OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A group of Nebraska farmers who say their crops suffered because the state improperly deprived them of irrigation water from the Republican River can proceed with their lawsuit.

Attorney David Domina, who represents the group of about 150 farmers, said Tuesday that District Judge James Doyle had rejected the state’s motion to dismiss the case.

Domina says the farmers in the Frenchman Cambridge Irrigation District agree the state had the authority to send the water to Kansas in 2013 to comply with the Republican River Compact.

But Domina says the farmers should have been compensated for that irrigation water the lost.

A spokeswoman for the state Attorney General said she couldn’t immediately comment on the ruling Tuesday afternoon.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska attorney general’s office is objecting to a new effort by a civil liberties group to have both same-sex spouses listed as parents on their children’s birth certificates.

State attorneys argued in a news release Tuesday that plaintiffs in the case are adding statements from couples who were not part of their original lawsuit and claiming additional rights not addressed in the original filings. The original lawsuit challenged Nebraska’s same-sex marriage ban.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska asked a judge last week to order state officials to list both spouses on birth certificates. The group says the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services has refused to provide married gay couples with birth certificates for their children on the same conditions as married straight couples.

 

Bridge work will force temporary closures of the Johnson Lake outlet bridge in early October.

Beginning Monday, October 5, 2015, the Johnson Lake outlet bridge will be closed each week Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Gosper and Dawson counties will have signs posted to notify the public.

The bridge will be closed for a duration of approximately eight weeks while the new pedestrian bridge is under construction.

 

A McCook man is facing charges after he allegedly assaulted staff at Great Plains Health in North Platte.

At around 1:00 p.m., on September 28, officers with the North Platte Police Department responded to the Great Plains Health Behavioral Unit after receiving a report that a patient had assaulted staff members at the hospital.

Officers arrived and found staff trying to calm the suspect, 33-year-old Jessee Anderson.

It was reported that Anderson had become agitated and began choking a 34-year-old male doctor.

Police say when two male staff members attempted to intervene, Anderson stuck them multiple times and attempted to leave the facility.

After further investigation, officers took Anderson into custody and transported him to the Lincoln County Detention Center.

He’s been charged with felony assault on a health care professional, felony strangulation, two counts of 3rd-degree assault and criminal mischief.

Anderson is being held on ten percent of $100,000 bond.

 

SIDNEY, Neb. (AP) — The Sidney police chief thinks his sentence for obstructing government operations is disproportionately tough.

That’s what the attorney for Chief B.J. Wilkinson told a judge on Monday in Cheyenne County District Court.

State prosecutors say Wilkinson failed to pursue criminal charges against city Public Works Director John Hehnke after Hehnke’s ex-girlfriend filed a complaint in January 2014 against Hehnke. The case came to the attention of state prosecutors, who later charged Hehnke.

Wilkinson’s attorney, Thomas Sonntag, said in court Monday that Wilkinson’s 30-day jail sentence was unfairly tough when compared to Hehnke’s $300 fine for disturbing the peace.

Judge Travis O’Gorman says he’ll probably make a decision on the appeal within two weeks.