LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Tom Osborne, who coached Nebraska to three national championships in the 1990s and ended his career with one of the highest winning percentages in college football history, on Wednesday became the first living person voted into the state historical society's Nebraska Hall of Fame.
The state legislature in April passed a law paving the way for the 89-year-old Osborne's entry. The law set aside the stipulation that a person must be deceased at least 35 years before he or she can be considered. The hall of fame commission voted 7-0 in favor of Osborne's induction.
“His love of Nebraska and the people in Nebraska, what he’s done for Nebraska, is just absolutely second to none,” Gov. Jim Pillen said. “That we’re able to recognize him is a really, really special day.”
After retiring from coaching after the 1997 season, Osborne was a three-term congressman representing Nebraska’s 3rd District from 2001-07. He and his wife, Nancy, founded the Teammates youth mentoring program in 1991.
Osborne grew up in Hastings, played football at Hastings College and was an assistant at Nebraska under Bob Devaney before he took over as head coach in 1973. Osborne had a 255-49-3 record over 25 seasons, and his .836 winning percentage ranks seventh all time in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
His teams in 1994 and '95 were consensus national champions and his 1997 team shared the title with Michigan. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999.
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Former Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne appears on the field during halftime as Oklahoma plays against Nebraska in an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, in Lincoln, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz,File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife will go on trial on drug trafficking charges next June, a judge said Wednesday, as their lawyers continue to object to the U.S. military action that snatched them from power.
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein set the June 1 trial date at the request of lawyers on both sides. Under the approved schedule, defense lawyers will begin filing requests in early September to challenge the indictment and the couple will return to the courtroom Nov. 17 for oral arguments on the motions.
Maduro, 63, and his wife, Cilia Flores, 69, have been held at a Brooklyn jail since U.S. forces seized them from their Caracas home in a middle-of-the-night raid and brought them to New York in early January.
Neither spoke during Wednesday’s 15-minute hearing as each sat separately at a defense table, surrounded by their lawyers. Both have pleaded not guilty. They face potential life prison sentences if a jury agrees that they were part of a conspiracy to send cocaine into the U.S.
As he was led into the courtroom, the bespectacled Maduro greeted the judge’s staff and shook hands with lawyers for him and his wife. Noticeably thinner in a tan jail suit and with his thick mustache, he seemed upbeat, smiling and chatting with his lawyer. He listened to a Spanish interpretation of the proceeding through headphones and clasped his hands in front of him in a prayerlike gesture. He had a black pen wedged in his right fingers and sporadically jotted notes on a white pad.
As deputy U.S. marshals led him out, he waved to someone in the gallery.
President Donald Trump’s administration has defended the raid to capture Maduro as a “surgical law enforcement operation” in a criminal case first brought six years ago. Maduro has called himself a prisoner of war and his capture a kidnapping.
U.S. prosecutors say Maduro carried out a conspiracy to move thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. by colluding with Venezuelan law enforcement to help drug kingpins.
“I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the constitutional president of my country,” he said in Spanish at his arraignment in January.
Maduro’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, has said he expects to contest the legality of Maduro’s “military abduction.”
During Wednesday's hearing, Pollack said he will first challenge the indictment on sovereign immunity grounds because if that is successful, Maduro won't have to continue litigating the case.
The lawyers have said there are complex legal defenses that the court must address before a trial can begin.
Maduro and Flores have not asked to be released on bail.
In this courtroom sketch, from left, former Venezuela President Nicholas Maduro, attorneys Anna Estevao and Mark Donnelly, and Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, stand during a pretrial hearing in a drug trafficking case for Maduro and Flores, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at Manhattan federal court in New York. (Jane Rosenberg via AP)
A Venezuelan man, who is in opposition to former Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, shouts at pro-Maduro protestors outside of Manhattan federal court, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in New York.(AP Photo/Adam Gray)
A motorcade believed to be carrying former Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro leaves a federal courthouse in New York, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
The motorcade believed to be carrying former Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, travels along FDR drive after leaving Manhattan federal court, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
A small group of protesters chant slogans outside of a federal courthouse where former Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro is scheduled to appear before a judge in New York, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
People protest in support of former Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores outside of Manhattan federal court, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in New York.(AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Police officers stand in front of a federal courthouse where former Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro is scheduled to make an appearance in New York, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
People protest in support of former Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores outside of Manhattan federal court, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in New York.(AP Photo/Adam Gray)
People protest in support of former Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores outside of Manhattan federal court, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in New York.(AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Law enforcement officers stand outside Metropolitan Detention Center ahead of a pre-trial hearing in former Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro's drug trafficking case, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A motorcade believed to be carrying former Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro arrives to a federal courthouse in New York, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Police officers wait for the arrival of a motorcade carrying former Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro in New York, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
A motorcade believed to be carrying former Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro leaves Metropolitan Detention Center ahead of a pre-trial hearing in a drug trafficking case, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
FILE - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro points to supporters during a campaign rally in the Catia neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
