WOOD RIVER, Neb. (AP) — The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing a Nebraska bank it says violated federal law by paying a woman less than it paid a man for the same work.
The lawsuit says Heritage Bank in Wood River paid Christine Schwieger and another woman, both relationship managers who sold insurance at bank branches, a salary of $30,000, plus commission, from 2010 to 2013.
The lawsuit says that in 2014, a man hired to replace the other woman, who had quit, was paid $40,000 plus commission for the same job.
The EEOC says that the bank did nothing when Schwieger complained, violating the Equal Pay Act of 1963.
A message left late Tuesday afternoon for a bank official seeking comment was not immediately returned.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A 70-year-old man who said he robbed a Kansas City, Kansas, bank so he could get away from his wife blamed his actions on depression.
A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Lawrence John Ripple to probation.
Ripple went to the Bank of Labor — a block from police headquarters — last September. He gave a note to a teller saying he had a gun and was demanding money. After he was given it, Ripple waited for police.
Court records indicate Ripple wrote the robbery note in front of his wife and told her he would rather be in jail than at home.
Ripple told the judge Tuesday that heart surgery left him depressed and unlike himself before he robbed the bank.
WEST POINT, Neb. (AP) — A collaboration between a city and several northeast Nebraska educational institutions has announced plans to build a $2.7 million training facility meant to expand career and technical education in the region.
Mayor Marlene Johnson signed a memorandum of understanding Monday on behalf of the City of West Point. Other project partners include the Northeast Community College of Norfolk, Wayne State College, the City of Wayne and Educational Service Unit 2.
The proposed 15,000-square-foot (nearly 1,400 square meters) facility will be constructed near the Nielsen Community Center in West Point.
The education center is expected to be ready by fall 2018. Up to six career pathways are anticipated to be available to students at the facility by fall 2019.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a state-required DNA test for a Nebraska prison inmate links him to four rapes reported more than 10 years ago in Omaha.
Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine says he intends to charge Brandon Weathers with rapes committed in 2002 and 2004. Weathers already is serving 100 to 160 years for raping a 13-year-old child.
The World-Herald reported in April that more than 70 inmates had refused to provide DNA samples as required by state law. A June 5 court order gave officials authority to use force to obtain Weathers’ sample if he again refused. He did, so guards held him down and took a sample from a cheek.
Authorities say the Nebraska State Patrol lab connected the sample to the four cases.
DILLER, Neb. (AP) — Officials are investigating what caused the collapse of a large wind turbine tower in the Steele Flats Wind Farm in southeastern Nebraska.
The turbine had been standing just southwest of Diller and was part of the $138 million wind farm, developed by Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources. The wind farm includes 32 wind turbines in southeast Jefferson County and 12 more in southwest Gage County.
NextEra Energy spokesman Bryan Garner says the company is investigating the cause of the collapse.
Garner says the turbine went offline shortly before 5 a.m. Tuesday. He says there’s no evidence of sabotage and that the manufacturer will be able to help the company look into the cause of the failure.
Longtime Sweet Saloon volunteer, Doris Howard, scrapes caramel topping onto a batch of rolls Tuesday morning at McDaid Elementary. The Sweet Saloon opens for business on Wednesday. (Courtesy Photo)
A mouth-watering aroma of sugar and fresh-baked pastries filled the parking lot of McDaid Elementary on Tuesday. It intensified inside the building.
There, North Platte Community College head volleyball coach Alexa McCall, members of her team and multiple volunteers were elbow-deep in dough and caramel as they hastily worked to bake hundreds of cinnamon rolls ahead of NEBRASKAland Days’ annual Sweet Saloon.
The event is a fundraiser for the NPCC Lady Knights Volleyball Team and one that is highly anticipated every year by local residents.
This year, the Sweet Saloon will accept orders from 7 a.m. to noonWednesday through Friday. Walk-ins are accepted, but because of demand, calling in is recommended.
“We highly suggest people call to place an order because we can’t guarantee there will be any rolls available for walk-ins,” said McCall. “We fill the call-in orders first.”
Orders can be placed by calling 535-3696. The rolls cost $1.75 each, or $18 for a dozen. They can be delivered for an additional $2 fee.
More charges have been filed in the boating accident at Lake Maloney on Monday.
As the ongoing investigation continues, Mary Haney, has also been charged in connection with the case. According to jail records, Mary Haney has been charged with felony child abuse and felony destruction of evidence.
We will have more information when it’s available.
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Authorities say a combination of speed, driving too close to the shoreline and possibly alcohol led to a boating accident at Lake Maloney that left a nine-year-old girl with serious injuries.
According to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, North Platte Rescue, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and deputies responded to the report of a boating accident at around 5:57 p.m., on June 12.
A news release says the accident occurred near South Beach, on the southwest side of the lake. When first-responders arrived, they found the girl with serious injuries to her leg, arm, and head. Another female juvenile was found to have sustained minor injuries.
A joint investigation revealed that the two juveniles had been on a flotation device being pulled by a boat operated by 53-year-old Doug Haney.
Witnesses reported that Haney had been operating the boat very close to the shoreline, and was traveling at a high rate of speed. At one point, the watercraft traveled close to some rocks on the shoreline and made a sharp turn, causing the girls to be thrown from the flotation device and into the rocks.
Deputies say Haney left the scene in the boat upon the arrival of law enforcement. The boat was eventually located at Frontier Resort and, a short time later, deputies made contact with Haney who they say appeared to be intoxicated. Haney reportedly refused to take field sobriety tests.
It was determined that there was probable cause to place Haney under arrest and charge him with boating under the influence of liquor and two counts of felony child abuse. He was transported to Great Plains Health where a chemical test was conducted, the results of the tests are not known at this time. He was then jailed at the Lincoln County Detention Center.
Chief Deputy Roland Kramer says the nine-year-old victim was transported to Great Plains Health before being transported to CHI Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney. She was then reportedly transferred to an Omaha hospital.
An unidentified steer wrestler competes at the 2016 Buffalo Bill Rodeo. This year’s rodeo, which is the annual kick-off for NebraskalandDays, is June 14-17. Photo by Dotts Shotts.
North Platte, Neb. – June 12, 2017 – There’s some pretty fine talent that will ride, wrestle, rope and race in the Buffalo Bill Rodeo this week.
Some of that talent is in the form of champion cowboys and cowgirls, and some of it is from the weekend warriors, the rodeo athletes who have career and family obligations and can’t rodeo full time.
Either way, fans at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo at the Wild West Arena on the north side of North Platte will see some of the best cowboys and cowgirls going down the road.
One of the champions fans will see is a home-state cowboy. Riley Pruitt, a tie-down roper from Gering, won the average (the fastest combined time on ten runs) at the 2016 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (WNFR). Pruitt, who is 25 years old, won the 2015 Buffalo Bill Rodeo with a time of 17.0 seconds on two head.
His ride is a seventeen-year-old dun named Chip, who carried him to his win in North Platte two years ago, and at the WNFR last year. Chip makes Pruitt’s job easy. “I know exactly what he’s going to do every time, which makes my job so much easier. He’s going to score, run, stop, give me three steps back, and if I draw a good one, I know I can win on him.” Chip has had some time off, to rest before the busiest part of the rodeo season starts, and Pruitt has a good idea what he might do when he’s rested. “He’s a funny horse. When he’s fresh he’ll try to buck me off.”
As soon as North Platte is over Pruitt and his traveling partner, tie-down roper Chase Williams from Stephenville, Texas, will hit the road, competing at Reno, Nev., Prescott, Arizona, Livingston and Red Lodge, Mont., Cody, Wyo., St. Paul, Ore., and Greeley, Colo. That’s the schedule through July fourth. Even though he makes his living in rodeo, he’s a homebody, and when things aren’t going smoothly, he loves to be home. “When things are struggling, when I go two or three weeks and draw bad or rope bad, I come home.” His wife, Jenna, also helps. “She keeps me a little bit sane.”
Another Husker contestant at the rodeo is Valentine’s Trula Churchill. Raised in Stonewall, Okla., the barrel racer moved to Nebraska in 2000 when she married former steer wrestler Linn Churchill.
A three-time WNFR qualifier, she will ride her horse Worm, whose registered name is A Streak of Rita. Worm, who was raised by Churchill, is twelve years old and has carried the cowgirl to her three trips to the WNFR, three trips to the Canadian National Finals Rodeo, and countless wins.
A teacher for twenty years, Churchill, who taught at a two-room school south of Valentine, quit her teaching job in 2011 when she realized Worm was an exceptional barrel racing horse and she could rodeo full time on him.
He has a unique personality, Churchill said. “He loves his job, and he tries to win every time. He’s special to me because he has let me not have a real job.” She and Worm compete every spring in California, coming home in the summer and returning to California for their circuit finals in the fall.
Worm is picky about where he competes, and Churchill knows his favorite arenas and his not-so-favorites. If he doesn’t like an arena, he won’t run well. If he does, he runs his heart out. “There are some places that he really likes, and there are some he doesn’t like at all. I’ve figured out which places he doesn’t do well at, and we don’t go to those.” Churchill hasn’t competed in North Platte since 2000, before Worm was around, so she doesn’t know how he’ll react to the arena, but she thinks he’ll like the rodeo. “I have a gut feeling,” she said.
Mullen’s Steven Dent will kick off the biggest part of his rodeo season at North Platte.
The bareback rider figures he’s competed at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo nine of the last 12 years, tying for the saddle bronc riding title in 2011 (with Luke Rush, Clay Center, Kan.). He’s been to the WNFR seven times, and hopes to qualify again this year. He hasn’t rodeoed much so far, but will ride in Lexington, Kentucky on June 16 then ride in North Platte the next night. After North Platte, he’s on the rodeo road for a month and a half, competing in Reno, Nev., Springdale, Ark., Prescott, Ariz., Oakley, Utah, Greeley, Colo., St. Paul, Ore., Livingston, Mont., Cody, Wyo., and Killdeer, N.D., all by July fourth.
The North Platte rodeo is the closest pro rodeo for Dent, and it’s like his hometown show. “It’s pretty much where everybody in Mullen goes to, if they go to town, and there’s always a bunch of people there that I know. Almost the whole community of Mullen goes to the rodeo. It’s nice when the crowd gets excited when you ride.”
Dent and his wife Kay have three children: son Cylas, who is four, and daughters Emri, two, and Dailie, three months. They ranch near Mullen. Dent is ranked 24th in the pro rodeo world standings.
Four-hundred sixty-four contestants will compete in North Platte this week. The tie-down roping, team roping and steer wrestling is two head, meaning each contestant gets two runs. The other events: bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, and barrel racing, are one head.
The rodeo begins at 8 pm each night. Rodeo clown and barrelman Cody Sosebee will entertain, and trick roper Loop Rawlins, a semi-finalist on the 2014 season of America’s Got Talent, will perform. Bullfighters Quirt Hunt, Gordon, and Wacey Munsell, Ulysses, Kan., will work the bull riding, and Randy Corley, who will be inducted into the 2017 Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, will announce. Beutler and Son Rodeo Co., Elk City, Okla., will provide the bucking horses and bulls.
Slack, the extra competition that doesn’t fit into the performances, will be at 8 am on June 14 and 15 and is free to the public.
Tickets for the rodeo can be purchased at the NebraskalandDays office, online at NebraskalandDays.com, and at the gate. For more information, visit the website or call the office at 308.532.7939.
Nebraska cowboys and cowgirls by event who are entered at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo Note: Cowboys and cowgirls may not compete due to personal or horse injury or other reasons.
Steer Wrestling
Justen Nokes, Juniata
Dan Barner, Hershey
Trevor Haake, Grand Island
Jeff Johnston, Thedford
Brett Gumb, Burwell
Del Ray Kraupie, Bridgeport
Jake Kraupie, Bridgeport
Scott Schaefer, Beatrice
Collin Chytka, Broken Bow
Weston Winkers, Nelson
Tyler Kester, York
Jeff Richardson, Kearney
Logan McDonald, Hemingford
Mike Stephen, Springview
Ty Melvin, Arthur
Gabe Taylor, Valentine
Kyle Whitaker, Chambers
Richard Coats, Hastings
Dru Melvin, Hebron
Tie-down Roping
Cody Nye, Alliance
Miles Garwood, Atkinson
Patrick Martin, Callaway
Riley Pruitt, Gering
Levi Fisher, Hershey
J.T. Adamson, Cody
Todd Flinn, Newman Grove
Saddle Bronc Riding
Triston Eklund, Valentine
Jeff Cover, Ashby
Team Roping
Jeff Johnston, Thedford
Todd Hollenbeck, Long Pine
Reece Weber, Valentine
Slade Thorpe, Valentine
Dustin Harris, O’Neill
Matt Kasner, Cody
Riley Pruitt, Gering
Tucker White, Hershey
Travis Warren, Mullen
Levi Tyan, Wallace
Blaine Finney, Ainsworth
Brady Graff, Ainsworth
Trent Barrett, North Platte
Jake Pelton, North Platte
Brent Reichmuth, Humphrey
Cooper Brott, Gothenburg
Barrel Racing
Lindsey Evers, Plattsmouth
Mika Drews, Thedford
June Holeman, Arcadia
Mary Cameron-Dugan, Greeley
Bailey Lord, Potter
Jordan Swan, York
Lindsey Kester, York
Jamie Chaffin, Burwell
Morgan Peterson, Arthur
Cheryl Wallace, Broken Bow
Jessica Leach, Rockville
Chandler Markel, Morrill
Becky Pearson, Broken Bow
Deb Cox, Mullen
Diane Axmann, Loup City
Carrie Sutton, Ashby
Trula Churchill, Valentine
Carla Jensen, Kearney
Jimi Hurlbut, Maywood
Kelli Reichmuth, Humphrey
One person was seriously injured and another is facing felony charges after a boating accident on Monday at Lake Maloney, south of North Platte.
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office did not release many details on the incident but did say a juvenile sustained serious injuries to their leg and was flown to an undisclosed hospital after initially being treated at Great Plains Health.
LCSO says one person was arrested in the case and charged with felony intentional child abuse and operating a boat under the influence of liquor. According to jail records, the man arrested was 53-year-old, Douglas Haney.
The condition of the juvenile is unknown, but deputies say the injuries could be life-threatening.
This is a developing story and we will have more information when it’s available.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A staffer at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution faces a felony charge for allegedly having unauthorized communication with an inmate.
The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services says corrections corporal Sarah Murillo was suspended without pay on Friday after she was arrested.
Officials say the Nebraska State Patrol is still investigating her alleged activities. Murillo was charged with unauthorized communication with a prisoner. She has worked at the southeast Nebraska prison since July 18, 2016.
Department officials did not specify what led to the charge, but in a statement, Corrections Director Scott Frakes says introducing contraband into the prison can lead to safety breaches and will not be tolerated.
Online court records did not list an attorney for Murillo.
WOOD RIVER, Neb. (AP) — The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing a Nebraska bank it says violated federal law by paying a woman less than it paid a man for the same work.
