Nebraska
Nebraska medical marijuana petition dispute will go to trial
LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) – The judge overseeing the case on Nebraska’s medical marijuana petitions ruled Friday that the matter will proceed to trial.
In a Zoom hearing Friday morning, Judge Susan Strong overruled the motion to dismiss a cross-claim brought forward by Secretary of State Bob Evnen. She said she was skeptical the cross-claim could stand on its own but would leave questions about standing to the appellate courts.
If passed by voters in November as they stand now, one ballot initiative would allow patients to purchase medical marijuana and the other would allow businesses to sell it.
“We have kind of a burden-shifting situation,” Judge Strong said, noting that good arguments were presented on both sides.
And while an extension was sought for issues that weren’t the subject of the original filing, more allegations have come to light that should allow amending of the filings, the judge said.
Certainly some signatures will be thrown out, she said, such as the ones confirmed to be fraudulent. But there may be other situations where the defendants can prove a sufficient number of signatures were collected legally.
But first, the plaintiff and the Secretary of State have to prove the petitions included many signatures that were wrongly obtained — and that intentional fraud was committed, not just clerical errors. If they can’t prove enough signatures are in question that the ballot initiatives would not have been certified for inclusion on the ballot, then the case stops there.
If they do prove it, then it falls to the defendants to prove they obtained enough legal signatures — that circulators and petitions were genuine — to rightly put the matter on Nebraska’s November ballot.
If both arguments are presented and there’s not clear way to tell whether there was widespread wrongdoing, Judge Strong said the decision will default to assume fraud under the precedent of Barkley v. Pool, a case argued in front of the Nebraska Supreme Court in 1919 over women’s suffrage.
Should the trial move into a second phase, the burden of proof would fall on the defendant to prove that the signatures on the petitions were valid.
That phase likely would be post-election, Judge Strong said.
“That timeline is extremely tight,” she said.
The state’s attorneys said they were supportive of the idea of splitting the case, but the defense said they wanted to talk to their clients about whether to split the case once the formal proposal is filed, so they can see how the state envisions that split.
Regardless, the judge said she is leaning toward doing so, saying that it should benefit the defense as she sees their tasks as daunting.
“I don’t know how you’re going to concentrate on responding to the plaintiff and the Secretary of State at the same time you’re trying to prove genuineness of signatures. I mean, it sounds like an overwhelming task,” she said.
Noting that the deadlines may need to be fluid given the nature and urgency of the case, the judge granted deadlines to move to Monday for disclosure of exhibits and witnesses and Tuesday for deposition notices.
“Everything has to be somewhat fluid so that I give everybody a fair shake here,” she said at the conclusion of Friday’s hearing.
According to the state’s attorneys, Evnen stands by the work done during the petition certification process.
“It’s clear to us, as we say in our brief, that Sec. Evnen intends to use this case kind of in a broader effort to undermine the initiative process. And we don’t say that lightly. We know that is a bold statement,” he said. “But it’s justified here because he’s advancing a position in this case that has never been adopted by a single court in Nebraska and as far as we can tell has never been adopted by a single court in the entire country.”
He said that Evnen wants to “balloon” the theory, saying that any mistakes found on certain signatures collected by a petition circulator should not invalidate all 200 pages of signatures collected by that person. The claim moves the dispute from 17,000 to 100,000 signatures.
“It just makes little sense to us that they would come to the court and say, ‘Judge, as a result of notary malfeasance, we want you to strike the will of 100,000 Nebraskans who validly signed this petition.’”
He said the Nebraska AG’s office is conflating “malfeasance” with “fraud” — that malfeasance is a technicality and the plaintiffs aren’t fulfilling the claim of fraud. He also pointed out that notaries have no interaction with the voter, agreeing that if there’s a bad signature by a voter, it should be stricken.
Zachary Viglianco with the AG’s office said that “serious and significant tangible evidence of fraud” has been uncovered in the investigation, noting that two have been officially charged.
“There have been, since the Secretary’s certification, serious and significant tangible evidence of fraud that was uncovered in a investigation in conjunction with local officials that has cast a cloud of certainty over the validity of the signatures — many of the signatures, thousands of the signatures that have been submitted,” he said.
He said that counter to the defense arguments, the AG’s office has been focused on serious issues with petition validity, not just any mistake for any reason. The crossclaim is focused on serious irregularities, overt fraud, and malfeasance by notaries — criminal activity, not just sloppiness and mistakes.
Evnen has said publicly that he’s not going to take unilateral actions like walking back the certification. Instead, the state is asking the court to look at significant regularities and say whether there are a sufficient number of signatures for the initiatives to legally appear on the ballot.
But Gutman said that Evnen himself would be the one to provide the remedy in the case.
“Secretary of State Bob Evnen is essentially suing himself,” he said.
Defense attorneys said Friday that they hadn’t yet received any notification from the state about which petition pages they allege are fraudulent — that they haven’t been able to examine the evidence. Instead, they said, they were provided a list of all petitions provided from each notary and a general statement saying all are tainted with fraud.
The attorneys from the AG’s office, however, countered that the entirety of those petitions were precisely those in question, and said those files had been sent out. Those files were so big that even the judge commented on how unwieldy they were, stating that her computer only managed to get about 12% through the file over the span of five or six hours.
- Notary Shari Lawlor related to petitions submitted in approximately 45 counties.
- Notary Shannon Coryell related to petitions submitted in approximately 44 counties.
- Notary Patricia Petersen related to petitions submitted in approximately 54 counties.
- Notary Kimberly Bowling-Martin related to petitions submitted in approximately 41 counties.
- Notary Crista Eggers related to petitions submitted in approximately 28 counties.
- Notary Garrett Connely related to petitions submitted in approximately 45 counties.
- Notary Marcie Reed related to petitions in submitted in approximately 31 counties.
- Petitioner Edward Matthews related to petitions submitted in two counties.
- Peititioner Tommy Davis related to petitions submitted in two counties.
- Petitioner Linda Middleton related to petitions submitted in three counties
The state says the evidence allegedly impacts petitions collected in at least 71 of Nebraska’s 93 counties:
Read the documents
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The college football offseason has never looked more different, and for a Nebraska program that Matt Rhule says has “got everything [they] need to get the best players in the country,” the new transfer portal structure could make this one of the most consequential offseasons in recent memory.
Following an early-October decision by the NCAA’s Division I Administrative Committee, the sport is officially shifting to a single transfer window. Beginning with the 2026 cycle, players will have from Jan. 2 through Jan. 16 to formally enter the portal.
The change not only eliminates the former spring transfer period but also removes December movement entirely, consolidating all transfer activity into a 15-day stretch that ends just three days before the National Championship at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Jan. 19.
By condensing the portal to a single window in January, the NCAA has finally given Nebraska a clear picture of what its roster will look like, not just for the bowl game, but through summer training, fall camp, and into the 2026 season as a whole.
Instead of navigating a revolving door of mid-December departures and doing it again in the spring, the Huskers can head into the offseason with something they haven’t had in years: stability. For once, the roster they spent all season developing is the one they can actually keep.
While finishing the 2025 season the right way remains the priority, the new structure also gives the coaching staff and athletic department a cleaner runway. January becomes the month for portal decisions, NIL planning, and long-term roster construction, without the split focus of game-planning in between.
With that in mind, here’s how the new window will likely reshape Nebraska’s recruiting strategy heading into 2026.
With Early National Signing Day for high school recruits wrapping up on Dec. 5, Rhule and his staff will no longer have to balance prep and transfer recruiting in the same month. Nebraska’s 2026 class, which currently features 11 commits, will already have been signed for nearly a month before the transfer portal even opens.
With those developmental players locked in, the Huskers will have their clearest picture yet of what they need to add for 2026. Instead of projecting needs while juggling high school evaluations, Nebraska can identify gaps with precision and move aggressively to fill them.
If the current total of 11 high school commits holds steady, expect the Huskers to be even more assertive in the portal as they look to build on the momentum Rhule has created entering year four at the helm.
Rhule reinforced that mindset during the bye week ahead of the Penn State game, saying, “I want to put the best players in the country in this room, and [we’re] not having to worry about, ‘Hey, can we afford it?’”
After Nebraska’s 28–21 win over Northwestern on Oct. 25, the Huskers officially became bowl-eligible for the second straight season. With two games left in the regular season, the focus now shifts to which bowl Nebraska will play in, and just as importantly, who will be available when they get there.
That’s where the NCAA’s new transfer window becomes especially significant. Under the old system, Rhule and his staff had to prepare for a bowl game while simultaneously bracing for roster departures. Last season was the clearest example when Nebraska lost 33 players to the portal cycle between December and January, leaving the staff guessing about who would still be on the field.
That will no longer be the case.
With the portal now opening after bowl season, Nebraska will finally enter postseason play with its full roster intact. Every scholarship player, everyone on the two-deep, every starter, all of them will be available. No opt-outs due to portal entry, no disruption during bowl prep, only 15 additional practices and a chance to win another game.
The only teams that will still deal with transfer chaos during that stretch will be College Football Playoff teams, who must navigate portal entries during their postseason run. For programs like Nebraska, competing in the next tier of bowl matchups, this change creates a level of stability they haven’t experienced in years.
And for a team still building under Rhule, that continuity matters. Bowl prep becomes more valuable. Reps aren’t lost to attrition. Young players get meaningful development time with the full roster. And the staff can evaluate the team before the portal opens, giving them a clearer roadmap for January.
This is the first time in the portal era Nebraska can say it will truly take its team, and its whole team at that, into a bowl game.
With that in mind, Jan. 2 is still 48 days away, but that deadline will arrive faster than it feels. After guiding Nebraska to its most successful regular season since 2016, with a chance to improve that mark over the next two weeks, Rhule and his staff are expected to take big swings in the portal to keep the program trending upwards next fall.
Sophomore quarterback Dylan Raiola will enter his junior year in 2026, and Nebraska will almost certainly look to surround him with even more top-end talent. If the Huskers want to maximize the potential of their program-changing quarterback, the portal will be a major tool in doing so. For fans, it’s year four of the Rhule era, but for Rhule himself, it’s time to win now. After signing an extension through 2032, the expectations have only grown, and this next portal cycle is a chance to prove the university was right to double down on his leadership.
The first step, though, is finishing the 2025 season the right way. Despite the adversity of recent weeks, Nebraska has a chance to stack wins, secure a quality bowl game, and show recruits and future transfers that the progress they keep hearing about is real. Tangible improvement matters, and momentum heading into January could make all the difference when the window opens.
Until then, it’s business as usual — but when Jan. 2 rolls around, it’s all hands on deck.
Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.
The streak is over.
UCLA ended Nebraska’s run of 48 set victories in a row that dated back to Sept. 16 in a five-set win over Creighton.
However, the Huskers’ perfect season continues as they earned a 25-17, 25-23, 19-25, 25-15 win Friday night in front of a school record crowd of 10,498 at Pauley Pavilion.
We just caught the wave 🌊 pic.twitter.com/AB5XiC89Ec
— Nebraska Volleyball (@HuskerVB) November 15, 2025
“It was good for us to get tested, and then I thought we delivered,” NU coach Dani Busboom Kelly said on her postgame radio interview. ”In some big moments, certain players that knew they were going to get the ball, had to get the kill. It was great to see them do that under pressure.”
NU (25-0, 15-0) also saw its streak of 15 matches in a row of hitting at least .300 end as the Huskers finished with a .299 hitting percentage. The last time the Huskers failed to hit .300 in a match was also the last time they failed to sweep their opponent. Bergen Reilly led the offense with 34 assists.
Nebraska led 6-1 in the third set before the Bruins (14-11, 8-7) rallied and began stringing points. UCLA eventually took a 15-13 lead in the set. Nebraska closed to 18-16, but the Bruins ran off five points in a row to take control before Maggie Li added kills for their final two points. The Huskers hit .190 in the set and tried to find a spark late by bringing in Campbell Flynn.
Andi Jackson said it was good for the Huskers to face a little bit of adversity and be pushed by an opponent. Even though they’ve been tested before, dropping the set will benefit them going forward.
“We all agree that it was really good for our team. The pressure is off,” Jackson said on the BTN broadcast. “You could definitely tell in the first, second and third sets, we were playing like there was so much pressure on us and just a weight on us. So now that’s gone, and we can play free once again.”
BOW 🗣️ BOW 🗣️ BOW 🗣️ BOW 🗣️ @aandijackson on the slide is automatic! pic.twitter.com/EEYfVvgXcN
— Nebraska Volleyball (@HuskerVB) November 15, 2025
NU finished with 12 hitting errors, which is not too out of line with its recent performance, but it took them 137 swings to accumulate 53 kills.
For the first time all season, an opponent outdug the Huskers as UCLA finished with 59 digs, led by 17 from libero Lola Schumacher. Setter Kate Duffey and outside hitter Maggie Li added 10 each. NU recorded 48 digs, paced by 14 from Laney Choboy.
Li led the Bruins with 20 kills while Cheridyn Leverette added 17 kills. Marianna Singletary finished with 12 kills and seven blocks.
“We’re getting outworked defensively, which is rare for us,” Busboom Kelly said. “UCLA played exceptional, especially from the defensive end, and their outsides were great. We learned that we’re not invincible.”
The Huskers’ offense struggled to start, recording just two kills in the first 16 rallies. However, UCLA had bigger problems, committing four hitting errors, missing two serves, and having two bad sets. NU extended its lead to 19-9 on five straight points from Rebekah Allick — four kills and a block with Virginia Adriano — before UCLA regrouped behind a 5-0 run. Harper Murray added 3 kills in the red zone to help wrap the set up.
The second set also featured some drama as UCLA used a 5-0 run to go up 10-5 in the second set as they recorded 8 kills on their first 19 kills. The Huskers only had one kill on 13 swings in the same time frame.
Nebraska battled back and took a 13-12 lead after winning eight of the next 10 rallies. The Bruins went back in front and led 18-16, but the Huskers again locked in and won seven of the following eight points. During one of those two points, an attack from Li was called long. However, replays showed that NUs block touched it, which, if called, could have cut the Huskers’ lead to 21-20, but the Bruins opted not to challenge the play.
UCLA fought off two set points, but Murray delivered the final point with a big swing to push NU’s set streak to 48.
In the fourth set, NU raced out to an 11-5 lead as Jackson recorded three kills during a six-point stretch. She put up seven kills in the set as she finished the night with 15 kills on 24 errorless swings.
“Our passers pass so good, and Bergen and Campbell set the ball so well; they put it in great positions,” Jackson said. “I go up and obviously have space and vision when I’m hitting, but it’s really like when you get such a great set off of a great pass, it makes it super easy.”
The Bruins got as close as 14-11 in the fourth set after a missed serve, and NU won eight of the next nine rallies to put the match on ice.
“We ended on a super high note, and kind of the way we’ve been playing all year,” Busboom Kelly said.
Murray finished with 14 kills while Allick contributed 13 kills on a .440 hitting percentage and seven blocks. Taylor Landfair only recorded five blocks, but was in on six blocks. Adriano finished with just two kills as Allie Sczech played the second and third sets and also recorded two kills.
The Huskers stay in Los Angeles and face another tough test against No. 17 USC on Sunday at noon CST.
“USC is very, very good,” Busboom Kelly said. “They are definitely a team that’s playing great right now and is young, but they serve really tough. It’s going to be quite the battle on Sunday.”
Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.
Nebraska (3-0) completed its initial homestand to start the 2025-2026 season on Wednesday night, taking on in-state rival Creighton (1-2). After losing their last three clashes with the Bluejays, the Huskers swiftly took the win in an 84-50 outing.
This is Nebraska’s first win over Creighton since 2021 and head coach Amy Williams’ second win all-time against the Bluejays. Though that win came in a low-scoring battle, Nebraska dominated from start to finish on Wednesday night. This is also the Huskers’ largest win over Creighton since 2005, when they ironically won by the same score.
After opening the game with a 17-9 first quarter, the Huskers held Creighton to five points in the second quarter, allowing them to enter halftime up 35-14. Nebraska kept its foot on the gas from there, outscoring the Bluejays 49-36 in the second half.
The Huskers shot 29-of-62 from the floor, while Creighton finished 15-of-51. Nebraska also hit 10-of-28 from three-point range and 16-of-20 from the free throw line. The Huskers also capitalized on turnovers, scoring 23 off the Bluejays’ 25 cough-ups.
Britt Prince finished atop the board for Nebraska, scoring a team-high 18 points and hauling in a team-high seven rebounds. She shot 6-of-12 from the floor and landed a perfect 6-of-6 from the foul line. Callin Hake hit a team-high 3-of-4 from beyond the arc and 4-of-6 from the floor to finish with 13 points. She also earned a team-high three assists.
Jessica Petrie and Claire Johnson each tallied 11 points in the win, with Petrie going 4-of-8 from the floor while Johnson finished 3-of-6. Petrie also hit 2-of-4 from three-point range, one of them being a buzzer-beater from beyond half court, and Johnson shot a perfect 4-of-4 from the free throw line. Petra Bozan finished just shy of double-digits in scoring, tallying nine points after going 3-of-6 from the floor, 1-of-2 from beyond the arc, and 2-of-3 from the foul line.
The Huskers hit the road for the first time this season, traveling up to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for a neutral-site matchup against North Dakota State on Sunday. Tipoff is set for noon on the Big Ten Network.
Contact/Follow us @CornhuskersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Nebraska news, notes and opinions.
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