Charlie Kirk tweet leads to governor backing bill to end splitting of electoral college votes – potentially handing advantage to Trump US politics – latest updates The power of the far-right commentator Charlie Kirk was illustrated when his tweet prompted the governor of Nebraska to support a bill to change the state’s system for presidential elections in order to deny Democrats a single electoral vote that could decide the presidency later this year. “Nebraskans should call their legislators and their governor to demand their state stop pointlessly giving strength to their political enemies ..read more

In the Umoⁿhoⁿ Nation, teens learn about nutrition and build tribal sovereignty by farming for their school and community Before joining her school’s gardening program this year, 14-year-old Emilie Lyons had never encountered an eggplant. She is a freshman at Umoⁿhoⁿ Nation public school, which serves more than 600 students on the Omaha reservation in Macy, Nebraska. When she brought the vegetable home, she and her dad looked up recipes for how to prepare the peculiar purple nightshade and were surprised by how tasty it was. Umoⁿhoⁿ Nation is just one Indigenous-focused school across the US wh ..read more

David Franklin Slater is accused of illegally disclosing military information with person who called him ‘secret informant love’ A retired army colonel sent classified Pentagon secrets about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine through a foreign dating website to a person he believed was a woman in Ukraine who called him her “secret informant love”, court filings allege. David Franklin Slater, 63, a retired lieutenant colonel who was working as a civilian for United States Strategic Command, is accused of illegally disclosing sensitive national defense information ..read more

From New Mexico to Portland, Maine, temperatures dropped and snow fell, closing campaigns, football games and roads Icy winter weather blanketed the US on Saturday as a wave of Arctic storms threatened to break low-temperature records in the heartland, spread cold and snow from coast to coast and cast a chill over everything from football playoffs to presidential campaigns. As the three-day Martin Luther King Jr Day holiday weekend began, the weather forecast was a quilt of color-coded advisories, from an ice storm warning in Oregon to a blizzard warning in the northern plains to high wind war ..read more

Republican convicted over false statements about payment from billionaire should not have been tried in Los Angeles, court says An appellate court on Tuesday reversed a 2022 federal conviction against former Nebraska congressman Jeff Fortenberry, ruling that the Republican should not have been tried in Los Angeles. Fortenberry was convicted in March 2022 on charges that he lied to federal authorities about an illegal $30,000 contribution to his campaign from a foreign billionaire at a 2016 Los Angeles fundraiser. He resigned his seat days later after pressure from congressional leaders and Neb ..read more

Freezing weather affecting more than a million people expected in parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado Snow, freezing rain and high winds are hitting the northern plains and upper midwest states, with the National Weather Service warning that “blizzard conditions for central South Dakota into parts of Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado [are] resulting in difficult to near impossible travel” soon after Christmas. Parts of South Dakota were expected to receive up to 13in of snow, with wind gusts as high as 55 mph, according to the weather forecasting agency. The conditions affecting m ..read more

The American Legislative Exchange Council is promoting a model resolution for state legislatures to support Israel’s Gaza offensive A powerful rightwing pressure group, the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), is engineering pledges of unconditional support for Israel’s attack on Gaza by state legislatures across the US. Alec is promoting a model resolution expressing “support for Israel’s right to pursue without interference or condemnation the elimination of Hamas”. A version has been accepted by legislatures in at least eight states, including Pennsylvania, Nebraska and North Dakot ..read more

Yanqi Xu, 27, said she was ‘shocked’ by Jim Pillen’s comments and has since received support from other journalists The Nebraska governor, Jim Pillen, is under fire for his dismissal of an investigative article into his family business, saying he didn’t read the piece because the reporter was “from communist China”. The reporter, 27-year-old Yanqi Xu, said that she was “shocked” by Pillen’s comments concerning her nationality, especially after Pillen’s office did not respond to several requests for comments for Xu’s piece ..read more

Free & Just uses signs referring to Jessica and Celeste Burgess, who received prison sentences after procuring and using abortion pills Over the last week, if Nebraskans on their commute looked up, they might have glimpsed a striking banner flying through the sky – a red, black and white flag that read: “Extremist groups don’t want you to know women are going to jail under Nebraska’s abortion ban.” The banner is the work of Free & Just, an abortion rights organization that, over the past few months, has launched a campaign that publicizes the case of Jessica Burgess and her teenage dau ..read more

How did a volleyball team representing a public research university in a prairie state attract 92,003 fans to set the global attendance record for women’s sports? It’s a long story Memorial Stadium went dark, the hum and strum of Sirius by the Alan Parsons Project started and the capacity crowd turned to the stadium’s north end. Every University of Nebraska football home game starts this way. Fans clap as the stadium’s huge videoboard shows the team’s approach from the locker room and their entrance on to the field. The Tunnel Walk is one of college football’s signature traditions. And Nebrask ..read more