Getting their season started off right with a glorious trip to the winners circle were Colton Osborn, Jamey Kennicutt, Casey Werkmeister, Jacob Olmstead and Andrew Baumgardner during the opening night of dirt track action at Lincoln County Raceway in North Platte, Nebraska on Saturday evening. Continue reading “Lincoln County Raceway Results; Apr. 9”
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska has one of the nation’s lowest participation rates in a new federal program intended to provide school meals to children.
A report by the Washington-based Food Research and Action Center found Nebraska is ranked second-lowest among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in the number of eligible schools that are using the program.
The Community Eligibility Provision program reimburses high-poverty schools that agree to provide free lunches and breakfasts to all students.
The report says nine of Nebraska’s 112 eligible schools chose to participate last year. New Hampshire was the only state with a lower participation rate.
James Goddard of the group Nebraska Appleseed says advocates are working to promote the program.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — The main hospital in Grand Island sometimes has to turn patients away because it doesn’t have enough nurses available to care for them.
CHI Health St. Francis occasionally runs into problems if several nurses are out sick or on maternity leave at the same time.
The hospital works to maintain adequate nursing staff, and it has a program to help train nurses.
But Beth Bartlett with CHI Health St. Francis says the hospital wants to make sure it can provide adequate care.
NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — A Norfolk man sentenced to life in prison for the stabbing death of his ex-girlfriend has been denied his request to be released from prison.
Madison County District Judge Mark Johnson on Wednesday denied Leodan Alarcon-Chavez’s request for post-conviction relief.
Alarcon-Chavez was convicted in 2011 of first-degree murder and other counts in the March 2010 death of 30-year-old Maria Villareal. Prosecutors say he stabbed Villareal in her apartment while he was awaiting trial for threatening to kill her several months earlier.
Among other things, Alarcon-Chavez alleged in his latest request that his attorney was ineffective and that prosecutors engaged in misconduct.
The judge said in his ruling that Alarcon-Chavez failed to prove some allegations and that others were without merit.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha man accused of driving drunk and causing a crash that killed another man will stand trial.
39-year-old David Hadi is charged with felony motor vehicle homicide and DUI causing serious bodily injury in connection with the death of 60-year-old Carl Gauff, of Omaha.
Hadi waived his preliminary hearing Friday morning, clearing the way for a judge to order him to stand trial.
Hadi has pleaded not guilty.
Police say that on the night of March 13, Hadi drove a sport utility vehicle on the wrong side of the street, hitting Gauff’s car head-on.
Police say Hadi’s blood-alcohol level after the collision was .308, about four times the legal limit of .08.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s attorney general is appealing a federal judge’s decision to block the state from putting a 13-year-old boy who moved to Nebraska from Minnesota on Nebraska’s public list of sex offenders.
Suzanne Gage, a spokeswoman for the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, says the case has important ramifications on how Nebraska’s sex offender registry law should be interpreted.
In Nebraska, lawmakers opted to exclude juveniles from the Nebraska Sex Offender Registration Act unless they were prosecuted criminally in adult court.
In his ruling last month, Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf said if the boy had done in Nebraska what he did in Minnesota, he would not have been required to register as a sex offender.
BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) — Bellevue University has received approval to launch Nebraska’s first new teacher education program in 15 years.
Members of the Nebraska State Board of Education voted unanimously Friday to grant the university provisional approval for the new program.
It will be the 17th teacherprep program in the state. The last one to win final approval was the one at Grace University in 2001.
Bellevue University officials plan to offer a four-year program to certify secondary school teachers.
Provisional approval allows the university to ramp up the program over the next three years with state oversight.
Rod Hewlett, the university’s chief academic officer, said program’s first teachers will be certified 2 1/2 to 3 years from now.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Two Wood River men have pleaded guilty and been fined in Hall County Court for killing sandhill cranes and abandoning scores of dead snow geese last month in east-central Nebraska.
20-year-old Marco Zarraga was fined $525 and 24-year-old Adam Wagner was fined $300.
On March 14, 150 to 200 dead snow geese were found in Merrick County. Days later, 10 dead snow geese and three sandhill cranes were left near Grand Island.
Authorities say Zarraga killed the three cranes.
It’s illegal to hunt sandhill cranes in Nebraska. Shooting snow geese is not a crime this time of year, but authorities say dumping the geese and shooting them from a roadway and from a vehicle was illegal.
LONG PINE, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska State Patrol says a three-vehicle crash has killed an elderly Long Pine man.
The crash occurred around noon Friday in Rock County.
The patrol’s Capt. Paul Hattan says 82-year-old Lynne Moore was attempting to pass a pickup on Highway 20 when his vehicle struck a pivot stand being pulled by a 60-year-old Ainsworth man.
Investigators say Moore’s vehicle went into oncoming lanes and struck another vehicle driven by a 64-year-old Ainsworth woman.
Moore died in the crash.
The Nebraska State Patrol continues to investigate.
Penny R. Koch, 73, of North Platte, passed away April 4, 2016 at her home. She was born January 29, 1943 to Herbert B. and Madge M. (Bellew) Johnson at St. Mary’s Hospital in North Platte. She graduated from Geneva High School with the class of “60”. She went on to receive a BA in Elementary Education from Kearney State College. Penny was united in marriage June 28, 1964 to Ralph E. Koch at the First United Methodist Church in North Platte. They began their married life on a farm in the Platte Valley community. She was a member of the Episcopal Church of Our Savior, Rebeccaka Lodge, Lincoln County Historical Society, Westerners, Paws-itive Partners, YFC Prayer Group and Compassionate Friends. She is survived by her two sons, Aaron (Pam) Koch and Eldon Koch; two grandsons, Benjamin and Garrison; a sister, Mary (Richard) Yahn; and many other relatives and friends. She was preceded in death by her parents; her daughter, Elaine in 1988; her husband in 2002. Online condolences may be shared at www.carpentermemorial.com. Memorial services will be 10:30 am Monday, April 11, 2016 at the Episcopal Church of Our Savior with The Rev. Dr. Jeffrey S. F. Nelson officiating. Inurnment will be at Ft. McPherson National Cemetery near Maxwell. Carpenter Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
