Perfection 🏡👀

Beneath the pixelated haze of what we can only assume is a 2006 LG Chocolate camera phone lies an absolute gem in waiting. Petite, charming, and downright adorable, 2701 S 35th Street is the perfect cottage for springtime gatherings, with a deck practically begging for an evening soirée—where the wine flows freely, the backyard lights twinkle, and the conversation lingers just a little longer than planned.

If you squint hard enough (or just visit in person), you’ll find a home packed with thoughtful features: a soaking tub, an expansive back deck, and a quaint carriage garage that could house a compact car or become the storage spot of your highly ambitious (but currently hypothetical) DIY projects. Perfect for a starter home or for anyone who values quality over quantity of space, this one punches well above its weight.

The Details:

• 3 beds, 2 baths

• 1,102 sq/ft

• Built in 1930

• Ordered from the Sears catalog 🗞️

❤️ KEEP:
The incredibly cute exterior (especially that front door), the nice new deck, the bathroom, the window planters, and the adorable kitchen.

🗑️ TOSS:
Not much—except maybe the person responsible for these 8-bit listing photos (this house deserves better).

CHECKLIST

An over-ambitious weekend to-do list.

• Get out your Birkenstocks and let them dogs breathe

• Have the annual discussion (passionate debate) with your partner about whether this year will be the year that you call a lawn service and stop trying to figure out how much nitrogen needs to be applied to your lawn for your particular fescue seed blend

• Take 20 minutes to call a friend you haven’t talked to in a while (it doesn’t matter if they don’t pick up)

• And obviously, the most important thing on this list…Tune in to the first F1 race of the season (Australian Grand Prix 🇦🇺🏎️)

HEADLINES

More news from around the capital.

• Fires: There were a couple of large fires this week (North Lincoln Auto Fire & Lumberyard Fire)

• Cranes: The first sandhill cranes have arrived in central Nebraska

• Books: The Nebraska Legislature advanced a bill that would require schools to notify parents of the books their children check out

• Youth Sports: The Sandhills Global Youth Complex, a new sports complex with 8 turf fields, is set to open in Lincoln next month

• Signing Day: Eight Nebraska students committed to LPS Early Childhood Education Program

🐯 Weekly Wildcard:
One headline (or post) we never saw coming.

• FROLF 🥏: Beal Slough Disc Golf Course was ranked #70 worldwide for disc golf courses