By Zach Wendling | Reporter
“It’s an unchristian policy we’re seeing here. I get it, we wanted to secure the borders. I think we’ve done that. We don’t want dangerous people here, I get it. But what’s going on here is a terrible overreach, a terrible injustice.” - U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., speaking about the deportation of UNO grad Mariana Juarez.
Mariana Juarez earned her private pilot license in the U.S., a step in a journey to be a commercial pilot. The University of Nebraska at Omaha graduate, who entered the U.S. from Mexico without authorization, lost a battle to remain in the country and said she bought an airline ticket to return to her homeland. (Photo courtesy of Mariana Juarez)
IMMIGRATION
UNO grad’s aim to soar as U.S. pilot dashed by immigration status, despite Rep. Bacon’s intervention
By Cindy Gonzalez
OMAHA — Ever since she can remember, Mariana Juarez wanted to fly. A commercial pilot’s license seemed a distant dream, though, when family hardships in her home in Guerrero, Mexico, drove her out of school at age 14.
Two years later, she and her mom fled to the United States without authorization.
Cutouts at an Omaha office of the Nebraska Democratic Party on April 3, 2026. (Juan Salinas II/ Nebraska Examiner)
ELECTION 2026
By Juan Salinas II
LINCOLN — The Nebraska Democratic Central Committee voted Sunday not to fill the vacancy caused when Cindy Burbank dropped out of the Senate race.
The funding package President Donald Trump signed Feb. 3, 2026, includes $79 billion for the U.S. Education Department, representing a rejection by Congress of the president’s plan to close the department. (Photo by kali9/Getty Images)
COMMENTARY
By George Ayoub
Most of Nebraska’s students from preschoolers to Ph.D. candidates are now back in classrooms, running on playgrounds or dabbling in science labs.
U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., left, and registered nonpartisan Dan Osborn will debate at the Nebraska State Fair at a televised debate hosted by News Channel Nebraska. In addition to News Channel Nebraska, reporters from the Nebraska Examiner, Flatwater Free Press and Omaha World-Herald will serve on a panel to ask questions. (Photo courtesy of News Channel Nebraska)
REQUEST FOR QUESTIONS
By Nebraska Examiner staff
Use the form at the link to submit a question intended for Nebraska's U.S. Senate candidates. Your question could be selected to be asked at the Sept. 1 debate. The Nebraska Examiner’s Juan Salinas II will serve on the panel of reporters asking questions.
Independent U.S. Senate candidate Dan Osborn speaking durring his rally in La Vista on July 30, 2026. (Photo by Juan Salinas II/Nebraska Examiner)
ELECTION 2026
By Andrew Wegley, Flatwater Free Press
Two paid staffers of Dan Osborn’s 2024 campaign joined an effort to dissolve a rival political party last year, according to records obtained by the Flatwater Free Press. The records reveal the lengths Osborn’s allies have gone to clear the field for the nonpartisan U.S. Senate candidate as he attempts to unseat Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts.
Smith Falls State Park, Niobrara River in 2019. (Courtesy of Aaron Sanderford)
ENVIRONMENT & AGRICULTURE
By Jackie Ourada, Nebraska Public Media News
The State of Nebraska on Aug. 13 approved a permit for TK Angus to construct a hog operation in Cherry County. The approval follows a campaign of letters to the Nebraska Department of Water, Energy and Environment (DWEE) that mostly opposed the plans.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Washington, D.C., pictured in Feb. 3, 2026. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
D.C. BUREAU
By Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — Fentanyl seizures decreased by 39% during the first year of the second Trump administration after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shifted the Department of Homeland Security’s criminal investigations arm to conducting immigration enforcement, according to a report government investigators published Friday.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
2nd District candidates try to paint each other as extreme | Juan Salinas II
Online sports betting measures qualify for November ballot | Zach Wendling
Advocates of ‘most vulnerable’ call for funding cuts pause | Cindy Gonzalez
COMMENTARY
OPINION: Passion for informing Nebraskans brings editor to the Examiner | Joan von Kampen
EDITOR'S CHOICE
GOP, Dems appeal to stop other political parties | Juan Salinas II
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