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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska, announced Monday he will not seek reelection next year amid an increasingly polarized political climate.Bacon, 61, said at a news conference at Omaha’s airport that he would not seek a sixth term representing Nebraska’s second district with its so-called blue dot that includes many progressive voters around Omaha.Bacon has had to navigate an ever-thinning line between staying in his party’s and President Donald Trump’s good graces without alienating his increasingly Democratic district. He said he is proud of his bipartisan approach in the face of bitter partisanship in...

A House GOP centrist from a key battleground district, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., announced Monday that he will not seek re-election next year. Bacon's announcement comes as Congress works overtime to pass President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" by their self-imposed July 4 deadline. Through the reconciliation process, the megabill seeks to deliver on the president's key campaign promises, including tax cuts, immigration reform and energy production. The moderate Republican has built a reputation for bucking Trump's agenda in the House. While Bacon ultimately voted with his Republican colleagues to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last month, the...

This is one of those stories you sort of hear about a couple of weeks before, and maybe forget about unless some little nugget of information comes along that makes you want to dig a little deeper into it. Which is exactly what happened to me this morning.I do recall maybe even commenting on X when the first word about this broke. The big story was the raid on Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha, Nebraska, about two weeks ago. It wasn't so much the raid itself, but the number of illegals that they rounded up, which caught people's attention at...

AMERICA has a doomsday plane. Actually it has four of them. But the US government does not — repeat, DOES NOT — talk openly about its doomsday planes. The doomsday plane is like a mirror to Air Force One — a great big flying working office for the president and his or her staff. But while Air Force One is your everyday, garden variety kind of presidential flying office, the doomsday plane is built and equipped to keep the US government running in the event of a nuclear war or other disaster. It’s a converted 747 called an E-4B, also...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1, 2005 – Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld likes to take his office with him and stay connected to events on the ground when he flies overseas to visit with troops and confer with U.S. and allied military and civilian officials. Rumsfeld's "flying Pentagon" of choice is an Air Force E-4B aircraft, a highly modified Boeing 747-200 four-engine jet. Known as the National Airborne Operations Center, the plane boasts sophisticated communications equipment as well as the capability to be refueled in flight. The commander of the NAOC, Army Col. David L. Molinelli, pointed out July 24 during Rumsfeld's...

Remember this story out of Omaha where the feds used E-verify to track down more than 100 illegal aliens using fake IDs? And that those illegals allegedly pulled box cutters on ICE agents? =============================================================== ICE uses E-Verify system to nab over 100 illegal aliens at Omaha meat packer 🤔 E-Verify was meant to screen out illegals from taking American jobs, but ICE's recent raid on Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha, Nebraska, shows it doesn't really work. NOTTHEBEE.COM https://notthebee.com/article/ice-nabs-75-80-illegal-immigrants-in-raid-on-meat-packing-plant-in-omaha-that-used-e-verify-to-screen-employees ============================================================ We were told this city would be in turmoil. The plant wouldn't know what to do without their illegal workforce. There...

Every seat in the waiting area of Glenn Valley Foods was occupied with people filling out job applications early Thursday afternoon, two days after the meatpacking plant became the center of the largest worksite immigration raid in the state of Nebraska so far this year. Dozens of prospective employees, many of them Spanish speakers, had been coming in and out of the plant all day. Some were hoping to land a new job; others were coming in for training. The scene gave the company’s president, Chad Hartmann, a glimmer of hope amid the chaos that ensued after Tuesday's raid purged...

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen on Wednesday signed into law the Stand With Women Act, which forbids biological males from competing in women’s sports in K-12 schools as well as at colleges and universities. “Because of the physical differences between males and females, having separate athletic teams based on the sex of the athlete reduces the chance of injury to female athletes, promotes equality between the sexes, provides opportunities for female athletes to compete against their female peers rather than against male athletes, and allows female athletes to compete on a fair playing field for scholarships and other athletic accomplishments,” the...

LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) - A bill on transgender athletes now goes to Gov. Jim Pillen’s desk. Wednesday night, state senators voted 33-16 to pass LB89, introduced by Omaha Sen. Kathleen Kauth. The bill was created to restrict trans athletes from participating in sports that align with their gender identity. Earlier this month, when the senators were debating the bill in the second round, lawmakers adopted Ralston Sen. Merv Riepe’s amendment, which removed part of bill that would have banned trans people from being able to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity in schools and state buildings

A middle-aged Nebraska surgeon ruined his enviable life after deciding to take part in a street-racing contest that left a 22 year-old woman dead. Mark Carlson, 63, was sentenced to 10-14 years in prison after he was convicted of the manslaughter killing of Anna Bosma in September, 2023. The thrillseeking medic was racing another driver when he lost control of his Mercedes and slammed head-on into Bosma's car at over 100mph, killing her on impact. Bosma's boyfriend was in the passenger seat and survived the deadly collision. The couple, who lived in South Dakota, was in Omaha for a Labor...

Omaha, NE – A 38-year-old woman was urgently transferred to the hospital after undergoing a dilation and curettage (D&C) abortion at the Planned Parenthood in Omaha, Nebraska, on February 3, 2025. According to 911 records secured by Operation Rescue, the woman was experiencing “heavier bleeding.” The 911 dispatcher, seeking to assess the urgency of the situation, asked the caller whether the bleeding was “pouring” or “squirting”—terms used to determine the potential for life-threatening hemorrhage. The clinic employee hesitated and then chuckled, saying she wasn’t “all the way down that end” to observe the bleeding directly. Such a careless attitude raises...

Former senior defense officials issued stark warnings to lawmakers Thursday about intensifying threats posed by unattributed drone incursions and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) reported around the U.S. — particularly over military bases, assets, and nuclear facilities. “I don’t think the public is aware of the extent of our airspace vulnerabilities and failures, and the degree to which they’ve already been exploited and are being exploited today, and the challenge that we face in trying to sort this out,” Christopher Mellon, the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence, said during an event hosted on Capitol Hill by the UAP...

Ancient rhinos in Nebraska lived in large local herds and died slowly from volcanic ashfall, not sudden disaster. Credit: John Haxby/The University of Nebraska State Museum ************************************************************************* Volcanic eruption from 12 million years ago preserves a snapshot of extinct animal life. Rhinos that once roamed much of North America 12 million years ago likely lived in large herds, according to a new study by the University of Cincinnati. Researchers examined isotopes in the teeth of rhinos found in what is now northeast Nebraska. At this site, more than 100 rhinos died at a single water hole and were buried in...

A pregnant Nebraska woman's unborn baby helped save her life after she got into a nearly-fatal car crash, according to her doctors. Kate Via, a 23-year-old outdoors influencer, was 20 weeks pregnant with her son Isaac when her car crashed with a tow truck on November 21, 2024. The young woman was critically injured and is still battling through a rigorous recovery process. But her baby, who was born on Sunday, was miraculously unharmed and even helped her live through the traumatic incident. 'They said the baby saved me a little bit,' Via explained to KOAT, as her doctors said...

Nebraska Republican Mike Flood was heckled at a town hall event he hosted on Tuesday in Columbus, with a section of the crowd at one point chanting "tax the rich" at the House representative. Newsweek contacted Flood for comment on Wednesday outside of regular office hours via telephone and voicemail message. Why It Matters Flood is the latest in a succession of Republican politicians to receive a rough reception at town hall meetings across the U.S. since President Donald Trump's inauguration, with House Speaker Mike Johnson advising his GOP colleagues to stop hosting the in-person events earlier this month. Criticism...

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - As Republican lawmakers are being discouraged to hold town halls, Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.) powered on as the crowd chanted, “tax the rich.” “So your proposal to solve this is to tax the rich?” Flood asked the crowd. They responded with cheers. From social security to international relations, Nebraskans grilled Flood. “Would you oppose going to war with Canada?” one person asked. “Yes,” said Flood. “Canada is a long-time important ally of the United States of America.” The crowded liked that answer. Others elicited boos. This tense town hall is just a snapshot of politics across...

Deputies have been investigating at least four incidents of drivers either hitting or swerving to miss large objects left on Highway 36 at night — from a coffee table to a chair, and even a kid’s bicycle. In one instance, a young married couple escaped with their lives after dodging what they thought was a television in the middle of Highway 36 on a dark night in December. Their car crashed through a wire guardrail and slid into a ravine. They told First Alert 6 that they saw a man standing on the shoulder right after the crash. Sheriff Aaron...

Representative Don Bacon (R-NE) said Monday on CNN’s “The Situation Room” that President Donald Trump was playing into the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine conflict. Host Pamela Brown said, “Ukrainian President Zelensky will also be in Saudi Arabia but is not expected to attend these talks. Do you believe the white House is sidelining Zelensky in this peace process?” Bacon said, “That’s a terrible mistake not to have the Ukrainian leader in the talks.”

The story of a 1996 altercation in the parking lot of a Council Bluffs casino has seen new light after anonymous tips were made to news outlets in Seattle. Bruce Harrell, who was elected as the mayor of Seattle in 2021, allegedly confronted a person with a weapon and resisted arrest nearly three decades ago while outside the Ameristar Casino in Council Bluffs. The now-mayor said the incident was an example of racial profiling, and it inspired his position on police accountability. Harrell moved from Seattle to Omaha in the mid-1990s with his wife Joanne, who had accepted a job...

Nakara Alston was leaving her boyfriend when she learned she was eight weeks pregnant. In desperation, she got an abortion at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Albany, N.Y., and moved with her two daughters into a homeless shelter. But something was clearly wrong. Several weeks after the procedure, she was still bleeding heavily and suffering from painful cramps. She took another home pregnancy test, and when it came back positive, the clinic staff assured her that they had seen the aborted fetus and there was nothing to worry about. It was only after she went to an emergency room that...