Non-Profit News

Feeling Invisible, Many Disabled Caregivers Also Need Support

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 05/20/2026 - 12:00am

Helina Josephson retired from a career in university administration in 2017 due to autoimmune disease and chronic pain. She has ice pick headaches, which are exactly what they sound like — sudden, stabbing pain in her head. She has arthritis in her hips.

Last year, Josephson, 55, brought her mother, Rohana Miller, home from the emergency room. Miller is 80 and has dementia and diabetes, among other conditions. She moved in with Josephson last year, when it became clear that she wasn’t able to manage her diabetes safely on her own.

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Such Great Heights: They're Tall, They're Proud — And They're Getting Together

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 05/20/2026 - 12:00am

Celina Vilcinskas (center left) who is 6 feet, 8 inches tall, waits in line to enter a Tall Tour event Saturday, May 9, 2026, in Austin, Texas.
(David J. Phillip / AP Photo)

SEATTLE (AP) — This story has legs. Very long ones.

At a Seattle sports bar on a recent Saturday night, hundreds of very tall people got to experience something rare: blending in. Women in their highest heels craned their necks to look at someone taller. Men who usually duck under doorways looked ordinary. For once, nobody had to explain why they don’t play basketball.

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As Drought Worsens, Western States Brace For Wildfires, Water Shortages

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 05/13/2026 - 12:00am

From the Rockies to the Cascades to the Sierra Nevada, mountainsides across the West are sparsely covered by the snow that usually blankets the high country well into the summer.

That snowpack is like a savings account that the West draws on when the hot, dry months arrive. It moistens the landscape as it melts, lessening the risk of severe wildfire. The runoff feeds into river basins, and the swelling waterways provide power to hydroelectric dams, irrigation to farmers and drinking water to cities.

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Advocates Of Nebraska Ukrainian Refugees, Undocumented Students Step Into In-State Tuition Fray

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 05/13/2026 - 12:00am

Amanda Hall, founder of Orel Alliance, a nonprofit that works with area Ukrainian refugees.
(Cindy Gonzalez / Nebraska Examiner)

OMAHA — Two Nebraska nonprofits — one that advocates for Ukrainian refugees and another that’s provided scholarships to undocumented teens since 2014 — have taken legal action to stop the Trump and Pillen administrations from negotiating away Nebraska’s in-state tuition law.

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Why Schools Are Opening Parking Lots For Homeless Students And Families

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 05/13/2026 - 12:00am

SAN DIEGO — As an 8-year-old boy steered his bicycle in figure eights, his mother piled three plates with pizza and pineapple slices from an outdoor kitchen shared with more than a dozen other families who call this parking lot home.

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We Studied What Happened When Financially Struggling Artists Received $1,000 A Month, No Strings Attached, For 18 Months

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 05/13/2026 - 12:00am

Though artificial intelligence is making it easier than ever to produce images, music and text, the technology is also making it harder for the people who have traditionally produced this work to earn a living.

A photographer who once was commissioned to make art for an advertising campaign is now competing with graphics produced by the AI image generator Midjourney. A novelist who used to make money on the side as a technical writer is seeing that work be replaced by a series of prompts in ChatGPT.

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Omaha’s Recycling Program Falling Behind Peer Cities

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 05/06/2026 - 12:00am

An FCC Environmental Services truck picks up a recycling bin in west Omaha along its daily route.
(Kaitlyn Kelly / Flatwater Free Press)

Rachel Garey-Jacobsen keeps her worms in her basement.

Every week, she carries her metal compost container full of food scraps downstairs to feed the worms in their bin. In a few months' time, the red wigglers will convert Jacobsen’s food waste into compost that she then will put in her garden.

Jacobsen is an avid recycler, ramping up in 2018 when she moved from Grand Island to Omaha.

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Former Nurse Who Drew Public Attention To Victims Of Whiteclay Needs Help

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 05/06/2026 - 12:00am

Fishing for plastic fish in a bucket are Nora Boesem’s kids (from left) Frannie, 21, Rosie, 4, Daniel, 4, and Mark, 13.
(Courtesy photo via Nebraska Examiner)

LINCOLN — For years, the saga of the never-ending flow of alcohol from the tiny Nebraska village of Whiteclay to the adjacent Pine Ridge Indian Reservation focused on drunken people on the street.

They were a group of a dozen or more people without homes who drank openly along the dusty highway from beer cans wrapped in paper bags until they were in a stupor. Trash littered the sidewalk, which smelled of urine and worse.

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Denmark’s ‘Hands‑Off’ Approach To Parenting Could Offer A Blueprint For Raising More Resilient, Self‑Reliant Kids

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 05/06/2026 - 12:00am

Much has been written about Denmark’s consistently high scores in global happiness rankings, so it might not come as a surprise that Denmark is also rated the best place to raise children, according to U.S. News and World Report. The small Scandinavian nation also scores near the top for child well-being, a measure of physical health, mental health, education and social relationships.

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1,500 Beagles Will Get New Lives, Warm Laps After Release From Research Facility

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 05/06/2026 - 12:00am

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The first beagles removed from a Wisconsin dog breeding and research facility that was the site of recent protests seemed to know right away that they were safe.

“They started within an hour or so coming up to us, wanting attention. Some crawled in people’s laps. Every single one of them are super sweet,” Lauree Simmons, president and founder of Big Dog Ranch Rescue, said Sunday. “I think they are loving the attention. I just know they know they’re safe.”