LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A bill that would allow Nebraska to charge higher fees for hunting and fishing permits is headed to a final vote in the Legislature.

Senators gave the measure second-round approval Tuesday with a 43-3 vote after overcoming a filibuster. They also rejected an amendment by Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha to end Nebraska’s mountain lion hunting season.

The bill would give the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission the authority to raise permit fees. The maximum fee for annual resident hunting permits could rise from $13 to $18, while the fee cap for annual fishing permits would increase from $17.50 to $24.

Sen. John McCollister of Omaha, the bill’s sponsor, says the fee caps were last adjusted in 2003.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts says he’s “very pleased” to see lawmakers advance a bill that would reinstate a winner-take-all system for the state’s presidential electoral votes.

Ricketts said Tuesday that his staff is keeping an eye on the bill, but added that he wants to let the Legislature work through its process. Lawmakers on Monday advanced the measure through the second of three required votes.

The bill would end Nebraska’s practice of awarding its votes by congressional district. Nebraska and Maine are the only states where it’s possible to split electoral votes between opposing presidential candidates.

The state did so for the first time in 2008, when Democrat Barack Obama captured one from the 2nd congressional district in Omaha on his way to the presidency.

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — Officials say two of four teens who escaped from a Kearney treatment facility have been captured.

Four teens escaped Sunday night from Kearney’s Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center. Police captured one teen near the facility, and the Gage County Sheriff’s Office received information around 11:40 p.m. Monday that another escapee was headed toward Beatrice.

The teen was found during a traffic stop on the north side of Beatrice and was taken to the Youth Attention Center in Lincoln.

Authorities are still searching for two of the teens.

Early Monday, Grand Island police tried to stop a vehicle that fled. Officers later found the apparently stolen vehicle abandoned, and inside were two T-shirts with the missing teens’ names on them.

Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, police have identified the five people killed when a sightseeing helicopter crashed and burned near Great Smoky Mountains National Park in eastern Tennessee.

Police said in a news release that the dead were the pilot, 38-year-old Jason Dahl, of Sevierville, Tennessee; and four passengers, 49-year-old Johna Morvant of Kodak, Tennessee, 22-year-old Peyton Rasmussen of Huntersville, North Carolina, 21-year-old Michael Glenn Mastalez of Prosper, Texas, and 18-year-old Parker Rasmussen, also of Huntersville.

The Rasmussens’ father, Scott Rasmussen of Huntersville, told the Knoxville News Sentinel that Mastalez was his daughter’s boyfriend. Family members said Peyton and Parker Rasmussen were visiting their mother, Morvant.

The helicopter crashed Monday afternoon near a large outlet mall in Sevierville. Investigators have been going through the wreckage but haven’t determined what caused the Bell 206 helicopter to crash.

EDITOR’S NOTE

Peyton and Parker Rasmussen, and Johna Morvant were all former residents of North Platte.  Peyton and Parker’s father and grandfather, Scott and Butch, were the longtime owners of the Cedar Bowl, in North Platte.

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https://www.northplattepost.com/2016/04/05/family-with-ties-to-north-platte-sutherland-killed-in-tennessee-helicopter-crash/