PrairiePundit

  PJ Media: Yet another train rolled off the tracks; this one is on the east end of Gothenburg, Neb. The train contained cars carrying hazardous materials. It’s the latest in more than a dozen train derailments this year. Hazmat crews rushed to the scene. This isn’t the first derailment near Gothenburg. “This is the fourth one in the last 10 months, it must be one of the busiest railways in America,” local resident Jesse Ambler  told  reporters. “The rail company keeps laying people off and building longer and longer trains, but with less people to maintain the tracks. It’s a problem.” Union Pacific Railroad released a statement, which read in part: At about 1:45 a.m. CST today, approximately 31 Union Pacific train cars carrying coal derailed near Gothenburg, Nebraska. No one was injured. The incident occurred about three miles southeast of Gothenburg. Cleanup has begun, with heavy equipment on site. One of the three mainline tracks near the derailment site reopened to tr...

 Washington Examiner: T he omicron variant is now the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the U.S., according to federal tracking. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data  shows  that omicron accounted for more than 73% of COVID-19 cases last week, up from about 13% the week prior. The agency revised its data Monday to reflect an increase in confirmed omicron cases the week ending Dec. 11, which was initially estimated to be about 3%. ... Early  data  out of South Africa reported that hospitalizations due to the omicron variant were 29% lower than in the initial wave in March 2020. One major caveat, though, is South Africa's relatively high population immunity. The country has endured three robust waves of COVID-19 in which nearly everyone was exposed to the virus whether they got severely ill or not. COVID-19 cases continue to surge in most of the U.S., especially in the Northeast and Midwest. Delta, meanwhile, still accounts for more than 26% of cases in th...

 Pete Rickets: Chancellor Ronnie Green believes the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) is racist. Under his leadership, UNL recently released a plan to address “institutional racism” as part of its “Journey for Anti-Racism and Racial Equity.” From racially motivated hiring practices to divisive trainings, the plan would inject Critical Race Theory (CRT) into every corner of campus. At the foundation of UNL’s plan are the writings of Ibram Kendi, who has openly called for discrimination on the basis of skin color. Kendi has written that “The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.” This plan is the product of ideologues—not thoughtful Nebraska academics. Needless to say, I could not be more disappointed in the Chancellor’s plan, and I completely disagree with the notion that UNL is a racist institution. UNL’s focus should be on educational excellence, not ideological indoctrination....

 Daily Wire: Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts slammed President Joe Biden on Sunday for the administration’s vaccine mandate, saying that Biden does not know what is going on in the states because he does not attend his own administration’s weekly governors meeting. When asked by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace whether he was being “cavalier with the health” of the people of Nebraska, Ricketts responded, “What we’re doing is focusing on preserving our hospital capacity, which we have successfully done here in Nebraska.” “We’ve got the third, we’re tied for the third lowest mortality rate of any state in the country for people who have contracted COVID-19, and so we protected that hospital capacity to provide that care,” he said. “And again, we can look at the data specifically around children and see the risks. Last year in Nebraska, if you were aged 10-19, you were 26 times more likely to die in a car accident than you were of COVID-19.” Ricketts continued, “So, the president should ...

  Epoch Times: Nebraska Governor Sending State Troopers to US–Mexico Border Amid Immigration Crisis Some states are stepping up to deal with the crisis created by Biden who has opened the border to the Mexican drug cartels who are making a fortune by facilitating illegal immigration into the US and importing dangerous drugs.  Nebraska joins Florida in the effort.

Omaha World-Herald: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, sent their spouses to suburban Sarpy County on Saturday. Nebraska Democratic Party officials say the setting was no accident. The Papillion neighborhood that Jill Biden and Doug Emhoff visited straddles Nebraska’s 1st and 2nd Congressional Districts. Location matters because Nebraska doles out a single Electoral College vote to the winner of the popular vote in each of its three congressional districts. State Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb has argued that Biden and Harris could win in both the 1st and 2nd Districts. The Nebraska Republican Party has described her idea as wishful thinking. Theresa Thibodeau, chairwoman of the Douglas County Republican Party, said the difference in energy for President Donald Trump and Biden is as clear as the number of people attending events. Biden campaign officials said they have been more responsible than Trump, limiting crowds and ...