MEAD, Neb. (AP) – Authorities say a car driver was killed in a collision between a cement truck and her car in eastern Nebraska’s Saunders County.
The crash occurred just before 7 a.m. Monday on U.S. Highway 77/Nebraska Highway 92, about 2½ miles west of Mead.
Authorities say the westbound car crossed into oncoming traffic and hit the truck. The truck driver was taken to a hospital.
The names of those involved and other details haven’t been released.
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. (AP) – A Nebraska congressman is pushing the Air Force’s emergency request for $234 million to replace equipment and crew training simulators damaged by floodwaters that inundated the Offutt Air Force Base this spring.
The Omaha World-Herald reports Rep. Don Bacon recently brought attention to the funding request in a letter to a House subcommittee.
Bacon warned of the loss of defense capabilities that commanders are already experiencing in the field after the severe flooding in March.
The request comes in addition to the $420 million Air Force officials are seeking to repair and rebuild at the base.
The House passed a disaster assistance bill earlier this month. The Senate hasn’t taken action.
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson says the base’s recovery work will stop July 1 if emergency funds aren’t issued.
GRETNA, Neb. (AP) – Authorities have released the name of a 4-month-old who was fatally injured in a collision along Interstate 80 in eastern Nebraska.
The crash occurred Saturday afternoon near the exit south of Gretna. The Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office identified the girl Sunday as Amila Johnson, who lived in Scottsbluff.
The sheriff’s office says the baby was in an eastbound vehicle driven by 19-year-old Adriana Rodriguez, also of Scottsbluff. The sheriff’s office says Rodriguez’s vehicle crossed the median into the westbound lanes, where it collided with a minivan driven by 73-year-old Mary Lynch, of Omaha.
The sheriff’s office says Rodriguez and the three passengers in her vehicle and Lynch and the one passenger in her minivan were taken to local hospitals for treatment.
BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a Nebraska City man died at a hospital after a crash in eastern Sarpy County.
The Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office says 30-year-old Matthew Sharon was driving south Sunday on U.S. Highway 75 when his vehicle ran into the median and rolled, ejecting him onto a southbound lane. Then he was struck by pickup truck driven by 38-year-old Justin Kirk, of Plattsmouth.
The sheriff’s office says Sharon was pronounced dead later at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
The crash is being investigated.
KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) – Two 17-year-old boys have been charged with assaulting a female staff member before escaping the state’s Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center in Kearney.
Both boys are charged with assault, robbery and escape. One also is charged with strangulation resulting in serious injury. Their next court hearing is scheduled for June 24. The Associated Press generally doesn’t name juveniles accused of crimes.
The assault and escapes occurred early in the morning on Feb. 24.
The staffer who was attacked was treated at a hospital and released.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Registration has opened for the July 13 Owl Ride, Omaha’s nighttime urban cycling adventure.
The University of Nebraska Medical Center says people can register online . Those who register by June 30 will be guaranteed an Owl Ride sport shirt.
The cost is $45 for adults and $25 for children 18 and under when riding with an adult; $50 and $30 the day of the event.
This year’s ride will start at 9 p.m. at Lewis and Clark Landing on Omaha’s riverfront. There’s a choice of a 17-mile (27.4 kilometers) course through Midtown, Dundee, Aksarben, Field Club and downtown, or a shorter, family friendly 7.5-mile (12.1 kilometers) course.
The ride benefits the nonprofit Meyer Foundation for Disabilities, which helps adults with developmental disabilities.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A technologically advanced van is helping Grand Island determine how to keep its streets in good shape and save taxpayer money in the process.Grand Island has hired a Savoy, Illinois-based firm, Engineering & Research International, to complete the project. The street assessment van going up and down the more than 300 miles of Grand Island streets is equipped with high-resolution cameras, ground-penetrating radar, global positioning systems and onboard computers. The van equipment will look at such things as cracks in the roads and roughness.
The Grand Island Independent reported that the data is processed to determine an overall condition index for each pavement segment.
“The data collected is critical for the city to allocate resources to the locations with the highest need,” said John Collins, the city public works director.
“It tells us where the most distress is at,” Collins said. “Then we go out and manually inspect them, because there may be other reasons for the cause of the distress.”
The survey information helps determine which sections of pavement to overlay — something of vital interest to the public, he said.
The city spends up to $1 million a year doing overlays on its streets and spends $3 million to $4 million on all types of pavement preservation. Using the information to prioritize can save the city as much as $400,000 annually, Collins said.
“This is the third year we have done this. It tells us whether our roads are getting better or worse,” Collins said. The last survey showed Grand Island’s streets were better than the global average.
“It wasn’t much, but it tells us that we are doing a fairly good job in determining how much to do and where to do it,” he said.
By GRANT SCHULTE Associated Press
If the budget passes as expected, owners of a $150,000 home would get a $106 discount on their property tax bill — about $29 more than what they currently receive.
At the same time, the credit has been consuming an ever-larger chunk of the state budget, drawing criticism from progressive lawmakers who want more money for education, health care, child welfare services, and other priorities.
The spending plan calls for a $51 million annual boost to the tax credit, for a total of $275 million a year — roughly 5 percent of the state’s annual general-fund budget and nearly double the amount distributed to taxpayers in 2015.
“The idea that we are not prioritizing property tax relief is completely false,” said Sen. Adam Morfeld, of Lincoln. “What some people fail to acknowledge is there are other priorities in this state.”
Morfeld said lawmakers are “barely able to cover the priorities we already have,” including long-term care services for the elderly, K-12 public schools and the state universities and colleges. Morfeld, who represents a large number of University of Nebraska-Lincoln students, said he rarely hears constituent complaints about high taxes.
“We could defund everything else in the state and probably still not make everybody happy when it comes to property tax relief, and we’d still be having this debate,” he said. “It’s a race to the bottom.”
Lawmakers will try again this week to approve a larger property tax package, but they may have to scale it back to win enough support, Linehan said. It’s unclear whether lawmakers can reach a compromise before the session ends on May 31, frustrating many rural senators.
“This is my third session as a state senator and we have adjourned every single year without addressing the property tax crisis,” Sen. Tom Brewer, of Gordon, wrote Friday in his weekly newsletter to constituents. “This has been going on for decades and it makes me sick.”
One major package championed by Linehan and others was criticized by Gov. Pete Ricketts, a fellow Republican. The proposal sought to lower property taxes by increasing a variety of sales taxes and the state cigarette tax while boosting state aid to K-12 public schools.
The latest plan touted by some senators doesn’t touch the sales tax rate, the cigarette tax or K-12 school funding but would eliminate sales tax exemptions on dozens of goods and services, including pop, candy, bottled water, haircuts, tattoos, lawn care, and dating services.
Ricketts criticized that plan as a “tax swap” and urged lawmakers to reject it.
“Senators continue to pursue the failed policy of raising taxes on working families and pitting Nebraskans against each other,” he said.
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LINCOLN, Neb. – No boat ramps are useable in Nebraska along the Missouri River from Interstate 80 to the Kansas border.
The river is running high and flood warnings remain in effect for portions of the Missouri from Burt County to the southern border.
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission crews recently assessed most of the river boat access. Their findings:
From Fort Randall Dam (South Dakota) to Lewis and Clark Lake, Sunshine Bottoms, Verdel Landing WMA, Running Water, and Santee are useable boat ramps. Only the Nebraska tailwaters ramp is known to be open from Gavins Point Dam to Ponca State Park. Between the park and Interstate 80 in Omaha, all ramps are open except NP Dodge Memorial Park in Omaha. Every ramp south of the interstate is closed to access. In many cases, those boat ramps are under water. Some areas have access roads and parking lots under water.
Boaters should be cautious on high-running rivers and in areas that flooded. Underwater debris and other obstacles can create hazards. Debris also may have built up along and under bridges.
For more on boating in Nebraska, visit outdoornebraska.gov/boating/.
