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There's a PSA that greets you on the radio when you're driving the flat stretch of Colorado State Highway 113 near the Nebraska state line.

"With marijuana legal under Colorado law, we've all got a few things to know ... Once you get here, it can't leave our state. Stick around, this place is pretty great."

"I'm concerned what [Colorado's legalization] will lead to in terms of a change in culture, a change in the way that we enjoy a certain quality, a certain type of life, in small-town America."

- B.J. Wilkinson, police chief of Sidney, Neb.

B.J. Wilkinson, police chief of nearby Sidney, Neb., rolls his eyes whenever he hears that spot, made by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Sidney is the first place you come to after crossing the border, and Wilkinson knows firsthand that not everyone's listening to those ads.

"Do you really think that somebody listening to that is going to say, 'Oh, they said on the radio I shouldn't take my marijuana back into Nebraska. So because they said it on the radio and I got a warning, I'm gonna listen to it'? Nah."

It's been more than a year since Colorado formally legalized recreational marijuana, and the police in the rural counties that border the state are reporting big increases in illegal marijuana trafficking.

Wilkinson says marijuana-related offenses in Sidney have increased 50 percent in that time, jumping from 100 to 150 cases.

Police in border towns like Sidney say they didn't vote to legalize the drug — and yet their communities are dealing with burdensome consequences. Two states, Nebraska and Oklahoma, are now asking the Supreme Court to throw out Colorado's law altogether.

Concerns About Changes 'In Small-Town America'

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In the evidence room at the courthouse in Deuel County, Neb., Sheriff Adam Hayward holds up a 1-pound bag of marijuana confiscated during a recent traffic stop. Kirk Siegler/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Kirk Siegler/NPR

In the evidence room at the courthouse in Deuel County, Neb., Sheriff Adam Hayward holds up a 1-pound bag of marijuana confiscated during a recent traffic stop.

Kirk Siegler/NPR

"I'm concerned what [Colorado's legalization] will lead to in terms of a change in culture, a change in the way that we enjoy a certain quality, a certain type of life, in small-town America," Wilkinson says.

Wilkinson likes that small town life. He's spent his whole law enforcement career working in small towns. He's proud of Sidney, and it shows.

Sidney, population 7,000, is the headquarters of the hunting and camping retailer Cabela's. It's expanding, and so is the local hospital. There are a lot of jobs to be had here. Wilkinson says Sidney is thriving — and he doesn't want Colorado's experiment with marijuana to get in the way.

"I'm not disputing the fact that the people of Colorado voted to make this opportunity exist. I get all that," he says. "My problem is that the fallout from it is impacting our way of life and our quality of life here."

Much of what you hear about pot in this community is still pretty anecdotal. The cops say they're seeing an increase in distribution cases involving high school kids, but the high school principal says school officials haven't yet noticed more of the drug around, and the health department said it's an issue they're tracking.

Spend a couple of days in Sidney, and you won't find that marijuana is the number-one topic of conversation in town.

Bring it up to older folks — the ranchers who've been here 60 years — and sure, they'll bash Colorado's hippie culture. One man in a cafe told me that Colorado's dope shouldn't be Nebraska's problem.

But bump into someone who's younger, and there's a good chance they might tell you pot isn't as big a deal as it's being made out to be.

"There's always been pot around," says Brandon Sean, who grew up here. He doesn't smoke pot, but he says this part of the Nebraska panhandle is more independent, more libertarian, like Colorado.

"What do you do? I mean, you're not gonna stop it from coming over. That's kinda like the border down south — you ain't gonna stop it," he says.

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In Sidney, Neb., Police Chief B.J. Wilkinson says there's been a 50 percent increase in marijuana-related offenses in the year since neighboring Colorado legalized the drug. Kirk Siegler/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Kirk Siegler/NPR

In Sidney, Neb., Police Chief B.J. Wilkinson says there's been a 50 percent increase in marijuana-related offenses in the year since neighboring Colorado legalized the drug.

Kirk Siegler/NPR

'Tons Of People, All The Time'

It's hard to say how much marijuana is coming into Nebraska border towns like this, but one thing is clear: Plenty of people will tell you that if you want to buy pot, you don't have to go far.

The closest dispensary is about a 40-minute drive away in Sedgwick, Colo. The town is small — just a couple of streets. There's a bar and an old stage coach motel-turned-antique shop. And then, next door to the hair salon, there's Sedgwick Alternative Relief, which markets itself as the "First Dispensary in Colorado."

Cathy, who doesn't want her last name used because this is such a small town, is getting highlights in her hair. She lives off one of the back roads by the state line, and it's clear she wants nothing to do with the dispensary.

"I think it's increased our revenue, it's definitely increased our population — maybe not with the kindest people," she says.

"You just see more out-of-state plates than what we normally do. Like before the pot shop came into town, nobody drove those roads. And now you see tons of people, all the time," she laughs.

Today, a couple of cars with Colorado plates are parked in front of the dispensary. There's also Illinois, Kansas and two from Nebraska.

Nobody really wants to talk to a reporter with a microphone. The dispensary's assistant manager doesn't want to give an interview on tape, but tells me the business sees a lot of customers coming down from Nebraska. But they're mostly older, he says, buying for their own personal use. They're not dealers.

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'We Don't Want This Stuff Here'

This isn't a big secret. Top law enforcement officials in Colorado have said their state is becoming a major exporter of marijuana, even though it's against the law for pot to leave the state.

Visit to the evidence locker in the courthouse in Deuel County, Neb., and that becomes clear. Those back roads out of Sedgwick lead to Deuel County.

"These bags here, these totes, these buckets ... this is 75 pounds of marijuana," says Sheriff Adam Hayward, displaying what he seized in a single traffic stop.

Hayward says he's overwhelmed. "Every bit of marijuana we have in here came from Colorado," he says.

Deuel County is roughly the size of Los Angeles, but has a population of just 2,000. Hayward has only a handful of deputies. In 2011 there were only four felony marijuana convictions in the county, but in 2014, there were 32, costing the county $150,000 — money that didn't go to fixing roads or schools, Hayward says.

"We need to stand up and say, 'No, we don't want this stuff here,' " Hayward says. "It's dangerous. It's bad for people's health. You don't want your kids getting involved in this."

For cops in these small towns along the Colorado border, this fight is about people's health, which is why Nebraska and Oklahoma aren't asking the Supreme Court to force Colorado to pay court costs. They're asking for Colorado's entire experiment with legal, recreational marijuana to be shut down, full stop.

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Recent reports about the death of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro appear to be exaggerated. Cuban state media released images of the 88-year-old Castro who has not been seen in public for more than a year, an absence that has led to speculation he is ailing or worse.

The photographs are the first since August 2014 when Castro was shown talking to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. In the images released today, the former Cuban leader is seen talking to Randy Perdemo Garcia, the head of the country's main student union. An accompanying piece by Perdemo Garcia says the three-hour meeting to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Castro starting his studies at the University of Havana took place Jan. 23. The Associated Press has more:

"The student leader says Castro said that he is keeping abreast of the news and performing daily exercises, and he engaged Perdomo in a wide-ranging discussion of topics including international politics, agriculture, astronomy, and even Namibia's donation of animals to Cuba's National Zoo.

"Perdomo says the two men discussed the release of three Cuban intelligence agents as part of the Dec. 17 declaration by Cuba and the United States that they would move to re-establish full diplomatic relations. The photos show Castro examining a newspaper report on their release."

On Jan. 26, the Communist Party-run Granma newspaper released a letter that it attributed to Castro, in which, as NPR's Eyder Peralta reported, he insisted Cuba will defend its ideals in the face of a planned rapprochement between his country and the U.S.

"I don't trust the politics of the United States and I've not said a word to them," he wrote. "This doesn't mean, however, that I reject a peaceful outcome... We will always defend the cooperation and friendship with all of the world and our our political adversaries."

An ailing Castro stepped down as Cuba's president in 2006 and handed the country's reins to his brother, Raul Castro. Rumors of his death have surfaced periodically since then.

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After dozens of votes attacking Obamacare in recent years, House Republicans' latest attempt Tuesday finally gets real.

Not in the sense that the full repeal bill will become law — it's not likely to pass the Senate and, in any event, faces a certain presidential veto even if it somehow did. What makes today a milestone is that, for the first time, House Republicans plan to vote on whether to actually take health coverage away from millions of Americans who now have it.

More precisely: 19 million of them by the end of the year, according to a recent estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. And with a new study showing that 60 percent of Affordable Care Act beneficiaries receiving subsidies from the federal exchange are from the South and 60 percent of them non-Hispanic whites, House Republicans would be casting votes to eliminate a program that to a large extent benefits their own constituents.

How this new reality will affect the vote count is unclear. Republicans have been solid in their opposition to the health care law. The last time the House voted to repeal the law in entirety — rather than tweak one or more small provisions — was May 16, 2013. Not a single Republican voted against it. But that was when the first enrollment period was still months away, and the vote could still largely be framed as a matter of political philosophy.

That was also before Republicans picked up 13 Democratic seats in the 2014 midterm elections, some of which are in swing districts that could swing right back to Democrats.

One of those new Republicans, in fact, could serve as the poster-child for the party's potential problems with the vote. Rep. Carlos Curbelo represents the western suburbs of Miami, some of Florida's poorest communities. The majority-Latino district also happens to contain one zip code with one of the highest Obamacare enrollments in the country, and is blocks away from two others.

This could be one reason why Curbelo's Spanish response to President Obama's State of the Union address last month avoided the Affordable Care Act altogether. Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, in the English response, described Obamacare as an example of "failed policies." Curbelo, though, spoke instead about education and the income gap — and chided Washington for not working "toward a health economy that offers opportunities to everyone who lives in this country, not just the most privileged," according to a comparison done by the Miami Herald.

Other Republicans have recognized for some time that taking away access to health care for the working poor was not necessarily good politics, and have advocated a "repeal and replace" strategy to show that the GOP also cares about the issue.

No Republican alternative to the ACA has yet emerged since they took control of the House in 2011, and none is in today's bill, either. However, the proposal does instruct three House committees to recommend ideas to replace Obamacare, including such things as limiting medical malpractice lawsuits and giving states more flexibility in administering Medicaid.

This week figures to be a big one in the debate about how to regulate the Internet.

Yesterday the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission announced he'll try to overrule laws in two states that restrict community-owned broadband networks. Later this week, he's expected to propose exactly what President Obama asked for last year: reclassifying the Internet under regulations known in the parlance of telecom wonks as Title II.

"In plain English, I'm asking them to recognize that for most Americans, the Internet has become an essential part of everyday communication and everyday life," Obama said in November.

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Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, left, speaks Oct. 8 during new conference in Washington. Wheeler has spoken in favor of regulating Internet providers as public utilities, an issue the commission is expected to decide on this month. Jose Luis Magana/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Jose Luis Magana/AP

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, left, speaks Oct. 8 during new conference in Washington. Wheeler has spoken in favor of regulating Internet providers as public utilities, an issue the commission is expected to decide on this month.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

Big cable and phone companies warn that would stifle investment and cost consumers more, but the truth may be more complicated.

This policy shift, which the FCC is expected to vote before the end of the month, is what many Internet companies and public interest groups say is what the commission needs to do to stop broadband companies from charging extra to get information to consumers faster. But phone and cable companies warn that Title II would be a disaster.

"These regulations that we're talking about are public-utility-style regulations, and this industry's moving fast," AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told an industry conference in November. "And if you can't bring new products to service at your speed, not the government's speed, why would you ever make these investments?"

Broadband industry executives have told the same story on Capitol Hill. But Fran Shammo, the chief financial officer of Verizon, seemed to go off script when he was asked about Title II at an investor conference in December.

"To be real clear, I mean, this does not influence the way we invest," Shammo said. "We're gonna continue to invest in our networks and our platforms. Nothing will influence that."

The differing messages don't necessarily result from a difference of opinion, but a difference of audience, says Susan Crawford, co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

"When they're talking to Wall Street, they say different things than when they're talking to the press about what the FCC might like to do," she says. "They trot out these really simple and nonsensical platitudes, like 'regulation inevitably leads to lower investment.' That's just not true."

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The phone and cable industries also have warned that Title II could lead to billions of dollars in new taxes on consumer's broadband bills, but Open Internet advocates say those claims are wrong.

They also argue that Title II and robust investment can coexist, pointing to the success of the wireless phone industry, which is regulated in part under Title II. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said that cell companies have been "monumentally successful" under Title II regulations, noting they made billions in investment under that system.

In theory, reclassification would give the FCC broad powers — including the ability to cap the price your Internet provider can charge. Wheeler has hinted that the commission won't actually try to use that power, but the mere threat of price regulation is enough to scare Wall Street, says Paul Gallant, an industry analyst at Guggenheim Partners.

"The uncertainty that Wall Street has, though, right now about Title II is a little bit overdone," he says. "I don't think there's any real prospect that the FCC will end up regulating prices. I just don't think is a realistic fear."

Still, Gallant says phone and cable companies might find it harder to borrow money under Title II, which could in turn could be a drag on investment in their networks.

But Michael Powell, a former chairman of the FCC who now heads the cable industry's trade group, said the the question is one of degree.

"All hyperbole aside, the issue isn't whether people will invest — of course they will, they have businesses to run," Powell said. "The real question is, will it be at a diminished and dampened level compared to the velocity and ambitions that the country has?"

Amid the disputes about customer bills and pace of investing, however, one thing is viewed as an absolute certainty: Big phone and cable companies almost certainly will take the FCC to court if the commission moves toward Title II, as anticipated.

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