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Police: Teens attack woman who yelled at them to slow down

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln police say two teenagers attacked a woman and drove over her after she yelled at them to stop driving recklessly.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports the 60-year-old woman yelled at a car Tuesday morning after seeing it race through her neighborhood near Lincoln Northeast High School.

Police say the vehicle stopped and two 17-year-old boys got out and punched the woman. One of the teens then pointed a gun at the woman and threatened her, and they took her mobile phone.

As they drove off, they ran over the woman. She was taken to a hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening.

Police found the teens believed responsible for the incident, and one was referred to the county attorney’s office

Nebraska zoo’s new tiger kills its new parrot

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Officials with the Lincoln Children’s Zoo say one of the attraction’s new tigers has killed its nearly-new parrot.

The incident happened Tuesday when a green-winged macaw, which the zoo acquired in November, flew into the zoo’s tiger habitat, which opened to the public last week.

Zoo officials say the bird was being trained as part of a planned public presentation to fly from the zoo’s Secret Jungle to its outdoor theater when it detoured into the Sumatran tiger habitat.

Zoo spokesman Ryan Gross says a tiger “knocked it down.” The bird later died at the zoo’s veterinary clinic.

Gross says the zoo has suspended flight rehearsals. The zoo and the tiger exhibit remained open to the public Tuesday.

Nebraska state officials say prison conditions have improved

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska state officials are pushing back against allegations that prisoners aren’t receiving proper health care and mental health treatment due to deliberate indifference by the corrections department.

The Nebraska attorney general’s office argued in a court filing Tuesday that the Department of Correctional Services provides excellent access to health care and has invested millions in new facilities and employees in recent years.

The filing came in response to inmates represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska, which filed a lawsuit in 2017. The inmates are now asking a judge to grant them class-action status, which state officials oppose.

Assistant Nebraska Attorney General Ryan Post says the prison system still has problems to overcome, but those challenges aren’t constitutional violations.

Nebraska farmer amputates leg with knife to escape auger 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A northeastern Nebraska farmer is recovering after cutting off his own leg with a pocket knife to save himself from a piece of farm equipment he had become caught in.

Omaha television station KETV reports that 63-year-old Kurt Kaser, of Pender, was unloading corn last month when he got out of his truck and accidentally stepped on the grain hopper opening. An auger in the hopper caught Kaser’s leg, pulling it in and mangling it. An auger is a tube that uses a rotating shaft to suck the grain and push it through the tube to deposit in a bin.

Kaser said he couldn’t pull his leg out and didn’t have his cellphone. There was no one around to help.

So, he took his pocket knife out and sawed off his leg below the knee.

After he was freed, he crawled 150 feet to the nearest phone and was flown to a hospital. Kaser says he never lost consciousness.

On Friday, Kaser was released from a rehabilitation center. He will have to wait for the amputated leg to fully heal before getting a prosthetic leg.

Major farm groups oppose Nebraska business tax credit bill

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Two of Nebraska’s largest farm groups are objecting to a bill that would create new business tax credits to replace the state’s current major incentive program.The Nebraska Farm Bureau and Nebraska Farmers Union say they oppose the bill because lawmakers haven’t yet approved a plan to lower property taxes. The Nebraska Farm Bureau argued Tuesday that lawmakers are running out of time in this year’s session and need to focus on property taxes.

Business groups have defended the incentives as critical to maintain a competitive business environment in Nebraska relative to other states.

Nebraska Farmers Union President John Hansen says the state’s tax incentives aren’t cost effective and haven’t worked as intended. The incentives were also criticized by two former lawmakers who led the Legislature’s Performance Audit Committee.

Free Fishing and Park Entry Day set for May 18

LINCOLN, Neb. – This Saturday will be a great day to go fishing or visit a state park area in Nebraska! May 18 is Free Fishing and Park Entry Day.

Free Fishing and Park Entry Day is held annually in Nebraska on the Saturday preceding Memorial Day weekend. It means anyone can fish without a permit or visit a state park area without a park entry permit that day only.

Even though fishing and park entry permits are not required, anglers must observe all fishing regulations, and camping, lodging and all other user fees still apply at state park areas.

May 18 also is a great opportunity to participate in the Take ‘em Fishing challenge, in which anglers pledge to take new or inexperienced anglers fishing. Visit outdoornebraska.gov/takeemfishing/ for more information.

Many events are scheduled in conjunction with Free Fishing and Park Entry Day, including the grand opening of the Schramm Education Center at Schramm Park State Recreation Area.

For more details on park events taking place on Free Fishing and Park Entry Day, visit Calendar.OutdoorNebraska.gov.

Lincoln Police investigate possible attempted kidnapping

Lincoln Police are investigating after two 10-year-old girls reported that a man attempted to kidnap them from a city park.

On May 13, at around 4:30 p.m., officers responded to Lakeview Park on West Q Street, on the report of a possible attempted kidnapping.

Officers arrived and made contact with the victims and several witnesses.

A 10-year-old female told officers that she was sitting in the park when she was approached by an approximately 20-year-old male who “pulled her into an embrace.”

Police say there was another 10-year-old female who reported that the same subject had walked in her direction and waved at her to come with him. However, she was able to run to a residence in the area and yell for help.

Police say two area residents responded, with one calling 911 and the other following the suspect, who had started to walk away from the park. The resident told police that once he noticed he was being followed, he ran from the scene.

Police and residents flooded the area but were unable to locate the suspect.

Both girls say they do not know the male subject and police say, based on witness and victim statements, they believe he was trying to get either or both girls to go with him.

The case remains under investigation and police ask that anyone with information contact them at 402-441-6000.

2 NP residents accused of possessing stolen vehicles

Two North Platte residents are in jail on felony theft charges after police allegedly found them in possession of stolen vehicles.

On May 13, at around 11:20 p.m., an officer on patrol observed a running vehicle parked on the side of the street in the 800 block of East 12th Street. The officer reported that 41-year-old Shane Ross was in the driver’s seat and was known to have a suspended license. When the officer ran the license plate of the vehicle, it came back as fictitious.

The officer was en route to another call and was therefore unable to make contact with Ross.

After completing the call, the officer was advised that someone was attempting to enter homes in the area of 13th and Silber Streets.

According to police, the officer returned to the vehicle that he had reportedly seen Ross in earlier and found it to be unoccupied.

A check of the vehicle identification number (VIN) found that it had been reported as stolen in Kansas.

More officers arrived and made contact with 26-year-old Erica Charging Elk, who was sitting in a vehicle in the driveway of a nearby residence. Officers ran that vehicle’s VIN and found that it had been reported stolen out of South Dakota.

Police say Ross and an unidentified male emerged from the garage of a residence, at which time Ross was placed under arrest.

Charging Elk was also arrested and both were transported to the Lincoln County Detention Center. Both have been charged with theft by unlawful taking-over $5,000, a Class IIA felony, for allegedly being in possession of the stolen vehicles.

Walmart ups the delivery game with next day shipping

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP Retail Writer

Eds: Adds Twitter handle. New edits to add a few more details throughout. With AP Photo.

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart is rolling out free next-day delivery on its most popular items, increasing the stakes in the retail shipping wars with Amazon.

The nation’s largest retailer said Tuesday it’s been building a network of more efficient e-commerce distribution centers to make that happen. The next-day service will cover 220,000 popular items from diapers and non-perishable food items to toys and electronics. That’s nearly double the number of items it carries in its stores.

Next-day delivery, which will require a minimum order of $35, will be available in Phoenix, Arizona, and Las Vegas on Tuesday. In coming days, it will expand to southern California. The discounter plans to roll out the service to 75% of the U.S. population by year-end. It will also be adding hundreds of thousands more products as the program expands.

The announcement comes just two weeks after online behemoth Amazon said it’s upgrading its free shipping option to Prime members who pay $119 a year to one-day delivery from two-day delivery. Amazon has declined to say when the switch will happen, but it already offers one-day delivery for some items in certain areas.

Walmart says the new delivery program has been in the works for a while.

“Customer expectations continue to rise,” said Marc Lore, CEO of Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce division, told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “We’re trying to get ahead of that.”

The move will only increase pressure on other rivals that are already investing in millions of dollars to shorten the delivery window.

Amazon changed consumer expectations when it launched its two-day delivery for Prime members back in 2005 and forced other retailers to step up their game. But analysts say Amazon then needed to cut the delivery time in half to make its membership more attractive since others like Walmart offered free two-day deliveries without any membership.

Two years ago, Walmart began offering free two-day shipping on millions of items on its website for orders of at least $35. Target also offers free two-day shipping for those who spend at least $35 or use its RedCard loyalty card. Walmart has also been expanding same-day grocery delivery service fulfilled from its stores for a fee of about $10.

Lore says it will be cheaper for the company to do next-day delivery versus two-day service because eligible items will come from a single fulfillment center located closest to the customer. This means orders will ship in one box, or in as few as possible, unlike two-day deliveries that come in multiple boxes from multiple locations. Walmart is also trying to limit costs by tailoring products based on what shoppers demand in the local markets. For example, sunscreen would be available all year for areas like Southern California and Phoenix.

Still, Walmart sells far fewer products than Amazon and its online U.S. sales are only a fraction of Amazon’s online global merchandise empire. Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer of Publicis Communications, noted Walmart isn’t going to be able to ship the same number of products as Amazon under one-day shipping and its profit margins could get further squeezed as it focuses on the most popular items that would be subject to pricing wars.

Amazon has also been delivering more packages itself rather than relying on the post office and other carriers like UPS and FedEx. The company expects to spend $800 million in the second quarter to speed up deliveries and has expanded its fleet of jets. On Monday, it announced that it will be expanding an incentive program to its employees so they can quit their jobs and start their own Amazon package delivery businesses.

Walmart has one big advantage over Amazon — its more than 4,700 stores.

Walmart and Target have been turning their physical stores into shipping hubs, speeding up deliveries and helping to defray costs for services like curbside delivery and in-store pickup. Walmart has also been expanding the use of robots in its stores, which keep tabs on what’s on and not on the shelves. Meanwhile, Target has redesigned its staging area for packages to help speed up fulfilling curbside deliveries.

Man gets 10-11 years for fatal drunken-driving crash

Vismar Carmona-Martinez
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A 20-year-old man has been imprisoned for crashing into a car and killing the woman driving it along an Omaha freeway.

Douglas County District Court records say Vismar Carmona-Martinez was sentenced Monday to 10 to 11 years in prison and credited for 498 days already served in custody. He’d pleaded no contest in March to felony vehicular homicide.

Prosecutors say Carmona-Martinez’s car rear-ended another car around 12:30 a.m. Jan 1, 2018. The driver of the car he hit, 67-year-old Ann Smock, died at an Omaha hospital.

Police say Carmona-Martinez’s blood alcohol content was three times the legal limit to drive. Prosecutors also say Carmona-Martinez is in the country illegally.

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