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With COVID-19 cases rising and limited hospital capacity, Douglas County Health Director Lindsay Huse said Tuesday that she will issue an indoor mask mandate for the city of Omaha effective at midnight. "We're not doing everything that we can to contain this astronomical spike in cases," she told the Douglas County Board. The move is opposed by Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, who said

ACalifornia man was arrested last week in western Iowa after telling police he was driving straight to the White House "to kill persons in power" and was found with an assault rifle and body armor, according to federal court records. Kuachua Brillion Xiong, 25, of Merced was pulled over for driving aggressively on Interstate 80 in Cass County, Iowa, on Dec. 21. He had an AR-15-type rifle, ammunition and a grappling hook, among other items, authorities said.

Chancellor Ronnie Green believes the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) is racist. Under his leadership, UNL recently released a plan to address “institutional racism” as part of its “Journey for Anti-Racism and Racial Equity.” From racially motivated hiring practices to divisive trainings, the plan would inject Critical Race Theory (CRT) into every corner of campus. At the foundation of UNL’s plan are the writings of Ibram Kendi, who has openly called for discrimination on the basis of skin color. Kendi has written that “The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.”...

Sgt. 1st Class Doug Kirby curled up, broken and burned, on the ground in front of the flaming Army fuel depot. Nothing remained of his left leg but a bloody stump. Kirby enlisted in the Army in 1961 and was a sergeant first class by the time he arrived at Qui Nhon, South Vietnam, in June 1970. In the hours just after midnight that morning — June 5, 1970 — Kirby had been guarding the fuel farm at Qui Nhon, South Vietnam.

Andy Biggio, author of The Rifle, has released an hour-long video (sorry it is YouTube), of his trip several years ago, to take two elderly WWII Veterans back to visit Italy. I have only watched about 1/4 of this so far, and it keeps going all blurry on me. Andy is a SAINT. He hosts the Boston Wounded Vets Run, which is coming up this weekend. If someone wants to put it to Rumble, go for it.

Cpl. Daegan Page received the kind of welcome home no warrior’s family wants — the kind with black limousines and flag-draped caskets, slow salutes and tears. But on Friday afternoon, thousands of Nebraskans and Iowans made Page’s mournful homecoming an occasion to remember.

LINCOLN — Gov. Pete Ricketts stepped up his fight against President Joe Biden on Thursday by ordering state agencies to resist the federal 30-by-30 initiative. Among other things, the order requires agencies under the governor’s control to stop providing money or staff support for any projects involving permanent conservation easements. It also puts an 18-month hold on state protections for new endangered species and directs the Department of Agriculture to publicize which local governments have taken positions opposing or supporting the Biden administration’s goal of conserving 30% of the nation’s land and water by 2030.

After Andrew Biggio bought a 1945 M1 Garand rifle, he brought it over to show his neighbor, World War II veteran Corp. Joseph Drago. When Drago held the rifle in his hands, his eyes lit up. The frail, elderly man was suddenly overcome with a burst of energy and began talking about the Battle of Okinawa. The rifle had unlocked memories that Drago had kept unspoken for 50 years. When Drago was done speaking, Biggio, a veteran himself who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, asked his neighbor to sign the rifle. The young Marine always wanted to remember those precious...

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNBb0mmrFC6/ This young Massachusetts police officer and Marine veteran, Andrew Biggio, has completed his book, "The Rifle", and it is going to press. He has interviewed many WWII veterans and had them sign the rifle. He has taken several groups of WWII veterans to see the historic sites in Europe, including finding sponsors so they can travel at no cost, and organizing all logistics of their travel and itinerary. He is very active in endeavors to benefit our veterans, including founding and organizing the Boston Wounded Vets Run (motorcycle). Info is here: https://theyfoughtweride.com/ Please consider buying his book and/or following...

LINCOLN — Billionaire businessman and philanthropist Joe Ricketts is preparing another venture into the news business, and he’s chosen Omaha as his launching pad. Ricketts is hiring staff to launch an online national news outlet called Straight Arrow News that he said will do what other outlets aren’t doing — providing news without a political slant.

WASHINGTON — Brandon Straka recalls being bullied as a young gay person in the ’80s and ’90s, the homophobic slurs routinely used as taunts in his small Nebraska town. At age 22, Straka left the state for New York. He felt that it would be easier to be himself and fit in with the political leanings of the big East Coast city.

The fall-out from a racially charged deadly shooting in Omaha now finds the Nebraska Democratic Party aiming some tough talk at one of its own long-respected members: Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine.

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) -- The Douglas County Board of Health declared racism a public health crisis during its meeting Wednesday morning. "More than 100 studies have linked racism to worse health outcomes," the declaration states. The document goes on to say that "racism and segregation in Douglas County have exacerbated a health divide resulting in disparities for premature deaths, death rates for cardiovascular disease and cerebrovascular disease, average and median age of deaths."

One of my sisters had put DNA in to 23 & Me sometime in the past (several years ago, maybe). Over the past week, she has been notified of a person who just recently submitted DNA for testing. It turns out that this person seems to be our half-sibling. There are 5 of us from same parents, all born from 1954 to 1960. The newly identified one seems to be related only to our father and born in 1964. I babysat for this person and two siblings, when I was around 10 or 11. Their family moved away around 1969,...

OMAHA, Neb. — LATEST: Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine has scheduled a news conference Monday at 1:30 p.m. KETV will stream the press conference on air and on Facebook. Kleine is expected to announce whether or not charges will be filed in the death of 22-year-old James Scurlock. Previous story: After a weekend of unrest in Omaha, the killing of 22-year-old James Scurlock was beginning to gain national attention Monday.

Francis X. Murphy was just 18 years old when he got married on Dec. 6, 1941. The next day, Pearl Harbor was bombed, and the United States was at war. Murphy joined the 83rd Airdrome Squad. He went to Europe and fought in D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge. To this day, the 95-year-old from Whitman remembers the bloodshed from what remains the third-deadliest battle in American history. “You either kill them or they were going to kill you, and that’s how it was,” Murphy said bluntly.

A disgruntled customer who was escorted out of a Chick-fil-A restaurant in south Lincoln on Tuesday afternoon and then drove his pickup into the building, was shot and killed by a railroad officer, Lincoln Police said. Officers were called to the restaurant at 6810 S. 27th St. shortly after 1 p.m. on an initial report that a vehicle had driven into the business, police said at an afternoon news conference.

Omaha native Leo Dulacki had quite a year in 1942. And quite a life ever since. Assigned to the carrier USS Hornet, the young Marine lieutenant was aboard when James Doolittle’s raiders took off for their impossible attack on the Japanese mainland on April 18, 1942. A few weeks later, he lived through the pivotal Battle of Midway, which turned the naval war in the Pacific in favor of the United States. And he survived the sinking of the Hornet near Guadalcanal that fall.

Hundreds of people stood in the chilly air of Omaha National Cemetery on Tuesday to honor a Vietnam veteran who died seemingly alone. A line of cars stretched from the cemetery along Highway 50 to Interstate 80 at 2 p.m. Tuesday, the scheduled start time for the interment. People in military fatigues, Vietnam veteran jackets and civilian attire packed the hillside, waiting in near silence to honor a 73-year-old veteran they did not know.

UPDATE: A tweet posted by Unified Police Department identified the deceased suspect as Felix Anthony Calata, 32, of West Valley City. UPD is not releasing any additional information at this time. SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah -- A South Salt Lake Police officer died Saturday night after police said he was purposely hit by a car driven by suspects fleeing an apparent burglary. South Salt Lake Police identified the officer as 31-year old Officer David Romrell. Officer Romrell was a Marine Corps veteran, husband and had recently become a father.