Seven new members were inducted into the Rho Zeta chapter of Sigma Kappa Delta on Sunday evening at North Platte Community College. Sigma Kappa Delta is the national English honor society for two-year colleges, and NPCC has become the only college in Nebraska to offer it.
One man is in stable condition at a North Platte hospital and another is in custody after a shooting in Lincoln County on Sunday afternoon.
At around 3:51 p.m., officers with the North Platte Police Department responded to the Emergency Room at Great Plains Health after it was reported by hospital staff that a man was being treated for a gunshot wound.
Officers spoke to the victim and determined that the shooting had occurred at a trailer court in the 4000 block of West 14th Street, outside the city limits.
According to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, the victim could not tell officers exactly what had happened before he was taken into emergency surgery.
Officers and deputies with the LCSO launched an investigation and, as a result, arrested 35-year-old Isaac Brown, of North Platte, on charges of first-degree assault and tampering with physical evidence.
Investigators continue their investigation and authorities say more arrests are possible.
The victim remains hospitalized in stable condition.
ORD, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Democrats are giving up on the presidential caucus.
During a meeting in Ord, the Nebraska Democratic Party’s State Central Committee on Saturday overwhelming approved returning to a May primary for the 2020 election. The party first instituted the caucus in 2008 in hopes of having a say in the national race while drawing people into the political process. Barack Obama won the initial caucus, as well as the Democratic presidential nomination before being elected the country’s 44th president.
In 2016, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont captured the Nebraska caucus, but Hillary Clinton won the party’s nomination.
Critics argued the caucus diverted resources and focus from electing Democrats in Nebraska.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The holidays can be stressful, but experts say there are ways to keep that manageable.
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services says making a budget for holiday gifts is important because financial worries are a common source of stress.
Finding ways to limit your commitments during the holidays is helpful because it is such a busy time.
The experts say it also helps to be realistic about family relationships.
BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — Gage County officials are looking at imposing a county sales tax to help pay off the $28.1 million owed six people who were wrongfully convicted for the murder of a 68-year-old Beatrice woman.
County supervisors chairman Myron Dorn said during a Wednesday briefing to the board that he plans to introduce legislation for a voter-approved sales tax. He was elected in November to represent District 30 in the Legislature.
Counties can put sales tax measures on electoral ballots, he said, but there are limitations on where funds may be collected, including in the city of Beatrice.
“The senators I have visited with have been receptive to the fact that this would be maybe a different avenue other than property taxes to help pay for the Beatrice Six situation that we’re in,” Dorn said. “I hope to have that ready by the next meeting to bring here, and this board can have that discussion to see if it’s something that would interest this board or not.”
He also said he won’t introduce the bill next year without the board’s support.
The Beatrice Six were wrongfully convicted for the 1985 rape and murder of Helen Wilson in Beatrice. The six spent more than 75 years combined in prison until DNA evidence cleared them in 2008. Wilson’s death has since been linked to a former Beatrice resident who died in 1992.
The six sued the county and won the multimillion-dollar award — a jury decision affirmed by a federal appeals court panel in June. County officials still hope the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn it.
The board approved a measure in September to raise the county property tax levy enough to generate an extra $3.8 million annually that can be applied to the judgment.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say a 64-year-old woman has died in a single-vehicle crash in midtown Omaha.
Police say the crash happened late Friday night at 36th and Dodge streets when a sport utility vehicle traveling east on Dodge hit a guy wire, re-entered the roadway, then drifted back off the road and hit a concrete wall.
Investigators say the SUV then rolled and hit other landscaping and structures before coming to rest.
Killed in the crash was the driver and lone occupant, Nancy Lee, of Omaha.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services has reported the state’s first flu-related deaths of the current flu season.
The department said Friday that two people, both over 65, have died from flu-related causes. One was from an area covered by the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department and the other was from the North Central District Health Department region that includes the cities of Valentine, O’Neill and Neligh.
Last season, 90 people died of the flu in Nebraska. Iowa state health officials say no flu-related deaths have been reported in Iowa yet this season.
Health officials say the very young, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems are at greater risk of complications from the respiratory illness.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say a man who had fallen in a midtown Omaha street died after being hit by several vehicles, none of which stopped.Omaha police say officers were called to 36th and Leavenworth streets late Friday night. A witness told officers that the man, identified as 64-year-old Julian Branker, was using a cane and walking along Leavenworth when he slipped and fell into the roadway. The witness stopped to help, but says three different vehicles hit Branker before the witness could reach him.
Police say none of the vehicles stopped.
Branker was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Police had not announced any arrests by midday Saturday.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha man has pleaded guilty to charges in the May hit-and-run crash that left a 2-year-old boy dead.
25-year-old Davionne Collier pleaded guilty Friday to leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death and misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide. Collier faces up to five years in prison when he’s sentenced Feb. 13.
Police say Collier was driving a sport utility vehicle that collided with a car on May 28, fatally injuring 2-year-old Devon Morris and seriously injuring another child and three other people. Police say Collier and a passenger in his SUV walked away from the crash scene.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Oversight questions have again returned to the center of a debate between Nebraska Probation Administration officials and the inspector general’s child welfare office.
Nebraska Ombudsman Marshall Lux contacted state senators last month over concerns that the Probation Administration won’t allow Child Welfare Inspector General Julie Rogers to investigate juvenile justice cases as she sees fit, the Lincoln Journal Star reported . He said that Rogers’ investigations of death and serious injuries are about protecting vulnerable children and preventing future tragedies.
There are areas where legislative oversight of the Probation Administration can be appropriate since the agency supervises hundreds of children under the state’s authority and is responsible for spending millions of taxpayer dollars, Lux said.
“We can’t have children dying and being sexually abused, among all the other terrible things that could happen, and not be trying to learn from it,” Lux said. “We can’t undo what’s happened, but we can try to learn from it and make the system better.”
But the Probation Administration has offered limited cooperation with Rogers, according to Lux.
Probation Administration officials have directed staff not to respond to any communication from Rogers, and even cancelled meetings that Rogers had arranged related to an investigation.
Such barriers will seriously inhibit Rogers’ ability to conduct meaningful investigations into child deaths and injuries, Lux said.
State Court Administrator Corey Steel said that the inspector general’s attempts to investigate and question judge’s orders, or lack thereof, raises “grave constitutional concerns.”
He recently said that the Probation Administration office will respond to communication requests by Rogers.
Lux said that if the on-again, off-again cooperation with the inspector general continues, then he recommends repealing the law that gives the inspector general oversight of Probation Administration. Lux anticipates another bill to propose moving juvenile justice services back to the Department of Health and Human Services, which has a long record of cooperating with the inspector general.
