Month: October 2011
Huskers Defense Needs Big Plays Against Spartans
With all due respect to Minnesota, the thirteenth-ranked Nebraska football team wasn’t challenged in their first game after their bye week. This Saturday, they face the defining challenge of their season to date. The Huskers welcome in Michigan State in what is a must-win for Nebraska’s hopes of winning the Big Ten Legends Division. Huskers defensive coordinator Carl Pelini says his defense has to come up with some big plays. “I’d like to see more turnovers,” Pelini said. “I want them to cut it loose a little more. We’ve talked about being more aggressive and to quit trying to be so perfect all the time and get after the ball. That will come. I think it’s a group that our confidence is starting to grow now and I think that’s important. I think that’s what we were missing early on.” The Huskers and Spartans kick off at Memorial Stadium at 11 AM Saturday.
Dumervil Questionable, McGahee Out For Sunday
The Denver Broncos may be without defensive end Elvis Dumervil for Sunday’s home game against the Detroit Lions. Dumervil suffered a sprained right ankle in Denver’s overtime victory at Miami last Sunday. He is unlikely to practice this week and was walking around the team’s facilities in a walking boot yesterday. It’s another setback in an injury plagued season for Dumervil, who missed the first two games of the season after straining his shoulder in practice. Dumervil missed the entire 2010 season after tearing a pectoral muscle during the preseason. He led the NFL in sacks in his last healthy season in 2009. Also injured in Sunday’s game was running back Willis McGahee, who will miss one to four weeks with a broken right hand. McGahee had won the starting job away from Knowshon Moreno before getting hurt.
Lincoln man gets 6 years for child porn conviction
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A Lincoln man has received a 6-year prison sentence for receiving and distributing child pornography.
U.S. Attorney Deborah Gilg says Robert M. Fast was sentenced Oct. 20 in U.S. District Court in Lincoln for receipt and distribution of child pornography. After his release, Fast will have to serve 5 years of supervised release and register as a sex offender. He also was ordered to pay nearly $20,000 in restitution to one of the child pornography victims.
Lincoln police found Fast through child pornography images on a file-sharing network. They tracked the images to a computer at his home, and searched the residence in November 2010. When investigators examined his computer, they found 26 digital images and 23 videos of child pornography.
(Update) Ex-friend: Iowa murder suspect showed no emotion
FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) – Prosecutors have called their star witness in the first-degree murder trial of a woman who claims she killed an Iowa neighbor in self-defense: a former friend who supported her but came forward a decade later to provide key evidence.
Farmer Mary Higgins testified Friday at the trial of Tracey Richter in the 2001 death of 20-year-old Dustin Wehde at her home in Early, a small town in northwest Iowa. Richter claims she shot Wehde after he broke into her home.
Higgins says Richter showed no emotion when she recounted the events “like she was telling me her grocery list.” She also says Richter told her about a pink spiral notebook claiming her ex-husband was behind the attack.
Investigators say they kept the notebook’s existence a secret.
Oil opponents give a whoop about cranes; beetles
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Three environmental groups have expanded a lawsuit that seeks to halt the development of a transnational oil pipeline through Nebraska.
The groups announced Tuesday that their lawsuit will challenge claims that a spill from the Keystone XL pipeline would not likely affect whooping cranes or other endangered species.
The lawsuit in U.S. District Court of Omaha aims to stop early work to make way for the pipeline, such as mowing native prairie grasses. Pipeline operator TransCanada, which was not named in the lawsuit, has said it mowed the grass to protect an endangered beetle species. Company officials say they also received permission from the landowners.
The lawsuit names the U.S. State Department, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other federal agencies and officials as
defendants.
Rancher who let horses, burros starve to death seeks parole
BRIDGEPORT, Neb. (AP) – A parole hearing is scheduled for a western Nebraska rancher convicted of letting more than 200 wild horses and burros starve.
Jason Meduna was convicted in January 2010 of 145 counts of animal cruelty. He was sentenced to 40 months to 10 years in prison. As part of his sentence, Meduna can’t own, possess or live with livestock for 30 years.
A parole hearing is set for Wednesday at the Lincoln Community Corrections Center.
Meduna owned the 3-Strikes mustang ranch south of Alliance, where many of the horses and burros were found emaciated and suffering from a variety of ailments in 2009. Dozens were found dead at the ranch. The surviving horses and burros were given new homes.
CO man busted near Hershey with weed; gun
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (North Platte Post)- A Colorado man is in custody, caught with marijuana and a handgun.
On Sunday, Deputy Jeff Gaasch with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office stopped 48-year-old Darrell Eugene Decker of Colorado Springs for speeding just east of Hershey. Deputy Gaasch soon became suspicious of Decker and his passenger and asked for permission to search the vehicle. Decker consented and Deputy Gaasch dispatched his K-9 Zeigo who discovered contraband found to be marijuana amounting to less than a pound but more than an ounce. A concealed 9 mm Glock handgun was also found in the vehicle.
Decker was arrested and incarcerated for Possession of Marijuana more than an ounce less than a pound and Carrying a Concealed Weapon.
Sutherland Sailors Sports Update – October 25
Neb. man found dead ID’d
HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) – Hastings police have identified a man whose body was found in a home. The body of 58-year-old Danny Weyers was found by an acquaintance at his home on Thursday. Police have said evidence found at the scene led officers to believe Weyers did not die of natural causes, but authorities have not said what caused his death. An autopsy was performed Friday. The results have not been released.