LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln police have ticketed a man suspected of hiding under a truck so he could touch one of a woman’s feet.
The ticket cites the 20-year-old with disturbing the peace on March 21. Police say the woman reported seeing a man’s hand touch one of her feet as she loaded groceries into her truck in a Lincoln parking lot.
Officer Kate Flood says investigators who looked at security recordings linked the man to a similar incident in June at another Lincoln store.
Meteorologists are warning Nebraska residents about an early spring snowstorm blowing into the Panhandle.
The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch that will run from early Wednesday morning through Wednesday evening. The service says rain is expected to change to snow with accumulations ranging from 3 to 7 inches. Winds of 25 to 35 mph are expected, with gusts up to 45 mph.
The service says the blowing snow could create whiteouts and other conditions that will make travel perilous and pose a threat to livestock.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 33-year-old man has been arrested on charges that he sexually assaulted two women in Lincoln more than nine years ago.
Jaime Villasenor (vee-uh-sehn-YOR’) was arrested last week. Court documents say he raped a woman in downtown Lincoln in November 2006 and raped a cab driver in January 2007.
Online jail records say Villasenor remained in Lancaster County custody Tuesday. Online court records don’t list the name of an attorney who could comment for him. Records say Villasenor also is known as Jaime Chavez and Antonio Morales.
Authorities say Villasenor returned to Lincoln after serving federal prison time for being in the country illegally. Authorities also say a DNA sample taken from him matched DNA evidence found in the Lincoln cases.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers have defeated a bill that would have used federal Medicaid and state dollars to provide insurance coverage to low-income residents.
Senators voted 28-20 on Tuesday to bracket the measure, effectively killing it. The proposal would have covered an estimated 97,000 uninsured people whose incomes are too high to qualify for traditional Medicaid but too low to receive federal tax credits to help pay for insurance.
Supporters say the proposal would have been the nation’s most conservative. Instead of expanding Medicaid, the bill would have used the funding to buy coverage for residents without access to an employer-sponsored plan or to pay the worker’s share of premiums for employers that offer plans.
Opponents, including Gov. Pete Ricketts, raised concerns about the bill’s long-term costs.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln schoolteacher has advanced to the next round on the “The Voice,” NBC’s singing contest.
On Monday night Hannah Huston (HYOO’-stuhn) was wildly praised by the celebrity coaches for her rendition of a 1964 rock classic, “House of the Rising Sun.” On the show, celebrity coaches aid the competing singers as they vie for a recording contract.
The 24-year-old teaches at Arnold Elementary School in Lincoln, but she’s on a leave to participate in the show. The district says a TV crew was in Lincoln in November to record Huston with her class.
Huston graduated from Grand Island Senior High School in 2009 and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2013.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The director of Nebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services says the agency is tackling a state nursing shortage by simplifying the licensing process.
Director Courtney Phillips and Gov. Pete Ricketts announced Tuesday that the agency has streamlined the application, improved instructions, added commonly asked questions to its website, and is encouraging nursing students to apply for their licenses prior to graduation.
Phillips says only 28 percent of the applications the department received were complete because nurses had difficulty understanding the requirements.
With the changes, Phillips says 95 percent of applications now arrive complete, and the department has increased the number it can process from 27 to 50 per week.
Ricketts says he will continue to work to ensure the government runs efficiently and with an emphasis on customer service.
BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — An empty lot in east Beatrice will soon be the site of a new home built by Nebraska inmates.
Officials from the city, the Nebraska Department of Corrections and the nonprofit Prairie Gold Homes held a ground breaking ceremony Monday afternoon on the site where inmates at Community Corrections Center in Lincoln will build a new home.
The house will be about 1,200 square feet and include three bedrooms, a two-stall garage and a full, but unfinished, basement.
Mayor Stan Wirth says the price of the home hasn’t been set, but that it’ll be affordable. The city hopes to have the house pre-sold before completion.
Prairie Gold Homes’ executive director Renee Bauer says the home is set to be finished by Thanksgiving.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Two Nebraska colleges have quietly set up private endowments to provide scholarships for undocumented immigrants who don’t qualify for financial aid.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has promised people brought illegally into the U.S. as children by undocumented parents that they won’t face deportation and will have a right to legal work. But these young people, often referred to as “Dreamers,” still don’t qualify for state or federal government-funded aid to help pay for college.
Twenty-eight students have graduated through the College of St. Mary’s program over the last 10 years. Additionally, the University of Nebraska at Omaha launched a scholarship for Dreamers this year through a private donation.
The University of Nebraska at Kearney has said it hopes to follow suit.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts is standing by a new state license plate that was widely mocked as boring and sexually suggestive.
Ricketts said Tuesday that the plate incorporates “very positive imagery” of the state’s agricultural heritage and fulfils its purpose as a form of identification for law enforcement.
The plate features the iconic “Sower” statue that tops the state Capitol in Lincoln. Since it was unveiled last week, social media commenters have called it uninspired. Some have argued that the image of the Sower holding a grain satchel in front of his pelvis looks inappropriate.
Comedian Chris Hardwick made fun of the plate on the Comedy Central show @midnight.
Ricketts says he knew license plate redesigns are controversial, but he did not expect the image to make national comedy news.
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