Pete Ricketts has always had a hard time reading the room.

I remember when he was first running for governor. I heard him give a speech at Big Mama’s Kitchen in North Omaha. The room was filled with North Omaha residents concerned about urban issues like jobs, education and crime.

But instead of talking about those issues, Senator Ricketts gave his stump speech about his ag proposals. I’m sure the farmers in rural Nebraska could appreciate a speech like that, but it fell on deaf ears. By not reading the room, Pete Ricketts wasted his time and that of those in the crowd.

You may not be aware, but from January 1, 2026, until May 27th 2026, there have been 494 arrests made in Omaha of those who are in the country without the proper documentation. There have been 64 arrests in Lincoln, 60 in Grand Island, and 49 in Fremont have been detained or abducted, depending on your point of view, by ICE agents. That’s a total of 622 of our neighbors in eastern Nebraska, or an average of five and a quarter a day.

When recording audio, ‘room tone’ is the captured silence at the beginning of the track that sets the datum of noise against which the rest of the sound can be measured. It’s supposed to be a nice and quiet reference point. If this concept were instead used for the psychological thriller ‘Backrooms’ to characterize its opening thematic and environmental mood, the room tone would be a blood-curdling, blaring scream.