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PAPILLION -- A missionary from Chile has pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of sexual assault of a 16-year-old boy. Sarpy County prosecutors had charged 23-year-old Claudio Gonzalez with forcible first-degree sexual assault, a felony. But after a deal with prosecutors, on Monday Gonzalez pleaded no contest and was found guilty of misdemeanor sexual assault of an incompetent person. Gonzalez faces up to a year in jail at sentencing, which was set for Dec. 17. Authorities say Gonzalez sexually assaulted a 16-year-old boy who had passed out on a hotel room bed in La Vista after drinking some alcohol...

SCOTTSBLUFF - Light snow continues to fall over much of Nebraska's Panhandle, further hampering travelers already blocked by highway closures. The slow-moving snowstorm made road travel into Colorado and Wyoming all but impossible Thursday morning. The Nebraska Roads Department says Interstate 80 was closed west of Big Springs, all the way to Laramie, Wyo. At the north end of the Panhandle, U.S. Highway 20 was closed west of Crawford. In several spots Wednesday, cars and other vehicles had spun off slick roadways. But a Nebraska State Patrol dispatcher in Scottsbluff said Thursday that no fatalities had been reported. Authorities say...

Ben Nelson (D-Nb.), though, said Sunday that he's not committed to vote to kill a GOP filibuster. "I have made no promise," Nelson said on CNN's "State of the Union." I can't decide about the procedural vote until I see the underlying bill. It would be, I think, reckless to say I'll support the procedure without knowing what the underlying bill consists of. And it's not put together yet. It's a draft — it will be a draft bill some time next week, submitted the Congressional Budget Office for the review of the cost." Nelson also gave a thumbs-down...

A top Chinese general will visit the United States this month and tour major U.S. bases as Washington seeks to improve relations and reduce the risk of conlict, offi

What you may have guessed, Ken Dewey has confirmed. Oct. 1-11 was the coldest Oct. 1-11 period on record for Lincoln, with records going back 123 years to 1887. High temperatures over the weekend were usually the highs Lincoln records for early to mid-December, according to Dewey, professor of applied climate science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Saturday's high temperature at the Lincoln airport was only 38 degrees. The previous record low maximum for the date was 41, set in 1987. Sunday's high temperature was only 40 degrees. The previous coldest maximum was 47, in 1946. Similar record-low maximums were...

An early season cold spell across the Upper Midwest and northern Plains this past weekend and into the start of this week mixed with available moisture has set up for early season snow. Some of this snow has been quite heavy and has been record breaking. Here are some of those records:

A Nebraska military officer who has battled Hurricane Katrina and al-Qaida will spend his final deployment searching for a sticky black substance that might be the key to victory in Afghanistan. Lt. Col. Thomas Brewer will soon head to Kabul, capital of the war-torn country, where he will serve as a military adviser to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as it tries to slow the production and movement of crudely processed black tar heroin. ...Military leaders recognize that insurgent groups in southern Afghanistan use drug money to buy weapons, upgrade their communication systems and bribe politicians... Brewer has spent most...

Choosing Schools in Nebraska by: Allie Winegar Duzett, October 01, 2009 School choice has long been a topic of debate among those concerned with American education. Should the government have a monopoly over education? Or should Americans instead be allowed to use vouchers to send their children to schools that could compete with the government’s public school system? Paul DiPerna of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice recently interviewed 1,200 “likely” Nebraskan voters to see how residents of the state feel about issues with education, including school choice. The study has a 95% confidence level. DiPerna’s study found that Nebraska’s...

YORK, Neb. — The bride wore dark lavender, the groom black jeans. Flowers were everywhere. The York Walmart Supercenter hosted its first wedding Saturday when Crystal Newsome and Robert “Vick” Vickrey exchanged vows amid hanging baskets and seasonal foliage in the lawn and garden department. “We had our first kiss at Walmart,” Crystal recalled. Advertising Robert has been with Walmart for 12 years and is the grocery department manager. With five years behind her at the company, Crystal is the deli manager. Friendship blossomed into romance about two years ago. Robert has three grown children and four grandchildren. Crystal has...

Officials in Nebraska Begin Investigating Late-Term Abortion Practitioner Carhart Bellevue, NE (LifeNews.com)-- Officials in Nebraska have begun investigating late-term abortion practitioner LeRoy Carhart, who has been accused of illegal and unethical practices by former employees. One of the pro-life groups involved in exposing him says it received word that the office of the state attorney general is involved. http://www.LifeNews.com/state4457.html

A former football coach was sentenced Tuesday morning to a year in jail for making racially charged threats to employees at Ameritas, where he worked. "Very clearly what stands out in this case is Jose Jefferson made a big mistake," said his attorney, David Watermeier, who sought probation for his client. Jefferson, 38, has taken responsibility and has no history of criminal behavior. Watermeier said an anonymous letter showed up on Jefferson's desk at Ameritas, where he was working as a licensed insurance broker. When he tried to find out who sent it, the attorney said, he was rebuked. Watermeier...

Support NOW's Work | August 21, 2009 | Tell a Friend Action Needed Background All NOW Actions More about reproductive rights Defend Dr. Carhart's Clinic Next Weekend! Women need you in Nebraska! Send a message of support to Dr. Carhart After taking action, please support our work! Action Needed: 1. Join NOW President Terry O'Neill in Nebraska to defend Dr. LeRoy Carhart's women's health clinic on Friday and Saturday, August 28-29, with Kansas and Nebraska NOW. 2. Send your thanks to Dr. Carhart for his steadfast commitment to trusting women. 3. Sign NOW's Pledge for Reproductive Freedom. "Dr. Carhart saves...

The nation's largest Lutheran denomination took openly gay clergy more fully into its fold Friday, as leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to lift a ban that prohibited sexually active gay and lesbian people from serving as ministers. Under the new policy, individual ELCA congregations will be allowed to hire homosexuals as clergy as long as they are in a committed relationships. Until now, gays and lesbians had to remain celibate to serve as clergy. In a prepared statement, Nebraska Synod Bishop David deFreese said difficult deliberations are part of being the church. "Good people of earnest...

Oh, this should be good. Nebraska readers, let me know if you can attend. I’m sure Axelrod will offer many illuminating thoughts on transparency, disclosure, conflicts of interest, and the corrupting influence of Eeeeevil Drug Companies on policy debates. When pigs fly:

Four Democratic senators want to put off the proposed cap & trade legislation. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad both of North Dakota are urging the Senate to delay legislation that puts caps on greenhouse gas emissions and instead, pass a narrow bill that sets requirements on the use of renewable energy. Senators Lincoln and Dorgan are up for re-election in 2010 and are from states that would be hurt economically from a cap and trade bill similar to the one passed by the House in June. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid...

The summer I was a sophomore, about to become a junior, in college, one day I was sitting by myself in the "gun room" of a wholesale hardware dealership, looking out the window at the moving-van company across the street. I was nineteen years old, and thinking about the future. I liked the wholesale hardware business, and I liked what I was doing, but I quite reasonably assumed that by the time I would be in my mid-20s, tracking firearms was not going to interest me as much as it presently did. Until then, I had been pretty laid-back and...

At least three Nebraska lawmakers want to send a message to the federal government: Butt out of state business. Next year they will see if a majority of their colleagues agrees. The senators are working on resolutions asserting Nebraska's sovereignty under the 10th Amendment of the Constitution. Nebraska wouldn't try to secede from the union under their proposals but would go on record objecting to federal laws that they say go beyond constitutional authority. “My goal here is to shine light on the fact that the federal government is overstepping its bounds,” said State Sen. Tony Fulton of Lincoln. “We...

Obama press conference Did President Obama make a good case for his health care plan at Wednesday night's press conference? Yes No I didn't watch

Today's discussion about the virtues of electric stoves when compared with the perils of natural gas stoves brought to mind a personage of my early childhood. I only vaguely remember him, having met him when I was an infant, and he having died when I was seven years old, although there exists two old photographs of the gentleman and myself, myself admiring the pigs in the bed of his pick-up truck. This was in a small town alongside the Platte River of Nebraska, a county famously rich in agriculture and teeming with transport, the most important highway in America, and...

A state agency responsible directly to Gov. Dave Heineman held up licensing rules for professional counselors and social workers last winter, forcing licensing board members to work out compromise language related to serving homosexual clients. The Legislature and Nebraskans have not wanted equal protection for homosexuals, Dr. Joann Schaefer said last week as she explained her insistence that the state licensing board for counselors and social workers work out a compromise with the Nebraska Catholic Conference on licensing rules. The controversy began because “sexual orientation” was to be covered in a new anti-discrimination clause in proposed new rules for licensed...

In January 2002 in Lincoln, Nebraska, there occurred a sensational suicide, that of a prominent local businessman and one of the top Democrats in the state, who put the barrel of a revolver inside his mouth, and pulled the trigger. It was screaming banner-headline news; as the story developed, he had been caught kiting $7,000,000 in checks, and was about to be called on it. Prominent state and city Democrats expressed surprise and astonishment; they hadn't known that David Hunter, they insisted. They were truly disappointed, even saddened, that he had turned out that way. Yeah, right, I thought. After...

Yeah, yeah, I know; I've been around freerepublic for a long time now, and should know certain things. But some things escape one. How does one "search" freerepublic for a complete listing of all members coming from a certain state, in this case Nebraska?

It may be one of the strangest occurrences seen in the city in a very long time . . . and it’s certainly one that may be the most disgusting. Business owners and managers are reporting that they are finding used catheters extended from open pop cans, as well as the catheter wrappers, in municipal parking lots near their properties. The most disturbing part is that the cans are apparently filled with urine. “This is disgusting and we’re sick of finding them,” said Karin Cool, from York Wholesale, while standing in the parking lot north of the business. “This has...

Responding to concerns that psychologists might be required to counsel homosexual couples about strengthening their relationship, Catholic leaders in Nebraska are asking for conscience protections for psychologists who refuse to treat or refer clients because of religious or moral convictions. Speaking during a licensing rules hearing before the Board of Mental Health Practice, Nebraska Catholic Conference executive director Jim Cunningham proposed a “convictions of conscience” rule for psychologists. The Lincoln Journal Star reports that he warned that Catholic Charities in Omaha and Catholic Social Services in Lincoln might have to stop hiring licensed counselors and psychologists if they are not...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Friday that Americans need a new government-sponsored insurance plan to guarantee choice and competition — especially in rural America. “What the president feels is important is to have some competition and to have a choice,” Sebelius said at a roundtable discussion in Omaha, where she delivered a sales pitch for President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. Her appearance was part of an aggressive new administration push to build a groundswell of public support for action by Congress in time for Obama to sign legislation in the fall. Obama himself brought the same...

Doc plans to offer 3rd-term abortions in Kansas Staff from Dr. Tiller's clinic may join the Nebraskan to help train others  Wed., June 10, 2009 OMAHA, Neb. - A Nebraska doctor says he'll perform third-term abortions in Kansas after the slaying of abortion provider George Tiller, even though Tiller's clinic is closed.Dr. LeRoy Carhart declined to discuss his plans in detail during a telephone interview with The Associated Press, but insisted "there will be a place in Kansas for the later second and the medically indicated third-trimester patients very soon." "I just think that until everything is in place, it's...

Even billionaire Warren Buffett’s companies can’t escape the recession. He runs Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway, which owns Borsheim’s jewelry. And its spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday that it has laid off 13 employees. Borsheim’s spokeswoman Adrienne Fay says sales have been falling since November, forcing the layoffs. She says the company now has 267 workers. Borsheim’s President Susan Jacques called the layoffs devastating. In last month’s report on its first quarter, Berkshire acknowledged that many of its businesses — its jewelry stores, Shaw carpet, Acme Brick and Clayton Homes — have been hurt by the recession and corresponding slowdown in consumer spending.

As some here might be aware, my fellow Nebraskan Omaha Steve, a non-primitive on Skins's island, is not exactly enamoured of his Democrat U.S. Senator, E. Benjamin Nelson, arguably the most conservative Democrat in that body. Senator Nelson after all voted against the latest budget proposed by Pa Kettle in the White House; has a 100% pro-life voting record, supports the Second Amendment, supports the wars for the liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq, and prefers cutting governmental spending to raising taxes. And he's causing problems for both the Democrat leadership in the Senate, and the primitives on Skins's island, because...

Ever since reading the years-long trials and tribulations of Nebraska's greatest writer, Mari Sandoz (ca. 1893-1967), who could never sell her stories the the eastern establishment elitist publishing houses because they feared her "Nebraska Sandhills English" was too alien, I've sort of been wondering if Nebraska Sandhills English is, really, any different from Florida English or New Jersey English or Montana English or Long Island English. Of course, being deaf, I have a different perspective on language, than do hearing people. One is free to disagree with me, but I'm not coming up with any significant differences. I'll bet even...

The uses for the Title I stimulus money outlined to the school board Tuesday include: * $214,300 to hire a coordinator and half-time bookkeeper to help administer Title I programs started with stimulus money. * $642,675 for professional development programs, including Quantum Learning, which applies brain-based research to student learning, and a program to help teachers promote social and emotional growth. * $450,000 to hire three social workers to join the 14 the district now employs. * $200,000 to contract with mental health agencies to work with students with mental health issues. * $1.05 million to hire math coaches, kindergarten...

Police in Nebraska are looking a man who stole cigarettes while disguising himself with a beer carton on his head. Lincoln police Capt. Bob Kawamoto says the man walked into a Kwik Shop convenience store before dawn Monday wearing an empty Bud Light box on his head as a mask. Kawamoto says the man also had wrapped something around one of his hands, suggesting he was armed. But the man never showed a weapon. Police said the bandit left with nine packs of smokes valued at nearly $50.

This appeared in the local newspaper today; sorry, no link, because it's only a small-town weekly newspaper. This was in response to a letter I had written a month ago, noting that a tea party would be held up here, and a letter to Senator Nelson available for signing, protesting the socioeconomic policies of Pa Kettle in the White House. The tea party, as everyone knows, is already said-and-done; 204 attendees in a town of 1500, the only "publicity" having been that letter to the editor. Anyway, I know how these things are done. The letter was probably written by...

I thought I'd share this, I don't normally post vanities but its something I think you all should hear, a growing number of African Americans are starting to not like the idea of Obama as our first black president. I've been hearing from African Americans in New Hampshire, Maine and Mass and found that they do not like him one bit. One guy at a bar told me that He used to support him but that he might change from Democrat to republican because of what he did in office. A friend of mine in Nebraska was at a church...

It's been said that conservatism has different meanings for different people. It may not be textbook, but without a whole lot of navel gazing, here's what it means to me and what Free Republic is all about: In a word, Freedom! In two words, Preserving Freedom. In a handful of words as stated by our Founding Fathers, to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity! America was founded on the proposition that all men are created equal by God and that our unalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness are granted directly by God...

Do not believe the nattering nabobs of negativity. The Nationwide Tax Day TEA Party/Tax Revolt was a huge success!! What we need now is MORE and LOUDER!! Obama has no clue. Being confronted by millions of fed-up citizens is new to him. He never expected the otherwise docile American people to rise up against his wannabe Marxist/fascist totalitarian regime. He's now lashing out at us through the Dept of Homeland Security as if We the People are his enemy. Well, we are! And he now knows it. And he's scared witless!! And the media has been reduced to the speechless,...

Congratulations FReepers and Patriots! According to Henchster's ongoing tallies, we've surpassed 750,000 participants in our nationwide Tax Day TEA Party/Tax Revolt! Woo hoo!! All 50 states fully engaged! Over 600 cities represented and reports still coming in! Huge turnout, huge SUCCESS!! Elected officials take note: DO NOT TREAD ON ME!! Tyranny, usurpation, corruption, overreaching, big spending, high taxing will no longer be tolerated! We the people are FED-UP and we're not going to take it anymore! Ignore us at your own peril! All Congressional seats, all elected offices throughout the land at risk! Revolution is in the air!!

If the Obama administration has taken flak for suggesting that conservative groups might be home to domestic terrorists, it looks like some House Democrat leaders are willing to go even further: But in an interview on Fox TV in San Francisco, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) chalked up the GOP grass-roots effort as “AstroTurf.” “This initiative is funded by the high end; we call it AstroTurf, it's not really a grass-roots movement. It's AstroTurf by some of the wealthiest people in America to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich instead of for the great middle class,” Pelosi said....

A Nebraska bill that would allow church security guards to carry concealed handguns advanced in the state legislature on Thursday. The church provision was tacked on as an amendment to a measure that prohibits cities from having their own ban on concealed weapons. State lawmakers voted 29-15 to adopt the amendment and 40-4 to advance the bill. The amendment was introduced by Sen. Beau McCoy of Omaha whose decision was prompted by recent shootings and violence at other churches. "A house of worship is a sacred place," McCoy said, according to Fremont Tribune. "And as such, it should be kept...

Okay, I'm not sure what to do, or how to do; if this is in the wrong forum, administrators, please correct, and thank you! The tea party in Stanton, Nebraska, today brought about 200, and this with no advertising. A table, a sign, and two thermos containers of iced tea were set up in front of the local post office. Stanton is a small town (population circa 1500), and it was all word-of-mouth. The event had been planned from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., but because of the interest the tea party generated, the event was kept open another hour,...

After the 2010 census has been held, the number of seats held by each state in the U.S. House of Representatives will change. The National Conference of State Legislatures recently estimated what the 2010 reapportionment will mean for each state. Eight states are expected to lose one seat each, in the U.S. House and in the Electoral College. They are Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. States that will gain will be Texas (3 seats), and one each for Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Utah. If the bill now pending in Congress to expand the...

Video .. Tea Party in Lincoln Nebraska on April 11, 2009

We cheer the reddest. We corn the hardest. And, apparently, we grin the widest. Because Nebraska is the happiest state in the U.S., a new study says. The survey — conducted by personal finance Web site MainStreet.com — ranked all 50 states and the District of Columbia from fiscally happiest to saddest based on a few factors of economic well-being. These included foreclosure numbers, unemployment rates and the ratio of average debt to average annual income. “It reflects the attitude of this state,” said Gov. Dave Heineman. “We are a positive people with a can-do attitude who are focused on...

Are you ready for a FReepathon!!? Well, it's a new quarter and a new president and he's everything we knew he would be. In less than 90 days he's managed to take an economic downturn and turn it into an unmitigated disaster for good old American capitalism. Never let a good crisis go to waste! The government is now printing money as fast as they can run the presses. Our federal budget is doubling and tripling and the Fed is running with no controls or oversight whatsoever from the congress, pumping trillions more into the "economy." The government now spends...

Pinnacle Bank is closing this week what was known as its Latino branch at 13th and E, because it failed to attract the numbers the bank was hoping for. “It was an experiment,” said Pinnacle President Mark Hesser. “It was a new concept at the time it was opened. (June 2006) As far as I know it was the first branch to have 100 percent bilingual employees in Nebraska.” All employees will be retained and will work at other Pinnacle locations, he said. “We found out with the downtown location and others, we could serve that community easily,” Hesser said....

Residents of a small southwest Nebraska town have a question for state officials: You're not doing anything with that old electric chair, are you? The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled last year that the state's use of the electric chair was unconstitutional. Some people in McCook — population just under 8,000 — think "Old Sparky" could be a tourist attraction and have offered to take it off the state's hands.

I dunno if this is the correct forum; if not, my apologies for the administrators in having to move it. I've been reading about all the tea parties in the big cities, and am intrigued; one wonders how such a thing would go over in a small place. I'm speaking here of a community of 1,500 in the sparsely-populated Sandhills of Nebraska, and thinking of perhaps April 15, circa noon, when those working in outlying areas come into town for dinner. Turnout at least 50, maybe 100. This is a very red area, but only on election day; on other...

Scottsbluff dealership missing three bosses, dozens of cars http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10583582 SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. — One by one, somebody loaded new Toyotas onto trucks Monday evening from the Legacy Auto Sales dealership in Scottsbluff and drove off into the night. Dozens of cars were taken. Now plenty of people, including Scottsbluff police, want to know what's going on. That includes Legacy employee Miranda Cervantes. She discovered Tuesday morning that the dealership's owner and two other officers had disappeared without a word to the staff. Also gone were more than 80 Ford and Toyota vehicles. Employees found the desks of owner Allen Patch, comptroller...

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130378355631 Omaha Tax Day Tea Party Host: Don't Go Movement & other organizations Type: Causes - Rally Network: Global Date: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 Time: 5:00pm - 7:00pm Location: Bob Kerrey Memorial Pedestrian Bridge City/Town: Omaha, NE Phone: 4024528372 Email: ltfngr@gmail.com Description Place and time have been decided, but not start location. We are going to end up on the Bob Kerrey Memorial Pedestrian Bridge. To get there, we plan on marching with signs from two predesignated gathering points. People can join in along the way, or else meet us at the bridge if you do not want to walk...

OMAHA, Neb. -- Tim Mechaley trained fellow Marines to fire .50-caliber machine guns. He qualified as a marksman. He fought in the battle for Fallujah and received a combat medal with a "V" for valor. Back home, he uses a rifle for target shooting. Yet, when Mechaley sought to buy a 9-mm Ruger pistol for protection at his midtown apartment, the Omaha Police Department rejected his application for a gun permit. -------------cut------------- While completing an application for a gun permit, he responded "yes" to a question that asked whether he was being treated for a mental disorder. "I circled yes...

FREMONT — A former Fremont City Council member and a man who made an unsuccessful bid to run for mayor last year say Nebraska Catholic bishops are off base in their take on illegal immigration policy. The bishops of Omaha, Lincoln and Grand Island issued a statement recently discouraging the Legislature and city governments from passing their own immigration laws. Former Fremont council member Bob Warner says he disagrees that such laws could encourage profiling. He says he sees it as no different from what CrimeStoppers does in trying to track down suspects. One-time mayoral race hopeful Carl Schaffner says...