Free Republic

RAMADI, Iraq - With each passing day, distrust of the Iraqi people grows among Nebraska soldiers who patrol the streets of this city known as a stronghold for insurgents. Iraqi men displayed a less than welcoming attitude toward members of the Nebraska National Guard's 167th Cavalry last week as the soldiers checked cars and people for contraband in Ramadi, Iraq. "I don't trust anybody," said Sgt. Lucas Smith of Lincoln, who has endured enough brushes with roadside bombs that the medics know him by his first name. "They don't know how to help themselves." Staff Sgt. Joel Hestermann of Grand...

WASHINGTON - While rumors continued to circulate that Sen. Ben Nelson was under consideration to be the next agriculture secretary, Sen. Chuck Hagel said Thursday that he doesn't think Nelson is in serious contention. The Nebraska Republican said he and a senior aide had spoken with White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and President Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove, since CNN first reported Wednesday that Rove had talked with Nelson about taking the job being vacated by Ann Veneman. "No job offer has been made to Senator Nelson," Hagel said on his weekly conference call with reporters. "I...

Maybe you've had your fill of politics for a while, but take a peek at 2006: Ben Nelson, 41 percent Mike Johanns, 38 percent Those are the findings of a World-Herald Poll on a possible U.S. Senate showdown that Nebraskans could see in two years. As the numbers suggest - within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points - the potential race pitting two political powerhouses already is shaping up as a titanic struggle. Johanns, the state's two-term Republican governor, and Nelson, the Democratic U.S. senator and former two-term governor, both say they don't make...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Unearthed under legal pressure, three-decade-old documents portray President Bush as a capable and well-liked Air National Guard pilot who stopped flying and attending regular drills two-thirds of the way through his six-year commitment - without consequence. Click To Enlarge George W. Bush in his Texas Air National Guard uniform. The files, many of them forced to light by Freedom of Information lawsuits by The Associated Press, conflict with some of the harshest attacks Democrats have levied on Bush's Vietnam-era service, such as suggestions that Bush was a deserter or absent without leave. But gaps in the records...

Economic ties like those between Germany and Nebraska are helping to attract foreign investment to the state and to mend the U.S.-German alliance that the Iraq war damaged, according to a German delegation visiting the Omaha area Monday. Atlantic Bridge, a group of German parliamentary and civic leaders, praised Nebraska's efforts to land Claas Omaha LLC in Nebraska. The group toured the company's combine factory in Sarpy County. State Sen. Pam Brown said the Claas factory marries the agricultural and high-tech industries that state economic incentives attempt to draw. "Claas is a wonderful example of the way you make a...

A 25-year-old man involved in a traffic accident Monday near 40th and Leavenworth Streets ingested a toxic chemical, leading to a hazardous materials cleanup that shut down the area for more than five hours. Click To Enlarge An investigator in protective gear checks out one of the cars involved in an accident on Leavenworth Street Monday. Three other people were exposed to the substance and taken to the hospital. A three-block stretch of Leavenworth Street was closed to traffic as members of the Omaha-based joint terrorism task force secured the cars and cleaned the area. Hospital and fire officials identified...