By Aaron Sanderford | Editor-in-chief
“I feel like it’s part of the job … you’ve got to stand in the town square … I know that there can be a lot of emotion at these; that’s the time we live in.” - U.S. Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., speaking about the value of still doing town halls.
Nebraska U.S. Rep Mike Flood, R-Neb., during his town hall in Lincoln on Aug. 4, 2025. (Juan Salinas II/Nebraska Examiner)
ELECTION 2026
By Juan Salinas II
LINCOLN — Like his other town halls in recent years, U.S. Rep. Mike Flood dealt with boos and jeers during his roughly hourlong gathering last week in his hometown of Norfolk, Nebraska.
Nebraska Public Power District’s Cooper Nuclear Station in Brownville is the lone nuclear power plant still operating in Nebraska. (Lily Smith/Flatwater Free Press)
TECHNOLOGY
By Anila Yoganathan, Flatwater Free Press
BEATRICE, Nebraska — Applause echoed through the Gage County courthouse. The county board had just approved new, more stringent wind energy regulations. Six years later, another energy source — nuclear power — could be coming to Gage County.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen speaks at his press conference at the Capitol in Lincoln on May 29, 2026. (Juan Salinas II/Nebraska Examiner)
ICYMI
By Juan Salinas II
LINCOLN — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed an executive order Friday that creates a framework for K-12 schools, colleges and universities to track and report antisemitic behavior to the Governor’s Office.
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in December 2025. (Tom Brenner/Getty Images)
COMMENTARY
By George Ayoub
The real issue for Congress, however, is that the anti-weaponization fund is not the White House’s only bad idea bouncing around Washington. It is the one that has garnered some recent pushback in quarters previously content.
States with cannabis industries say they’re waiting for detail before taking action in response to the Department of Justice’s rescheduling of medical marijuana. (Amanda Watford/Stateline)
HEALTH
By Amanda Watford
The U.S. Department of Justice’s recent decision to downgrade the drug classification for medical cannabis will help medical marijuana businesses. Companies will be able to claim some federal tax benefits. New research can start up at state universities.
A University of Utah clinic in Salt Lake City displays a sign warning about measles last year. Utah is among the states that already has more measles cases in 2026 than in all of 2025, when cases reached the highest annual level since 1991. (McKenzie Romero/Utah News Dispatch)
HEALTH
By Tim Henderson
Vaccine hesitancy fed by misinformation is causing new surges of measles and whooping cough, while COVID-19 hotspots persist in some states and a new threat looms from an Ebola outbreak in central Africa.
Trump supporters gathers in front of the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. An “anti-weaponization” fund was created by the Department of Justice in May 2026 that could pay those who took part in the Jan. 6 attack. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
D.C. BUREAU
By Jonathan Shorman
President Donald Trump’s extraordinary $1.776 billion fund to pay off allies and others who say they have been wronged by past administrations has drawn widespread condemnation by opponents, including some Republicans.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
How a federal Native boarding school lost its dead | By Jessica Wade, NPM
Pancreatic cancer director sues NU, UNMC | By Erin Bamer
Feds pause Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger | By Aaron Sanderford
COMMENTARY
OPINION: New Nebraska law correctly keeps books | By George Ayoub
EDITOR'S CHOICE
Complaints sent on Dem, Marijuana Senate candidates | By Juan Salinas II
Dems ask DOJ to investigate Harding’s late disclosures | By Juan Salinas II
Fischer seeks more fiber in Nebraska’s broadband diet | By Erin Bamer
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