Published by jason@omahadail... on Wed, 02/18/2026 - 12:00am
Norwalk, Connecticut — The solution to one of the most persistent problems in education today may lie in the work occurring in a small breakroom deep inside Ponus Ridge STEAM Academy. In the room, five school officials sit around a little table, laptops open, running swiftly through a long list of middle school students who have major attendance problems.
“Out with the flu for a week.”
“He’s moving to Texas.”
“When we said we would show up at her house, she started coming.”
Published by jason@omahadail... on Wed, 02/18/2026 - 12:00am
WASHINGTON — U.S. House Democrats on Wednesday rebuked ongoing efforts from President Donald Trump’s administration to dismantle the Department of Education, including moves to shift some of its core functions to other agencies.
Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia — who hosted a spotlight forum alongside several colleagues — said “over and over again, the administration has circumvented the law to hamstring the future of public education without the consent of Congress or the American people.”
Published by jason@omahadail... on Wed, 02/18/2026 - 12:00am
Olympians – athletes at the top of their sport and in prime health – are idolized and often viewed as superhuman. These athletes spend their lives focusing on building physical strength through rigorous training and diets that are honed to provide the nutrients necessary to excel at their sport.
However, athletes are at considerable risk for eating disorders and having an unhealthy relationship with food and their bodies.
Published by jason@omahadail... on Wed, 02/11/2026 - 12:00am
When Chris Vega arrived in Omaha in mid-2025, he was unhoused, living on the street. Omaha was his latest stop on what seemed like a national tour of homeless shelters.
Vega, who is in his mid-30s, voluntarily decided to become unhoused after leaving his home in Orlando, Florida, almost a decade ago. His travels took him to several cities, including Augusta, Georgia, and San Francisco, where his lived on the streets for about three years.
Published by jason@omahadail... on Wed, 02/11/2026 - 12:00am
Shelby native Curt Tomasevicz fulfilled his dream of playing football for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, where he was a scrappy special teamer. But since then, his life and career have taken a circuitous route — a twisting, turning path kind of like a bobsled course.
Tomasevicz, who grew up in a 700-person town hundreds of miles from the nearest mountain, is now on the USA Bobsledding leadership team as director of sport performance. And he’s currently at the Winter Olympics in Italy.
Published by jason@omahadail... on Wed, 02/11/2026 - 12:00am
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education reinforced the right to prayer in public schools in guidance issued Thursday.
Under the guidance to state and local education agencies, students, teachers and school officials have “a right to pray in school as an expression of individual faith, as long as they’re not doing so on behalf of the school,” the department said.
Published by jason@omahadail... on Tue, 02/10/2026 - 10:39pm
In 2023, the science fiction literary magazine Clarkesworld stopped accepting new submissions because so many were generated by artificial intelligence. Near as the editors could tell, many submitters pasted the magazine’s detailed story guidelines into an AI and sent in the results. And they weren’t alone. Other fiction magazines have also reported a high number of AI-generated submissions.
Published by jason@omahadail... on Wed, 02/04/2026 - 12:00am
“Don’t give me narcotics.”
Emmalee Hortin, a doula, recalled one of her clients delivering that message to hospital staff. Doctors were operating on the woman to clear tissue after a miscarriage.
But despite her patient’s pleas, clinicians still administered fentanyl via IV to manage pain, Hortin said. Her client had substance use disorder and had been working toward recovery.
“She was really, really upset,” Hortin said. “She actually was really worried about returning to use, and so was her husband.”
Published by jason@omahadail... on Wed, 02/04/2026 - 12:00am
VANDALIA, Mo. — Kathy Briggs slipped her arms through the thick straps of a brand-new baby carrier, tugging it over her beige shirt as two other women stood beside her, tightening buckles and adjusting the padded waistband.
The carrier was still stiff from its packaging, and Briggs shifted her feet as one of the women gently lifted then-6-month-old Melody into the front pouch.
Melody’s gray-blue eyes tracked the women’s hands, and her wispy blond hair — gathered into a tiny pink bow — bobbed slightly with the movement. She blinked up at the adults.
Published by jason@omahadail... on Wed, 02/04/2026 - 12:00am
LINCOLN — Since it was renovated and reopened in 1997, the 729-seat Midwest Theater in Scottsbluff has served as a cultural beacon in the state’s Panhandle.
The 79-year-old Art Deco theater hosts Grammy-winning musicians, classic movies and films nominated for Academy Awards, as well as local theater performances and weddings.