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Midwesterners were hit by violent tornadoes on Friday, and many lost their homes as the cyclones ripped through their communities.
The post VIDEO — ‘Thankful to Be Alive’: Communities Left Reeling After Tornadoes Slam Midwest appeared first on Breitbart.
The only two states that apportion Electoral College votes in presidential races by congressional district are poised to scrap what makes them unique.
In these systems, presidential candidates get one electoral vote for each congressional district they win in the state. Unlike in other states, the Democratic, Republican, and other party candidates could end up splitting a state’s electoral votes among them.
The usually blue Maine and generally red Nebraska each had one battleground congressional district that would sometimes draw presidential candidates.
But the Maine Legislature moved to give its electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote—regardless of who carries the state.
Nebraska lawmakers are considering becoming like 48 other states with winner-take-all elections, meaning the candidate who captures the majority of the state’s popular vote takes all of the state’s electoral votes. Nebraska’s change—if adopted—would affect the 2024 presidential election, while the Maine change likely wouldn’t.
Last week, Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills announced she would let a bill making Maine the 18th state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact become law without her signature after it narrowly passed the state Legislature.
Maine Joins National Popular Vote Compact https://t.co/e6tvfYRH6H via @democracynow
— NationalPopularVote (@NatlPopularVote) April 21, 2024
Under the multistate compact, Maine agrees to give its four electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the national popular vote. The states that make up the compact thus far represent a combined 209 electoral votes. Those votes will only activate when the compact reaches the required 270 electoral votes needed to elect a president.
Meanwhile, Nebraska’s Republican Gov. Jim Pillen is considering calling a special session of the state Legislature, which already adjourned on April 18, to adopt a winner-take-all system for the state’s five electoral votes.
Pillen said he would only call a special session “when there is sufficient support in the Legislature to pass it.”
Prominent conservative commentators such as Charlie Kirk and Mark Levin have supported the change in Nebraska.
JUST IN—The Great One, Mark Levin, gets behind turning Nebraska into a winner-take-all electoral college state.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 9, 2024
The coalition is growing. Listen to @marklevinshow break down why this is critical ahead of November? pic.twitter.com/97PbsKAp3P
Maine enacted its rule to divide its electoral votes by congressional district ahead of the 1972 election. It took another 20 years for Nebraska to follow suit, which it did ahead of the 1992 election.
However, split votes have been rare.
The first time Nebraska had a split came when Democrat Barack Obama won the swing Nebraska district in the Omaha area in the 2008 election, the first time since 1964 that a Democrat won an electoral vote in the state.
In 2016, Republican Donald Trump won Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes most of the state outside of Portland or Augusta, netting one electoral vote from the state. He was the first Republican since 1988 to win a Maine electoral vote.
In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden captured Nebraska’s 3rd Congressional District and its electoral vote.
The post These 2 States Are Poised to Scrap Fractured Electoral College System—in Different Ways appeared first on The Daily Signal.
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A teacher accused of having sex with a 17-year-old male student in Nebraska is married to a government official in the Department of Defense.
The post PHOTOS: Nebraska Teacher Accused of Sex with Student Is Wife of High-Ranking Pentagon Official appeared first on Breitbart.
A Nebraska high school substitute teacher was arrested after being caught in a compromising position with a teenage student in the back seat of her car, before the boy fled.
The post Police: Nebraska Teacher Found Undressed with Student in Back Seat of Car appeared first on Breitbart.
Charlie Kirk's Turning Point Action organization and Fox News host Mark Levin are calling on the public to contact Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen (R)'s office and urge him to call an emergency session of the legislature and make it so that the state refrains from giving away an electoral college vote to President Joe Biden if former President Donald Trump wins Nebraska in the 2024 presidential election.
The post Turning Point Action, Mark Levin to Public: Tell Nebraska Gov. Not to Give Electoral College Vote to Biden appeared first on Breitbart.
Two Republicans joined Democrats in blocking legislation that would have stopped transgender athletes from competing in girls' sports in K-12 schools in Nebraska.
The post Two Republicans Help Democrats Block Protections for Girls’ Sports in Nebraska appeared first on Breitbart.
A Nebraska state legislator is transitioning from blue to red after his own party censured him for having a pro-life stance. Nebraska state Sen. Mike McDonnell officially left the Democratic Party last week after 40 years and became a Republican.
In a written statement explaining his decision, McDonnell wrote: “I have asked the Democratic Party to respect my religious based pro-life position. Instead over the last year they have decided to punish me for being pro-life.”
Last month, the Nebraska Democratic Party voted to censure McDonnell, a Catholic, over his pro-life record, contending that his stance “adversely affected the reproductive rights of Nebraskans and the rights of transgender individuals in the state.”
Douglas County Democrats also voted in January to deny party funding to McDonnell due to his votes against abortion measures and against gender-transition procedures for minors.
“The state Democratic Party voted to censure me because I am pro-life,” McDonnell wrote. “Being a Christian, a member of the Roman Catholic Church and pro-life is more important to me than being a registered Democrat. Today I am changing my party affiliation to Republican.”
In a speech addressing his decision, McDonnell explained that he registered as a Democrat in 1984 and ran for the state Legislature in 2016.
“I wanted to see how we could grow our state and reduce property taxes at the same time,” he said. “I asked the Democratic Party of Douglas County to respect that I’m pro-life, that I’m a member of the Roman Catholic Church, and my beliefs are based on that. But Douglas County Democrats, instead of respecting that, they decided to punish it. … I continued to vote pro-life.”
“This is not an easy decision,” the state senator added. “After 40 years of being a registered Democrat, having your grandfather tell you when you’re 10 years old, ‘What are we? We’re Irish, we’re Catholic, and we’re Democrats.’ That kind of stuck with me.”
Pointing to his new Republican Party colleagues, McDonnell said: “Over the last year, regardless of my decision [on] switching parties, they have been so supportive. … We had great discussions about what the Republican Party is doing, where they’re trying to go, how I potentially could fit in there. But the greatest thing about [it] is now I can participate again.”
U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., a former governor of the state, responded to McDonnell’s decision by writing on X: “I am pleased to welcome Sen. Mike McDowell to the Republican team.” He added: “The extreme new Democrats are pushing commonsense officials and voters to our party.”
McDonnell is far from the only Catholic abandoning the Democratic Party due to what many consider mandatory abortion extremism.
Recent studies show that white American Catholics have been drifting away from the party for decades, but in increasing numbers over the past two decades, coalescing instead around the GOP.
A survey of Michigan voters found last month that former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee credited with appointing three justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who enabled the dismantling of Roe v. Wade, holds a significant lead among Catholic voters over President Joe Biden, a Democrat and self-described Catholic.
A week ago, the Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Wilton Gregory, called Biden a “cafeteria Catholic” due to his rejection of the Catholic Church’s teaching on abortion.
In response to McDonnell’s new party affiliation, Nebraska Democratic Party Chairwoman Jane Kleeb issued a written statement saying: “The Nebraska Democratic Party will continue to stand up for reproductive freedom and the human rights of the LGBTQ community.”
Kleeb added: “Our decision to censure Sen. McDonnell was never about him being a pro-life Catholic. Our decision was based on our party reaffirming our core values to protect women’s ability to make health decisions and to keep politicians out of our personal health decisions.”
Originally published by The Washington Stand
The post Citing Pro-Life Views, Nebraska State Senator Switches Parties appeared first on The Daily Signal.
The Nebraska Democrat party censured State Sen. Mike McDonnell on March 2 for his pro-life views and his refusal to comply with the transgender activist agenda, before he ultimately switched to the Republican Party on Wednesday.
The post Nebraska Democrat Censured for Pro-Life Views Before Switching to Republican Party appeared first on Breitbart.
An effort to change the electoral vote allocation system to a winner-takes-all system in Nebraska failed in the state’s unicameral legislature.
The post Dramatic Nebraska Winner-Takes-All Vote Fails in GOP-Controlled Legislature appeared first on Breitbart.
Democrats are calling a Nebraska Republican proposal to return the state to a winner-take-all electoral vote system as a "threat to democracy" – despite all other states but Nebraska and Maine allocating votes via that method.E
The post Panicked Democrats Call Nebraska Winner-Take-All Electoral Vote Proposal ‘Threat to Democracy’ appeared first on Breitbart.
Former Obama 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina said Wednesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Republicans would be "changing the rules" in the middle of an election when discussing former President Donald Trump and Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen calling on the state legislature to assign it's Electoral College votes with the winner-take-all standard.
The post Fmr Obama Campaign Manager Messina: GOP ‘Changing the Rules’ in the Middle of Election appeared first on Breitbart.
Nebraska State Sen. Mike McDonnell (R-5) announced he is fleeing the Democrat party to become a Republican, giving the GOP what U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) calls a “filibuster-proof majority” in Nebraska’s unicameral legislature.
The post Nebraska GOP Gains ‘Filibuster Proof’ Majority in Legislature After Democrat Switches Parties appeared first on Breitbart.
Democrats are sounding the alarm on Nebraska as Republicans, including Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen (R) and former President Donald Trump, push an effort to award all of the state’s electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the statewide vote.
The post Democrats Freak Out About Nebraska as Trump Pushes Winner-Take-All System in State appeared first on Breitbart.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972—a law guaranteeing equality between the sexes in education—has been on the chopping block from Day One of the Biden administration.
But after a lengthy delay, the federal Department of Education has formally announced it will punt on the announcement of its new Title IX sports rule, one that would permit biological males who identify as females to participate in women’s scholastic sports in accordance with their gender identity.
The civil rights law has been subject to rulemaking, both on the trans-sports issue and on the broader application of gender-identity protections in federally funded education programs.
While the administration has announced that it will delay announcing its new sports rule, at least for now, the broader, earlier proposed Title IX rule is already in the final stages of review at the White House, with a likely release date in August or September. Once released, it would apply to private spaces (restrooms, locker rooms, dorm rooms), preferred pronouns, sexual assault and harassment, and more.
The seismic changes included in the rule will affect any educational program that is funded directly or indirectly by the federal Department of Education—whether public school, private school, higher education institution, recreation center, charter school, or the like.
In reporting on the delay of the sports rule, The Washington Post quoted an insider who said, “Folks close to Biden have made the political decision to not move on the athletics [regulation] preelection. It seems to be too much of a hot topic.”
It sounds like the White House is finally waking up to the radioactivity of the trans-sports issue, a notion borne out by recent polling that indicates nearly 70% of Americans support separating sports by biological sex.
That polling, and the delay of Biden’s sports rule, means that now more than ever, state legislatures must act in the interest of female athletes and pass legislation protecting women’s equal educational opportunity before it’s too late.
That’s due to two developments; namely, the temporary suspension of the Title IX sports rule and the fact that even though the administration cleaved out a Title IX sports rule from the broader Title IX rule, a closer reading of the fine print indicates that, despite the administration’s attempts at legerdemain designed to fool the public, sports are included in the broader, earlier rule after all.
The earlier proposed Title IX rule explains, “preventing any person from participating in an education program or activity consistent with their gender identity would subject them to more than de minimis harm on the basis of sex and therefore be prohibited.” School sports? They’re “an education program or activity.” The proposed rule also prohibits gender identity discrimination in “extracurricular activities.”
Extracurricular activities include school sports.
There are 25 states with women’s sports laws on the books. And while Wisconsin’s governor, Democrat Tony Evers, just vetoed a state bill that would have maintained sex separations in school athletics, other states—Nebraska, for instance—still have time to act before the close of their legislative sessions.
Nebraska’s “Sports and Spaces” Act, LB 575, is sponsored by state Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, who is hopeful the bill will be voted out of committee sometime within the week. The bill would restrict access to school bathrooms and locker rooms based on biological sex and would add similar restrictions to most school sports teams.
Some have dubbed it one of the “most controversial bills” of the legislative session, likely due to the hot-button nature of its subject matter. As a result, the bill has been sitting in committee since its introduction by Kauth last year.
But controversial it isn’t—or at least shouldn’t be. With 70% of Americans backing these kinds of commonsense restrictions, it’s a wonder the legislation has stalled, especially in light of increasing evidence that women aren’t just losing playing time and athletic titles to transgender-identified men, but are now increasingly injured as a result of competing against them.
Nebraska’s legislative session ends on April 18. But all pending legislation must be debated on the floor before the end of this week to advance.
The speaker of the Nebraska Legislature, John Arch, has urged senators to consider the truncated time frame of legislative debate and hold off on bills that are unlikely to have enough votes to progress.
Such timidity is misguided.
Fifty years ago, the feminists of yore worked tirelessly to secure equal educational opportunity for women and girls. But choosing to support self-proclaimed “females” over biological girls who simply want a chance to play is wrong.
The time for legislative action is now—before it’s too late.
The post Biden Admin Punts on Radical Title IX Sports Rule Change for Now, but Nebraska Has Chance to Act appeared first on The Daily Signal.
NE Gov. Pillen has backed an effort to award all of the state's electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins statewide.
The post Nebraska Governor Backs Conservative-Led Effort to Award All of State’s Electoral Votes to Statewide Presidential Winner appeared first on Breitbart.
A pair of Nebraska nurses who married after meeting in their hospital's NICU added another member to their family when they adopted a premature infant they had cared for.
The post ‘Meant to Be’: Nebraska NICU Nurses Adopt Premature Baby They Cared For appeared first on Breitbart.
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