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Top StorySpotlight
DEA Omaha Field Division raises social media awareness as students return to school
Jessica Kennedy
OMAHA — As students prepare to return to school, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Omaha Field Division is reminding communities about the hidden threat of drug trafficking through social media platforms, while also encouraging families to have conversations about the potentially lethal consequences of drug experimentation.
It’s estimated than 95% of American teenagers between the ages of 13-17 have access to a smartphone.
With this in mind, the DEA recently released a series of short videos, “Hidden on Your Kid’s Phone,” as a way to raise awareness to the threat of drug trafficking through social media.
The series is designed to give parents and caregivers the information needed to protect their families.
The DEA is aware of drug traffickers using social media platforms to advertise the sale of deadly drugs through posts and disappearing stories.
Often accompanied by known code words and emojis, these posts connect prospective buyers with dealers where conversation then move to encrypted communication apps like WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram.
Similar to legitimate online purchases, payment can be made through apps such as Venmo, Zelle and Cash App, with delivery often as easy as dropping off a package to your front door.
“Social media is just another avenue that drug dealers are using to push counterfeit pills and other poisons to a new generation,” DEA Omaha Field Division Special Agent in Charge Dustin Gillespie said. “Sit down as a family. Talk about the fact that pills sold online may claim to be one thing, when often, they’re laced with deadly doses of fentanyl. Stay on top of your kids’ phone. It’s not bad parenting; it’s a potentially life-saving measure.”
Across the five-state DEA Omaha Field Division agents have seized more than 67,000 fentanyl pills in the first seven months of 2026. This number is down from years’ past, while fentanyl powder seizures have increased nearly 87% from the same time last year.
Altogether, fentanyl pill and powder seizures account for than four million deadly doses removed from communities in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
For more information on drug trafficking efforts through social media, visit dea.gov/onepill.
Government-politics
Nebraska ed commissioner: 5% state spending cut won’t apply to state aid for K-12 schools
Erin Bamer
Nebraska Examiner
Updated
LINCOLN — Nebraska’s education commissioner says a 5% spending cut Gov. Jim Pillen requested from all state agencies won’t apply to the state’s school funding formula.
Commissioner Brian Maher provided an update on the Nebraska Department of Education’s response to the governor’s spending memo at a State Board of Education meeting last week. While portions of the memo will not affect the department, he said, it will require the state agency to cut roughly $2.3 million from its budget.
Nebraska Education Commissioner Brian Maher of Lincoln talks to
reporters after the first meeting of the School Financing Review
Commission on Aug. 12, 2025.
ZACH WENDLING, NEBRASKA EXAMINER
Pillen issued the memo in July, asking state agencies to immediately cut spending by at least 5% on a month-to-month basis, which is expected to remain in effect for both the current budget and the next biennium starting July 1, 2027. Maher noted that the memo does not have the enforcement power of a statute or executive order, but it does signal the state’s long-term budget woes, with multiple projected deficits on the horizon.
After meeting with members of the governor’s office, Maher said department officials learned that the 5% cut would not apply to the more than $2 billion in state aid going to schools, including Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act (TEEOSA) funds. It also would not apply to roughly $93 million in federal funding allocated to the department.
What’s left over is about $46.5 million in general fund dollars for the department. Finance Officer Bryce Wilson said about $21 million of that amount is fixed costs that cannot be pulled, and parts of the remaining $25 million also are earmarked for specific purposes.
“Once we start throwing all those things together, it is not an easy task to come up with a 5% reduction for the department,” Wilson said.
There are five different “buckets” of legislative funding that could be pulled from, Wilson said. The largest is administrative costs, which was appropriated roughly $36.5 million between the state’s general fund and various cash funds. Others include the state’s vocational rehabilitation program and services for the deaf, blind and visually impaired.
No decisions about the cuts were made at the meeting. Maher said in addition to examining the funding buckets, department officials are following the governor’s advice to increase scrutiny on travel expenses and eliminate “nonessential activities.”
“I would tell you I don’t have any (activities) to say,” Maher told the board. “But we’re having some conversations on some things that we’re looking at, saying, ‘Does that really help further the cause of the Nebraska Department of Education?’ And I think that’s probably a good conversation that you should have.”
Pillen’s memo also requested a hiring freeze across state agencies, but Maher said the governor’s representatives told them that order likely doesn’t apply to the Education Department. However, Maher said he intends to follow the request through a “measured approach.”
This means department officials will review every vacant position and determine whether it should be filled or combined with another position.
“While we may not have to do those things right now, I think it’s more a matter of should we do those things right now,” Maher said.
Nebraska Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence.
See our best Omaha staff photos & videos from July 2026
Obituaries
Kenneth "Ken" Rystrom
December 9, 1940 - August 2, 2026
Former Trumbull resident Kenneth "Ken" Rystrom, 85, went home to be with his Lord and Savior on Sunday, August 2, 2026.
Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday, August 17, at Evangelical Free Church in Hastings with Pastor Matt Sass officiating. Burial will be at 9:30 a.m. Monday, August 17, at Greenwood Cemetery in Trumbull. Visitation will be one hour before the service at the church. Memorials may be given to Evangelical Free Celebrate Recovery at2015 N St Joseph Ave, Hastings, NE 68901. The service will be live-streamed at https://bit.ly/kenrystrom. For more information, please visit the funeral home's website.
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