Free Republic

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...

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s Republican secretary of state will turn over sensitive information on every registered voter in the state to the U.S. Justice Department on Thursday after Nebraska’s highest court rejected a legal effort to block the move. Secretary of State Bob Evnen told The Associated Press that the Nebraska Supreme Court denied the injunction Wednesday. Last week, a state judge dismissed the lawsuit filed by government watchdog Common Cause, which sought to stop the release of voter information, including dates of birth, addresses and partial Social Security numbers, to the federal government. “This case threatens the unprecedented...

NEW: High school anti-ICE protester runs in front of a moving car that was flying a Trump flag, gets knocked to the ground. The incident happened at Fremont High School in Nebraska. The student's mother is fuming at school officials for failing to prevent the protest, arguing that children are too young to make informed decisions. "First of all, I don’t feel she’s informed enough to have made a decision like the one that she made by doing a protest," the mother said. "I don’t feel that any of the young people that were involved know enough about what’s going...

OMAHA, Neb. — The man convicted of hitting and killing an Iowa woman in an Omaha crash will serve years behind bars. Eswin Mejia received 20 to 22 years in prison for motor vehicle homicide and flight to avoid arrest. Mejia caused the crash that killed Sarah Root near 33rd and L streets in 2016. In December, he pleaded guilty to a charge of failure to appear and no contest to motor vehicle homicide. Authorities said Mejia was driving drunk and street racing when he rear-ended Root's car at a stoplight.

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WISH) — Video from bodycams and surveillance cameras during a fatal shooting in December at a laundromat was released Thursday on the Lafayette Police Department’s YouTube page. The shooting was reported shortly before 7:40 p.m. Dec. 5 at Lafayette Laundry, 3100 South St. That’s in a strip mall a couple of blocks west of Sagamore Parkway. One of the three people shot, Keith Ford, 35, of Lafayette, died from multiple gunshot wounds in what the Tippecanoe County coroner called a homicide. The shooter, Louis McGlothlin, 73, of Lincoln, Nebraska, died at an Indianapolis hospital from a self-inflicted gunshot...

(The Center Square) – A major American medical device manufacturer is investing $110 million to expand production in Nebraska as part of an effort to restore pharmaceutical manufacturing and improve domestic supply chains. Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) announced this week that it will expand its facility in Columbus, Nebraska, to increase production of prefillable syringes used in biologic drugs, including GLP-1 weight loss medications like Ozempic and Wegovy. The investment is expected to create about 120 new jobs, according to a press release from the company. The expansion comes as the Trump administration has urged pharmaceutical and medical manufacturers...