By Erin Bamer | Reporter
“If indeed it is such a cost burden upon government entities and taxpayers, how many child abusers and sexual predators are they employing in the first place?” - State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, about sexual-abuse allegations at the state-run Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center in Kearney.
(Illustration by Hanscom Park Studio)
SOCIAL SERVICES
By Sara Gentzler, Flatwater Free Press
The former state employee who sexually abused Jennifer Martin’s son now sits in jail. But Martin sees the employee’s impact every day: Her 17-year-old son is more anxious, quicker to anger.
She resents the state of Nebraska for the abuse that happened at the state-run Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center in Kearney. And she can think of one way the state could start to make amends: continuing to pay for his therapy. Right now, it’s court-ordered. Someday, it won’t be.
Reporters in a press pool ask questions of President Donald Trump and Frank Bisignano, left, administrator of the Social Security Administration, in the Oval Office on Aug. 14, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
COMMENTARY
By George Ayoub
Enough already with “fake news.” We are weary. We are worn out.
Prove one way or another or put a lid on the nonsense.
An AI-rendered image of what a proposed sculpture honoring Cameron the Capitol Cat outside the Nebraska State Capitol could look like is projected during a meeting of the Nebraska Capitol Environs Commission on Sept. 25, 2026. The artificial intelligence image is not the final design. The supporters and sculptor Benjamin Victor would design the final work. (Photo by Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
ICYMI
By Zach Wendling
LINCOLN — A commission expressed openness Friday to a revised proposal for a sculpture to honor the Nebraska State Capitol’s longtime unofficial feline mascot.
The U.S. Supreme Court on April 9, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
IMMIGRATION
By Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration Thursday made an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to allow for rapid third-country deportations of noncitizens to continue, after an appeals court blocked the policy last week.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Czech President Petr Pavel visits Nebraska | Juan Salinas II
COMMENTARY
Resist efforts to roll back tax relief | Lou Ann Linehan, Tom Briese
Careless budget decisions threaten state’s stability | John Stinner
EDITOR'S CHOICE
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