Free Republic

The sunlight bothered his eyes and the dry air gave him chills, so Troy Williams, 46, closed the living-room window and shut the blackout shades. Outside was prairie, corn and miles of clear Nebraska sky, but increasingly he liked it better here, inside a Section 8 apartment with the TV blaring. He locked the front door even though nobody but family had visited for three weeks. He turned down the volume on a phone that rarely rang. He put on sunglasses, lay on the couch and closed his eyes. His wife, Andrea, sat nearby, playing Candy Crush on her computer...

More than a few Republican graybeards are panicking about how the rise of Donald Trump is pulling at the seams of the GOP’s big tent. However, the Republican establishment itself has played a big role in creating this particular Frankenstein’s monster. In September 2014, I found myself in Lexington, Nebraska, population 10,230. I was at a campaign stop with the soon-to-be-elected junior senator from Nebraska, and it seemed as if voters in this small town wanted to talk about one issue in particular. Just a few weeks earlier—right before school was to start—the federal government had showed up in Lexington...

BISMARCK, N.D. — A federal judge in North Dakota on Thursday blocked a new Obama administration rule that would give the federal government jurisdiction over some state waterways. U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson of North Dakota issued a temporary injunction against a the rule, which gives the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers authority to protect some streams, tributaries and wetlands under the Clean Water Act. The rule was scheduled to take effect Friday. “The risk of irreparable harm to the states is both imminent and likely,” Judge Erickson said in blocking the rule from taking effect....

This baby girl from Nebraska can’t stop fawning over her new friend. The tot’s mom, identified only as Ann Maree by KETV 7 in Omaha, shared the completely en-deer-ing video of her daughter, Kate, sweetly chasing a young deer in their backyard on Sunday. “Our neighbor pointed out the fawn to us, it was in the backyard,” Ann Maree told the TV station. “My daughter who is 15 months, decided to walk toward it.”

RUSH: This is Madeleine in Omaha. She's 22 years old. Madeleine, I'm glad you waited. Great to have you here. Hi. CALLER: Rush Limbaugh, it is such an honor to talk to you. You have no idea. Hey, listen, I have so much to rant about, but I know I can't. RUSH: No, go ahead! Go for it! CALLER: (giggles) RUSH: It's Open Line Friday! That's what it's for. Have at it. CALLER: There's a couple things. I'm 22 years old. I just graduated college at Nebraska, and I grew up listening to you literally every day. I was a...

On Sunday two criminals entered St. Cecilia’s Catholic Cathedral in Omaha. One of the men snatched the purse from a 76 year-old woman. The other man slugged her in the side of her head. The attack tool place in the back of a cathedral! snip UPDATE: One suspect was arrested today.

COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) - Officials say nearly 300 Columbus jobs will be lost with the closing of the Apogee Retail call center. The Columbus Telegram reports (http://bit.ly/1Ikppdx ) that the company announced the closing on Tuesday, after workers were informed. The closing is planned for Oct. 4. Apogee is a subsidiary of Savers LLC and operates more than 330 thrift stores in the U.S., Canada and Australia. The Columbus operation employs 176 full-time and 120 part-time workers....

Unfortunately, Nebraskans now have a spineless fedgov boot licking coward for a governor (Pete Ricketts - R) Compare this straight-to-the point language to the vague, effeminate Modernist BS we get today - both from the Vatican and from those in our various levels of government (Responses to each excerpted paragraph are bracketed by asterisks ***commentary***) Civil Disobedience and Sedition SPAIENTIAE CHRISTIANAE – On Christians as Citizens. Pope Leo XIII, January 1890 Encyclical From paragraph 2: ... if, in administering public affairs, it [government] is wont to put God aside, and show no solicitude for the upholding of moral law, it...

Warrants for first degree murder have been issued for two teenagers and a 12-year-old boy for the June shooting death of Jamymell Ray, 31. Two of the teenagers have been taken into custody, but a 12-year-old boy still remains wanted. The 12-year-old has been identified as Jarrell Milton. Anyone who knows his whereabouts is asked to call the Omaha Police Homicide Unit at (402) 444-5656 or Omaha Crime Stoppers at (402) 444-STOP. The shooting happened on Monday, June 29th near 24th & Redick. Ray and Charles Fisher, 30, were both hit by gunfire. Fisher was treated at the hospital and...

It seems Planned Parenthood of the Heartland has a hiring problem. The Norfolk Daily News reports Sunday on the difficult the abortion giant is having keeping an abortion doctor employed. Earlier this year, Dr. C.J. LaBenz, their abortionist, left, as Live Action reported in April. Planned Parenthood’s Omaha and Lincoln clinics were left without a regular abortionist. Lest the baby killing be left undone, Planned Parenthood, the organization always begging for money, flies an abortion doctor from Massachusetts to Nebraska. However, he or she can only abort on a part-time basis; therefore, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland now kills babies...

Omaha Juneteenth Parade

Republican senators criticized the Bush administration Wednesday over its policies in Iraq, Iran and the Palestinian territories, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's first testimony on Capitol Hill in months exposed her to a tough grilling from some members of her own party. "I don't see, Madame Secretary, how things are getting better. I think they're getting worse in Iraq, they're getting worse in Iran," Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., told Rice as she appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Rice also had a tense exchange with moderate Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., over the pace of progress toward Israeli-Palestinian...

This FROM THE EDITOR: We will have a major update to the Dennis Hastert child sex ring story here tonight. Witness, sworn statement. Stay tuned... We will begin our coverage of the so-called "Dennis Hastert Sex Scandal," with a video from the early 1990s, from a trusted source of this website. The documentary was set to air on the Discovery Channel in 1994, but was pulled at the last minute, and never ran on cable TV. Some blog sleuths eventually dug it up, years later. It contains some mind-numbing accusations and earth shattering evidence against some Nebraska politicians at the...

Nebraska has abolished the death penalty in a landmark veto-override vote backed by a coalition of conservatives who oppose capital punishment. North Platte Senator Mike Groene stood with 18 others as an advocate to keep the death penalty. But that just wasn't enough as 30 other senators decided to over ride Governor Pete Ricketts' veto and abolish the death penalty. He voted to keep the death penalty and uphold the governor's veto. "I believe in the death penalty in a civil society, we do not tolerate evil," Senator Groene said. State Senators voted 30-19 on Wednesday to override Gov. Pete...

Young people brought to the country illegally as children but allowed to stay under a federal program will be granted driving privileges in Nebraska. Senators voted 34-10 to override Gov. Pete Ricketts' veto of LB 623 Thursday morning. Ricketts argued that the bill is wrong on principle and overly broad. "The enactment of LB 623 at this time is an expansive and unwarranted grant of an important state identification document to an overly broad group of illegal immigrants," Ricketts said.

Today I announced the formation of Nebraskans for Justice, standing-up for the vast majority of Nebraskans who believe the death penalty is appropriate for the most heinous of crimes. Nebraskans for Justice is an organization that will explore the possibility of a citizen-driven ballot initiative to give Nebraska citizens the option of reinstating Nebraska’s death penalty.

At the link is a very cool slide show of pictures from the funeral of Officer Kerrie Orozco from yesterday. http://odc.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=5002&p=5978

A saddened, solemn community folded Officer Kerrie Orozco into its embrace Tuesday before letting her go. Hundreds of family members, friends and colleagues in blue attended Orozco’s funeral at St. John’s Catholic Church at Creighton University. Law enforcement officers and firefighters from around the Omaha metro area — and around the country — flowed over by the thousands into additional viewing areas. And Orozco’s fellow citizens lined her funeral procession route from downtown Omaha to her final resting spot in Council Bluffs to show respect for her service. The Rev. William Bond, who presided over the Catholic funeral service, called...

Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer made the announcement at a news conference Wednesday. The slain officer was identified as 7-year veteran Kerrie Orozco, 29. According to Schmaderer, Orozco and other officers with the Metro Area Fugitive Task Force were conducting surveillance on a shooting suspect in the area of Martin Avenue and Read Street just before 1 p.m. Wednesday. Officers spotted the suspect, identified as Marcus D. Wheeler, in front of a home off nearby Vane Street. Schmaderer said Wheeler fired several shots at officers and then fled toward a home on Martin Avenue. When officers confronted Wheeler, police said,...

An Omaha police officer and a suspect involved in a shootout Wednesday have died. Kerrie Orozco, 29, a gang unit officer, was serving a warrant on the Metro Area Fugitive Task Force when she was shot. Orozco is the 25th officer – and first female – in the department killed in the line of duty. Orozco had been taken to Creighton University Medical Center in extremely critical condition after being shot about 1 p.m. near Read Street and Martin Avenue.