OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An eastern Nebraska city will continue paying Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach at least $10,000 a year to defend its immigration ordinance even though the last legal challenge to the rule ended in 2014.
Fremont’s City Council unanimously approved its annual agreement with Kobach on Tuesday. Since 2010, the city has paid the Republican, who lost his bid to become Kansas governor this fall, a total of $101,817.29.
Fremont Mayor Scott Getzchman said the city wants to maintain its contract with Kobach, so he could defend the ordinance against any new challenges.
Fremont voters twice supported the rule that bans renting homes to immigrants living in the country illegally and requires employers to use a federal online system to check whether prospective employees are permitted to work in the U.S.
Two troopers were uninjured late Tuesday evening after the marked Nebraska State Patrol (NSP) cruiser they were driving was struck by another vehicle at an intersection in Scottsbluff.
The crash occurred at approximately 10:15 p.m. MT Tuesday, when the troopers were traveling westbound on Highway 26, proceeding through a flashing yellow traffic light. At that moment, a 2003 Dodge Stratus was traveling southbound on 5th Avenue, ran the flashing red traffic light, and struck the passenger side of the patrol unit.
Both troopers were wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash and suffered no significant injuries. The three occupants of the Stratus also suffered no significant injuries. Both vehicles were totaled.
NSP asked the Scottsbluff Police Department to investigate the crash. Scottsbluff Police issued a citation for violation of a traffic signal to the driver of the Stratus.
Esteban BuenoLINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska man has been found not guilty of charges that he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy he met through a social networking app.
Esteban Bueno was acquitted at his second trial in Lancaster County District Court. His first trial ended in a mistrial.
His accuser told investigators Bueno sexually assaulted him after the two met on the Grindr app. The boy says he was looking for a friend, not sex.
Bueno consistently denied that anything sexual happened, saying he went to meet a person he had been texting in January 2017 and discovered he was just a boy. Bueno says the boy threatened to tell police that Bueno had done inappropriate things to him if he didn’t pay $100.
Gov. Pete RickettsLINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — President Donald Trump has appointed Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts to serve on an advisory committee for trade policy and negotiations.
Ricketts announced the appointment Tuesday night and praised the president for pushing for “better trade deals for working Americans and our family farmers and ranchers.”
Ricketts, a fellow Republican, has focused heavily on international trade during his time in office and led numerous trade missions to Europe, Asia, Canada and Mexico. He has avoided criticizing Trump’s approach to trade even as the president imposed steep U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum exports, and praised the president for his newly signed deal with Canada and Mexico.
A recent Nebraska Farm Bureau report said trade conflicts have cost Nebraska farmers up to $1 billion in farm income this year.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha elementary teacher accused of sexually assaulting a 7-year-old student faces new accusations of assaulting four other students at the school.
The news of the new investigations comes as the Omaha Public Schools district announced Tuesday that Fontenelle Elementary School Principal Eric Nelson has been placed on leave.
That announcement came a week after 30-year-old Gregory Sedlacek was charged with two counts of sexual assault of a 7-year-old girl. Sedlacek was arrested after other teachers reported seeing him molest the girl on the school’s playground.
Police say they are now investigating accusations that Sedlacek molested four other students, all 6 years old, this year. Sedlacek has taught at the school for three years.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A northeast Nebraska man has been sentenced for defrauding banks in Iowa and Nebraska.U.S. District Court records say 32-year-old Joshua Huffman, of Lyons, was given three months behind bars and five years of supervised release. He also was told at an Omaha hearing Monday to pay restitution to Washington County Bank in Blair and United Bank of Iowa in Ida Grove, Iowa. He’d pleaded guilty.
Prosecutors say Huffman gave false and fraudulent financial statements to the banks to obtain loans for his farming operation from December 2014 through May 2015.
He defaulted on the loans, so United Bank of Iowa suffered a loss of about $320,000, and Washington County Bank suffered a loss of almost $14,000.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have arrested a 25-year-old suspect in the slaying of a man who died after being found on the steps of a southeast Omaha residence.
Police said Tuesday the man was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder and use of a weapon in the slaying of 51-year-old Troy Giles. Online court records don’t show the suspect’s been formally charged yet.
Police say a woman walking her dog spotted Giles and alerted officers around 2:15 a.m. on Feb. 22. Paramedics sent to the scene performed CPR on Giles before sending him to Nebraska Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers are criticizing state corrections officials for not immediately releasing a less-than-flattering report about the causes of a deadly prison riot in May 2015.
Members of a joint legislative committee voiced frustration Tuesday that corrections officials didn’t disclose the report until last month, during a civil trial related to the riot.
The 11-page report by outside consultants contradicts prison officials’ claims that the riot happened spontaneously. The report argues the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution was primed for a riot because of understaffing, stricter rules and a coordinated push by prison gangs. Two inmates were murdered during the riot.
Corrections Director Scott Frakes told lawmakers in a letter that the report wasn’t disclosed because it contained sensitive security inmates. Several lawmakers questioned that claim.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Officials with the Omaha Fire Department say a body has been pulled from a lake on the city’s northwestern edge, three days after crews pulled a sport utility vehicle from the water.
The department says in a written release that crews responded Saturday night to a report of an SUV crashing into the water at 174th and Ida streets. Crews found the SUV submerged in the lake, but divers said a search of the vehicle and area around it did not turn up any victims.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Department, which is investigating the crash, requested another search of the scene Tuesday afternoon. Officials say a diver found a body in the water a short time later.
Officials have not released the name of the victim.
Haag, 2018. Copyright NEBRASKAland Magazine, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
CRAWFORD, Neb. – Christmas is just around the corner, but it was Father’s Day that brought a southeast Nebraska man and his son to northwest Nebraska this month for an experience of a lifetime.
As a Father’s Day gift, Greg Hunter of Johnson has entered Nebraska’s bighorn sheep permit lottery each of the past four years for his father, Dave Hunter of Auburn. It proved a good investment as the elder Hunter’s name was the one drawn in the lottery this year.
The gift seemed especially sweet to Dave after he harvested a trophy ram at Fort Robinson State Park on Monday, Dec. 10, with Greg by his side.
Commission wildlife staff joined the Hunters as they set out hiking the Pine Ridge terrain of Fort Robinson just after sunrise Monday in search of a ram. The hunt ended successfully at mid-afternoon Monday when Dave Hunter pulled the trigger on his .270 caliber rifle to harvest a full-curl ram. It was a 360-yard shot over a steep ravine that drains into Spring Creek in the secluded northern part of the park.
Todd Nordeen, the big game manager who leads the sheep-hunting program for the Commission, said it was one of the tougher bighorn sheep hunts he has assisted, even though the weather was nice. With the terrain slick from melting snow over frozen soil, the trek up and down the slopes proved a challenge.
Because Nebraska’s bighorn sheep are monitored as part of conservation efforts, largely funded by proceeds from the hunting program, Commission staff members are familiar with many of the sheep. Nordeen said he had recited a little prayer the previous night that this ram would emerge during the hunt. He said the ram was not only an impressive animal, but was 8½ years old and reaching the end of its life.
The Hunters said they have been excited for the hunt since the drawing and that the experience even exceeded their expectations. They are looking forward to the meat the animal will provide, and encourage other Nebraskans to enter future permit drawings to help conserve the species and perhaps even win.
Hunter held one of just two permits awarded this year – the other permit was awarded by auction. Lottery permit winners in Nebraska are assisted by Commission staff and treated to meals and lodging at Fort Robinson State Park.
This was the 25th bighorn sheep harvested in Nebraska since the Commission’s hunting program began in 1998. It’s an opportunity made possible because of reintroduction efforts for the species that began in the 1980s.
By JOSH FUNK , Associated Press
