Free Republic

The Omaha World-Herald reported Thursday that the prank device exploded when staff opened a package delivered to Fortenberry’s Lincoln office. Glitter bombs explode in showers of tiny, sparkling confetti that are difficult to clean up. “You can certainly disagree with your member of Congress or any member of Congress, but this is pretty reckless and irresponsible,” said Jennifer Allen, a spokeswoman for Fortenberry. “It’s just a huge waste of everybody’s time and resources.” Allen said the trick seemed motivated by Fortenberry’s stance on abortion. A note accompanying the package criticized his pro-life beliefs, she added. “Congrats, you’ve earned this for...

The Otoe County clerk said she won’t issue marriage licenses to gay couples, even though a federal judge ordered her to start doing so next week. U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Bataillon on Monday morning ordered county clerks and other state officials to treat same-sex couples the same as heterosexual couples when processing marriage licenses or determining the rights, protection or benefits of marriage. Bataillon's order takes effect March 9, but Otoe County Clerk Janene Bennett said she still won’t issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples because of her Catholic beliefs -- no matter what. “It’s God’s law. Marriage was...

A federal judge on Monday blocked Nebraska's gay marriage ban, but the decision will not take effect for a week and the state plans to appeal. U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon ordered the state not to enforce its ban. Last week he heard arguments for and against a motion for an injunction to block enforcement of the ban while a lawsuit challenging the ban is pending. Bataillon said the order will be effective March 9. The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska sued the state in November on behalf of seven same-sex couples challenging the ban, which passed with the...

The proposed Keystone XL pipeline has stirred considerable debate about the future of American energy policy. While the Senate’s recent vote to block its construction tables the discussion for the time being, it does not resolve major questions about how the U.S. transports oil today. With the ongoing shale gas boom, the U.S. is set to pass Saudi Arabia as the world’s top oil producer. Looking beyond KXL, such a rapid rise in production means American transportation networks are straining under new pressures to safely and efficiently move all this energy between different markets. The following figures show how Keystone...

DENVER — Colorado already is being sued by two neighboring states for legalizing marijuana. Now, the state faces groundbreaking lawsuits from its own residents, who are asking a federal judge to order the new recreational industry to close. The owners of a mountain hotel and a southern Colorado horse farm argue in a pair of lawsuits filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Denver that the 2012 marijuana-legalization measure has hurt their property and that the marijuana industry is stinky and attracts unsavory visitors.

Last month, a Nebraska Supreme Court decision approved a route for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline through the state. That decision effectively allowed TransCanada, the pipeline company, to begin issuing eminent domain papers to landowners in the way. But a fresh lawsuit brought by nearly 70 landowners has spurred a Nebraska judge to halt TransCanada’s eminent domain proceedings, the Huffington Post reported Thursday. “TransCanada sees the writing on the wall,” Jane Kleeb, director of Bold Nebraska, a group fighting the pipeline, said in a statement following the judge’s decision to issue an injunction. “Nebraska landowners are not going to cave...

The day after Christmas, Weldin, of Minatare, Neb., had logged on to Facebook to find a message from a friend of hers. Included in the note was a link to an article from the Omaha World-Herald announcing that CoOportunity Health, a nonprofit health insurance company offering plans in Nebraska and Iowa, had been taken over by state regulators. The insurer, one of 23 Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans, or co-ops, started with the backing of the federal government and received $145 million in loans from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. But, CoOportunity’s expenses and medical claims would far...

CoOportunity’s many customers needed more medical care than expected, according to Nick Gerhart, Iowa’s insurance commissioner, and it had priced its plans too low. After taking control of the co-op in late December, Mr. Gerhart decided last month that it could not be saved and asked a court to liquidate it. The co-op, he said at the time, faced more than $150 million in liabilities. That left its customers scrambling for new coverage, and providers wondering if millions of dollars in outstanding claims would ever get paid.

A Houston-based company that makes piping and casing for oil and gas drilling has postponed plans to build a manufacturing plant in northeast Nebraska. Tejas Tubular Products President Maximo Tejeda told the Norfolk Daily News that he remains committed to building a mill next to Nucor Steel in Norfolk....

In what's being called a Christmas 'miracle' by Teri Robert's family, just hours before they planned to end her life on Dec. 22, the beloved wife, mother and grandmother opened her eyes. Roberts still faces an uphill battle after she lost four of her limbs from her illness. Teri Roberts' grieving family had already come to terms with her likely death, planning to turn off her ventilator, when they say a "miracle" happened. The 56-year-old wife, mother and grandmother, had been in a spiraling coma for 12 days when just four hours before her family planned to pull the plug,...

U.S. experienced record number of cases last year. A measles outbreak whose spread originated at Disneyland has grown to 95 cases. ... 79 of those in infections are in California and 52 of them can be linked directly to Disney Parks. The rest are in Michigan, Arizona, Utah, Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Nebraska and Mexico. ... The U.S. experienced a record number of measles cases last year, with 644 infections from 27 states despite being largely eliminated in 2000.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Monday that both Nevada and Tennessee have joined the Lone Star state's challenge of President Obama's executive amnesty, bringing the total number of states fighting Obama's unilateral immigration policies to 26. “Texas is proud to lead a coalition that now includes a majority of the United States standing up against the President’s rogue actions,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “The momentum against the President's lawlessness continues to build with Tennessee and Nevada joining the effort to protect our states from the economic and public safety implications of illegal amnesty. As President...

A peaceful prayer walk descended into shoving and shouting Sunday afternoon, as the weekend shooting deaths of three young people aroused anger, fear and suspicion among some of the participants. The trouble began, witnesses said, when a man said to be the father of victim Jakela Foster’s 1-year-old child began arguing with someone who he believed knew what happened early Saturday when Foster was killed. Community leaders at the prayer walk echoed Police Chief Todd Schmaderer in urging anyone with knowledge of the shootings to come forward and talk to police.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Gunfire erupted during a crowded party in a vacant house in Omaha early Saturday, leaving three people dead and five wounded, and most witnesses refusing to help investigators, according to police. As many as 50 people were in and around the small home when shots were fired "by multiple shooters" around 2 a.m., Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said. No arrests have been made, and police said they were confident the shootings were gang-related.

The fate of the oil that flows through the Keystone XL pipeline and the source of the steel used to make it are set to be decided this week in the U.S. Senate. The chamber is expected to vote on as many as three amendments to GOP-backed legislation to authorize the TransCanada Corp. pipeline on Tuesday, with more than four dozen other possibilities on the horizon. Few are without controversy, and many are meant to send a message or put senators in a difficult spot, casting votes on such issues as protectionism, oil spills and climate change. The first three...

BNSF Railway more than tripled the number of trains it moved through Nebraska with a million gallons of oil or more aboard late last year and has changed its route to bypass Lincoln, at least for some trains. Reports filed with the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency show that late last year BNSF expanded the number of oil trains it was required to report from three per week in July to a range of seven to 14 per week. Railroads must report trains that carry at least a million gallons of oil -- about 35 tank cars -- from the Bakken...

After failing probation, Charlie Rogers didn’t show up for her 90-day jail sentence Thursday. Rogers, 36, was sentenced to a week in jail and two years’ probation in April 2013 for faking an anti-gay hate crime that stunned Lincoln and captured the country’s attention the summer before. Rogers, a lesbian and former Nebraska basketball star, lied to police when she told them three men broke into her house on July 22, 2012, tied her up, carved anti-gay slurs into her skin and tried to light the house on fire.

Not since the multiplication of the loaves and fishes near the Sea of Galilee has there been creativity as miraculous as that of the Keystone XL pipeline. It has not yet been built but already is perhaps the most constructive infrastructure project since the Interstate Highway System. It has accomplished an astonishing trifecta: It has made mincemeat of Barack Obama’s pose of thoughtfulness. It has demonstrated that he lacks even a rudimentary understanding of the most basic economic realities. It has dramatized environmentalism’s descent into infantilism. Obama entered the presidency trailing clouds of intellectual self-regard. His carefully cultivated persona was...

Walking into a public health clinic for information about abortion isn't an easy choice to make. A group of Nebraska senators want to make sure anyone who does, has the facts they need to possibly reconsider. Senator Bill Kintner introduced a bill Monday that would require updated informed consent laws to be made public; both online and on the doors of any clinic that performs abortions. Those forms remind women that it's against the law for anyone to be pressured to have an abortion. So could this help bring down abortion rates? Kintner thinks so. "It might yes, it might....

The Senate will start debate on Monday on a bill to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline as Republicans, who have made the project their first priority of the year, try to line up enough votes to overcome a potential veto by President Barack Obama. Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota, a co-sponsor of the bill to approve TransCanada Corp's pipeline, has about 63 supporters, including all 54 Republicans. That is four short of the 67 needed to overcome an Obama veto. The White House has said the president would reject the bill if it reaches his desk. Hoeven said...