(Picture credit John Gage)

Ean Halstead, the man who threatened to shoot up the high school that Governor Jim Pillen’s grandchildren attend in Columbus, will be headed to trial.

Halstead waived a preliminary hearing, and he is set to face trial for two felony charges, including making terroristic threats as well as tampering with physical evidence. If convicted, he would face a maximum of five years in prison.

The Nebraska State Patrol announced its arrest of Halstead last month following a standoff at his Omaha apartment. Halstead allegedly wrote online under the pseudonym “Bobby McGee” that he was going to “shoot up this school and kill Jim Pillen’s children and a few nuns for f—ing funsies.”

Court records reveal Halstead has a long history of making terroristic threats, including allegations from his ex-boyfriend that he threatened to kill him and chased him with a butcher knife. The ex-boyfriend filed for a protective order in 2022.

Social media accounts reveal Halstead identifies as a “socialist” and a “pagan” and has interest in the occult. He was also the board member for an Omaha LGBT nonprofit as late as 2024.

In 2023, he testified against a bill in the Nebraska Legislature introduced by State Senator Dave Murman that would have banned minors from attending drag shows. In his testimony, he criticized what he said was the “indoctrination of sexuality” by straight, Christian men.

Pillen said in a statement following Halstead’s arrest that he found “peace and comfort” in the State Patrol’s quick response to the threat.

Case is Test of Legal System

Halstead’s trial comes as Nebraska judges are facing criticism from the public, law enforcement, and lawmakers over letting violent, mentally ill suspects out of prison.

Several high profile cases in Omaha have involved judges saying they had no option but to allow violent offenders walk free, citing Nebraska statute that dictates defendants who successfully claim insanity receive “the least restrictive treatment plan that is in the interest of the defendant and the public.”

It is unclear if Halstead will get released on these grounds, but similar cases have allowed violent offenders to avoid jail time.

Pillen, earlier this spring, called for changes in Nebraska’s law following a stabbing in Omaha by a mentally ill woman, saying the Legislature needed “to fix” the law as soon as possible. County Sheriff Aaron Hanson and State Senator Kathleen Kauth have told The Plains Sentinel they are working with stakeholders on a change.

— John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit Tyreese Learmond)

In what some observers are calling a case of affirmative action run amok, a former University of Nebraska at Lincoln College of Law student filed a suit against multiple UNL Law Staff last week alleging negligence, hostile educational environment, equal protection violations, and conspiracy, among other counts.

Tyreese Learmond was a UNL student until June of this year, when his enrollment was rescinded following poor grades. He has since lodged a complaint in Lancaster County District Court arguing that UNL Law failed him. Listed defendants include four UNL Law professors, one adjunct instructor, the college’s Dean and Associate Dean, the University of Nebraska Board of Regents, and the state of Nebraska.

The case surrounds a spate of “racially motivated microaggressions” and other targeted hostility alleged to have taken place based on Learmond’s race, color, attire, and classroom positioning that were not properly addressed by the Board of Regents or the state. Such activities, the plaintiff says, rose to the level of chilled speech, hazing, conspiracy, and hostile environment.

The complaint specifically targets some of UNL Law’s most liberal law professors, including Anthony Schutz and Harvey Perlman.

Learmond states the activity took place consistently throughout the 2025-2026 academic year up until the time his enrollment was rescinded – beginning in early September of 2025 when he was disheartened by a professorial comment about his decision to wear a suit every day.

Later that month, the deans declined to act on a disagreement that Learmond had reported between himself and another student with whom he shared a group project. The next day, a professor reportedly made a remark to the class about a questionable answer Learmond had given moments before.

Learmond also alleges that an instructor told him that “a lot of law school is hazing” and that he had to endure it.

In a January meeting with the associate dean regarding his poor academic performance, he stated that such interactions with professors were negatively affecting his mental health conditions, which include bipolar disorder and schizophrenia affective disorder. He alleges the associate dean told him that law may not be the field for him.

Also in January, a professor accused Learmond of violating the college’s AI use policy on the first assignment of the semester, to which he objected. The professor eventually relented but Learmond noted no evidentiary basis for the accusation in the first place, and no similar accusations against anyone else for the duration of the semester.

Following a subsequent meeting with the associate dean, Learmond was required to register with Services for Students with Disabilities, visit a school therapist, and consult his psychiatrist. He reported all incidents in March. Following meetings with appropriate staff, the University’s Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance found that it could not act based on the reported incidents and referred the complaints to the associate dean.

In June, Learmond’s enrollment was revoked after he failed to score C+ or higher in a class, and was told he had no other channels by which to continue except to wait a year and apply for readmission.

He further states he was not offered proper recourse after lodging multiple internal complaints. His subsequent state contract claims were objected to, and his state tort claims were denied.

He succeeded in attaining records of communication from College of Law officials under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which show multiple staff had raised behavioral concerns regarding him, while multiple others had stated no concern.

On this collective basis, Learmond alleges a hostile educational environment, breach of implied contract via hazing and chilled speech, negligence, due process violations, equal protection violations, First Amendment violations, Americans with Disabilities Act violations, defamation and civil conspiracy.

He has requested damages from all defendants. Tyreese Learmond has also previously sued Experian Information Solutions and Fidelity Brokerage Services in April of this year. Currently available information suggests Experian was released from the suit in June, while Fidelity is seeking arbitration.

Perlman Promoter of BLM

The lawsuit includes current UNL Law professor and former UNL chancellor Harvey Perlman, who aggressively pushed Black Lives Matters (BLM) and similar racial causes during his tenure at the head of the university campus.

In 2015 when he was UNL Chancellor, Perlman issued a statement in support of BLM following a protest by students. Following the protests, Perlman caved to the activists demands and issued a series of university actions to implement diversity programming.

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“I understand and respect your impatience for more visible signs of progress. While I am committed to continuing our progress, I am under no illusions that change will be rapid or complete. Legacies so deeply rooted in our past are not easily overcome,” he said in a letter at the time.

This lawsuit is also not Perlman’s first dustup with minority members on campus. In 2012, Perlman took aim at NU football assistant coach Ron Brown for testifying against an LGBTQ+ ordinance being pushed by the Omaha City Council.

Perlman said he was “personally offended by the comments” made by Brown, who said the city ordinance was opposed to the teaching’s of Christ.

— Lewis Thune is a writing fellow with The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit Lancaster County Election Commissioner)

Term limits for Lincoln City Council members have qualified for the ballot after the first of three proposed city charter amendments from the conservative group Good Government Lincoln cleared the 5,000-signature threshold.

This is the group’s second attempt. On July 21, Good Government Lincoln turned in more than 30,000 signatures across three charter amendments. Nearly 20,000 were rejected, including more than 13,300 flagged as suspected fraud. Six out-of-state paid circulators have been arrested in the investigation.

In the second round, 5,628 of 8,082 signatures reviewed on the term-limits measure (69.6%) were found valid — enough to qualify.

The group’s other two petitions are still under review. One would move Lincoln city elections to even-numbered years to align with state and federal elections. The other would allow eligible residents in the city’s three-mile extraterritorial zoning jurisdiction to vote in most municipal elections.

Speaking to KLIN News, Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen said review of those petitions should be finished within a week or so.

“If everything goes as smoothly as the first, hopefully the second and third petitions will be certified later this week, early next week,” Wiltgen said. He also said the term-limits petition did not present significant problems with fraudulent signatures.

Former state tax commissioner and state Sen. Tony Fulton, who is leading the effort, released a statement Monday.

“We are pleased the first of the proposed charter amendments has been certified,” Fulton said. “Voters are excited for a say on these initiatives in November. Thank you to the Lancaster County Election Commissioner for the quick work in verifying the signatures.”

Lincoln voters already imposed term limits on the mayor. In November 2018 they approved a charter amendment capping the mayor at three consecutive four-year terms. The change applied retroactively and blocked then-Mayor Chris Beutler from seeking a fourth term. Beutler and a committee called Fair Elections Lincoln spent more than $160,000 opposing the measure. It passed with 53.14% of the vote.

— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit Matt Johnson)

The Office of State Auditor Mike Foley announced Monday morning that it had identified multiple questionable processes in the state’s Aging and Disability Waiver Program, which gives in-home care to the disabled and elderly as overseen by the Disability and Aging Division of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

The AD Waiver Program has grown 700% in the past decade to total $464 million, assisting Nebraska’s aging population with the help of nearly 2,000 service providers. With the program’s massive expansion within what is already Nebraska’s largest agency, Foley’s office completed a 34-page report identifying suspicious billing practices from numerous registered providers.

“I have never been shy about criticizing DHHS for program mismanagement,” Foley said. “DHHS must be able to account for every dollar spent on this program.”

The first concern had to do with Electronic Visit Verification system, or EVV. Providers are required to log in via smartphone while providing services to a patient. Foley’s office found the EVV system was highly vulnerable to misuse, with come providers splitting consecutive hours across two different days.

In addition, the EVV system allowed providers to edit their logged and billable hours even after it had verified the hours worked. Foley’s office found that one agency used this end-around to add 434.5 billable hours in one month. The same agency among multiple others was also found to have billed for caregivers providing more than 24 hours of service in a single day.

Other caregivers had clocked into the AD Waiver system away from patient’s homes. In a test of 22 providers, 15 had billed and were paid for performing DHHS services while simultaneously working elsewhere. Some providers also billed for more hours of care than patients were authorized to receive — including one provider billing for 47 hours of care in a 24-hour period.

Foley did note that DHHS is actively repairing its safeguards to catch and prevent such billing activities from providers.

“Hopefully, those controls will prove sufficient to prevent further deceptive billing and the resulting theft of public funds,” he said. “A major challenge in controlling surging costs is eradicating fraudulent billing by unscrupulous providers who exploit the program’s current administrative weaknesses.”

A spokesperson for DHHS told The Plains Sentinel that “DHHS has implemented needed measures to better prevent improper billing by providers.”

Foley’s office also identified two suspicious behaviors in the agency/independent provider distinction. The standard hourly rate for an independent provider is $15, while agencies are permitted to bill at slightly higher hourly rates.

In the first case, Foley’s office found that certain independent providers likely took advantage of the agency pay increase, as it discovered four listed “agencies” consisting of an owner and a sole employee — both being the same person — with each “agency” serving only a single participant. Such “agencies” were paid nearly double the standard hourly rate for independent service providers, were all compensated in excess of $180,000 in calendar year 2025.

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In perhaps the most outstanding case of suspicious billing, DHHS allowed a participant’s guardians to negotiate wages for service providers. Despite the standard rate for independent providers, DHHS eventually agreed to compensate the four agreed-upon providers $23.50, $28.45, $54.02, and $57.69 per hour.

It turned out that the first two providers were the participant’s mother and brother.

“We cannot afford to continue paying for services that were never rendered or allowing unethical providers to line their pockets with ill-gotten taxpayer money” Foley said. “The people receiving assistance through the AD Waiver program deserve our full support, and honest service providers are entitled to fair compensation.”

— Lewis Thune is a writing fellow with The Plains Sentinel.

(Photo credit Matt Johnson)

Nebraska will have a new secretary of state next year. Republican Scott Petersen and Democrat Sarah Slattery are both traveling the state, campaigning to succeed incumbent Bob Evnen.

Petersen describes himself as a “sales and marketing guy,” with businesses in printing and political consulting that he sold prior to running for office.

Slattery has a degree in graphic design from Creighton University and a culinary arts degree from Metropolitan Community College. She works as a “chef supreme” for her family’s vineyard and tasting room in Nehawka and has awards for the “best salsa in Cass County” and in the “Midwest Best Bloody Mary” contest.

Transparency and Hand-Counting

Petersen won an upset primary victory over Evnen in May, a win he attributes to a loss of faith in Nebraska’s elections. Petersen made election integrity a key issue in his platform.

“The folks that were concerned about elections weren’t getting the answers they needed from the current secretary of state,” Petersen said. “Being transparent and making sure the people restore that confidence in election systems—that was the whole campaign.”

Questions regarding security over ballot-tabulation machines had been fuel for election skeptics since 2020. During the primary, Petersen touted hand-counting paper ballots at the county level as “project number one” as a part of restoring this trust.

“Hand-count paper ballots is probably the ultimate answer to full transparency,” Petersen told The Plains Sentinel. “There’s a path to get there, and there’s a lot of things you can do on the way, but number one is just answering questions and being as transparent as possible.”

Slattery strongly disagrees with hand counting.

“People suck at counting stuff,” Slattery said. “When people hand-count ballots, there’s up to a 25% error rate, and that’s terrifying, right? Why would we do that when we have these machines that are built to count, and that’s all they’re built to do. And they work great, and they’re tested, and they’re audited, and everything runs like it’s supposed to.”

Mail-In Ballots

Another issue for Petersen is Nebraska’s 35-day election window, which he believes allows for ballot harvesting fueled by outside dollars.

“We have 35 days of mail-in balloting here in Nebraska, and it does corrupt our elections by encouraging outside money to come in, especially to Omaha and Lincoln,” Petersen said. “And they send outside forces—send money and people in to collect votes, harvest votes, if you want to call it that.”

While Petersen would allow a 10-day early voting window, his ideal solution would be to go back to a one-day election with “true absentee voting” by mail. This would be reserved for specific cases, such as those serving in the military or those who are physically unable to travel to election sites.

Slattery also takes issue with this, specifically the mail-in ballots, citing Nebraska’s 11 counties with only mail-in ballots.

“There are 11 counties in Nebraska that only vote by mail, because they’re so rural,” Slattery said. “And a fun fact about that is those 11 counties return their ballots at twice the rate of the rest of the state. So that’s, to me, an argument for mail-in voting, not against it.”

Petersen pointed out that those counties sided with him overwhelmingly in the primary. Results showed that he beat Evnen in 10 of the 11 all-mail counties with an average of +13.8 percentage points compared to 10% statewide.

Election Day or Election Month?

Slattery is in favor of Nebraska keeping its long voting window, suggesting it is too difficult for some working Nebraskans to make it to the polls.

“Unless we get a federal or a statewide holiday to give everybody the day off to go vote, that’s disenfranchising working people,” Slattery said.

Petersen supports the idea of making Election Day a holiday.

“All in on that. It is a special day—it would give everybody an opportunity to vote,” Petersen said. “If you have a job, and you’re not able to get to the polling place in those hours, that’d be a challenge. So there’s a lot of good things with turning it into a holiday. President Trump, I think, has talked about it, so I would probably support that.”

Slattery also advocates for same-day voter registration.

“Iowa does it. Colorado does it. It reduces litigation in regard to voter registrations, and then, if you accidentally got taken off, you can re-register and vote on the same day,” Slattery said. “And I think we can all agree that Iowa and Colorado have drastically different political ideologies, and it works for both of them, so I think it could work here, too.”

Petersen disagrees, calling the idea a “disaster.”

“Iowa has same-day registration, and I helped out in the caucuses years back. And it’s a disaster, because people can walk in and change parties, and it just makes a big mess of Election Day. You talk about trouble and challenges for the poll workers—same-day registration would absolutely be a disaster and create a lot of chaos, I think, at the polling places.”

Voter Data and Cleaning the Rolls

Earlier this year, the Trump administration requested voter registration information from various states for vetting purposes. Evnen submitted these earlier this year after a lawsuit brought by Common Cause to prevent their transfer was litigated. Slattery says that she would not have turned the data over.

“And that’s what I promise to do, what’s best for all of Nebraskans,” Slattery said. “States run elections. The federal government doesn’t have any business doing any of this. And I wouldn’t have given the data. I would have stood up for us and our information.”

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Petersen said there is no data being transmitted that the federal government would not normally have anyway, and he emphasized the need for Nebraska’s voter rolls to be thoroughly vetted.

“I keep hearing stories and more stories about, ‘Hey, my son moved away 10 years ago, and I’m still getting ballots,’” Petersen said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of tools, especially with the federal government offering up the SAVE database. There’s a lot of tools that we can use to do a better job of cleaning voter rolls.”

With fewer than 75 days before the general election, both candidates will be busy campaigning across the state. Election Day is November 3.

— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit Matt Johnson)

OMAHA — On Saturday afternoon, Sen. Pete Ricketts held a campaign event at R&R Realty in Elkhorn, speaking to around 60 guests to rally the base ahead of what many expect to be a difficult midterm election year for Republicans.

Ricketts touted his record on cutting taxes and border security as well as the recently passed 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. He also lambasted Democrats in Congress over recent government shutdowns, opposition to border security funding, and voting against measures like the SAVE Act, the National Defense Authorization Act, and the farm bill.

Ricketts is running against Independent Dan Osborn, but has been endorsed by the chair of the Democratic Party. Cindy Burbank, the winner of the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, ran on the basis of dropping out to “clear the field” for Osborn, a tactic that has also been used in U.S. Senate races in South Dakota and Idaho.

The Plains Sentinel asked Ricketts about the political gamesmanship:

“I believe the Democrats are so far out of touch with what Nebraskans believe—because the socialist Democrats are driving their party—and they know that if they run somebody with a Democrat label statewide here in Nebraska, they can’t win because of their radical values. And that’s why they’re trying to hide this by running independents.”

Brinker Harding, who is running for Congress in Nebraska’s 2nd District, introduced Ricketts at the event and chimed in on this issue.

“They can’t win on the issues, so they have to resort to tactics in order to find ways to win the elections,” Harding said. “We have the right issues. We have the right answers to those, and that’s what we’re gonna be doing from now until November 3.”

Q&A on the Issues

During the Q&A, one guest asked Ricketts about his record on handling COVID while he was governor. Nebraska was one of seven states that did not shut down during that period, and Ricketts emphasized that the overall outcomes in the state were recognized even by left-leaning publication Politico.

“Politico, which is not exactly a conservative news organization, ranked Nebraska the number one best pandemic response team, looking at things such as health outcomes, educational outcomes, the economy, and social wellbeing,” Ricketts said.

One question from guests was on President Trump’s announcement Friday to temporarily lift tariffs on imported ground beef over the next 90 days, which the administration said would be sold at 25% below current market prices. All five members of Nebraska’s federal delegation pushed back on the proposal, including Ricketts.

“I understand why consumers are unhappy but this is a short-term attempt at a long-term problem,” Ricketts said. “Our cattle herd in the country is at a low that we haven’t seen since like the 1950s, so the real solution is helping our cattle ranchers build back up the size of their herd. That’s how we actually get long-term prices to reflect what’s going on in the marketplace.”

Can the SAVE Act be Saved?

Among the issues Pete Ricketts is working on in the Senate is the passage of the SAVE Act, which would reform elections in the United States. The Act has been consistently blocked by Senate Democrats via filibuster, which requires 60 votes to override.

“They’ve [Democrats] had five opportunities to vote for the SAVE Act and turned it down. Two weeks ago today, they had an opportunity to pass just straight voter ID, simple voter ID, which we have here in Nebraska. Thirty-six states have it, including blue states, and every single Democrat voted against it.”

The Plains Sentinel asked Ricketts if there was any chance Republicans would make a maneuver regarding the filibuster as Democrats did trying to pass their own election reforms legislation in 2021 and 2022.

“We’re gonna look for all sorts of ways to be able to continue to provide voter integrity going forward,” Ricketts said. “And so that’s one of the options on the table, but we’ll be looking for other options as well. So I say stay tuned, because we’re gonna continue to put the Democrats on record about voter integrity.”

Upcoming Debate

Ricketts will have a debate with Osborn on Sept. 1 at 6 p.m. at the BigIron Events Center at the Nebraska State Fair in Grand Island. It will be their first and only debate this election cycle. The debate is free with paid fair admission, but in-person seating is capped at 200 seats. It will air live on News Channel Nebraska via its television, radio, and digital streaming platforms.

— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit Mike Flood)

Nebraska’s Congressional Delegation expressed dissatisfaction with President Trump’s Friday morning announcement that he would be temporarily waiving out-of-quota tariffs for foreign beef imports.

The President announced via TruthSocial on Friday morning that he’d concluded a deal to allow 300,000 metric tons of beef to enter the United States over the next 90 days, subject to no additional “out of quota” tariff, which applies to imports exceeding a set limit.

“We have a commitment that this beef will be sold at 25 percent below current market prices,” he said, framing the decision as a short-term price reduction while the American herd regrows.

Nebraska’s federal delegation was less than enthusiastic about the administration’s announcement.

“This move undercuts American farmers and ranchers by flooding the market with lower quality foreign beef,” said Congressman Mike Flood via Twitter. “Nobody raises better beef than Nebraska ranchers, and price controls should never be used to give foreign beef a leg up over American beef. I share the administration’s goal of lowering grocery prices for Nebraska families, but that should not come at the expense of our ranchers and producers.”

Senators Ricketts and Fischer spoke likewise, saying the fix was too short-sighted.

“I appreciate the Administration’s work to lower grocery prices. Short term policy shifts do not equal long term solutions. Flooding the market with lower quality beef compromises Nebraska farmers and ranchers. They should be enabled to grow herd sizes and meet consumer demand” said Ricketts.

“I’m extremely disappointed by this decision from the White House,” said Senator Fischer. “We all want lower grocery prices, but as I’ve said for months, we cannot do it at the expense of American producers. Flooding the market with foreign beef hurts our livestock industry and undermines the long-term solution: growing the U.S. cattle herd to meet demand.”

Congressman Adrian Smith of NE-03, home to the bulk of Nebraska’s cattle herd, posted a brief comment on the matter to Twitter, along the same lines as the others.

“Despite record-low herd sizes, Nebraska’s ranchers continue to produce high-quality beef for consumers around the world. As President Trump works to lower costs for consumers, we must ensure those efforts do not undermine ranchers’ ability to rebuild their herds.”

Congressman Don Bacon was the only member of the delegation to defend Trump’s decision.

“I’m not a fan of global tariffs. The President is right that the tariffs increase the cost of beef, but they also increase the cost of most products. Current tariffs are costing the average American household an estimated $840 this year. It’s also wacky to maintain global tariffs on nearly everything while removing the one tariff that helps our ranchers. I urge removing the global tariffs and working through Congress to implement very targeted tariffs on countries that conduct unfair trade practices.”

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Trump’s announcement was also criticized by ag groups in Nebraska and across the country.

Nebraska Farm Bureau President Mark McHague stated the move “could not have come at a worse time for Nebraska’s cow/calf producers,” creating an untimely deviation in the feeder calf market at a time of year that ranchers are in the business of selling calves. He also expressed skepticism that the import would make a tangible difference on grocery prices:

“Given that the United States imports around 2.5 million tons of beef product, most of it being lean trim for hamburger, it is doubtful this influx makes much of a difference on retail prices.”

The United States Cattlemen’s Association has likewise criticized the announcement. The waiver will take effect pending an executive order, which the White House has reportedly stated will take place within the next two weeks.

— Lewis Thune is a writing fellow with The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit Matt Johnson)

OMAHA — On Thursday evening, former Mayor Jean Stothert officially unveiled a portion of 13th Street that now bears her name in downtown Omaha.

Last month, the Omaha City Council unanimously voted to approve the commemorative street name. Mike Pate, who served with Stothert on the Millard School Board, originally sought the name change and officiated the event Thursday evening.

“Today is about much more than placing a name on a street sign,” Pate said. “It is about recognizing a life of public service and preserving the legacy of someone who has devoted a significant part of her life to making Omaha a better place.”

The ceremony took place in the shadow of the nearly completed new Mutual of Omaha Headquarters Tower, whose construction was spearheaded during Stothert’s tenure.

“Turn around and look at that big, beautiful Mutual tower right behind us,” said former Omaha mayor Hal Daub. “Then think just behind it, towering a little bit above the First National Bank, which was my project. And see, she’s done one higher. Right? That unexpected little extra.”

Along Farnam Street there was visible construction work still being done on the Omaha Streetcar Project—a project championed by Stothert, and one some believe may have cost her the mayor’s office last year.

“I watched her make really hard decisions, because as mayor, clearly you’re not gonna make everyone happy,” said City Councilmember Aimee Melton. “But I watched how Mayor Stothert did that, and what she always said was, ‘I’m gonna put the best interests of this city first. I am going to do what I think is gonna move this city forward, despite the critics, and despite the fact it might cost me my next election.’ And there it is right there across the street.”

Also speaking at the event was Greater Omaha Chamber CEO Heath Mello, who ran against Stothert for mayor in 2017. Mello described his daughter meeting the city’s first woman to hold the mayor’s office and how his daughter asked for an autographed picture of the two of them, which Stothert provided.

“My daughter, like a lot of other daughters across Omaha, have someone to look up to. They’ve got a role model that will live for infamy in the city of Omaha,” Mello said. “She wasn’t just a colleague, she wasn’t just someone I worked with. After three years, I got to call her a friend.”

Congressman Don Bacon, whose district includes the city of Omaha, also spoke.

“Where else would you want to live but the Omaha area?” Bacon said. “And Mayor Stothert made it a great place to live. And so congratulations, Mayor. This is well earned, and we’re proud of you.”

Stothert can now be heard on The KFAB Comment Line, which airs weekday mornings at 10 a.m. Radio host and current programming director for KFAB Scott Voorhees was also on hand to congratulate Stothert on the street naming.

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A couple dozen other guests attended the evening event, including city councilmembers Brinker Harding and Don Rowe, Omaha Fire Chief Kathy Bossman, Former Fire Chief Dan Olsen, and Public Works Director Bob Stubbe.

Several members of the Stothert family were also in attendance—Stothert’s husband Kevin O’Rourke as well as Stothert’s son Andrew, daughter Elizabeth, and two grandsons.

— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit City of Lincoln)

Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird announced she was launching a new Youth Climate Action Fund that will provide microgrants of $1000-5000 for young people between the ages of 15 and 24.

“One of my top priorities after taking office was to ensure that our community would be well-informed of the climate risks we face and be prepared to mitigate them and adapt,” Gaylor Baird said during a Thursday press conference announcing the new initiative.

“From the outset, we knew that engaging our community and the next generation would be fundamental to our success,” she added. “The city of Lincoln applied for and received a $50,000 grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to launch our Youth Climate Action Fund.”

Gaylor Baird said Lincoln is one of only 300 cities worldwide to receive grant money as part of the initiative. Omaha announced last month that it was also joining the program.

The projects are being fully funded by left-wing billionaire Michael Bloomberg through his foundation. The foundation launched the initiative in cities nationwide in 2024 with the goal of “meeting decarbonization commitments or reducing consumption-based emissions.”

“Climate change is an all-hands-on-deck challenge, and it’s critical that young people – who have the most at stake – help lead the way,” Bloomberg said in a statement during the initial launch of the initiative.

Program Part of Larger Climate Plan

According to the city, the Youth Climate Action Fund will be integrated as part of Lincoln’s current Climate Action Plan (CAP), which runs through 2027, and includes the goal of decarbonization and inclusivity.

The city of Lincoln has eight “action areas” as part of its CAP — young adults who submit plans under YCAF will focus on four areas: climate resilience, local food, waste reduction, and transportation.

The city of Lincoln’s chief sustainability officer Kim Morrow gave several examples of what the city was looking for in project proposals, including: fashion shows with upcycled clothing, food drives, and organizing a contest to encourage people to stop driving cars.

“The Youth Climate Action Fund gives us a clear path to engage our young people – to meet them where they are, to invest in their ideas, and to harness their energy and ingenuity into the work of building a more sustainable Lincoln. In this way, our youth can directly shape the future of their own community,” Morrow said.

Bloomberg Funds Far-Left Ideas

Bloomberg Philanthropies has used the YCAF funding to seed projects run by far-left groups in cities across the world. Grants in other cities have been used to fund anti-capitalist and socialist organizations with goals broader than just environmental work.

In Melbourne, Australia, the city used Bloomberg’s money to help fund youth activists who championed “climate justice” with the goal of keeping “fossil fuels in the ground.”

“At the root cause is a colonial system that puts the profits of big polluters over Aboriginal land rights, the wellbeing of our communities and the environment,” the group said, adding it had a “vision for the future where systems of injustice are torn down.”

In California, the city of Long Beach awarded grant money to organizations that aligned itself with the city’s “Racial Equity and Reconciliation Plan,” with grants going to anti-capitalist groups.

The local grants are not one-off initiatives either. Bloomberg Philanthropies has larger climate goals that seek to reshape the country.

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In 2019, the organization launched an initiative called “Beyond Carbon” in which the group committed $500 million to an effort to close every single U.S. coal plant by 2030 while stopping any new building of natural gas infrastructure.

The foundation has since committed another $500 million towards the effort.

Bloomberg said he has organized his climate initiatives because he believes the government has failed to act on climate change. The YCAF seeks to have a part in “helping a new generation believe in government again.”

The application window for the YCAF program in Lincoln opens August 26 and closes October 7.

— John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit Lewis Thune)

OMAHA — Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. addressed the press and reiterated his Make America Healthy Again priorities Thursday afternoon amid a tour of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s National Quarantine Unit with University of Nebraska President Jeffrey Gold and Governor Jim Pillen.

“This facility is absolutely critical to our national security,” Kennedy said. “One of the reasons I wanted to come out here today was just to see this legendary place, this kind of Mecca for biocontainment.”

UNMC drew national attention in May when it housed the 18 U.S. citizens exposed to the Andes hantavirus in its quarantine unit for the virus’ 42-day incubation period, achieving no confirmed cases in that time.

“I’m very grateful to the University of Nebraska for the care that it took. I went and toured their bedrooms and saw that they were making steaks out there — Omaha Steaks in the parking lot — and delivering it to their rooms, doing everything they could to make up for an unfortunate situation,” he said.

He also asserted that UNMC’s influence on global health, specifically quarantine facilities, will continue to be invaluable in HHS efforts worldwide:

“We’re now in the process of standing up a biocontainment center in Kenya with the Department of War, and the peer review for readiness will be done by people at this facility. We’ve got 60 public health service officers from the Uniform Commission Corps, and their training will come from people at this facility.”

UNMC has assisted HHS in its efforts to control Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and continues to train medical staff for efforts elsewhere.

“We’ve got 30 people in the DRC right now, Ituri and Kivu provinces, which are really the hot cells, and their training comes from people at this facility… I just toured the Global Center for Health Security at UNMC, and the Air Force is training military and civilian medical teams to respond to biological threats, disasters, and other emergencies around the world,” said Kennedy.

“It’s extraordinary” said Pillen, “something to be incredibly, incredibly proud of.”

In addition to heaping high praise on UNMC, Kennedy lauded Pillen for his shared commitment to making nutrition an absolute priority, an integral part of MAHA.

“Governor Pillen has led the country on the MAHA agenda,” Kennedy said. “He was the first to pass the SNAP waiver, he was one of the first to get bell-to-bell legislation to control cell phones in schools… [he] banned petroleum-based dyes in the state and then we’ve gotten to work together on the Medicaid work requirements.”

Pillen lauded the SNAP waivers as well, which would have remove soda and similar nutrition-deficient items from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The waivers have been blocked by a district court judge since late June.

“I was the first governor in the country to sign on to it. Obviously, there’s a judge that doesn’t understand food groups and has a difference of opinion” Pillen said.

To that effect, Kennedy stated that at the beginning of his tenure, 10% of food stamps were going to purchase soda.

“Anybody ought to be able to buy a soda if they want to, but taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for it,” he said. “Hopefully we can get this crazy decision reversed.”

It is poor nutrition policies like these, Kennedy argued, that help create chronic disease epidemics in the country.

“We’re giving the poorest kids in the country diabetes at the outset, and then they got on Medicaid, 73% of them, and we spend the rest of their lives treating them and paying for them… roughly 70% of American adults are obese or overweight, 77% of our children cannot qualify for military service.”

A renewed focus on nutrition as medicine would make a difference in those numbers, he said.

“For decades, we trained doctors to treat the consequences of poor nutrition, while giving many of them remarkably little training in nutrition itself… 70% of type 2 diabetes cases can be reversed, and in some cases, you can lose the diagnosis just by changing your diet.”

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He again turned to Gold to thank him for assisting him in refocusing nutrition education for healthcare workers.

“Participating medical schools have agreed to provide 40 hours, or its competency equivalent, so that future physicians can understand how nutrition can prevent, manage, and treat chronic disease,” Kennedy said. “Nebraska helped lead that effort from the beginning. They helped advise us as we developed the initiative.”

He also noted, as did Pillen, that Nebraska had scored the eighth largest award grant from the Rural Health Transformation Fund, totaling $218 million.

“That is gonna be a big deal,” said Pillen. “Getting more kids in rural Nebraska to be able to have access to healthcare. That’s really good.”

Kennedy closed by thanking the two men for their respective leadership in improving outcomes in American and global health.

“We spend more on healthcare than any country in the world, two or three times what Europeans pay per capita, and we have the worst outcomes. We should have the healthiest population. President Trump has given us a mandate to close that gap, Nebraska is leading by example and delivering results.”

— Lewis Thune is a writing fellow with The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit Nebraska Secretary of State)

The Good Government Lincoln Project announced Wednesday evening that it had resubmitted signatures for its proposed charter amendments to the City of Lincoln following its initial petition submission being flagged for fraudulent signatures.

The group had first submitted signatures on July 20 for verification in order for its three reforms to appear on the upcoming 2026 midterm ballot. Led by former state senator Tony Fulton, the group would seek to institute term limits for city council members, allow residents of Lincoln’s extraterritorial zoning jurisdiction to vote in city elections, and realign city elections to coincide with state and federal elections in hopes of increasing voter turnout.

“The group turned in more than 9,000 signatures per amendment,” Good Government Lincoln said via press release, a total about 750 less per petition than its first submission.

Good Government Lincoln relaunched its signature effort in early August, before its initial failure had been announced. The group claimed to have caught wind of “premature celebration out of the mayor’s office,” complaints alleging that the mayor’s chief of staff had told multiple people the initiatives had failed only days after they were submitted.

Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird had publicly voiced her opposition to the measure shortly after it first launched.

Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen must verify 5,000 signatures before each amendment can be referred to the Lincoln City Council. Over 65% of the first bout of submitted signatures were found to be fraudulent.

Statewide investigations into signature fraud began after Brett Lindstrom’s drive to appear on the governor’s ballot also fell short due to fraudulent signatures. Investigators now say they are looking into every statewide ballot initiative.

Lancaster County Chief Deputy Sheriff Ben Houchin stated Wednesday that signature fraud in this year’s ballot initiatives has been so extensive that law enforcement still lacks an exact count. Five arrests have already been made in relation to a subcontractor used to gather Good Government signatures.

“We again want to thank Lancaster County officials and law enforcement for their swift and aggressive action to catch and bring to justice the criminals who attempted to defraud our petition system,” said Fulton on Wednesday. “The support we’ve seen from the people of Lincoln to overcome the obstacles we faced with our initial turn-in has been phenomenal.”

Once signatures are verified and the measure referred to the city council, the body has 30 days to approve the provision or else it appears on the next eligible ballot by default.

Fulton remains confident that Lincoln voters favor the group’s measures, and says they deserve to vote on them this year.

“The voters are ready for a government that’s more accountable, more representative and has more voter participation. Voters should have a say in November on these important issues and today is the first step to making that happen.”

— Lewis Thune is a writing fellow with The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit District Court of Lancaster County)

District Court Judge Darla Ideus ruled on Wednesday afternoon that both the America First Party and the Nebraska Working People Party are eligible to make the November ballot.

In the case of the America First Party, Ideus said she was not persuaded by the arguments made by the Nebraska Republican Party that Secretary of State Bob Evnen should be able to remove them from the ballot because organizers of the party did not actually believe the principles they claim to hold.

“The statute simply does not address this kind of ‘confusion,” Ideus wrote.

She also dismissed the case against the Working People Party, saying the Nebraska Democratic Party missed the deadline to object to the party making the ballot.

Ideus had previously issued a 10-day restraining order to prevent Secretary of State Bob Evnen from certifying both parties.

Both of the new parties were accused of being “plants” in the U.S. Senate race between Independent Dan Osborn and incumbent Republican Senator Pete Ricketts.

The Republican Party had filed its lawsuit against the America First Party, arguing it was formed in bad faith. The complaint pointed to the party’s organizer, John Cartier, who has a long history of supporting progressive causes.

The Democratic Party likewise argued that the Nebraska Working People Party was trying to “sabotage” the election “by misleading its members and supporters and detracting votes from its preferred candidates.”

Both parties will now look to select candidates for the November ballot. Many political observers expect each party to field candidates in the U.S. Senate race, while Brett Lindstrom, who attempted to make the ballot as an Independent in the governor’s race, said the Nebraska Working People Party asked if he would be the party’s gubernatorial nominee.

— John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit Matt Johnson)

OMAHA — The Kellogg’s plant in Omaha, which had been in operation since 1942, finally closed its doors on Tuesday, the culmination of a two-year anticipated shutdown.

The plant had seen a walkout in 2021 when Dan Osborn, then president of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 50G, led a strike with the plant’s roughly 500 employees. Osborn later ran for U.S. Senate against Deb Fischer in 2024 and recounted the strike at a town hall event at the Rusty Nail in Omaha.

“We were on strike for 77 days, and I remember walking back in the plant after we settled on a contract just before Christmas,” Osborn said. “Just feeling a huge sense of pride in what we were able to accomplish for working people. 500 jobs here in Omaha.”

At the time, Kellogg’s had announced that the plant would close in 2026. Osborn did not believe it.

“We could talk about that plant closure. I think it’s complete BS. I don’t think it’s going to happen,” Osborn said.

Then on Tuesday, it happened.

Osborn, Ricketts react to plant closure

Osborn held a town hall in Blair, Neb., Tuesday evening, after the Kellogg plant had finished its last day of operation. His mood was somber.

“I worked there for a very, very long time. So this is a tough day for me and for a lot of my friends who are no longer with a job,” Osborn said. “It’s not just the 500 production employees who lost their jobs today. It’s a couple hundred management employees and everybody affected. You think about the size and the scale of Kellogg’s, running about two million pounds of cereal out of that plant a day.”

Incumbent U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts, who is running against Osborn, also reacted to news of the plant’s closure last week at a press conference.

“I’m sorry for everybody who’s losing their job at Kellogg’s. It’s always a challenge when you lose your job and have to go look for a new one. It puts a lot of families under stress,” Ricketts said.

Ricketts also cited the plant closure as a contrast between himself and Osborn, connecting it to the 2021 strike.

“I’ve been around Nebraska being part of private sector companies that have helped create jobs. As governor and senator, I’ve delivered for Nebraskans for a dozen years, putting more money back in their pockets through tax cuts, keeping people safe,” Ricketts said. “The only thing Dan Osborn’s ever done is cost 500 people their jobs by leading an unsuccessful strike.”

Osborn was well aware that others were blaming the plant closure on the 2021 strike and was quick to respond.

“If you live your life in the comment sections on social media—which I try not to because it’s not reality—you will hear a lot of people blaming the workers for going on strike in 2021,” Osborn said. “People that make enough money to afford their rent and groceries are not the reason why factories shut down. It’s greedy CEOs, at the end of the day. Or maybe it’s people aren’t eating enough cereals, and so that’s the marketer’s fault I suppose. But it’s certainly not the people who show up, clock in and do what they’re told every day.”

Negative Ads, Personal History

The U.S. Senate race in Nebraska has dominated the airwaves with negative ads in recent weeks. Osborn responded to some of these, describing Ricketts as a political kingpin in Nebraska.

“This person [Ricketts] that I’ve learned has hurt a lot of people in politics with negative ads and attacking families, attacking people personally to get ahead in life,” Osborn said. “And spending over $22 million of his family’s money in Nebraska politics, not just his own race, but other races as well. Especially when he was governor, he wanted complete control. He wanted 100% people obeying everything that he wanted to get done. And if you didn’t, he would spend money against you.”

Two years ago, however, Osborn was running against Deb Fischer, and he described a different experience encountering Pete Ricketts during the strike in 2021.

“I did see Pete Ricketts at an event I was at with my wife. I cornered him. I told him who I was and what was going on in his state,” Osborn recalled at his 2024 town hall. “He agreed to meet me at the Capitol. So I drove out to Lincoln a few days later and met with him and his team. Kind of the same thing there. He drafted a letter and sent it to the CEO, Steve Cahillane, imploring him to get our people back to work.”

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For the 2026 cycle, however, Osborn has drawn clear battle lines between the “working class” and “the billionaires,” and this was a recurring theme at his Blair town hall.

“This is how we clean up corruption in politics,” Osborn said. “Easier said than done. But if Nebraska elects me, the whole country is going to say, ‘Holy crap. Did you see what Nebraska did? An independent shop floor mechanic beat the son of a billionaire.’”

Polls suggest a tight U.S. Senate race in Nebraska, with some giving Osborn a slight lead over Ricketts. Nate Silver’s forecast, however, rates the race as Likely Republican, and betting markets lean heavily toward Ricketts over Osborn. Election Day is Nov. 3.

— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office)

Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office announced it is now investigating all of Nebraska’s ballot initiatives for potential fraud. Lancaster County Chief Deputy Sheriff Ben Houchin held a press conference on Wednesday where he announced the expanded investigation.

“Our investigation has extended to the statewide ballot initiatives,” Houchin said, saying that included not only the current Lindstrom for Governor petition and online sports betting investigations, but also the Fairness for Girls and the Respect Nebraska Voters petition campaigns.

Houchin said there are “thousands and thousands” of fraudulent signatures across each of the petition efforts. “We don’t have a count yet; it’s that many,” he added.

The expanded investigation means that all four ballot initiatives submitted to the Secretary of State, Bob Evnen, are now under investigation for fraud. Evnen has yet to announce that any of the initiatives have enough verified signatures to make the November ballot.

Houchin said his office has also arrested Michael Smith, 28, of St. Louis, Missouri, as part of its investigation into petition fraud. He added that the five individuals, who were arrested previously, have waived extradition and are on their way back to Nebraska to face felony charges.

The sheriff’s office said Smith’s role was similar to the other individuals charged with signature fraud. He said authorities are actively looking to arrest a seventh individual.

“We continue our investigation into these, and again this is going to take us awhile to complete,” Houchin said.

He added that law enforcement has been working with the various petitioning groups involved in the department’s investigations and that they have been “very” helpful in “giving us everything that we want.”

Fraud Case Widening

Houchin’s announcement comes as more election commissioners have flagged fraud for investigators. Douglas County Election Commissioner Danielle Jensen told The Plains Sentinel on Saturday that her office had found fraud on both of the ballot initiatives submitted by the online sports gambling group Tax Relief Nebraska.

Buffalo and Hall County election commissioners told the Lincoln Journal Star they found fraud on both the sports gambling initiatives and the Fairness for Girls initiative.

Respect Nebraska Voters declined to comment on the investigation into the initiative other than to confirm the effort had used the Texas-based group, Advanced Micro Targeting, to gather signatures. Tax Relief Nebraska has not returned a request for comment — the effort paid both FieldWorks, a D.C.-based firm, and Neilan Strategy Group, a Nebraska-based consulting firm, to collect signatures.

On the Ballot, a Florida-based group, was used by the Lindstrom for Governor effort and Good Government Lincoln.

On Friday, Evnen announced that Brett Lindstrom had missed making the November ballot following a significant number of fraudulent signatures being discovered on his petition effort.

The initial investigation into fraudulent signatures began earlier this month when Good Government Lincoln had its charter amendments rejected after over 65% of the signatures were invalidated, many of which investigators say were fraudulent.

— John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit Matt Johnson)

OMAHA — Following strong public backlash from Omaha activists, the Omaha Police Department and Omaha Mayor John Ewing offered all four of Omaha’s public school district superintendents an opt-out option for the use of electric shock gloves by school resource officers.

The Compliant Technologies product, Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, was billed as a safer, more practical option than standard-issue police tasers. In addition to allowing officers the full use of their hands, it emits a much weaker electric pulse, reducing risk to detainees. According to OPD Chief of Police Todd Schmaderer, SRO’s are trained to carry the pain compliance tool as a “discreet, de-escalation option.”

However, the news that SROs carried electric shock gloves came as news to OPS and Omaha residents after an NPR report from last week that showed OPD has purchased these same gloves now used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement specifically for use in schools. Public outcry erupted immediately, and on Monday night, the Omaha Public Schools Board of Education meeting hosted two hours of public comments on the matter.

Accusations against OPD school resource officers’ use of the gloves included allegations of poor training, weakness, racism, and fascism, among others.

“Your job is not supposed to be easy; if you lack de-escalation skills, communication skills, and the ability to regulate yourselves in the context of schools, you do not belong there,” said one woman who directed her comments to OPD specifically.

“These Klansmen are hired onto our local forces – they love these jobs. And now weaponized electrical tools are being turned on our children and our immigrant brothers and sisters,” said another attendee. “Learn how to de-escalate, be an adult, and if you’re scared as an adult in this job field working with kids, you might need to hit the gym. Your physical standards are a joke and you’re soft.”

OPD and Mayor Ewing had issues a joint statement on Monday regarding the protocols for usage and the two instances when the gloves were actually used. In both instances, students were subdued that had violently attacked security guards. The fact that the students were violent did little to quell the outrage against Omaha public officials.

Some Monday night speakers from the 29-person lineup worried that police wanted the tool for purposes of abuse.

“They don’t leave a trace when you use them, which is attractive to police officers who want to avoid liability lawsuits for excessive use of force,” said one woman. “We’re relying on people who are seeking out a product which will help them get away from liability lawsuits.”

Many other speakers took issue with the use of force in general, and some expressing a hope that the district would eliminate SROs entirely.

“I think we need to be rid of our contract with OPD period,” said one man. “Like why are we having a contract with a fascist organization that has constantly over the past 100+ years proven themselves to be nothing more than a white supremacist cult?... I don’t want to hear what OPD has to say, they are going to lie.”

After Monday’s public outcry, OPS superintendent Matthew Ray’s requested SROs be disallowed from carrying electric shock gloves in OPS schools. Omaha Mayor John Ewing confirmed that he’d allowed OPS to opt out.

“On Monday, we reached out to all four Omaha public school district superintendents to discuss the use of this technology, noting that officers have a variety of tools and the GLOVE had been the least impactful. OPS was given the option to opt out, and we honored that,” he said.

Police Chief Schmaderer also addressed the matter in dual statements:

“I’m proud of the work our School Resource Officers have done, and I’m confident the administration and principals feel the same way. Unfortunately, some have made erroneous assumptions about the work we do. We have a great working relationship with Omaha Public Schools, and they are a wonderful partner to the Omaha Police Department,” he said in one.

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Addressing the specific objections to G.L.O.V.E. technology in his other statement, he asserted that OPD school resource officers would lose the gloves if OPS asked them to, but so long as they were Omaha Police, they would carry use of force tools.

“If Omaha Public Schools requests that our officers not utilize this tool, we will adhere to that request. However, OPD officers will forever carry standard-issued equipment, including tasers, OC spray, batons, and firearms, to ensure the protection of others and themselves.”

— Lewis Thune is a writing fellow with The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit OPS)

OMAHA — The Omaha Public Schools Board of Education accepted nearly two hours of public comments Monday night after an August 12 NPR story revealed that the Omaha Police Department made electric shock gloves available to School Resource Officers.

The Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter (G.L.O.V.E.) is a Compliant Technologies product capable of delivering a momentary shock of over 300 volts, roughly a third of the shock delivered by a police taser. A report included in the 2025 city resolution that acquired 40 G.L.O.V.E.s for use of the Omaha Police Department states that “the desired result of the GLOVE is to cause a distraction to the peripheral nervous system,” allowing the officer to properly control the subject.

OPD and Omaha Mayor John Ewing confirmed in a public statement that 29 of OPD’s 34 school resource officers are trained and authorized to use the gloves, and that they had been employed twice in the previous school year to detain violent students.

In the first case, a trespassing student was attempting to flee the premises of Omaha South High School after getting in an altercation with a security guard. In the second, an Integrated Learning Program student had struck a security guard in the head and thrown a chair at him.

The statement also stated the protocol for G.L.O.V.E. usage:

“When a serious situation calls for compliance, an officer must follow G.L.O.V.E. protocol that includes verbal commands and a warning. An officer then puts one G.L.O.V.E. on their hand for skin-to-skin contact. An electric shock ranging from 324 to 362 volts is administered in duration of one second up to 15 seconds. Once compliance is gained, the GLOVE is shut off or placed in standby mode.”

However, the news that such technologies were employed in schools – and the news that such a fact came as a surprise to Omaha Public Schools – brought 29 different Omaha residents to the OPS Board of Education to demand answers.

Public Response

All those in attendance spoke against the use of the gloves or use of force in general by SROs, with many arguing for alternatives, and some calling for security officers to be removed from OPS.

“If you truly care about kids, you will enact a moratorium tonight on the use of these gloves and the use of any other systems of force that are being used within our schools by SROs” said one speaker, who identified himself as a public educator.

“This punishment teaches what is not acceptable and kids just kind of have to figure out what is acceptable by trial and error. It does not teach emotional regulation, conflict resolution, communication, or any of the other skills folks have talked about” said another.

Kathy Poehling of the Omaha Education Association argued for vast increases in preventative measures.

“Our schools need safety solutions that prevent crisis not simply more tools to respond after a crisis has already occurred,” she said.

Liz Renner, a member of State Board of Education, appeared in her personal capacity during the public comment to ask the OPS board to re-evaluate the SRO model entirely in favor of focusing on “restorative, constructive, and edifying practices.”

Another attendee took issue with the existence of SROs and OPD as a whole.

“The very fact that we have SROs, as has been pointed out, period – it’s insane, like we are, like – let’s just face it: America is a fascist country. This is just, you know, another manifestation of that. It’s always been a fascist country... why are we having a contract with a fascist organization?”

Others argued the use of the gloves was racially motivated – the NPR report that drew attention to OPD’s use of the technology was about Immigrations and Customs Enforcement outfitting their agents with the gloves.

“These aren’t gloves, these are 2026 whips,” said one man. “Our community had been targeted and murdered by Klansmen, and these Klansmen are hired onto our local forces – they love these jobs. And now weaponized electrical tools are being turned on our children and our immigrant brothers and sisters.”

Former City Council candidate and socialist activist Anthony Rogers-Wright stated OPS had no business using tools employed by ICE, which he called “a rogue, white supremacist, and murderous law agency.”

He praised New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani by name and recommended Omaha follow the NYC model swapping “resource officers” for “safety agents” trained with an abolitionist toolkit.

OPS Response

While many board members voiced similar concerns to those in attendance, the hour-long comments from the board following the two-hour public comments mainly focused on the board’s frustration that they were never informed that shock gloves were in use.

“I would like to reiterate that this board had no knowledge prior to a few days ago of the electric shock gloves all over the news being actively used or even present in our schools,” said Gini Magnuson. “I would like to examine our SRO agreements and discuss excluding use of force devices from being used on students.”

“I learned about this information on Thursday,” said Bri Full. “If there was a vote tonight on the use of these gloves and the use of force with tasers, with OC spray, with batons, I would vote absolutely not.”

Viridiana Almanza Zavala seemed to agree with the principal opposition to use of force.

“I don’t want our response to student crisis or conflict to default to a tool capable of causing pain,” she said. “I would rather invest in solutions: in prevention, deescalation, social workers, and mental health practitioners in every OPS school.”

She also endorsed the race and immigration angle.

“I cannot ignore the broad context in which this conversation is occurring, including the proposed use when it comes to immigration enforcement. For some of our immigrant families and mixed-status families, that context creates real fear.”

As to whether OPS bore any responsibility in the matter, it was Kimara Snipes who first expressed that she took equal discouragement at OPS’ ignorance than OPD’s action.

“OPD must answer for its policies, equipment, and officers. And OPS, we gotta answer for the environment, agreements, and procedures that allow those officers to operate inside our schools. Our responsibility doesn’t begin after force is used.”

Snipes said the board was actively pursuing answers as to who knew about the two instances where the gloves were used, and whether that information ever reached the superintendent or OPS administration.

“Even though we didn’t know, we still have a responsibility,” Shavonna Holman said. “Rest assured that we will do our jobs… please know that we are asking all the questions.”

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Superintendent Matthew Ray appeared to agree with Snipes and Holman that OPS bore responsibility in this case.

“The board did not know this because I didn’t know. I take responsibility for that as the leader of the organization, of Omaha Public Schools, that this information didn’t get to the board, and I’m ultimately responsible for that,” he said.

After three hours, the board at last moved to its consent agenda for the meeting. While said agenda for the night did not include any items regarding OPD or the gloves, they committed to keeping the conversation alive in the upcoming weeks and in their impending contract discussions with OPD.

— Lewis Thune is a writing fellow with The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit Attorney General’s Office)

OMAHA — Attorney General Mike Hilgers announced he had filed a lawsuit to stop the city of Omaha’s minimum wage ordinance from going into effect, saying it violates state law. Hilgers had previously sued Lincoln over its minimum wage ordinance.

“Our Constitution does not permit the City of Omaha to repeal any portion of a statewide law passed by the Legislature. A court already has enjoined the City of Lincoln from modifying this same state law, and it is unfortunate that we are forced to sue Omaha on a materially similar ordinance,” Hilgers said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Omaha City Council voted 4-3 last month to pass a minimum wage increase that overrides the state Legislature’s modification of a ballot initiative passed in 2022.

Nebraska voters approved a measure that would gradually increase the state's minimum wage year-on-year until it reached $15 and then raise it each year based on the consumer price index. The state legislature has since modified provisions to install a youth minimum wage below the $15 threshold as well as a slower cost of living adjustment.

“The Legislature said the minimum-wage growth rate ‘shall’ be 1.75%; the City’s ordinance would modify that statute to say, ‘shall not’ and sets the growth rate at a different level. Similarly, the Legislature said that employers ‘may’ pay youth employees a minimum wage of $13.50 per hour; the City’s ordinance effectively rewrites that law to say, ‘may not’ and instead requires employers to pay youth employees $15 per hour,” the Attorney General’s Office said.

Omaha Mayor John Ewing had initially hesitated in signing onto the minimum wage ordinance over legal concerns, but eventually gave it his consent, saying he was “confident” in the city’s ability to successfully argue its case in court.

During debate on the ordinance, Republicans on the Omaha city council argued against the measure, saying the city should first see how legal proceedings would turn out in the attorney general’s case against the city of Lincoln.

“[The] vote isn’t about whether we support minimum wage or not, it’s whether we have the legal authority to do it,” Omaha Councilwoman Aimee Melton said. “The City of Omaha operates under a home charter rule. Charter cities may act with real independence on matters of strictly local concern, but on matters of statewide concern, state law controls.”

Democratic proponents of the minimum wage increase argued they were fulfilling the will of the voters by passing the minimum wage increase. “I’m not willing to guess on what a judge may or may not do, what I am willing to do is give my constituents their day in court,” Councilman Ron Hug said in response to Republican objections.

Danny Begley, the president of the city council and the introducer of the ordinance, responded to Hilgers suit on Tuesday.

“While I am disappointed, I am not surprised at the Attorney General’s big-government, overreaching lawsuit against the 70% of voters who supported the minimum wage in the city of Omaha with a landslide mandate,” Begley said. “We are fully prepared to fight vigorously in a court of law. The AG is trying to crush the voice of the people. I am standing with them!”

Lincoln Battling Attorney General

The legal battle over the minimum wage in the state began earlier this spring when Lincoln passed its measure to circumvent the state-set minimum wage. In June, Hilgers announced he was suing the city to prevent the ordinance from going into effect.

Hilgers said the city was acting as a “super-legislature” by attempting to override state law.

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In July, a judge ruled in favor of the attorney general and enjoined Lincoln’s ordinance from taking effect.

“At this point, the Court has not made any decisions,” Lancaster County District Court Judge Lori Maret said. “But the Plaintiff’s preemption arguments are strong enough that the Ordinance should be enjoined until the merits are fully litigated.”

— John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit Secretary of State’s Office)

OMAHA — A third petition effort in Nebraska has been flagged for law enforcement for likely fraudulent signatures, according to multiple county election commissioners.

Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen told The Plains Sentinel on Saturday that the group, Tax Relief Nebraska, had suspected fraudulent signatures on both of the petitions that the group turned in.

“I referred suspected fraudulent circulators to the [Lancaster County] sheriff’s office last week,” Wiltgen said.

While the first two cases of petition fraud that have been reported on previously involved petitioners working mostly in the Lincoln area, Douglas County Election Commissioner Danielle Jensen confirmed to The Plains Sentinel on Saturday that her office had also found fraud on the sports betting petition.

Jensen told The Plains Sentinel that any fraud found on petitions will be submitted to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

Wiltgen said that the suspected fraud with Tax Relief Nebraska did not involve the five previously arrested individuals, who were accused of fraud in a charter amendment petitioning effort in Lincoln.

He said that there were a similar number of petitioners committing fraud as in the two prior cases of fraud found this month, but said there were fewer pages found fraudulent on the sports betting petition.

“It was similar in nature in that every signature line was rejected on a page because the voter was either not registered to vote in Nebraska or the signature was suspected fraudulent,” he said.

Public officials have hinted that the probe into fraudulent signatures could expand into even more ballot efforts.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office said on Friday that “investigators are also examining additional petitions gathered in Lancaster County in support of statewide ballot initiatives.”

“Our investigators will follow the evidence, report those findings to the prosecuting agency for review,” Sheriff Terry Wagner said. “We will continue to safeguard the integrity of this criminal investigation from attempts by any party, group, or affiliation to use them for political purposes.”

Tax Relief Nebraska

Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission (NADC) records show Tax Relief Nebraska paid two different companies to gather petitions, Neilan Strategy Group and FieldWorks.

FieldWorks is a DC-based Democratic petitioning firm, while Neilan Strategy Group is a Nebraska-based consulting firm that works with corporate and political clients. Both Jensen and Wiltgen said they did not know which of the companies was responsible for the fraudulent signatures.

Neither FieldWorks, Neilan Strategy, nor Tax Relief Nebraska responded to requests for comment.

FieldWorks has worked as a contractor in previous statewide petitioning campaigns in Nebraska, including the 2024 efforts to legalize medical marijuana and the referendum to repeal Nebraska’s program which gave $10 million for private school scholarships.

The medical marijuana petitioning campaign has been wrapped up in lengthy legal proceedings over notary fraud committed by an individual working for Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, the group that organized the petition.

Petitioning Fraud Fallout Grows

Reports of petitioning fraud broke nearly two weeks ago when Good Government Lincoln, which is trying to get three charter amendments passed in Lincoln, announced they were redoing their petitioning effort following suspected tampering. Later that day, the Lincoln city clerk announced the effort had failed with over 65% of the signatures being rejected.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office announced 10 days ago that they have arrested five petitioners hired by the company On The Ballot. The five individuals are facing multiple felony charges apiece.

On Friday, the Secretary of State’s Office announced that Brett Lindstrom had failed in his bid to make it into the governor’s race as an Independent. Lindstrom had used On The Ballot for some of his petitioning needs in addition to a Democratic firm. Three of the individuals who worked on the Good Government Lincoln petitioning effort also worked on the Lindstrom effort and turned in fraudulent signatures.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office told media in its initial press conference that they have found no political motivation in any of the petitioners arrested. Despite this, Democrats have sought to politicize the investigation, calling for Lancaster County Attorney Pat Condon to appoint an independent investigator.

How Massive Fraud Occurred

Jordan Brownstein, the CEO of On the Ballot, said in a news release last week that multiple members of the team had been with the company through campaigns across the country.

“The individuals identified and arrested have been part of successful ballot access drives for candidates ranging from mayors to presidents, nationwide,” Brownstein said. “We trusted these individuals, we cared for them, and despite this, they chose to defraud us and our clients.”

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Typically, a major petitioning company will have rigorous internal checks to make sure petitioners are not committing fraud. In the case of On the Ballot, The Plains Sentinel was told by someone with knowledge of the case that multiple individuals arrested for petitioning fraud in the company were also responsible for verifying signatures as authentic.

“The fraud that was discovered is outrageous and the worst kind of dirty political tricks,” Brownstein said. “As the vendor in charge of gathering signatures, we are eagerly cooperating with law enforcement to make sure every bad actor involved is brought to justice, and whoever directed this sabotage is identified and exposed.”

— John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit Matt Johnson)

OMAHA — Brett Lindstrom spoke to the Free Speech Society in Omaha Saturday morning, just one day after his nonpartisan gubernatorial campaign came to an abrupt end.

On Friday, the Nebraska Secretary of State’s office revealed that Lindstrom did not gather enough signatures to make the ballot and that a substantial portion of them were deemed fraudulent.

“It was the most stressful thing I’ve ever done in 15 years, was to do a petition in two weeks,” Lindstrom said. “We got 5,734 signatures. We had a lot of volunteers that helped do that. But you have to, in a two-week span, you have to hire professionals to do it.”

Lindstrom said he used a company called On The Ballot to gather some of the signatures for an Independent run — the same company that had petitioners caught for fraud in a separate Good Government Lincoln petitioning effort.

He said Axiom Strategies, which had helped consult with the Good Government Lincoln effort, was not involved with his campaign.

“You know, part of this doctrine was to spread it a little around between Democrats and Republicans. I hired a Democratic group to do CD2,” Lindstrom told The Plains Sentinel.

Loyalty Tests

Lindstrom had been a registered Republican since age 18 before switching to nonpartisan this year and launching his campaign for governor in July.

He said he met with Brinker Harding about a possible endorsement after dropping out of the District 2 congressional race in January. Lindstrom considered it but said both major parties have become loyalty tests more than platforms for meaningful work.

“The Republican side, what’s happened is, it’s become a loyalty test—it’s a loyalty test with deviating away from the institution,” Lindstrom said. “Republicans, Democrats, they have the platforms. And I’ve done this: If you overlay the platforms, they’re not that far apart, right? We want growth, we want opportunity, we want stability, we want good things for our kids. … but for whatever reason, both parties have gone to the extremes. They’ve gone and it’s become weaponized.”

Lindstrom approached multiple Republicans for endorsements during his congressional race but was told by some, “Well, we’ve known Brinker since we were kids.”

“Oh, okay, well, he’s gonna lose, all right?” Lindstrom said. “Brinker’s gonna get his ass kicked in November.”

Lindstrom ran to replace Don Bacon in Nebraska’s 2nd District until January of this year and had praise for the congressman specifically for his ability to reject loyalty tests.

“Don Bacon, loyalist to the party? No. Because if he was a loyalist to the party, he would be all over Trump, and he’s not,” Lindstrom said. “Out of all the congressmen, I think that he has stood head and shoulders above everybody in Washington now, frankly.”

Dissatisfaction in Choices for Governor

Lindstrom’s campaign initially stemmed from dissatisfaction with Governor Jim Pillen’s first term. He criticized Pillen for diverting large cash-reserve dollars into an education fund without pay-fors, promising an unrealistic 40% property-tax cut, using divisive language such as “libtard,” and eroding trust with those on the other side of the political aisle.

But Lindstrom does not see a better outcome if Democrat Lynne Walz is elected either.

“There’s no plan. Pillen doesn’t have a plan. Lynne doesn’t have a plan. There’s no nothing for the state, absolutely nothing,” Lindstrom said. “The legislature’s gonna be split. Everything that they talk about is gonna be filibustered. It doesn’t matter. So we’re, next four years, we’re screwed. I don’t care if you are on one side or the other, we’re screwed.”

Lindstrom had especially strong words for Nebraska’s politicos and moneyed interests, saying they were “all full of shit.”

“What happens is that you get these tacticians or politicos who are only motivated by clout and money, and those are the only two things,” Lindstrom said. “They could care less if their candidate wins or loses. If they get close enough, then they can go out and say, ‘Well, you know, in a Democrat or a Republican state, we got within 5%,’ and then they get hired by somebody else.”

‘Pirate Ship’ Third Party Run

Lindstrom said he has been approached by both the Libertarian Party and the Working People Party of Nebraska about running under their banners in the November election. He described a potential candidacy with another party label as “taking a pirate ship out of the harbor.”

“Even if it doesn’t succeed in the sense that I don’t win, it’s still a worthy effort to bring this to people’s attention and present a different option,” Lindstrom said. “If presented the option, yeah, I’ll do it. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do, in my opinion.”

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Despite his openness to another party’s ballot line, Lindstrom believes both of Nebraska’s potential new political parties were created explicitly to cause confusion in the U.S. Senate race between Republican incumbent Pete Ricketts and Independent Dan Osborn. He also made clear he would not jump into the Senate race.

In the end, whether or not Lindstrom’s “Hail Mary” campaign push succeeds, he aims primarily to put his Nebraska Doctrine in front of as many voters as possible.

“Nebraska could be a lighthouse in the storm of chaos,” Lindstrom said. “As long as the heart continues to beat, all the extremities can fail, but as long as the heart beats, you stay alive. Nebraska can be that. And that’s what this is—that’s what the doctrine is.”

— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit Matt Johnson)

Brett Lindstrom will not be on the ballot for governor this November after the Secretary of State’s Office found fraudulent signatures on the petitions he turned in nearly two weeks ago.

“Brett Lindstrom did not meet the statutory requirements to appear as a nonpartisan candidate for governor on the 2026 general election ballot,” the office announced in a release on Friday.

Of the 5,765 signatures his campaign turned in to the Secretary of State’s office, only 3,358 were deemed valid, 642 short of the required 4,000 needed to qualify. The news comes just over a month after Lindstrom launched his short-lived nonpartisan campaign for governor.

Lindstrom was largely quiet about his signature-gathering operation until right before the August 3 deadline. The quiet nature of his petitioning had led political insiders to question privately and publicly whether he had enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.

In a statement Friday, Lindstrom said his campaign was a victim of fraud.

“I was not aware of this activity. Our campaign and the thousands of Nebraskans who participated honestly in this process are victims of petition fraud,” Lindstrom said. “We are pursuing every legal avenue available to us and intend to hold those responsible accountable. I am deeply disappointed — not just for myself and our campaign, but for every Nebraskan who signed a petition in good faith, every volunteer who gave their time and every person who believed they were participating in a fair and lawful process.”

“They did their part. We did our part. The unlawful actions of a few should not be allowed to erase the voices of thousands,” he added.

According to the release from the Secretary of State’s Office, a significant number of the invalid signatures were found to be fraudulent. A number of the submitted petition pages containing those fraudulent signatures had been circulated by three of the individuals who were arrested earlier this month on suspicion of circulator fraud in the case of the city charter amendment petitions circulated by Good Government Lincoln.

The matter has been referred to the office of Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers for further investigation.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office released a statement, saying they were looking into additional fraudulent signatures in other petition campaigns.

“Our investigators will follow the evidence, report those findings to the prosecuting agency for review,” Sheriff Terry Wagner said. “We will continue to safeguard the integrity of this criminal investigation from attempts by any party, group, or affiliation to use them for political purposes.”

The sheriff’s office has previously stated that no political motivation has been found behind the fraud committed.

A spokesperson for Governor Jim Pillen’s campaign responded to the news of Lindstrom being dropped from the race by saying Pillen was focused on working “overtime every day to deliver for Nebraskans.” Lynne Walz, the Democratic gubernatorial challenger, said in a statement that catching the fraud “shows the system works.”

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“Nebraskans deserve transparency and accountability around the circulators, the firm, or anybody else who was involved or aware,” she added.

County election officials verify petitions by going line by line on each petition when verifying signatures, looking at name, date of birth, and address to see if at least 2 of the 3 match. If fewer than 2 match, the signature is rejected, but if 2 or more match, then officials match signatures in their file database to see if they are authentic.

Other checks include verifying the notary signature, making sure the petitioner’s name is on the sheet and legible, and that the signatures on the document were collected on a date before the notary’s signature.

— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.