LA VISTA, Neb. (AP) — Two police officers helped revive a 5-week-old child in La Vista who stopped breathing on New Year’s Eve.
La Vista Police Chief Bob Lausten says Lt. T.J. Jacik and Officer Steve Walter were called to an apartment Thursday shortly before midnight.
Lausten says Jacik and Walter found the child bleeding from the nose and not breathing. They performed CPR until Papillion firefighters arrived.
The current condition of the child wasn’t immediately available Friday afternoon.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha police chief says the department will discipline two officers who had contact with a man who was later arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting two people and wounding three more at an Omaha apartment.
Chief Todd Schmaderer (SHMAHD’-ur) said Wednesday that the two officers violated a department policy while checking the welfare of 22-year-old Destacia Straughn on Dec. 6. She and her 2-year-old daughter, Kenacia Amerson-Straughn, were shot to death late that night.
Schmaderer says the officers had contact earlier that evening with the man now charged with two counts of murder and nine more felonies: 23-year-old Dontevous (dawn’-TAYE’-vuhs) Loyd. They had removed him from the apartment but didn’t think they had sufficient cause to arrest him.
Schmaderer didn’t name the officers or specify which policy the officers violated.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha school board is expected to vote Monday on a $250,000 settlement with the family of a 12-year-old boy who drowned in a district pool more than a year ago.
The family of Demariont’e Brown-Elliott filed a $1 million claim against the district in January, alleging negligence by district employees and administrators. The boy was found unresponsive in the Nathan Hale Middle School pool on Nov. 13, 2014. He died the next day in a hospital. An autopsy confirmed that he’d drowned.
The family says in its claim that Demariont’e and his classmates were being supervised by one teacher who was providing basic swimming instruction. The district says 10 students were in class that day.
PLEASANT DALE, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say two people have been arrested and more than 91 pounds of marijuana has been seized after a traffic stop in Seward County.
The state trooper pulled over an eastbound sport utility vehicle a little after 11 a.m. Wednesday near the Pleasant Dale exit off Interstate 80. The Nebraska State Patrol says a police dog alerted officers to the odor of drugs coming from the back of the SUV, and a subsequent search turned up the pot inside two suitcases and five boxes.
The driver and his passenger were taken into custody. Online court records don’t show that either person has been charged. The patrol says both are from Fairbanks, Alaska.
EDISON, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a woman and six children have escaped flames that damaged their home across a street from a fire hall in southern Nebraska.
The fire was reported a little after 9 a.m. Wednesday in Edison. Firefighters from Arapahoe, Beaver City and Holbrook joined the Edison volunteers in battling the blaze. No injuries have been reported.
Investigators say a child playing with a lighter started the fire.
Edison is a village of about 130 residents in Furnas County.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 35-year-old Omaha teacher has been accused of having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old former student.
Online court records say Brian Robeson is charged with two counts of sexual assault of a child. Police say he was arrested Tuesday after he, the girl and her family were interviewed.
Online jail records say Robeson remained in Douglas County Jail on Thursday. Court records don’t list the name of an attorney who could be contacted to comment on Robeson’s behalf.
Robeson was a seventh-grade math teacher at Davis Middle School. The Omaha district says he’s no longer an employee.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s minimum wage has increased by $1 to $9 an hour in 2016.
The increase for non-tipped workers started Friday. It’s up from $8 an hour in 2015 and $7.25 before that.
The increase is the final phase of a two-step minimum wage hike approved by voters in 2014. Nebraska’s last minimum wage increase before that was in 2009.
Kathy Siefken, executive director of the Nebraska Grocery Industry Association, says she’s worried what the increase to $9 will mean for rural grocery stores.
Grocers backed a bill in the state Legislature this year to keep the minimum wage at $8 for most student workers 18 and younger. But it failed to get support from two-thirds of state legislators, which is required to modify a law enacted by public vote.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A new deputy will oversee Nebraska’s prison-based manufacturing program.
Corrections director Scott Frakes announced Thursday that Jeremy Elder has been chosen as deputy director of Cornhusker State Industries. Elder will replace John McGovern, who retired earlier this month.
Elder has worked with the program for the past 12 years in a variety of positions.
Elder holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the university. He will begin his new role on Jan. 11.
RALSTON, Neb. (AP) — Two credit card data theft devices have been found on gas pumps at a store in Ralston.
The devices, known as skimmers, were discovered Wednesday on two pumps farthest from the Super Store building. They were turned over to the U.S. Secret Service.
Ralston Police Chief Ron Murtaugh says his officers are trying to find out how long the devices were in place and whose credit or debit card information was stolen.
No arrests have been reported.
BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — A 25-year-old man was arrested after a sheriff’s deputy spotted what looked like drug paraphernalia when the man tried to go through a courtroom security checkpoint at the Gage County Courthouse in Beatrice.
Authorities say the man was headed into the courtroom for his hearing on two other cases. The man’s black glasses case set off a metal detector at the checkpoint. An arrest report says the case was partially open and the deputy could see small plastic bags inside.
The man gave the case to the deputy, and a spoon inside the case later tested positive for methamphetamine.
The man was taken into custody. Online court records don’t yet show that he’s been charged.
