Sponsored by the National Weather Service offices serving Nebraska, May 25th is NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards Awareness Day in Nebraska. This is the 1st annual NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards Awareness campaign in the state.

NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is a service provided by the National Weather Service and is known as the “Voice of the National Weather Service”. It provides continuous broadcasts of the latest weather information and forecasts from your local National Weather Service office. NOAA Weather Radio

All Hazards broadcasts important forecast and warning information as quick as possible.

With NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards, you will always have access to potentially life-saving emergency information. During severe weather, National Weather Service personnel can interrupt routine weather broadcasts and insert warning messages concerning immediate threats to life and property. A special alert tone can also be activated that triggers an alerting feature on specifically equipped receivers.

In the simplest case, this signal activates audible or visual alarms indicating that an emergency condition exists within the broadcast area of the station. In the most sophisticated alerting system, receivers equipped with Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) technology allow listeners to choose a specific county and what events their radio will sound an alarm for when official NWS watches and warnings are issued.

NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards broadcasts watches, warnings, statements and weather information for all types of hazards, both natural and technological. Working with other Federal and local agencies, NOAA Weather Radio is an “all hazards” radio network. This makes NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards the single source for the most comprehensive weather and emergency information available to the public.

NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards provides the timeliest forecast and warning information from your servicing National Weather Service office. This information can save your life! Please take the time to learn more about NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards.

More information is available from your local National Weather Service office Web site: https://www.crh.noaa.gov/lbf or visit the National Weather Service’s NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards Web Site: https://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr

Monday, June 10^th is the due date to register for the 2013 Tractor Safety Course to be held in North Platte.  The class is planned for Thursday, June 13^th, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and Friday, June 14^th, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. or until testing is completed, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln West Central Research and Extension Center.

Any youth 14 or 15 years of age who works on a farm or ranch other than his parents’ is required to be certified through a tractor safety course.  Extension Educators and field specialists will teach the class.

Cost for the course is $60, which includes all materials, testing, lunches and breaks both days.  Call the Extension Office 308-532-2683 or 1-800-200-1381 or e-mailrsaner2@unl.edu for registration materials.  Registration forms are also available athttps://kearney.unl.edu or lincolnmcpherson@unl.edu

An accused sexual predator has been sentenced to five years in prison for sexually assaulting a child.

Donald Warfield, 70, of North Platte was sentenced in Lincoln County District Court on Monday.

Prosecutors say a fifteen-year-old girl reported last year that Warfield began giving her gifts and inappropriately touching her when she was seven-years-old.  She told authorities the sexual assaults gradually became worse and continued for three or four years.

Warfield entered a no-contest plea to the charge.

Last year, Warfield was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender and entered a plea to a reduced misdemeanor charge.

He was convicted in 2002 of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl.

When District Court Judge Richard Birch asked Warfield if he had anything to say, Warfield said “I don’t remember anything happening.  That’s all I can say.”

Warfield was remanded to the Lincoln County Sheriff to await transport to Lincoln.

Nebraska officials have kicked off their annual seat belt campaign to promote roadway safety.

The “Click It or Ticket” campaign began on Monday and will run through June 2.

Nebraska recorded 212 roadway deaths last year, marking the first time the fatality count has increased in the last three years. Gov. Dave Heineman says the number of roadway deaths this year has put the state on pace to see another year of increased traffic deaths.

The campaign involves 62 law enforcement agencies from across the state. It provides more than 12,000 hours of additional traffic enforcement time, with a focus on the use of seat belts and proper child restraints.

The summer also marks the heaviest time for roads projects.