Free Republic

For once, Erica Jenkins was quiet in court. Nikko Jenkins' normally outspoken sister — who once overturned a lectern during a court appearance — thrice refused to answer questions Monday about who provided him with a shotgun. That didn't mean there weren't fireworks. Erica Jenkins at times refused to answer questions about the night of her brother's release after being called to the stand by James Schaefer, Anthony Wells' attorney. At other times, she denied that there was a party or that she or Wells was there. Then it was prosecutor Brenda Beadle's turn.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20140310/NEWS/303119982/1687#shooting-during-home-invasion-was-justified-county-attorney-says Kleine, who said a toxicology report will take a least a month to complete, gave the following account of what happened based on his discussions with police and his review of an autopsy performed Monday.

Sen. Mike Lee is endorsing Ben Sasse in the Nebraska Senate GOP primary contest, giving the president of Midland University the support of another high-profile conservative and tea party favorite in the tight Republican race. “Nebraskans need Ben Sasse to represent their values, reformers in the Senate need his conservative vote, our country needs his voice,” Mr. Lee said in a statement. “Ben Sasse is a strong constitutional conservative who understands the proper role of government, has great respect for our democratic institutions, and will fight to ensure that the people’s voice is heard in Washington.” Mr. Sasse, a former...

“With all due respect, Texas is crushing it,” says Texas Gov.Rick Perry. When it comes to attracting new business projects to the state, that’s true, according to a survey conducted by the real estate magazine Site Selection. For the second year in a row, the Lone Star State’s governor won the magazine’s Governor’s Cup for luring more commercial projects than any other. Other states with the most total commercial projects in 2013 were Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Michigan. But the ranking changes when you look at the largest number of projects per capita. Using this methodology, Nebraska came in first,...

Nebraska has now joined states like Florida, Arizona, Idaho, Missouri, Kansas, and Alaska in standing up for the Second Amendment -- and telling Barack Obama what he can do with his unconstitutional gun bans and gun registration schemes. L.B. 1030 would prohibit any Nebraska state or local official from "restrict[ing] the carrying, possession, transfer, purchase, sale, or ownership of or otherwise regulat[ing] any firearm, ammunition, or component of any firearm or ammunition to a greater extent than state law." This is particularly important in view of the Obama administration's efforts to ban and register guns unlawfully, by executive fiat. Hence,...

  The dismal trail of dead bankers continues. As The Journal Star reports, a successful Lincoln businessman and member of a prominent local family died last week. Former National Bank of Commerce CEO James Stuart Jr. was found dead in Scottsdale, Ariz., the morning of Feb. 19. A family spokesman did not say what caused the death. This brings the total of banker deaths in recent weeks to 9 as Stuart is sadly survived by three sons and four daughters.  Mr Stuart's background (via The Journal Star), Stuart was a native of Lincoln and graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with...

Healthcare industry lobbyists connected with the Republican establishment in Washington are making a concerted effort to sink the campaign of the Nebraska Republican who has been branded the “anti-Obamacare candidate,” Breitbart News has learned....

A Nebraska judge on Wednesday struck down a law that allowed the Keystone XL pipeline to proceed through the state, a setback for the project that would carry oil from Canada to Texas refineries. Lancaster County Judge Stephanie Stacy issued a ruling that invalidated Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman's approval of the route. Stacy agreed with opponents' arguments that a law passed in 2011 improperly allowed Heineman to give TransCanada eminent domain powers within the state. Stacy said the decision should have been made by the Nebraska Public Service Commission, which regulates pipelines and other utilities. Heineman said Wednesday that state...

A Nebraska judge ruled Wednesday that the state violated its constitution when it allowed the governor to approve the route of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, a decision that could significantly delay the $5.3 billion project. District Court judge Stephanie F. Stacy blocked Gov. Dave Heineman (R) and other defendants “from taking any action on the governor’s January 22, 2013 approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline route,” such as allowing land to be acquired by eminent domain for the project. Stacy concluded that the state legislature’s decision to take the siting power away from its Public Service Commission and give...

LINCOLN, Neb. – A Nebraska judge on Wednesday struck down a law that allowed the Keystone XL oil pipeline to proceed through the state, a victory for opponents who have tried to block the project. Lancaster County Judge Stephanie Stacy issued a ruling that invalidated Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman's approval of the route. Stacy agreed with opponents' arguments that law passed in 2011 improperly delegated the decision-making power to Heineman to give the company eminent domain powers within the state. Stacy said the decision should have been made by the Nebraska Public Service Commission, which regulates pipelines and other utilities....

A Nebraska court on Wednesday voided the governor’s decision to allow the Keystone XL pipeline to pass through the Midwestern state, creating another snag for the controversial project to link Canada’s oil sands with refineries in Texas. Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman last year supported legislation that cleared the way for TransCanada Corp’s $5.4 billion pipeline to cross parts of his state. But some landowners objected to the legislation, saying it disregarded their property rights. On Wednesday, the District Court of Lancaster County sided with landowners, a move that makes inevitable additional months of delay to the project, already more than...

Because the Obama administration really needed another justification for their interminable dithering on the Keystone XL pipeline — not to mention the eco-radicals grasping at everything and anything they can to court the success of their counterproductive crusade.To review: Back in January of last year, the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality finished their impact report on TransCanada’s amended proposal for the route the Keystone XL pipeline would take through their state (environmentalists had objected to an earlier version that would have routed the pipeline through the state’s ecologically sensitive Sand Hills region, and this new version proposed to curve around...

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz supports reducing the amount of crude oil shipped by rail in favor of pipelines that are safer, cheaper and cleaner, Capital New York reported on Wednesday. "What we probably need is more of a pipeline infrastructure and to diminish the need for rail transport over time," he said in an interview published on the Capital New York website. He said the infrastructure is "not there" to handle the surge in North Dakota Bakken oil production from near zero to 1 million barrels per day (bpd). "Frankly, I think pipeline transport overall probably has overall a...

Democrats who oppose the Keystone XL pipeline have thousands of dollars invested in direct competitors to the company looking to build the pipeline, public records show. A recent environmental assessment by the State Department was seen as a step toward the pipeline’s approval, but Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) remains opposed to its construction. “In my view, there is now enough evidence to conclude that construction of this pipeline is not in America’s long-term interest,” Kaine said in a statement on the review. The freshman Democrat has between $15,000 and $50,000 invested in Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, according to his...

Democrats who oppose the Keystone XL pipeline have thousands of dollars invested in direct competitors to the company looking to build the pipeline, public records show. A recent environmental assessment by the State Department was seen as a step toward the pipeline’s approval, but Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) remains opposed to its construction. “In my view, there is now enough evidence to conclude that construction of this pipeline is not in America’s long-term interest,” Kaine said in a statement on the review. The freshman Democrat has between $15,000 and $50,000 invested in Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, according to his...

Residents of a small Nebraska city have reaffirmed their desire to take on illegal immigration. Nearly 60 percent of Fremont voters decided Tuesday to keep an ordinance that requires all renters to swear they have legal permission to live in the U.S. Voters first approved the rules by a smaller margin in 2010. Critics pushed for the new vote, saying the housing restrictions would be ineffective and might cost Fremont millions of dollars in legal fees and lost federal grants. They also said it was hurting the city's image.

For over five years, the Obama Administration has delayed a decision on the Keystone pipeline because of alleged concerns about environmental impacts, especially climate change. The Administration’s non-decision process has been strongly supported by its activist environmental allies who have made extreme and unsupportable claims. Now, the truth comes out from the former Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, who finally admitted that the decision is “a political one, and one founded in science” and just yesterday by former Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, who said that Keystone is a “win-win.” In spite of these admissions, environmental activists continue their...

After his YouTube video in which he blasted Obamacare and the Republican establishment in Washington for not combating it fiercely enough went viral late last year, conservative Nebraska Senate candidate Ben Sasse has rocketed from obscurity to holding a virtual tie for the party's Senate nomination. A Harper Polling poll released Wednesday found that Sasse, the former Bush administration official who is the country's youngest president of a university (Midland), trails former Nebraska state Treasurer Shane Osborn by only one percentage point in the race to replace retiring Sen. Mike Johanns. Osborn is at 30 percent while Sasse is at...

An unusual coalition of lawmakers from both parties, labor and business leaders, veterans groups and Canada's ambassador to the United States joined forces Tuesday to push for quick approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Five Democrats joined Republicans at a Capitol news conference to urge President Barack Obama to approve the pipeline following a State Department report last week that raised no major environmental objections. The $7 billion pipeline would carry oil from tar sands in western Canada to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast. The project has lingered for more than five years and has become a symbol...

Replacing the Keystone XL pipeline with oil-laden freight trains from Canada may result in an average of six additional rail-related deaths per year, according to a U.S. State Department report that is adding to pressure for President Barack Obama to approve the line. The long-awaited study, released on Friday, focused on the environmental impact of TransCanada's $5.4 billion pipeline, but also spent several pages analyzing the potential human impact of various ways to transport oil, using historical injury and fatality statistics for railways and oil pipelines. Although it excluded the runaway oil train derailment that killed 47 people in Lac...