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Toyota Tells Dealers to Stop Selling 6 Models

toyota(AP) — Toyota has told North American dealers to stop selling six popular models because the seat fabric doesn’t meet flammability standards.

Company spokesman John Hanson says one soft material beneath the seat covers doesn’t comply. No fires or injuries have been reported. Toyota is still totaling how many vehicles are affected, but it will be in the thousands.

The move affects Camry, Avalon, Sienna and Tacoma models from the 2013 and 2014 model years. Also covered are Corollas and Tundras from 2014.

It’s not clear what will happen with vehicles that have already been sold. Hanson says Toyota has reported the problem to U.S. safety regulators, who will decide if the vehicles must be recalled.

The Camry is the top-selling car in the U.S., with more than 408,000 sold last year.

Pacifiers with Plastic Mustaches Recalled

mustache-pacifierFred & Friends is recalling 200,000 pacifiers because of a risk that a baby using one could choke.

No injuries have been reported.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says three different pacifiers are involved. The Chill Baby Artiste Pacifier has an attached mustache and beard, which can break off. The Chill Baby Volume Control Pacifier has a volume knob that can detach and the ventilation holes are smaller than federal regulators require. The Chill Baby Panic Button Pacifier also has vent holes that are too small.

Fred & Friends has received one report of the knob on the volume pacifier coming off.

Consumers should stop using the pacifiers and return them for a $12 refund.

Omaha Man Gets 55-85 Years in Slaying of Omaha Teen

Montrell Wiseman
Montrell Wiseman

(AP) — A man has been given 55 to 85 years in prison for the slaying of a 16-year-old Omaha boy who was wearing red, the color of a rival gang.

Court records say 24-year-old Joshua Vanackeren was sentenced Tuesday. Vanackeren was given 45 to 65 years for second-degree murder and 10 to 20 years for using a firearm. The sentences are to be served consecutively.

Police say Vanackeren and other Crips gang members were driving around in a minivan on Oct. 21, 2012, seeking revenge for the slaying of a cousin of a gang member. They spotted Montrell Wiseman and two girls standing outside a house. All three were wearing red.

Shotgun blasts killed Wiseman and wounded one of the girls. Police say Wiseman wasn’t a gang member.

Norfolk Man Arrested in Woman’s Sex Assault

norfolk-police(AP) — A 25-year-old Norfolk man was arrested after he went to the city police station and reported that he’d just sexually assaulted a woman.

Norfolk police say Leonardo Rivas went to the station a little after 1 a.m. Wednesday, told an officer what had happened and gave the officer the woman’s name.

Police say Rivas was taken into custody after officers talked to the woman, who knew Rivas.

Online jail records say Rivas remained in Madison County custody on Thursday. Online court records don’t list the name of Rivas’ attorney.

Man Who Killed Neb. Boy in 1973 Paroled Again

Antonio-Laravie
Courtesy Neb. Dept. of Corrections

(AP) — A man who stabbed  a little boy  to death 40 years ago in northeast Nebraska has been paroled for a third time.

55-year-old Antonio Laravie’s parole was approved Wednesday on a 3-2 vote by the Nebraska Parole Board in Lincoln.

Laravie was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1973 death of 2-year-old Chad Wilson in Niobrara. Laravie, from South Dakota, had broken into the Niobrara home and stabbed the little boy in his bedroom.

Chad’s mother, Denise Wilson, appeared at the parole hearing and asked the board to keep Laravie behind bars.

Laravie has been paroled twice before. But he was sent back to prison each time, for drug and alcohol violations and for not complying with travel restrictions.

Northeastern Nebraska Woman Killed in Crash

fatal-accident(AP) — The Cuming County Sheriff’s Office says a 33-year-old northeast Nebraska woman has died in a single-car rollover crash.

Investigators say Peggy Svatos, of Wisner, was on a county road less than four miles west of Wisner late Wednesday afternoon when she lost control of her car and rolled.

Officials say Svatos was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the car as it rolled.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Judge Allows New Lawyers for Neb. Death Row Inmate

John Lotter
John Lotter

(AP) — A federal judge has granted a motion by condemned Nebraska inmate John Lotter to have new attorneys appointed to represent him in his efforts to get off death row.

Lotter and a co-defendant were convicted in the 1993 slaying of Teena Brandon, a 21-year-old woman who lived briefly as a man, and two witnesses — a crime that inspired the 1999 movie “Boys Don’t Cry.” Lotter has maintained his innocence.

U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf last week granted Lotter’s request to appoint Rebecca Woodman and Jessica Sutton — both attorneys with the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic in Kansas City, Mo. — as his lawyers in all clemency and post-conviction proceedings.

Nebraska Woman Dies Just Days After Wedding

Courtesy Photo
Courtesy Photo

(AP) — A Nebraska woman has died just days after a wedding that was hurried up because she and her soon-to-be husband knew she’d soon succumb to cancer.

Vaughn Wright of Harman-Wright Mortuary said Thursday that Jessica Nabity died Monday at her parents’ home outside Diller. Nabity was 36.

Nabity became ill last year and was diagnosed with small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma. Doctors told her earlier this month that several tumors had developed on her liver and in her lungs. She was given only weeks to live.

So she and her fiance, Paul Nabity, decided to quickly get married and did so Jan. 11 in Diller.

Her mother, Linda Holtmeier, said Jessica spent her final days visiting friends and family and planning her funeral.

Bruning Eyeing Run for Neb. Governor

Attorney General Jon Bruning
Attorney General Jon Bruning

(AP) — Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning says his cancer diagnosis last year has led him to reconsider a run for governor.

Bruning said Thursday that he has consulted with family and friends about joining the 2014 Republican primary race. Bruning underwent surgery for colon cancer in December and has since been declared cancer-free.

Bruning had previously announced plans to seek re-election, but he says the cancer scare led him to re-evaluate his priorities in life. He says he also has received numerous phone calls and text messages asking him to look at the race.

The 44-year-old has until the Feb. 18 filing deadline to enter the six-way GOP race to replace Gov. Dave Heineman. If he runs, Bruning would enter the race with immediate statewide name recognition.

Arizona Shelter Has 36 Pound Cat

Courtesy Maricopa County Animal Care and Control(AP) — An Arizona animal shelter has a rather large cat on its hands.

The Maricopa County Animal Care and Control recently received a 36-pound cat at one of its shelters in the Phoenix area.

The cat named “Meatball” is temporarily staying in an office at the shelter because he’s too large to fit into a standard kennel.

The cat is not available for adoption.

Instead, the shelter is trying to place him with a rescue organization that helps overweight cats.

The shelter says Meatball is extremely friendly and says he can comfortably walk despite his weight.

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