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Month: February 2018

Nebraska report calls for review of state regulations

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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A report from a free market advocacy group is calling on Nebraska lawmakers to review regulations that it says are hindering the state economy.

The Platte Institute released a report Tuesday that discusses the impact of the state’s regulatory policies. Platte Institute Policy Director Nicole Fox says excessive regulations amount to a “hidden tax” from lost economic opportunities.

The group announced the report at a gathering with Libertarian state Sens. Laura Ebke of Crete, Democratic state Sen. Adam Morfeld of Lincoln and Republican Sen. John Murante of Gretna, who have each introduced measures aimed at reducing regulations.

The report identified health care services, nursing and residential care facilities, chemical manufacturing, hospitals, and food manufacturing as some of the most regulated industries.

Omaha middle school teacher killed in early morning crash

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 61-year-old middle school teacher has died after his SUV crashed in northwest Omaha.

David Markley, a seventh-grade science teacher at Kiewit Middle School, died after crashing his car while crossing Blair High Road early Tuesday morning.

Rescue squad personnel from Irvington and Bennington responded to the crash. Markley was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Millard Public Schools spokeswoman Rebecca Kleeman says Markley had taught in the Millard district for 10 years. A letter that went to Kiewit families from Principal Marshall Smith says Markley had a heart attack while driving to school.

Police: Council Bluffs officer dragged by fleeing SUV

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COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A western Iowa police officer has escaped serious injury after being dragged by a car for 20 to 30 feet.

The Council Bluffs officer was attempting early Tuesday morning to make contact with someone inside a sport utility vehicle he recognized as a suspect being sought for arrest.

Police say the officer ordered the man out of the SUV, but the suspect instead put the vehicle in reverse and drove off. The officer’s hand became trapped in the door, and he was dragged briefly before escaping. The officer suffered minor leg injuries.

Police say the suspect is believed to have fled into Nebraska.

Lancaster County looking to reduce jail recidivism

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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lancaster County officials are creating a program to reduce the number of repeat offenders booked into the county jail.

An analysis of the more than 6,300 people in Lancaster County Jail in 2017 found that more than half were there for their first or second time.

But almost 50 people who were booked into the Lancaster County Jail last year had been in the jail at least 20 times in the last five years. Sometimes individuals aren’t booked for new crimes, but for failing to appear in court for previous charges.

One man has been jailed more than 130 times over the past 20 years. The 45-year-old is an alcoholic and a transient, said Brad Johnson, jail director. He’s been charged with nuisance crimes and assault-type behavior, Johnson said.

The county’s Community Corrections program is working on a recidivism program that will focus on reducing the number of 18- to 24-year-old men who return to jail. The program will prioritize men living in high poverty neighborhoods.

“The re-arrest rate for this group is really high nationally. And our jail reflects that as well,” said Kim Etherton, the executive director of Community Corrections.

About one-fifth of the more than 570 people in jail on a recent Friday fell within that category, according to records.

The program has received a three-year $1 million grant from the federal Department of Justice, she said.

The program aims to get men out of custody within six weeks and into treatment programs, Etherton said. It will likely begin in the summer or fall.

Nebraska bighorn sheep undergo yearly health inspections

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MCGREW, Neb. (AP) — Several volunteers have spent two days assessing the health of Nebraska’s bighorn sheep population.

Nebraska Game and Parks staff members and volunteers created an inspection station Saturday in the Williams Gap Wildlife Management Area southwest of McGrew.

The sheep were captured with nets, blindfolded, placed in slings before getting a ride from a helicopter to the inspection site. The animals underwent a 28-step inspection, which included health checks and sampling, as well as being fitted with tracking collars. The wild sheep were inspected for about 10 minutes before being released back into the wild.

Nebraska Game and Parks staff, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, zoos in Omaha and Lincoln, area veterinarians, Chadron State College and South Dakota State University assisted with the evaluations.

“We have a conglomerate of folks, about 50 people,” said Todd Nordeen, Game and Parks’ big game research and disease program manager, who directed the weekend operations in Williams Gap and Fort Robinson. “We can process them quickly with that much help.”

Nebraska’s herds are at risk of being thinned by pasteurella pneumonia and other respiratory diseases.

“We’re trying to track the progression of the disease pathogen,” Nordeen said. “We’re doing better here in the Wildcat Hills than in the Pine Ridge.”

Experts believe pasteurella pneumonia killed half of the animals in the Pine Ridge herds in 2005 and 2007.

Sheep were reintroduced to the area nearly four decades ago after native herds were decimated by hunting. Western Nebraska now has several hundred sheep that can occasionally be viewed on public lands or from county roads.

Police: Teen calls 911 from car to report drunken driver

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police say they’ve arrested a 32-year-old man suspected of driving drunk with five children in his vehicle after one of the kids called 911.

A 14-year-old boy — the driver’s nephew — inside the car called 911 around noon Sunday. Police say when officers stopped the vehicle, they found the children — ranging in age from 12 to 15 — crying and the driver showing clear signs of intoxication.

Police say a breath test showed the driver’s blood alcohol content at nearly .30 — nearly four times the legal limit to drive.

The driver has been charged with DUI, five counts of child neglect and not having a driver’s license or registration.

Nebraska judge dismisses lawsuit challenging death penalty

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By GRANT SCHULTE ,  Associated Press
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska judge dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday that claimed the 2016 vote to reinstate the death penalty was invalid because Gov. Pete Ricketts helped bankroll the petition drive to place the issue on the ballot.

Lancaster County District Judge John Colborn rejected the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of eight of Nebraska’s 11 death-row inmates. The inmates also argued unsuccessfully that their sentences defaulted to life terms automatically when lawmakers voted to abolish capital punishment in 2015.

The lawsuit contended that Ricketts overstepped the Nebraska Constitution’s separation of powers clause because he financed and controlled the referendum that led voters to overturn the Legislature’s decision. It made similar claims about State Treasurer Don Stenberg, a fellow Republican, who traveled the state urging voters to reinstate the death penalty.

After lawmakers overrode his veto, Ricketts donated $300,000 of his own money to the Nebraskans for the Death Penalty campaign. It raised a total of $1.3 million for the effort but was outspent by a death penalty opposition group, which received nearly $2.7 million.

“Not all participation in the processes of another branch violates the constitution,” Colborn wrote in the 14-page opinion. The plaintiffs’ argument “would make a wide range of activity constitutionally suspect, like members of the executive and legislative branch endorsing one another for office, campaigning for one another, or donating to another’s campaign.”

The separation of powers clause bars anyone in any branch of state government from exercising powers over another branch. But Ricketts ordered or encouraged members of the executive branch and his allies in the Legislature and local governments to work for the referendum campaign or publicly support it, the complaint alleged.

The lawsuit named Ricketts, Stenberg, the prisons department and the petition drive’s sponsors as defendants. It sought a court order barring the state from carrying out any executions. No execution dates have been set for any of the 11 men.

Attorney General Doug Peterson, whose office defended the lawsuit, praised the decision in a statement as “a thorough analysis of important Nebraska case law supporting the dismissal of the ACLU’s claims.”

A spokesman for Ricketts said the attorney general’s comments also reflect the governor’s sentiments. Ricketts has described the ACLU as “a liberal advocacy group that has repeatedly worked to overturn the clear voice of the Nebraska people on the issue of capital punishment and waste taxpayer dollars with frivolous litigation.”

The ACLU of Nebraska said it plans to challenge the district court’s ruling. Nebraska’s last execution was in 1997, using the electric chair. The state has never executed an inmate using lethal injection drugs.

“The fact remains that Nebraska’s death penalty continues to be broken beyond repair,” said Danielle Conrad, the group’s executive director.

Carroll J. McNeel

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Carroll J. McNeel, 95, of North Platte, passed away Feb 8, 2018 at Harlingen, TX.

Carroll was born Oct. 31, 1922 at Sutherland, NE to Charles Emilo and Jennie E. (White) McNeel.

He grew up in Sutherland and graduated from Sutherland High School in 1942.  He ranched with his brother, Marvin McNeel, where his grandfather John McNeel started the ranch on the North West River Road.  He spent the next 50 years there and was known as a great cattleman.  He was in the business many years, topping the sale with his yearling steers and heifers.

He raised three children, Marlea, Janene and Richard.  In 1966, his wife, Barbara Robinson climbed aboard to help with the ranching and he helped raise her three children, Connie, Pamela and Randy.  He was a great father and stepdad.  Carroll was known for quiet gentle ways and thoroughly enjoyed the travels and hiking mountain trails and camping in the snowy ranges in Wyoming, where he and his wife were camp host for a few years.  He loved to fly fish and was quite good at it.

He and his wife retired in 1991 and went on the road full-time for 24 years visiting mainly the west coast in Indiana and saw beautiful country in the U.S.A.  He began to slow the pace when his health started deteriorating but we kept the travels from Nebraska to Texas for a few years.  We were called those winter Texans.

He was preceded in death by his parents; an infant brother, Dwaine McNeel; brother, Marvin; sister, Arlene Simonetti; step-daughter, Connie Coady; brother-in-law, James Knapton; a sister-in-law, Lois Houser; and a step daughter-in-law, Mona Robinson.

Carroll is survived by his wife, Barbara; a son, Richard (Carol) of Chapel Hills, North Carolina; two daughters, Marlea (Vance) Post of North Platte and Janene (Ken) Huffman of Dallas, Georgia; two step children, Randy Robinson of North Platte and Pamela Robinson of College Station, TX; 19 grandchildren; 18 great grandchildren; two brothers-in-law, Gene (Rena) Piel of Missouri and Bill Houser of Elwood, NE; several nieces, nephews and other relatives.

He left many friends behind at the Yellow Rose RV Resort in La Feria, TX.  Most were from the northern states but many others were from states where we camped in different areas across the country.

Your wife, Barb is going to miss you Carroll, 51 years has been a great trip!

Online condolences may be shared at www.carpentermemorial.com. Visitation will be from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Thursday at Carpenter Memorial Chapel.   Cremation will follow the visitation.  Carpenter Memorial Chapel is in care of arrangements.

Ruth Elizabeth Lutz

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Ruth Elizabeth Lutz, age 80 of Sutherland, passed away Wednesday February 7, 2018 at Great Plains Health in North Platte.

Ruth was born August 10, 1937 in Nebraska City, NE to Kenneth and Margie (Morris) Conaway.  She married Richard R. Lutz on June 4, 1955 in Avoca, NE at Holy Trinity Catholic Church.  They resided in eastern Nebraska until 1969 when they moved to Sutherland.  Ruth was a member of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church.  She worked various jobs in Sutherland but her favorite job was being a Foster Grandparent at the Sutherland Schools.  She loved being around children and helping them in any way she could.

Ruth is survived by her husband Dick; sons Dick Jr. (Kelly), Paul (Laurie) and John (Kendra) Lutz, all of Sutherland; daughter Teresa McKinney of Omaha; 14 grandchildren; 18 great grandchildren; 2 great-great grandchildren; brother Ken (Jane) Conaway; sisters Alice Grassman and Kay (Gene) McKern, all of Council Bluffs, IA; as well as other extended family members and friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents; children Elizabeth, Margie, Peggy and Mark; grandchildren Brittany and Mark; and her brother Mike.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to the Sacred Heart Lift Fund or Foster Grandparents.  Online condolences may be shared at www.adamsswanson.com.  Christian Wake Services will be 7:00 p.m. Friday February 16, 2018.  Mass of Christian Burial will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday February 17, 2018, both at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Sutherland with the Reverend Robert Chamberlain as Celebrant.  Burial will follow at the Riverview Cemetery.  Those wishing to do so may sign the register book from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Friday February 16, 2018 at Adams and Swanson Funeral Home which is in charge of arrangements.

Woman pleads no contest to embezzlement in Merrick County

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CENTRAL CITY, Neb. (AP) — An April sentencing is scheduled for a Columbus woman accused of embezzling nearly $90,000 from a business in Merrick County.

Chelsea Aldrich has pleaded no contest to theft from Agroservice Inc. in Silver Creek. Her sentencing is set for April 16 in Central City.

Prosecutors say that she wrote bogus checks on the company account while working as a secretary from Aug. 1, 2016, to Jan. 31, 2017.

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