Profiles
It’s an open book – as well it should be. We’re talking about the design concept behind Omaha’s new Central Library – and at the heart of its very mission.
To provide a welcoming space for all people...
A fresh morning drizzle on Saturday either lended to or came from the heavy fog, priced by downtown Omaha’s few skyscrapers. The view from Cummings Street was thankfully unobstructed as I drove to...
It was a hard sell.
I was loitering around in that dark Omaha alleyway, one of those ones that still have those red bricks that bring more character than the unfilled potholes on old concrete. Next...
Omaha has many religious places of worship, but only one Temple of Beauty. Windowless walls of pink Georgia-marble reach high into the air as if to both catch as much sunlight as possible while also...
Walking into a New York City pharmacy, Scott LeRette had no idea how life was about to change for him and his family.
LeRette, author of "The Unbreakable Boy," mentioned to the pharmacist he was an...
Today’s News
Prisoners look out from their cell as the Costa Rica Justice and Peace minister tours the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Salvador Melendez / AP Photo)
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Washington found probable cause Wednesday the Trump administration is in contempt of court for defying his order to stop flights of Venezuelan immigrants headed to a...
President Donald Trump speaks during the Commander-in-Chief trophy presentation to the Navy Midshipman football team in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Washington. (Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP Photo)
During the first term of the Trump administration, I heard many Republicans say something to the effect that they didn’t like his personality, but they liked his policies.
Perhaps you said or...
Charity Menefee, director of the Division of Public Health for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. (Courtesy of DHHS)
LINCOLN — The director who handles public health matters for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, Charity Menefee, has resigned.
Gov. Jim Pillen announced the departure, effective...
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a news conference on the Autism report by the CDC at the Hubert Humphrey Building Auditorium in Washington, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (Jose Luis Magana / AP Photo)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warned that children in the U.S. are being diagnosed with autism at an “alarming rate,” promising on Wednesday to conduct exhaustive studies...
Elon Musk flashes his T-shirt that reads "DOGE" to the media as he walks on South Lawn of the White House, in Washington, March 9, 2025. (Jose Luis Magana / AP Photo)
NEW YORK (AP) — The nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice says staff from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency contacted them to assign a team to the organization and told them they planned...
This Week's News
Prisoners look out from their cell as the Costa Rica Justice and Peace minister tours the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Salvador Melendez / AP Photo)
04/21/2025 - 7:00am
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Washington found probable cause Wednesday the Trump administration is in contempt of court for defying his order to stop flights of Venezuelan immigrants headed to a prison in El Salvador.
U.S. District Judge James...
Charity Menefee, director of the Division of Public Health for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. (Courtesy of DHHS)
04/21/2025 - 5:00am
LINCOLN — The director who handles public health matters for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, Charity Menefee, has resigned.
Gov. Jim Pillen announced the departure, effective May 9, in a statement Tuesday that said Menefee made...
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a news conference on the Autism report by the CDC at the Hubert Humphrey Building Auditorium in Washington, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (Jose Luis Magana / AP Photo)
04/21/2025 - 4:00am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warned that children in the U.S. are being diagnosed with autism at an “alarming rate,” promising on Wednesday to conduct exhaustive studies to identify any environmental factors that may...
Elon Musk flashes his T-shirt that reads "DOGE" to the media as he walks on South Lawn of the White House, in Washington, March 9, 2025. (Jose Luis Magana / AP Photo)
04/21/2025 - 3:00am
NEW YORK (AP) — The nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice says staff from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency contacted them to assign a team to the organization and told them they planned to similarly install teams with all nonprofits...
Flint Michigan water tower. (Carlos Osorio / AP Photo)
04/21/2025 - 2:00am
Mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services are continuing as the agency makes good on its intention, announced on March 27, 2025, to shrink its workforce by 20,000 people. Among workers dismissed in early April were several teams...
04/18/2025 - 7:00am
LINCOLN — Legalizing online sports gambling in Nebraska appears to be a risky bet for some state lawmakers. A proposed constitutional amendment advanced Monday but faces an uphill legislative climb.
Legislative Resolution 20CA, from State Sen. Eliot...
04/18/2025 - 5:00am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Wednesday sued Maine for not complying with the government's push to ban transgender athletes in girls and women's sports, escalating a dispute over whether the state is abiding by a federal law that...
Plaintiff James Obergefell of Ohio (center) wipes his eyes after exiting the Supreme Court in Washington on April 28, 2015, following arguments before the court over the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry. (Cliff Owen / AP Photo)
04/18/2025 - 4:00am
Same-sex marriage, which the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 legalized nationwide in the case known as Obergefell v. Hodges, is facing resurgent hostility.
In the decade since the court’s decision, public support for same-sex marriage has increased....
04/18/2025 - 3:00am
A federal judge in Vermont who is considering whether he has jurisdiction over the case of a Turkish Tufts University student detained by immigration officials in Louisiana raised the possibility Monday of having her brought back to his court for a...
Photos of a farmer-owned wind farm near Petersburg, Nebraska, in Boone County. (Courtesy of Nebraska Farmers Union)
04/17/2025 - 6:00am
Folks can get animated when it comes to discussions of climate science and energy production. Rather than the facts alone, confirmation bias and ideological rigidity can creep in to one’s seemingly common-sense position.
For example, some argue...
04/17/2025 - 5:00am
MANSFIELD, S.D. (AP) — Jared Bossly was planting soybeans one spring night in 2023 on his 2,000-acre farm in South Dakota when he spotted a sheriff’s vehicle parked at the corner of his property. He had a hunch it wasn’t a social visit.
“I’m like, ‘...
04/17/2025 - 3:00am
OSAKA, Japan (AP) — The Expo 2025 opened in Osaka on Sunday with more than 10,000 people singing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony to celebrate the start of the six-month event that Japan hopes will unite the world divided by tensions and wars.
Here is...
04/16/2025 - 7:00am
LINCOLN – A former state senator and decorated U.S. Army veteran is headed again to Ukraine in hopes of providing reassurance that Americans still support the country’s fight for freedom against Russia.
This month, former Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon...
(Shutterstock)
04/16/2025 - 6:00am
I recall growing up, before doom scrolling on phones and tablets was a thing, there would be a new commercial that would show up every month or so about some miracle pill to stop some new health problem. “Bananas are radioactive! They cause cancer!...
Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and University of Nebraska at Omaha professor Bing Chen (to her left) were among those celebrating the placement of a state historical marker in a Lincoln park on Friday commemorating Loren Eiseley, an anthropologist, author, philosopher and educator who grew up near Irvingdale Park. (Paul Hammel / Nebraska Examiner)
04/16/2025 - 5:00am
LINCOLN — While growing up in south Lincoln, Loren Eiseley would often venture down to a small stream near his home to gather specimens for his homemade aquarium.
Once, the story goes, he almost drowned while exploring at a nearby pond, a pond now...
Two old African elephants Bully (left) and Susi, stand inside the Barcelona Zoo in Spain, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (Hernan Muñoz / AP Photo)
04/16/2025 - 4:00am
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — At the Barcelona Zoo, a 40-year-old African elephant places her foot through the metal barrier where a zookeeper gently scrubs its sole — the beloved pachyderm gets her “pedicure,” along with apple slices every day.
The...
04/16/2025 - 3:00am
BANGKOK (AP) — Several Southeast Asian countries kicked off their annual water festival holiday on Sunday, but in the wake of a devastating earthquake last month, Myanmar is missing out on the fun.
The holiday is an occasion for merrymaking during...
04/16/2025 - 2:00am
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) — Esteban Gast remembered a feeling of shame he had in high school while calculating how much carbon dioxide, the main driver of climate change, his daily activities created, known as a carbon footprint.
“Have you ever driven a...
04/15/2025 - 7:00am
LINCOLN — A Utah manufacturing expert has been named the next president and CEO of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the largest statewide business lobbying group.
Todd Bingham, most recently president and CEO of the 120-year-old Utah...
(Shutterstock)
04/15/2025 - 6:00am
Protecting children from online harm is a goal we all share, and there is no question that more needs to be done to keep them safe.
However, approaches like a current proposal in the Nebraska Legislature, the Age-Appropriate Online Design Code Act,...
04/15/2025 - 5:00am
From Lollapalooza to Detention Camps: Meet the Tent Company Making a Fortune Off Trump’s Deportation Plans
by Jeff Ernsthausen, Mica Rosenberg and Avi Asher-Schapiro
ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big...
04/15/2025 - 4:00am
MECHANICSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Mike Fowler had been faintly aware that a museum of Rolls-Royce and Bentley vehicles existed near his boyhood home in the suburbs of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, but the car enthusiast didn't expect the experience he got when...
