Updated election results today. My heartfelt appreciation to everyone! I am here to serve my entire district whether I earned your vote or not. And I look forward to continued conversations with everyone!

The Nebraska State Board of Education rejected two federal mental health grants related to school psychologists after Republican members said the guidelines were unclear. nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/n…

This is a big week ahead to gauge how the economy is performing – the Bureau of Labor Statistics will provide a government shutdown-delayed read on both jobs and inflation through November. There will surely be more noise than usual in the numbers, given that the BLS surveys were disrupted by the shutdown. However, abstracting from the vagaries of the data, it will likely show that the job market is struggling and that inflation is uncomfortably high. More precisely, payroll employment will be more or less unchanged, as it has since much higher tariffs were announced on Liberation Day in April. And this is before all the revisions to the jobs data are in, which the Federal Reserve suggests means the economy has been consistently losing jobs in recent months. Unemployment will rise again to 4.5%, up half a percentage point since the start of the year. And this despite little to no labor force growth, given the immigrant deportations and the collapse in foreign-born workers.

This dynamic seminar is for anyone serious about mastering the art of PI litigation. Whether you’re a new trial lawyer, a seasoned PI attorney, or a lawyer transitioning into PI work, you’ll leave with actionable strategies and insider insights. Visit NebraskaTrial.com.

Proud of the work we get to do on the State Board of Education. And grateful to the Sherwood Foundation for their $25 million investment in Nebraska literacy.

This! It’s urgent! And scary as hell!

Message from NATA President, Mark Richardson. We are grateful for all our partners across Nebraska. Happy Law Day 2025!

To all my LGBTQIA friends— I see you, I believe God made you to be special so we could all learn from you — and I will fight for your rights to live and love authentically. And I will pray for the people that sadly believe God wants us to judge others instead of loving them.

“This is becoming a political military” …. This is a very good listen. nytimes.com/audio/app/2025/0…

Pretty big fan of folks like @TomBecka that can focus on facts and history, instead of on campaign talking points, misleading commercials and special interest politics. omahadailyrecord.com/content…

In the first minute of this interview TODAY my congressman, Bacon, admits he knew that the budget resolution would cut Medicaid. A $880 BILLION cut mostly from Medicaid—jeopardizes care for 350,000 Nebraskans, including 151,000 children. #NE02 #HandsOffMedicaid

“DEI,” “CRT,” “woke,” “political correctness,” whatever — it’s all just modern-day repackaging of the same old resistance to racial progress. The language changes, but the goal stays the same: Keep Black people from advancing and silence discussions about racial inequality.

Proud of the ways the education sector is working together to solve problems. This survey shows progress in an area that has been one of our highest priorities for the NE State Board of Education. Kudos to all that are bringing these results! @NDE_GOV education.ne.gov/press_relea…

Omaha has 3 excellent candidates for mayor— 2 Dems and 1 Republican. Mike McDonnell is not one of them. Mike has a long history of despicable actions both personally and professionally. No one should be surprised this happened a few days ago at his presentation.

Baby they are implementing the plan, firing people and proverbially blowing things up and the Republican members of congress are clutching their pearls with one hand and confirming Trump’s nominees with the other. They are not serious about being a CO-EQUAL branch.

After careful consideration, I have decided to vote against Pete Hegseth’s nomination for Secretary of Defense. While I appreciate his courageous military service and his ongoing commitment to our servicemembers and their families, I am concerned that he does not have the experience and perspective necessary to succeed in the job. Our military is under tremendous pressure right now. Active conflicts in the Middle East and Europe combined with escalating threats in the Pacific, all against a backdrop of severe financial challenges and four years of ineffective leadership by the Biden Administration, make this an especially critical time for those who lead our military. The next Secretary of Defense will be responsible for managing a massive bureaucracy that includes nearly three million employees and a budget of nearly $850 billion. In addition, our next Secretary faces long-standing procurement and supply issues that continued to worsen under the Biden Administration. In sum, the Secretary is going to be facing a number of incredibly complex problems that are going to require highly skilled management ability. I am concerned that Mr. Hegseth does not have the management experience and background that he will need in order to tackle these difficulties. His limited managerial experience involved running two small non-profit organizations that had decidedly mixed results. I am also concerned about multiple statements, including some in the months just before he was nominated, that Mr. Hegseth has made about women serving in the military. He and I had a candid conversation in December about his past statements and apparently evolving views. I am not convinced that his position on women serving in combat roles has changed. Women comprise nearly 18 percent of our active-duty military. They continue to make critical and valuable contributions to our national defense. I have long advocated that women who wish to serve in and can meet the rigorous standards of combat roles should be able to do so. And numerous women have proved that they can accomplish this difficult feat. Currently, thousands of women are serving in combat roles and many others serve in non-combat functions. Their service is essential to the success of our military. Mr. Hegseth also appears to lack a sufficient appreciation for some of the policies that the military is required to follow because they are codified in the laws of the United States of America. While I understand his points on the importance of up-to-date and workable rules of engagement, our prohibitions against torture come from American laws and treaties ratified by the United States, including the Geneva Conventions. Therefore, I will vote against the nomination.

It’s fascinating to live in a place where elected officials just fundamentally don’t care at all about what the majority of the citizens want and where they largely don’t pay any sort of electoral penalty for it.

More than 50 votes later, divided Nebraska State Board of Education picks a president journalstar.com/news/local/e…

Congrats to our new #SBOE members! I look forward to adding this bundle of positivity to our #education policy conversations. #sworn-in today!

Make no mistake, if there's a government shutdown. Trump, Elon, and the Republican Party owns it all.

Will @RepDonBacon apologize to Tony Vargas for allowing his republican allies to unfairly criticize @TonyVargas for seeking pay increase now that Bacon and his GOP colleagues get pay raise as "Republicans slipped a pay raise for congress in the government funding bill"