Adams County Court records say 34-year-old Crystal Maser is charged with felony theft. Her attorney didn’t immediately return a call Friday from The Associated Press.
The records say Maser used a Dutton-Lainson Co. credit card to buy items for herself and pay her bills. The items included clothing, jewelry and furniture.
Her next court hearing is scheduled for Nov. 30. She lives in Hastings.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha landlord accused of bribing an Omaha Housing Authority inspector has been fined $20,000 after making a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.
The Omaha World-Herald reports that Lafi Jafari also was ordered at his sentencing Thursday in U.S. District Court to serve a year of probation. Prosecutors dropped the bribery charge in exchange for Jafari pleading guilty to lying to a federal investigator.
He’d acknowledged in his plea agreement that he gave the inspector $2,100 in cash from 2012 to 2014. Over roughly the same period Jafari received federal rent payments of about $2.1 million as part of Jafari’s participation in a federal housing subsidy program.
Prosecutors have said Jafari offered the cash so housing authority employees would steer prospective tenants his way.
Kevin Allen appealed after a lower court rejected his motion for post-conviction relief without an evidentiary hearing. In the motion, Allen argued, among other things, that former crime scene investigator David Kofoed (KO’-fode) — who was convicted of planting blood evidence in another case in 2006 — might have also tampered with evidence in his case.
On Friday, the state’s high court ruled that testimony showed Kofoed did not play a major role in gathering evidence in Allen’s case.
Allen was convicted of first-degree murder in the Aug. 20, 1995, murder of 24-year-old Officer Jimmy Wilson Jr. Wilson was fatally shot as he checked the license plate on a van he had stopped.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Douglas County authorities in eastern Nebraska say one person has died in a crash involving a dump truck and a car near the Elkhorn River.
The crash happened Friday afternoon near 245th and Q streets. Officials say the truck and the car were traveling in opposite directions when they collided, killing a woman.
The victim’s name had not been released by late Friday afternoon.
Officials say the dump truck driver did not suffer any serious injuries.
Investigation into the crash continues.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The University of Nebraska Medical Center has joined a worldwide network composed of 29 countries combatting major threats from human viruses.
The medical center says the Global Virus Network represents experts at 45 Centers of Excellence and seven affiliates recognized for expertise in infectious diseases. The work includes drug development, research and training and education in the areas of biocontainment and antiviral therapeutics preparedness.
The medical center says it’s one of three of the network’s newest Centers of Excellence invited to join the network.
HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — National Adoption Day will be celebrated in several Nebraska cities this weekend.
The day is being recognized Saturday at county courthouses in Hastings, Grand Island, Kearney, Norfolk and Omaha. The day brings not only adoption finalization ceremonies, but family entertainment. At the Adams County Courthouse in Hastings, the event will include carnival-themed entertainment, cake and ice cream, a magic show and balloon making for children having their adoptions finalized.
November is National Adoption Awareness Month.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there are more than 400,000 children in foster care, with 114,000 waiting to be adopted. As of Oct. 29 in Nebraska, there were 405 wards of the state available for adoption.
The accident occurred around 7:45 a.m. Friday, about 8 miles (13 kilometers) east of Gothenburg. The Dawson County Sheriff’s Office says the bus ran into a ditch on a rural road, striking a culvert and passing over a driveway before coming to rest after striking another culvert.
The Gothenburg school district told parents that all nine students and the driver were taken to a Gothenburg hospital to be examined. Two students and an adult were treated.
The district says the bus slid on loose gravel before entering the ditch.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The state’s preliminary unemployment rate has remained unchanged for three months at 2.8 percent for August through October, the Nebraska Labor Department said Friday.
The October rate is down a tenth of a point from the year-ago figure of 2.9 percent, the department said in a news release. Last month’s Nebraska rate remained well below the U.S. number of 3.7 percent, which also was unchanged.
“October continued the trend of employment highs,” said state Labor Commissioner John Albin. “Lincoln and Omaha both reached new highs for nonfarm jobs, while statewide the total nonfarm job count has remained above 1 million since February of 2017.”
Nonfarm employment was 1,039,493, up 15,953 over the year and up 2,867 over the month, the report said. Private industries with the most growth year over year were professional and business services, up 4,962; manufacturing, up 4,384; and leisure and hospitality, up 3,764. Month to month, the largest gains were seen in education and health services, up 1,319; trade, transportation and utilities, up 1,201; and professional and business services, up 924.
The preliminary Omaha-area rate for October was unchanged at 2.6 percent — the same figure as October 2017. Lincoln’s preliminary rate rose a tenth of a point, hitting 2.5 percent, compared with 2.4 percent in September. The year-ago figure was 2.4 percent. Grand Island’s preliminary rate for October was 2.7 percent, up a tenth from September’s 2.6 percent. The October 2017 figure was 2.6 percent.
The unemployment rates for Grand Island, Lincoln and Omaha have not been seasonally adjusted, so they cannot be directly compared with the state unemployment rate.
Here are preliminary area labor market unemployment rates for October, followed by the September rates:
— Beatrice: 4.0, 2.7
— Columbus: 2.5, 2.4
— Fremont: 2.5, 2.5
— Hastings: 2.7, 2.6
— Kearney: 2.2, 2.2
— Lexington: 2.4, 2.4
— Norfolk: 2.3, 2.2
— North Platte: 2.7, 2.6
— Red Willow: 2.6, 2.5
— Scottsbluff: 3.0, 2.9
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has rejected the latest appeal by a man convicted of killing a University of Nebraska at Omaha student whose body has never been found.
The high court Friday upheld a lower court’s denial of Christopher Edwards’ second motion for post-conviction relief. The court found that Edwards’ appeal saying the lower court should have held an evidentiary hearing on his claim that his attorney was ineffective was filed too late.
Edwards was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2006 disappearance of 19-year-old Jessica O’Grady, whose body was never found. Edwards was sentenced to 100 years to life.
The high court rejected Edwards’ first post-conviction relief motion in 2012. In that motion, Edwards argued that a corrupt Douglas County crime scene investigator planted blood evidence to frame him.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Authorities say officers helped evacuate audience members after a small fire broke out at a downtown Lincoln concert venue.
Someone knocked over a container of kerosene while performing with fire around 10 p.m. Thursday at the Bourbon Theatre. The flames set off a fire sprinkler, which doused the blaze.
Lincoln Fire & Rescue Department spokeswoman Nancy Crist says police helped evacuate the large crowd that had gathered for the headline act, K Camp. No injuries have been reported. K Camp’s concert was soon canceled.
Crist says the performer using fire didn’t have the authorization to perform with it at the theater.
Damage was estimated at $1,000.
