COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — Police are investigating the shooting deaths of a Columbus couple whose bodies were discovered by a relative.
Capt. Todd Thalken (TAHL’-kehn) said Monday that relatives hadn’t heard from the couple, so a family member went to check on them around 4 p.m. Saturday and found the bodies in the couple’s northwest Columbus home.
Thalken says investigators are trying to determine whether the shootings were a murder-suicide or the result of a suicide pact. So far it appears that the 61-year-old man used a handgun to shoot his 60-year-old wife and then himself. Their names have not being released.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s longest-serving lawmaker has adopted a new cause that he plans to pursue every year: allowing adults with terminal illnesses to end their own lives.
Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha filed a motion Monday to pull his aid-in-dying bill out of a legislative committee where it remains stuck. Nine senators supported the motion while 28 voted against it, but Chambers says he plans to keep pursuing it.
Chambers and other supporters say the measure would ease suffering and allow death with dignity. Some medical groups oppose the bill, saying it would force doctors to make value judgments about the quality of a patient’s life.
Chambers is well-known for his efforts over four decades to abolish the death penalty. Lawmakers repealed it last year.
FREEMAN, S.D. (AP) — TransCanada Corp. has shut down the Keystone pipeline while it investigates a possible spill in southeastern South Dakota.
The company says the potential leak was first reported Saturday afternoon. Crews sent to the scene in Hutchinson County found signs of oil on what the company says is a “small surface area” about 4 miles from its Freeman pump station.
TransCanada is removing the oil and investigating where it came from. The company says it has found no significant harm to the environment.
The Keystone pipeline runs from the Canadian province of Alberta to refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma, passing through the eastern Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. It is separate from the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
TransCanada says it has notified landowners, regulatory and government agencies, and pipeline customers.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln High School student and teacher have teamed up to start a club to connect students with one another and help refugees across the world.
The club, called Fork in the Road, draws students from two groups: the International Baccalaureate program and the English Language Learner program.
Senior Elizabeth Yost and teacher Christ Maly formed the club after attending the Aspen Ideas Festival, which brings together the country’s foremost thinkers to share ideas.
The club plans to host its own weeklong festival at the end of April that will facilitate conversations between the students.
Students will also make pinwheels to send to refugee camp classrooms in Lebanon and Iraq. The Bezos Foundation will donate $2 per pinwheel to train teachers working in the camps.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Grand Island officers have given a grandma some unsolicited advice about leashing her grandchild to a pole: Don’t.
The officers were sent to a motel around 4:30 p.m. Sunday after a 911 caller reported seeing the child on a leash there. The officers say the woman had safely attached the child leash to the pole so the child wouldn’t wander onto U.S. Highway 30 nearby. She didn’t want the 7-year-old to get hurt.
But Sgt. Tony Kuiper says the leash could have posed a problem had the child fallen or got snagged on something while not being supervised.
The officers told the woman that leashing the child to the pole just wasn’t as safe as she thought. They didn’t issue her a citation.
HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — A truck driver has been killed in a collision with a train in Adams County.
The accident occurred a little before 4 p.m. Friday about four miles east of Hastings. The Nebraska State Patrol says the truck was headed south when the driver didn’t yield at a crossing to the eastbound train.
The semi driver was identified as 68-year-old Alan Lanham, of Ravenna (ruh-VEH’-nuh).
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — There were only two Omaha homicides in the first three months of 2016, the fewest to begin a year in at least a decade.
Last year, when there was a record 50 homicides, 14 of them occurred during the first three months of the year.
A retired Omaha police captain, Mike Butera, oversaw homicide investigations in the 1990s and early 2000s, and he says homicides are cyclical, prone to lulls and to jump in number. Butera says Omaha is “probably going to see an uptick.”
He says that, as the weather warms, outdoor crowds, open-air drug dealing and more drive-by shootings could lead to more killings.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Authorities allege four men sexually assaulted a 9-year-old girl at a Utah home while her mother was in the garage smoking meth.
Sheriff’s officials say in court documents the assault occurred March 27 at a home in rural Uintah County, which borders Colorado.
Deputies say four men who were staying in the home raped the child, who later reported it to her mother.
The Uintah County Sheriff’s Office says the men have been arrested. It identified them as 36-year-old Larson RonDeau, 20-year-old Josiah RonDeau, 29-year-old Jerry Flatlip and 26-year-old Randall Flatlip.
Charges have been filed against Larson RonDeau. County Attorney G. Mark Thomas says he expects charges to be filed against the other three in the next few days.
None of the men has a listed phone number or appears to have an attorney to comment on his behalf.
Damage to a residence at 4010 West Parkland Circle Drive allegedly caused by a vehicle driven by 34-year-old Jessica Pavlik. (Courtesy of Brooke Tucker)
Damage to a residence at 4005 West Parkland Circle allegedly caused by a vehicle driven by 34-year-old Jessica Pavlik. (Courtesy of Brooke Tucker)
Damage to a tree caused by a vehicle allegedly driven by Jessica Pavlik. (Courtesy of Brooke Tucker)
Damage to a light pole allegedly caused by a vehicle driven by 34-year-old Jessica Pavlik. (Courtesy of Brooke Tucker)
Police say they believe the driver of a vehicle that struck two houses and multiple other objects was under the influence of alcohol.
According to Investigator John Deal of the North Platte Police Department, officers responded to the report of a traffic accident in the 4000 block of West Parkland Circle at around 1:36 a.m., on Monday morning.
Officers made contact with the driver of a 2007 Mercury Montego and identified her as 34-year-old Jessica Pavlik.
Deal said Pavlik had visible, non-life threatening injuries and was transported via ambulance to Great Plains Health.
An accident investigation was conducted and showed that Pavlik had been traveling westbound on West 2nd Street when her vehicle veered to the right and left the roadway.
The vehicle reportedly struck a light pole and a tree in the yard of a residence. After striking the tree, Deal says the vehicle continued to move and struck the outside wall, near the kitchen, of the residence at 4005 West Parkland Circle. Pavlik’s vehicle then hit the neighboring residence at 4010 West Parkland Circle and came to rest in the yard.
Investigators say there were no witnesses to the accident other than Pavlik. However, they say it is suspected that Pavlik was under the influence of alcohol. Deal said the results of a blood draw taken at the hospital should be returned in a few days.
Investigators gave the following breakdown of the damage allegedly caused by Pavlik’s vehicle:
Street light-$500
Tree-$100
Residence at 4005 West Parkland Circle-$10,000
Residence at 4010 West Parkland Circle-$15,000
Police believe that Pavlik’s vehicle will be a total loss, and they don’t believe that a seatbelt was in use.
North Platte –The North Platte Community College Knights Softball team will travel to McCook on Tuesday, April 5th to face the McCook Community College Lady Indians in a Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference doubleheader. Continue reading “NPCC Knights Softball to Travel to McCook for Doubleheader”
COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — Police are investigating the shooting deaths of a Columbus couple whose bodies were discovered by a relative.
North Platte –The North Platte Community College Knights Softball team will travel to McCook on Tuesday, April 5th to face the McCook Community College Lady Indians in a Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference doubleheader.