Free Republic

OMAHA — Dan Osborn, an Independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Nebraska, at a town hall in Omaha last week, told attendees that he believed there should be mandatory five-year mental health checks for owners of AR-15s and similar “assault-style” rifles. One guest asked Osborn if he could offer anything “other than ‘thoughts and prayers’—which makes us all want to throw up” regarding gun violence. Osborn responded with notable candor.

The independent challenging Republican Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts called for owners of modern semiautomatic firearms to undergo a mental health evaluation every five years as a prerequisite to renew registration of the guns. Dan Osborn, who lost to Republican Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer in the 2024 election, announced his plans to challenge Ricketts in July 2025. Osborn, who has received support from Democrats in his big to topple Ricketts according to Roll Call, suggested the measure during a town hall in June. “I said, ‘Do you own an assault-style rifle, an AR-15, an M16, an AK-47, or anything like that?’...

federal judge struck down a Nebraska law that allowed illegal alien students to receive in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities, siding with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) after the agency challenged the policy earlier this year. U.S. District Judge Brian Buescher ruled that Nebraska’s law violated federal immigration law by providing a higher education benefit to illegal aliens that was unavailable to American citizens from other states. The decision permanently blocks enforcement of Legislative Bill 239, a measure passed in 2006 that allowed certain illegal alien students to qualify for in-state tuition rates at Nebraska’s public institutions....

Brandon Magni says when he asked for a forfeit, he was told he could forfeit himself or call the policeThe travel baseball industry was rocked over the Memorial Day weekend by yet another shocking incident in what is shaping up to be one of the ugliest on record for youth baseball. Did an Oklahoma 11U baseball coach order his pitcher to hit an opponent? Was that boy then ordered to throw a fastball at the opposing team's dugout? Those are the accusations being thrown around by a coach out of Nebraska who says his dugout was targeted at a...

In an incident that belongs in Ripley's Believe It or Not!, a dog managed to fire a gun and hit a woman while it was inside a vehicle last week in Nebraska. As KNOP reported, Scottsbluff police officers were called to Short Stop at 2002 Avenue I in the city after receiving a report that a person had been shot by a BB gun at 12:07 p.m. They were later informed while driving to the gas station and convenience store that the incident involved a shotgun. When the police arrived, they were confronted with a shocking truth: the culprit responsible...

LINCOLN, Neb. (Nebraska Examiner) - Late last month at the Lancaster County Election Commission, Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen observed logic and accuracy testing for ballot-counting machines as part of his “transparency tour” across multiple counties in the state. Evnen, standing behind half-height voting booths, said every single ballot tabulator in the state is tested three times a month before every election — and that the state will conduct a typical hand-counted audit after the primary election, selecting random precincts to spot check. He called Nebraska elections the “gold standard,” pointing to a new state law that allows political...

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen (R) is projected to lose his slot as the state’s top elections official to a primary challenger, according to Decision Desk HQ. Omaha businessman Scott Petersen won Tuesday’s Republican primary in the Cornhusker State, leading the incumbent by roughly 6 percentage points with a little over half of votes in as of 11 p.m. EDT. Evnen had notched endorsements from major names in Nebraska GOP politics, including Gov. Jim Pillen, Sens. Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts, and all three of the state’s House lawmakers. Now in his second term, Evnen led the state as...

The critical 2026 Nebraska Senate race, which could help tip the balance of power in Washington, has become consumed by accusations that candidates are misrepresenting their party affiliations to rig the odds in their favor. In November, Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., who is finishing the term of retired Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, will seek a six-year term in the Senate. The race’s outcome is rated “likely Republican” by Cook Political Report. But Ricketts’ most serious competition likely will not be from the Democratic Party. Instead, prominent Nebraska Democrats are backing independent candidate Dan Osborn, a former union leader, for the...

The US government is moving to evacuate American passengers from a cruise ship linked to a deadly hantavirus outbreak, with plans to transport them to a military base in Nebraska for quarantine and monitoring, federal health officials said Friday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the risk to the American public remains extremely low as officials move forward with a medical repatriation flight for passengers aboard the M/V Hondius. President Trump said earlier Friday that the situation appears to be under control, pointing to the virus being difficult to transmit. “We have very good people looking at it....

Nebraskans will vote next week in the U.S Senate primary race to determine which Republican and which Democrat will face off in November for the congressional seat. But a closer look reveals the latest in Democrat election rigging — complete with legal help from Russia Collusion hoaxer Marc Elias. The apparent master plan involves leveraging the primary race to prop up the so-called “nonpartisan” candidate vying for the Senate seat, who, under an “independent” facade, has deep leftist ties that could threaten fair representation in the red state. On May 12, Democrat candidates Cindy Burbank and William Forbes will face...

'He was hiding in plain sight.' ANebraska middle school teacher is accused of utilizing artificial intelligence to create more than a hundred child sexual abuse images — and the teacher allegedly masturbated to the disturbing child pornography while at a school, according to multiple reports. The Nebraska State Patrol said in a statement that 47-year-old Matthew Lund was arrested at his Omaha home at approximately 6:15 a.m. April 22. Lund was booked into Douglas County Corrections and charged with possession of child sexual abuse material and distribution of child sexual abuse material. A judge set Lund's bond at $1 million...

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee for vice president last cycle, opted to fly to Maine to stump for Graham Platner, an oyster farmer who is running for Senate and who has a Nazi tattoo. Several members of Congress responded. “Don’t forget to ask him about his Nazi tattoo,” stated Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas). “Can you let him know there’s ways to remove the Nazi tattoos from his chest?” asked Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.). “In case it wasn’t clear before why Kamala Harris selected Tim Walz over Josh Shapiro. This is who they are,” the Republican Jewish Coalition stated....

NEW: Known s*x offender found naked in bed with a bottle of lotion on top of a screaming 9-year-old boy after breaking into the home. Lavern Scott, also known as "Cookie Monster," has been a known s*x offender for 40 years, but was still allowed to roam the streets. According to Omaha, Nebraska, police, Scott was found with no clothes on in the child's bed. Scott, according to police, "pinned the child to the bed and set his legs in, using his feet as hooks to hold the child in place." The boy's grandfather rushed into the room and was...

In December I listened to an interview with Ben Sasse that stopped me in my tracks. And another in February. And another recently. That last one in particular not only challenged me, but ultimately has shifted something deep in me. It’s not hyperbole to say that I think Ben Sasse is currently the most interesting person in the world. Ben Sasse, the former senator from Nebraska, former president of the University of Florida, a man who by any measure had built the kind of life most people spend their whole careers chasing, sat in the most recent interview across from...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A Peculiar family is suing Nebraska Furniture Mart after a third-party carpet installer pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a child. The Accurso Law Firm announced Tuesday it has filed a lawsuit in Cass County on behalf Jane Doe, 8, and members of her family. The lawsuit alleges Nebraska Furniture Mart engaged in negligent and deceptive business practices, which resulted in Jane Doe being sexually assaulted in her home. Enrique L. Martinez, 63, of Kansas City, Kansas, pleaded guilty on January 6th, 2026 to two counts of statuary sodomy involving a child under the age of...

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - The boyfriend of the 31-year-old woman shot dead by police officers during a kidnapping attempt at an Omaha Walmart talked with First Alert 6 on Wednesday about her prior struggles. Guzman’s boyfriend Carlos declined to give First Alert 6 a last name or show his face. He noticed something was off with her starting two weeks ago. He says she takes a shot every three months to treat her schizophrenia, and she was due to have another one this week.

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Omaha Police have identified the woman killed in an attempted kidnapping incident at Walmart on Tuesday morning. A release from OPD identified the woman killed in the shooting as 31-year-old Noemi Guzman. OPD confirmed that no officers were injured in the incident, which started around 9:15 a.m. Tuesday at Walmart near 72nd and Pine streets. According to OPD, officers immediately began to approach Guzman, who had the 3-year-old boy in the seat of the shopping cart. After multiple commands to drop the knife, Guzman began to cut the boy. The officers then both fired their patrol...

WAHOO, Neb. (AP) — Strong winds whipped around Doug Bartek, a fifth-generation farmer, as he headed into a grain bin to shovel soybeans onto a conveyor chute. The 60-year-old was anxious at the onset of the spring planting season, rattling off the long list of issues affecting his family’s livelihood at their 2,000-acre farm near Wahoo, Nebraska. The high cost of fuel, equipment, and fertilizer — compounded by the Iran war — and also tariffs, perceived “price gouging” by suppliers, and low soybean prices driven by a global supply glut. All of it weighs on Bartek, who is chairman of...

How would you live if you knew when you were going to die? I sat down with the former Republican senator Ben Sasse to hear how he is facing his own mortality after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis. For Sasse, cancer brings pain, but also clarity, sharpening his focus on the state of our politics, his wife and three children, and the God he expects to shortly meet.

The Nebraska Democratic Party denounced a Democratic candidate for Senate recently that they allege to be a “Republican Party plant,” CNN reported Monday, with the candidate being exposed for having supported President Donald Trump, opposed access to reproductive health care and attended a GOP-sponsored training event. Forbes spoke with CNN for its report Monday, in which he admitted that he had voted for Trump “in multiple elections” and had attended a GOP-backed leadership summit as recently as January. Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb also provided CNN with screenshots from a now-deleted Facebook page that she said show Forbes attending...