Nebraska

Nebraska authorities are investigating whether a 19-year-old Omaha-area man who shot himself while appearing on video in an online chat room committed suicide. Bellevue Police Chief John Stacey told the Los Angeles Times that the shooting was reported by a Florida man who had been viewing the chat on Friday evening. The man did not see the shooting before logging off, but saw people chatting about it when he logged on Saturday. He called police that morning. Stacey declined to identify the man or the chat room, which he said was not a niche group but a place where people gathered to socialize.

With Mitt Romney essentially the last Republican presidential candidate standing, the former Massachusetts governor will inch closer to officially clinching his party's nomination Tuesday when voters head to the polls in Oregon and Nebraska. Though the GOP presidential race lacks suspense, Republicans will have their eyes on Nebraska, where the retirement of Sen. Ben Nelson, a Democrat, has left a key seat up for grabs. Democratic former Sen. Bob Kerrey is expected to win his party's nomination, but the battle on the Republican side between Attorney General John Bruning, state Treasurer Don Stenberg and state legislator Deb Fischer, is less clear.

With Mitt Romney essentially the last Republican presidential candidate standing, the former Massachusetts governor will inch closer to officially clinching his party's nomination Tuesday when voters head to the polls in Oregon and Nebraska. Though the GOP presidential race lacks suspense, Republicans will have their eyes on Nebraska, where the retirement of Sen. Ben Nelson, a Democrat, has left a key seat up for grabs. Democratic former Sen. Bob Kerrey is expected to win his party's nomination, but the battle on the Republican side between Attorney General John Bruning, state Treasurer Don Stenberg and state legislator Deb Fischer, is less clear.

WASHINGTON - Upstart state Sen. Deb Fischer triumphed in Nebraska's bitterly contested Republican primary for U.S. Senate on Tuesday night, winning the right to face Democrat Bob Kerrey in November. The race had become a high-profile showdown among tea party leaders, who split their support among three candidates. The seat being vacated by Democrat Ben Nelson is considered the GOP's best opportunity for a Senate pickup this fall. Former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin had endorsed Fischer last week, giving the little-known rancher from the Sandhills region a boost.

On the dusty plains of Afghanistan, a surprising number of people are said to know the word "Nebraska." It began as a fluke in the early 1970s, when administrators at the University of Nebraska at Omaha launched the Center for Afghanistan Studies. They wanted to distinguish the school as an international institution, and no other university was studying the then-peaceful nation half a world away. As Afghanistan became a central battleground in the Cold War and then in the war against terrorism, the center -- and its gregarious, well-connected director, Thomas Gouttierre -- were fortuitously poised.

College football changed forever Friday -- -it's now a wild, new numbers game. The Big Ten Conference officially added Nebraska to become 12 teams, while the Big 12 officially lost two schools (Nebraska and Colorado) to drop to 10. Change Big Ten to 12 and Big 12 to 10--at least through the weekend. "This is the right move at the right time," Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne proclaimed. "…it's the right thing to do for Nebraska." Meanwhile, the Pacific 10 Conference had 10 members on Wednesday, 11 on Thursday when it added Colorado, and is on a fast track to becoming 16 after it invites five teams from the Big 12: Texas, Texas A & M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech.

USC next at Nebraska, Saturday, 3 p.m. PST, FS West ? The Trojans' first true road test comes against Doc Sadler's Cornhuskers (3-2) as part of the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series, which will discontinue after this year. USC lost at home to Nebraska last year, 51-48, and leads the all-time series, 5-2. -- Baxter Holmes

I would like to thank Calendar for coupling Richard Cromelin's interview of Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst ("The Spotlight Finds a Searching Soul", Nov. 10) with positive reviews of other recent Omaha releases. As a label manager and fellow musician, I have firsthand experience that quite often the level of talent on a roster (or a release) matters less than the "luck of exposure." Dean Kuipers and Kevin Bronson's objective critiques shine a light on material otherwise "underexposed" and show that there is depth to the Omaha indie scene.

Embattled UCLA basketball Coach Ben Howland implied in a statement released by the Bruins athletic department Thursday that he has no interest in Nebraska's coaching vacancy. “I am proud to be returning to my dream job as the head coach of the Bruins next fall, and I intend on ending my coaching career at UCLA," Howland said in the statement. "I'm already very excited about the prospects for next year's team, am currently on the recruiting trail, and will be visiting Kyle Anderson in New Jersey before returning to California this weekend to attend the Southern California Regional Championships at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario.” According to a recent report in the Omaha World-Herald, Nebraska contacted Howland about its coaching vacancy after dismissing Doc Sadler.

GAMES TO WATCH Texas (3-2) at No. 5 Nebraska (5-0) Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Channel 7 Note the absence of a ranking in front of Texas, which dropped out of the Associated Press poll for the first time in 10 years after losses to UCLA and Oklahoma. Nebraska needs a win to keep pace in the Bowl Championship Series race with several other undefeated schools. The pick: Nebraska. No. 12 Arkansas (4-1) at No. 7 Auburn (6-0) Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Channel 2 Arkansas, led by quarterback Ryan Mallett, faces one of the Southeastern Conference's two remaining undefeated teams.

WASHINGTON -- An insurgency within an insurgency could be emerging in the GOP Senate primary in Nebraska, where a lesser-known upstart appears to be gaining on two other conservative candidates in yet another battle between tea party activists and the GOP establishment this election cycle. Deb Fischer, a state legislator endorsed by Sarah Palin, has surged heading into Tuesday's election, according to a recent survey , beyond establishment-backed Attorney General Jon Bruning and Dan Stenberg, the state treasurer.

Nebraska legislators handed the governor a political defeat by overriding his veto of a bill that forced conservatives to chose among conflicting priorities, such as care for the unborn, illegal immigrants and even fiscal austerity. On the final day of the state's legislative session Wednesday, lawmakers in the single-chamber, nonpartisan house overrode the governor's veto of a prenatal health bill for illegal immigrants in a narrow 30-16 vote with three present but not voting.

TransCanada has revealed the route it would like to use to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline through Nebraska, where the $7-billion project has become mired in concerns over the nation's most important agricultural aquifer. A new report submitted by the Canadian pipeline company to the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality shows an alternative route for the pipeline, designed to carry diluted bitumen from the tar sands of Alberta province to U.S. refineries.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Dozens of tornadoes raked the Central Plains on Saturday as residents in Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa braced themselves for a long night of tornado-watching. Damage was relatively light in the afternoon as the storm scraped across the sparsely populated farmlands of western and central Kansas. A hospital was damaged in Creston, Iowa, with no injuries reported. But well after sundown, much of the region was still under tornado watches. If anything, the potential for disaster increased as the system headed toward more densely populated areas in eastern Kansas and southeastern Nebraska.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- As predicted, storms marching eastward through northwestern Oklahoma, central Kansas and southern Nebraska have unleashed a string of tornadoes. But so far, only light damage has been reported. By 2:40 p.m. Pacific time Saturday, the National Weather Service had counted 17 tornadoes spotted across sparsely populated areas in the Central Plains -- largely on a diagonal line running southwest to northeast between Woodward, Okla., and Thayer, Neb. The weather service issued tornado warnings for McPherson and Logan counties in west-central Nebraska.

The on-again, off-again Keystone XL pipeline gained new traction in Nebraska on Wednesday. State legislators authorized the state Department of Environmental Quality to begin evaluating options for a new route outside the sensitive Nebraska Sandhills , the marshy hills and grasslands that lie atop the nation's most important agricultural aquifer. Critics of the pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast, say the legislation amounts to a rubber stamp for TransCanada.

Tyrod Taylor dodged several defenders and then rifled an 11-yard touchdown pass to Dyrell Roberts with 21 seconds left, rallying No. 13 Virginia Tech against No. 19 Nebraska, 16-15, on Saturday. Taylor, known for his running much more than his passing, completed two big, late throws for the Hokies (2-1). Taylor first connected with Danny Coale for 80 yards down the right sideline with 1:11 left, setting the ball up at the Nebraska three. After two plays, Taylor scrambled around for what seemed like a minute before connecting with Roberts.

Embattled UCLA basketball Coach Ben Howland implied in a statement released by the Bruins athletic department Thursday that he has no interest in Nebraska's coaching vacancy. “I am proud to be returning to my dream job as the head coach of the Bruins next fall, and I intend on ending my coaching career at UCLA," Howland said in the statement. "I'm already very excited about the prospects for next year's team, am currently on the recruiting trail, and will be visiting Kyle Anderson in New Jersey before returning to California this weekend to attend the Southern California Regional Championships at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario.” According to a recent report in the Omaha World-Herald, Nebraska contacted Howland about its coaching vacancy after dismissing Doc Sadler.