OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say a man was seriously injured when he lit a firecracker and it exploded in his hands.
The man was hurt Monday morning after lighting the firecracker at a moving company and storage warehouse in southwest Omaha.
Matt Manhart, of the Omaha police bomb response team, says the man lit the commercial firework in his hand, then wasn’t able to toss it before the firework exploded.
The man, whose name wasn’t released, was taken to Nebraska Medical Center with serious but non-life-threatening injuries to both hands.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed one of President Barack Obama’s nominees to be a federal judge in Nebraska.
The 90-0 vote for Nebraska lawyer Robert Rossiter Jr. to a lifetime federal appointment may be one of the last confirmation votes this year. The Senate generally halts approval of judges nominated by a president of the opposing party in the later months of the chief executive’s final year.
Though appointed by Obama, Rossiter was chosen by Nebraska’s Republican senators. Sen. Deb Fischer and former Sen. Mike Johanns recommended him before the president appointed him a year ago.
More than 40 of Obama’s nominees to district courts remain in limbo, as does the president’s choice of Judge Merrick Garland for the vacancy on the Supreme Court after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in February.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska attorney general’s office says the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down a Texas abortion law isn’t likely to affect any current Nebraska statutes.
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Doug Peterson said Monday that attorneys in that office have reviewed the opinion and concluded that the facts and legal questions from the case don’t apply in Nebraska.
A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland says attorneys with her group were still reviewing the decision, and it’s too early to know whether it will affect the state.
Nebraska lawmakers considered a bill similar to the Texas law last year, but the proposal stalled in committee. Gov. Pete Ricketts, who opposes abortion, issued a statement calling the ruling a setback.
A 45-year-old North Platte man is facing multiple charges following a disturbance on Sunday morning.
At around 7:58 a.m., officers responded to an apartment in the 1200 block of East Fourth Street on the report of a disturbance.
Officers arrived and met with a 67-year-old female, who alleged that her ex-boyfriend, Wesley Stickelman, had just left the scene on foot.
The woman alleged that Stickelman, who doesn’t live at the residence, crawled through the window of the apartment and began to threaten her, then left.
A short time later, police say Stickelman returned, kicked in the door and told the victim he was going to “burn the place down.”
He then allegedly began pouring gasoline on the front of the apartment and down the steps. Investigator John Deal says Stickelman also poured gasoline on the victim’s vehicles. He says gas cans were found at the scene and the area smelled heavily of gasoline.
Authorities began to search for Stickelman and they eventually found him near Fourth and Tabor Streets, where they say he had a bag and was attempting to hide items behind a tree.
Stickelman was taken into custody, and officers found several large knives and a small box with matches and cotton in it.
According to Deal, Stickelman was charged with attempted 1st-degree arson, felony terroristic threats, domestic assault and burglary. Deal said Stickelman left several Tramadol pills at the scene and, as a result, he was also charged with possession of a controlled substance.
The North Platte Fire Department was called to the scene to dilute the gasoline.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have released the names of a man fatally shot by Lincoln officers and the women police say he was suspected of shooting.
On Monday police identified the man as 22-year-old Germichael Kennedy, of Lincoln. Police say two officers confronted Kennedy on a Lincoln street around 9 a.m. Sunday and shot him when he pointed a handgun at them.
Police say investigators think he fatally shot 20-year-old Marlene Rashidi and wounded 23-year-old Dezarae Mann as the two were sitting in separate cars around 3 a.m. Sunday.
Rashidi was identified as a Lincoln High School graduate who was attending the University of Nebraska at Kearney and was on the track team.
Police don’t yet know whether Mann and Rashidi were acquainted but say Rashidi and Kennedy knew each other.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A new economic forecast says construction employment is expected to be the fastest-growing sector of Nebraska’s economy through 2018.
The Bureau of Business Research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln said in a report released Monday that construction employment will reach a state record this year and continue growing through 2018. The bureau report says that 2018, more than 55,000 people will be working in construction in Nebraska. That’s an increase of 9.5 percent from its pre-Great Recession peak of 50,500 in 2007.
The boost is fueled in part by an infusion of tax dollars for roads.
Moderate growth is seen for Nebraska’s economy as a whole.
Agriculture and machinery manufacturing are expected to be the weak spots. Lower crop and livestock prices have placed pressure on the state’s machinery manufacturers.
NEW YORK (AP) — PepsiCo is putting aspartame back in some of its diet beverages less than a year after pulling the artificial sweetener as part of a marketing move over safety concerns.
The sweetener had been linked to cancer in lab mice and industry executives blamed the decline in sales on unfounded concerns people have about aspartame. The removal of the sweetener tested the theory that the sweetener was to blame for fleeing customers. But, the move seems to have been a misstep, with consumers dissatisfied over the change in flavor without the sweetener.
Pepsi MAX will be re-introduced to U.S. consumers this fall as Pepsi Zero Sugar and will contain aspartame. Diet Pepsi Classic Sweetener Blend will contain aspartame in its formula. But Diet Pepsi will continue to be sweetened without aspartame.
NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say two people have died in a head-on collision just north of Norfolk.
The collision occurred Sunday on U.S. Highway 81. The Madison County Sheriff’s Office says a car being driven north in the southbound lane struck an oncoming vehicle, killing its driver and a passenger.
Authorities say the car driver escaped before his car burst into flames. Information on his condition has not been released.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Repairs have begun on a cracked cross atop St. Mary’s Cathedral in Grand Island.
The Rev. Richard Piontkowski said workers repairing copper and slate on the cathedral roof this past spring noticed cracks on the back side of the cross. Weather damage is suspected.
The cathedral’s east entrance was roped off to keep people from being injured if the cross were to crash down to the sidewalk below. Iron rods in the cross will be replaced with steel, and then the cross will be returned to its site atop the roof.
Piontkowski hopes the work will be finished and the east entrance reopened by the second week of July.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Grand Island’s insurance carrier has settled a claim against the city over the drowning of a 5-year-old girl at the city’s Island Oasis Water Park last summer.
The claim for more than $1 million was filed in September by Dumale Bariyiga, of Lincoln, the mother of the girl, Nubari Koffree. Bariyiga alleged the lifeguards on duty July 18, 2015, were negligent. The Hall County coroner has said the drowning was an accident, and city officials say personnel followed proper procedures that day.
A memo from the city attorney to the City Council for its meeting Tuesday says the insurance carrier has agreed to pay $240,000 to settle the claim filed by Bariyiga. Council action is not required.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say a man was seriously injured when he lit a firecracker and it exploded in his hands.
