KEARNEY, Neb. (KOLN) — Outside of Lincoln or Omaha, the vast majority of the state utilizes rural health care. Understanding the disparities between urban health and rural health could greatly improve the lives of those living in rural areas.

A new organization launched Monday at the Rural Health Conference in Kearney aims to do just that.

The Greater Nebraska Rural Research Network, part of the Nebraska Rural Health Association, hopes to connect researchers to hospitals to get patients involved in rural research projects.

“And it’s frustrating that there are disparities in health that have persisted now for a while, where living in a rural area means a higher likelihood of death, of depression, and worsening of a lot of other conditions,” said Ryan Larsen, CEO of Community Medical Center in Falls City.

Participation in research has been shown to improve health outcomes, even before results are known.

“If we’re concerned that you have decreased quality of care or you have decreased lifespan or decreased health in rural America, just simply having them involved in something automatically, statistically, has been shown to improve that,” said Brian Shelmadine, chief medical officer at Box Butte General Hospital in Alliance.

Some hospital leaders are concerned they don’t have the numbers to make a meaningful impact, but the network hopes to change that by pooling patients across multiple facilities.

“If you’ve got a hospital that’s only got five or six people with a specific condition, there’s a bunch of hospitals across Nebraska that might have five or six people with a given condition. And all of a sudden, you’ve got enough people to do a study and try and figure out something to make their world better,” said Jeff Ordway, operations manager of the Greater Nebraska Rural Research Network.

Researchers are already starting to look at doing projects in rural Nebraska, including one woman from Dartmouth College studying the use of elective induction in rural areas.

Part of the motivation for studying rural landscapes is to build trust with patients and conduct research in settings like their own.

“And that’s an issue that gets raised by providers in rural settings. Like, how do I know that, you know, I’m not going to make things worse for my patients? Because the study was conducted in urban areas,” said Sanam Roder-Dewan, associate professor at Dartmouth College.

For her research to work, hospitals need to participate. The Rural Research Network is recruiting hospitals now to get a large enough sample size for her research and other research projects to succeed.

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(Nebraska Examiner) – With a national spotlight and economic impact set to hit Omaha this week with the start of the men’s College World Series, a lineup of Nebraska officials met Monday at the baseball stadium to underscore the underbelly of such crowd-drawing events: human trafficking.

Leaders, including Gov. Jim Pillen, Omaha Mayor John Ewing Jr. and FBI Special Agent in Charge Gene Kowel, said the two-week NCAA tournament that begins Friday is intended as a fun-filled and family event for the throngs of fans that come to watch top-notch athletic play at downtown Omaha’s Charles Schwab Field.

But they and the state’s highest-level law enforcement agents also issued warnings about predators exploiting the circumstances. They asked spectators to be on the alert and to report strange behaviors to protect against forced labor and commercial sexual assault trafficking.

“The hard core reality is that … there are some bad people that come here,” said Pillen, while also praising the general safety of the state’s most populous city set to host its 76th men’s CWS.

“Criminals come to do trafficking and bad activities,” the governor said.

Hotels near full capacity

He and others in the group echoed similar concerns shared by officials in host cities of another huge sporting event, the FIFA World Cup. Matches are taking place across cities in North America as the soccer tourney runs this week through mid-July.

Andrew Caggiano, president of the New Jersey police chiefs association, in an opinion piece for the New Jersey Monitor, said traffickers depend on public indifference. Caggiano wrote that one of the most powerful anti-trafficking tools is public attention by hotel housekeepers, ride-share drivers, restaurant servers and dog walkers.

In Omaha, the CWS last year not only lured a record-breaking crowd, it generated a record $147.6 million in economic impact for the Omaha metropolitan area and $136.4 million for the State of Nebraska, according to a study by Goss & Associates Economic Solutions, LLC.

Economist Ernie Goss called the series a “grand slam” that in 2025 drew roughly 370,000 fans and athletes over the 10-day event, with nearly 71% traveling from outside Nebraska, “driving hotels to near-full capacity.” Top industries that benefited were restaurants, lodging, amusement and recreation, car rentals and real estate.

It is in the commotion of celebration, full hotels and other venues that human traffickers can exploit and try to operate furtively, the officials said.

Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly, who previously served as a U.S. attorney for Nebraska, the county attorney in Lancaster County and as criminal bureau chief for the Nebraska Attorney General, said Monday he is often asked whether sex and human trafficking have increased over the years. He said he answers by saying officials are better today at detecting the crimes.

Col. Bryan Waugh, superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol and former police chief in Kearney, said the public is more aware, and tips to law enforcement are more plentiful.

He said the Nebraska Information Analysis Center today fields about 30,000 human trafficking-related tips a year, compared to a few thousand annually decades ago. Known as a fusion center, the NIAC hub shares information between law enforcement agencies and private sector partners to help protect the public.

Problem signs to look for, said Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, include controlling behavior, untreated medical issues and “things that don’t make sense.”

“Without a doubt, human trafficking is modern day slavery,” Hilgers said.

Drones, dark web, task forces

Mayor Ewing urged fans and others not to “second guess” themselves and instead report suspicious activity to trained professionals. He noted he is a retired Omaha deputy police chief and former commander of the special victims unit.

“There is nothing more personal and important for me than keeping our young people and women of this community and other communities safe as they come into Omaha,” Ewing said.

Meanwhile, the officials said drones will be in action over the next couple of weeks, along with additional surveillance. Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said his department will be on the dark web monitoring for human traffickers in Omaha for the national baseball tourney.

The speakers said law enforcement will be tough on human traffickers. “We’ll get them locked up and will throw the keys away,” Pillen said.

Omaha police did not have any statistics readily available from similar CWS anti-trafficking efforts for last year’s tournament.

Omaha City Council member LaVonya Goodwin said it was paramount that families and visitors are safe. “And our most vulnerable populations aren’t exploited.”

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Big Ten athletic directors and commissioner Tony Petitti are planning to discuss a league-wide ban on scheduling Texas Tech in all sports at a meeting on Wednesday, two Big Ten sources told The Athletic.

The news comes in the wake of Red Raiders quarterback Brendan Sorsby receiving a temporary injunction to play college football in the fall despite his admission of sports betting, including on a team for which he played.

Talk of those discussions comes hours after a note sent to Nebraska coaches and obtained by The Athletic that deputy athletic director Haven Fields instructed that Nebraska “will not schedule any contests vs. Texas Tech in any sport. If you currently have a future contest already scheduled, please connect with (athletic director) Troy (Dannen) immediately.”

There are no football games scheduled between Nebraska and Texas Tech for 2026.

Over in the SEC, the athletics department for Georgia banned its teams from scheduling any future games against Texas Tech, and Georgia said it would “determine next steps” on any matchups already scheduled.

Georgia compliance director Will Lawler sent a memo to coaches and staff Monday afternoon, hours after Sorsby was awarded a temporary injunction by a Texas judge to play this season despite Sorsby’s history with gambling, including betting on his own team in 2022 when he was a member of the Indiana Hoosiers. The NCAA has filed a notice of appeal in the case.

“Based on recent developments, Georgia Athletics will not schedule future contests against Texas Tech until further notice,” Lawler wrote. “Please review your sport’s current schedules and future scheduling plans. If you have any contests currently scheduled against Texas Tech, or are actively engaged in scheduling discussions with Texas Tech, please notify your sports administrator as soon as possible so we can evaluate the situation and determine next steps.”

The note concluded by saying that the decision was “effective immediately,” and reiterated that no games against Texas Tech could be scheduled without “prior approval from the athletic department.”

There are no football games scheduled between Georgia and Texas Tech. It was not immediately clear if any other sports had scheduled games. The other two fall sports that have announced their schedules, volleyball and women’s soccer, do not have Texas Tech on the schedule.

Georgia officials declined comment. The memo was obtained from a source at the school.