NEBRASKA REFUSES TO APOLOGIZE FOR SLAVERY: Lawmakers will consider a resolution that only expresses 'regret.'

State lawmakers in Nebraska will consider a resolution that expresses regret for slavery, but doesn't issue an apology, reports the Associated Press.

Members of a legislative committee struggled on Wednesday with the language of the resolution that they ultimately advanced to the full Legislature for consideration.

The Judiciary Committee finally decided that expressing "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery was more appropriate than issuing an apology.

Lawmakers in New Jersey, Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia have already issued apologies for slavery.

The Nebraska Territory banned slavery in 1861, the year the Civil War started. But Nebraska was a center of turmoil over slavery in the 1800s.