Published by maggie@omahadai... on Tue, 04/28/2026 - 12:00am
PANAMA CITY (AP) — Businesses have doled out as much as $4 million to move boats through the Panama Canal with the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, according to the Panama Canal Authority, in a move that has created a seismic shift in global trade flows.
While passage through the waterway usually comes at a flat rate via reservations, companies without reservations can cross by paying an additional fee in an auction for slots, which are awarded to the highest bidder rather than waiting for days off the coast of Panama City.
Published by maggie@omahadai... on Tue, 04/28/2026 - 12:00am
NEW YORK (AP) — An $81 billion Warner-Paramount mega merger has received shareholders’ stamp of approval, propelling a deal that could vastly reshape Hollywood and the wider media landscape closer to the finish line.
On Thursday, Warner Bros. Discovery said the overwhelming majority of its stakeholders voted in support of selling Paramount for $31 a share. Including debt, the deal is valued at nearly $111 billion based on Warner's current outstanding shares.
Published by maggie@omahadai... on Tue, 04/28/2026 - 12:00am
Hundreds of millions of people consult artificial intelligence chatbots on a daily basis for everything from product recommendations to romance, making them a tempting audience to target with potentially below-the-radar advertising. Indeed, our research suggests AI chatbots could easily be used for covert advertising to manipulate their human users.
Published by maggie@omahadai... on Tue, 04/28/2026 - 12:00am
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans approved a budget resolution early Thursday intended to speed the way for billions for immigration enforcement, sending the measure to the House, where GOP lawmakers in that chamber need to adopt it to unlock the reconciliation process.
The 50-48 vote followed a marathon amendment voting session that Democrats used to highlight policy differences on cost-of-living issues and stalled federal emergency relief dollars for states.
Published by maggie@omahadai... on Tue, 04/28/2026 - 12:00am
Not long ago, Nebraska’s growth was quite literally a national cover story.
Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts soared through the air wearing skis and goggles on the Olympic-themed March 2018 cover of Site Selection, an economic development industry magazine.
The cartoon image illustrated Nebraska’s high-flying, three-year run as winner of the “Governor’s Cup,” awarded to the state landing the most economic development projects per capita in the nation.
Published by maggie@omahadai... on Tue, 04/28/2026 - 12:00am
What is the limit on how many teen boys can pursue a physical relationship with a teenage girl? When you were in high school, how many youths attended? Two hundred? Four? How many were of the opposite gender, and how many approached you to date? Let’s say, per year?
Published by maggie@omahadai... on Tue, 04/21/2026 - 12:00am
To be American… does it mean that you “have” freedom? You own it? Is it a thing you can grasp with your hands? Or does it mean that others may not grasp you – and that is your ‘freedom’? Freedom is freedom, I would think, when it applies to everyone. If you were in Iran or Pakistan and wanted to listen to your favorite music but were not allowed to due to some religious law, but someone else is allowed to listen to their favorite music, then that is not freedom.
Published by maggie@omahadai... on Tue, 04/21/2026 - 12:00am
LINCOLN — The Nebraska Supreme Court sided with state officials Friday in saying they had the right to refuse to bargain with a state employees union over a 2023 executive order seeking to limit remote work.
Justice Jonathan Papik of Omaha, in a unanimous 22-page decision, wrote that the state clearly had the “right to increase, reduce, change, modify and alter the composition and site of the workforce,” as specified in a collective bargaining agreement with state employees.
Published by maggie@omahadai... on Tue, 04/21/2026 - 12:00am
Within moments of entering the Newport Renaissance Faire, you are ushered to a group of fairies. They pass you a scroll and say, “You must seek out the Bone Man for the first hurdle in your quest.” As you navigate the fair, you find many men dressed in bones, both vendors and fellow attendees. When you find the correct Bone Man – an actor wearing what appears to be a mask made of human skull along with a crown constructed from deer antlers – he stamps your scroll. He then sends you to your next target: the Drunk Viking.
Published by maggie@omahadai... on Tue, 04/14/2026 - 12:00am
Of the tens of thousands of impoverished Scandinavians who fled crop failures and religious oppression for a fertile and free Nebraska in the late 19th century, probably only two are connected to something in Nebraskans’ kitchen today.