Free Republic

Half-ton pickup trucks crowd the curb outside the One Horse Saloon, a neon Coors Light sign in the window and rib-eye steaks on the menu, but otherwise Nickerson, Nebraska, is nearly silent on a spring evening, with only rumbling freight trains interrupting bird songs. Regional economic development officials thought it was the perfect spot for a chicken processing plant that would liven up the 400-person town with 1,100 jobs, more than it had ever seen. When plans leaked out, though, there was no celebration, only furious opposition that culminated in residents packing the fire hall to complain the roads couldn't...

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts signed a bill on Tuesday that eliminates civil forfeiture, which allows law enforcement to seize and keep property without filing charges or securing criminal convictions. The bill, LB 1106, passed the unicameral legislature last week by a vote of 38 to 8. Civil forfeiture has ensnared a wide swath of victims in Nebraska. A Peruvian pastor once had $14,000 seized during a traffic stop. Only after the local chapter of the ACLU intervened was he able to recover his cash. Last year, a federal appellate court upheld forfeiting more than $63,000 in savings from a decorated...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)97% can add Nebraska to his list of states where he’s out organized GOP frontrunner Donald Trump in collecting delegates. “Party officials say they saw virtually no organization by the mogul’s campaign last week when Republicans in all 93 Nebraska counties held local conventions. Those county conventions picked 800 delegates to May’s Nebraska state convention, where 33 delegates to the national convention in Cleveland will be selected,” Politico reports. “Because there was little resistance, many county conventions became Cruz pep rallies, according to interviews with party insiders and convention attendees.” “I didn’t see any Trump supporters,” said...

Another week gone, another opportunity lost for Donald Trump to pick up Republican National Convention delegates. Nebraska is tailor-made for Ted Cruz, and when the state holds its winner-take-all primary on May 10, party leaders say Trump is an all-but certain loser. Facing those dim prospects, Trump’s best hope in the state may have been to get a few of his supporters on the list of people who will fill those delegate slots — supporters who, in later rounds of voting at a contested convention, would be inclined to abandon Cruz and help Trump. But that’s where the billionaire appears...

Donald Trump’s effort to reset his campaign following defeat in Wisconsin showed no signs of paying off this weekend, as a series of technical failures by his campaign set his hopes back even further. From Thursday to Saturday, Trump suffered setbacks in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, South Carolina and Indiana that raise new doubts about his campaign’s preparedness for the long slog of delegate hunting as the GOP race approaches a possible contested convention. He lost the battle on two fronts. Cruz picked up 28 pledged delegates in Colorado. In the other states, rival campaigns were able to place dozens of...

His blood alcohol content level at the time was .241, which is four times the legal limit to drive, WOWT reported. In addition, Mejia was driving on a suspended license and faces a motor vehicle homicide charge. Douglas County Judge Jeff Marcuzzo set Mejia's bail at 10 per cent of $50,000, which means he only had to post $5,000 cash to be released.

The estimated 2,800 mosques in the United States are "ticking time bombs" for Islamic terrorism, according to experts. All U.S. states have at least one mosque each with California and New York topping the list with more than 500 mosques followed by Texas with more than 300 ... According to Dr. Mark Christian, president and founder of the Global Faith Institute, about 80 percent of the 2,800 U.S. mosques are under the supervision of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose goal is to make nations comply with Shariah law. "You have a new mosque opening every week in America," said Christian, a...

Deuel County Deputy Sheriff Mike Hutchinson was ambushed and shot four times at close range while serving an arrest warrant in Big Springs on Dec. 3. He is alive today because of a series of extraordinary coincidences, good fortune, and the heroic efforts of others.

Homeland Security officials Wednesday named an illegal immigrant whom police accuse of killing a young woman in a drunken-driving accident to their list of 10 most wanted fugitives, hoping to capture a man who’s become a black eye for immigration agents. Agents failed to respond in February to pick up Eswin Mejia, 19, after he was charged with vehicular homicide by Omaha, Nebraska, authorities. . . . ICE Director Sarah Saldana appeared to stumble in testimony to Congress about the incident, saying that agents would have responded if the victim of the crash, 21-year-old Sarah Root, had already died, rather...

In January, Eswin Mejia, reported to be an illegal immigrant, went street racing in Omaha, Nebraska and caused a fatal car crash, killing 21-year-old Sarah Root. The Omaha police alerted Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities and they took Mejia into custody. He was released on $5,000 bail and has not been seen since.

Conservative heavyweights joined forces with establishment figures to form Our Principles PAC, a super-PAC focused on persuading Americans of why Donald Trump is a deadly threat to conservatism who should not be the Republican nominee.

A recent poll by Victory Processing asked Nebraskans about Trump and Sasse. The poll's questions appeared aimed at gauging how Sasse's stance is playing with his constituents. The results of the poll are not publicly available, nor is it clear who commissioned the poll. The Nebraska Public Service Commission shows Victory Processing as having the same Grand Rapids, Michigan, address as Victory Phones, a vendor that Sasse's Senate campaign used for polling, fundraising and other services.

One of two former Black Panthers convicted in the 1970 bombing death of an Omaha police officer has died in prison. Nebraska Department of Correctional Services spokesman Andrew Nystrom said David Rice died around midnight Saturday at the state penitentiary in Lincoln. […] The 68-year-old Rice, who had changed his name to Mondo we Langa, was convicted along with fellow Black Panther Edward Poindexter in the death of officer Larry Minard. Authorities say they lured police to a house with a 911 call, then detonated a homemade bomb that killed Minard. …

From Michigan to Louisiana to California on Friday, rank-and-file Republicans expressed mystification, dismissal and contempt regarding the instructions that their party's most high-profile leaders were urgently handing down to them: Reject and defeat Donald J. Trump. Their angry reactions, in the 24 hours since Mitt Romney and John McCain urged millions of voters to cooperate in a grand strategy to undermine Mr. Trump's candidacy, have captured the seemingly inexorable force of a movement that still puzzles the Republican elite and now threatens to unravel the party they hold dear. In interviews, even lifelong Republicans who cast a ballot for Mr....

From Michigan to Louisiana to California on Friday, rank-and-file Republicans expressed mystification, dismissal and contempt regarding the instructions that their party’s most high-profile leaders were urgently handing down to them: Reject and defeat Donald J. Trump. Their angry reactions, in the 24 hours since Mitt Romney and John McCain urged millions of voters to cooperate in a grand strategy to undermine Mr. Trump’s candidacy, have captured the seemingly inexorable force of a movement that still puzzles the Republican elite and now threatens to unravel the party they hold dear. In interviews, even lifelong Republicans who cast a ballot for Mr....

From Michigan to Louisiana to California on Friday, rank-and-file Republicans expressed mystification, dismissal and contempt over the instructions that their party’s most high-profile leaders were urgently handing down to them: Reject and defeat Donald J. Trump. Their angry reactions, in the 24 hours since Mitt Romney and John McCain urged millions of voters to cooperate in a grand strategy to undermine Mr. Trump’s candidacy, have captured the seemingly inexorable force of a movement that still puzzles the Republican elite and now threatens to unravel the party they hold dear. In interviews, even lifelong Republicans who cast a ballot for Mr....

This arrogant smirking Nebraska Senator calls himself a "conservative" but says he won't support the GOP for presidency if Trump is the nominee. So if Sasse gets his way, Hillary will choose the new Supreme Court justices. In other words, if Sen. Sassy gets his way, Goodbye religious liberty. Goodbye Second Amendment. And if Sen. Sassy Smirky gets his way, with Hillary in the White House, there'll be no more chance of repealing Obamacare than right now. Thank you, Sen. Ben Smirk, "R" Nebraska. Cornhustker voters need to remember like Elephants, and boot this Hillary-enabler out of office in four...

Eager to lock up the GOP nomination without a convention fight, Donald Trump battled Saturday to pad his lead in the delegate count as four more states delivered verdicts on the fractious Republican race for president. Democrats in three states were choosing between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Saturday’s GOP races in Maine, Kansas, Kentucky and Louisiana and Democratic contests in Nebraska, Kansas and Louisiana were largely overshadowed by Super Tuesday contests in the rear-view mirror and critical contests soon to come. But with front-runner Trump yet to win states by the margins he’ll need in order to secure the...

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - The Nebraska Democratic Caucuses get started Saturday, only the second time the state's Democrats have divided their delegates this way. Former President Bill Clinton spoke Friday on behalf of wife Hillary to about 700 people at The Waiting Room nightclub in Benson, with many more in an overfill room. Meanwhile, plenty of people are ready to caucus. “I like how the Democrats actually talk about the issues rather than talking about each other's manhood,” said Chase Ilsey, a Hillary Clinton supporter. Bernie Sanders' national press secretary was also in town. “He has the experience to know...

The Chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees sounded a tone of outrage this week at an Obama administration policy that has allowed for the release of at least three criminal aliens charged with drunk driving and implicated in the murder and severe injury of Americans this year. “This careless policy is a clear and unmistakable message to the American people that this Administration has decided that their safety and security are far less important than ensuring that illegally present aliens with no regard for the law will remain in this country without any legal consequences whatsoever,” House Judiciary...