ALMA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man died after his car ran into a tree in south-central Nebraska.
The accident occurred around 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Alma. Harlan County deputies say the man was driving west on the south end of town when his car ran across U.S. Highway 183, hit an embankment and then the tree. The driver was pronounced dead at Harlan County Hospital.
The man’s been identified as 58-year-old Gale Berry, who lived in Wilcox. An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday.
By GRANT SCHULTE , Associated Press
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska state officials are looking for new ways to help youths who enter the child welfare system, particularly in situations involving family drug use, but challenges remain in rural areas that lack treatment services.
State officials have hired more workers to reduce child welfare caseloads, a common complaint that has led to high employee turnover. They also have taken steps to cut the number of children who are removed from their homes, focusing instead on helping parents.
Gov. Pete Ricketts and state lawmakers approved an additional $35 million this year to boost child welfare services after an uptick in children entering the system because of family drug use. Ricketts also created a state task force to examine the problem.
Keeping children in their homes whenever possible reduces trauma as they remain safe, said Kim Hawekotte, director of the Nebraska Foster Care Office, a state watchdog agency that monitors the child welfare system.
Hawekotte said state officials have taken important steps to address the problem, including the adoption of new, evidence-based assessments to help case managers determine whether children can safely remain with their families.
But she said the state still faces a shortage of service providers, such as therapists and substance abuse counselors, who are available to treat families in rural areas. Some parts of the state are still a 150-mile drive from the nearest provider, she said.
“I think we’ve had improvements,” she said. “Are we there yet? No.”
Many children are entering the system because of drugs, particularly methamphetamine. State officials removed 862 children from their homes in the first three months of this year, according to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.
Of those cases, 406 children were removed because of drug use, and approximately 31 percent of the drug-related cases involved methamphetamine, said Lori Harder, deputy director of the state’s Child and Family Services division.
Harder said department officials met with advocates and judges throughout the state and concluded that high turnover among caseworkers was making it more difficult to place children in a permanent, safe home. Large caseloads were causing burnout among frontline caseworkers, making it more difficult for them to concentrate on individual families, she said.
“They didn’t really have time to sit down with families and learn what was going on,” Harder said.
So state officials used the $35 million in state funding to hire more child welfare case managers and reduce caseloads for those already working. Harder said the state has increased its focus on recruiting, retaining and training caseworkers and coordinating its work with other state agencies in rural, western Nebraska, where services are rarer.
Nebraska had a 19.5 percent turnover rate among caseworkers last year, and 9.7 percent so far this year, according to the department. Harder said managers are offering more flexible hours for caseworkers and meeting with those in remote field offices at least once every three months.
The state’s also trying to do a better job referring people to the services they need when they call the state’s emergency child abuse and neglect hotline, she said. Some of the calls aren’t actual emergencies, but can escalate if workers don’t connect the callers to public assistance, food pantries or other services, Harder said.
“Even if they don’t have an allegation of abuse or neglect, there may still have a need,” she said. “We need to respond to those concerns. We need folks to get to the right services the first time.”
Shifting toward prevention is important so the state can take advantage of funding available under a new federal law, said Sarah Helvey, a staff attorney for the group Nebraska Appleseed.
The law, signed in February, provides federal matching dollars for mental health treatment and other services to try to keep families together. Under the old system, states only got federal dollars when they removed children from their homes.
“We have an opportunity with this law,” Helvey said. “If we don’t move in that direction, we’ll miss out on federal funding.”
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a 10-year-old Omaha girl has suffered severe facial injuries after being attacked by one of her family’s pit bull dogs.
The Omaha World-Herald says the attack happened Friday evening while the girl and her siblings were at home and their mother was at work.
Police say the 2-year-old female dog attacked when the girl went to pick up a knocked-over trash can. One of the girl’s siblings ran to a neighbor’s house, who called 911. When emergency responders arrived, the dog was still attacking the girl.
The girl was rushed to an Omaha hospital, where she underwent surgery.
Two other pit bulls in the house did not participate in the attack. Police say all three dogs were removed from the home by Nebraska Humane Society officials.
Troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol (NSP) found 115 pounds of marijuana hidden inside a vehicle that was being transported through Nebraska on an auto transport trailer.
The discovery happened Wednesday, July 25 at the NSP Weigh Scale on eastbound I-80 near North Platte when a trooper was conducting an inspection on a tractor-trailer hauling vehicles. The trooper became suspicious of criminal activity and conducted a search of one of the vehicles on the trailer.
During the search, troopers found 115 pounds of marijuana. The estimated street value of the marijuana is $231,000.
The investigation is ongoing.
LA VISTA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man was burned after a fire began in apartment garage in an Omaha suburb.
Fire crews were dispatched around 7:50 p.m. Wednesday to the Shadow Ridge complex in La Vista. Authorities say the blaze spread to two adjoining garages but didn’t reach the residents’ buildings.
The man was working on a truck in his garage when the fire started. He suffered burns on his hands in trying to extinguish the flames. His name wasn’t released.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say a man died in a hospital after a motorcycle crash off Interstate 480 in east Omaha.
The crash occurred around 5:40 p.m. Thursday, when the southbound motorcycle went out of control, crossed a grass median and an on-ramp and overturned on an embankment.
Police say the motorcyclist was taken to Nebraska Medical Center, where he died.
He’s been identified as 45-year-old Bill Pyle, who lived in Omaha.
MINDEN, Neb. (AP) — A former Hastings police officer accused of assaulting his wife and mother has taken a plea deal.
Adams County Court records say 27-year-old Cody Bland pleaded no contest Thursday to two misdemeanor counts of assault. Prosecutors dropped a related charge in exchange for his pleas. His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 27.
The records say Bland’s wife told officers that Bland kicked, shoved and tackled her at their Hastings home Oct. 30. She managed to summon some of her husband’s relatives for help after he took her cellphone. His mother says he slapped and kicked her after she arrived.
Bland had been on the Hastings force for four years. He resigned in November.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge from Nebraska known for his candid blog posts is being criticized online for a tweet about a group of female law clerks.
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf has apologized in a blog post this week for his tweet regarding Law Clerks for Workplace Accountability, which recently formed in response to harassment reports within the federal judiciary, the Omaha World-Herald reported.
Law Clerks for Workplace Accountability, a group of eight current and former female law clerks, recently praised some parts of a June report on the judiciary’s sexual harassment policies. The group also offered suggestions, such as soliciting input from law clerks, creating a more robust reporting mechanism and making sure recommendations are applied uniformly.
Kopf referred to the group last week tweeting, “New Spanish Inquisition by SJWs (social justice warriors)? Thank goodness for Article III.” It included an illustration of a man tied to a rack. Article III of the Constitution says judges will hold office “during good behavior” and will be compensated for their services.
Kopf acknowledged the criticism he’s received about his tweet.
“I have been told by people I admire and trust that my tweet and related responses on Twitter ‘lacked nuance,’ ‘were inartful,’ or appeared to ‘punch down,’ ” Kopf wrote in his blog post. “I accept those criticisms and apologize for my errors.”
The report published last month was written by a working group of judges and judiciary officials at the request of Chief Justice John Roberts. The report found inappropriate conduct in the federal judiciary is “not pervasive” but also “not limited to a few isolated instances.” The group also wrote that of “the inappropriate behavior that does occur, incivility, disrespect, or crude behavior is more common than sexual harassment.”
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska is giving online businesses until 2019 to start collecting sales taxes on orders placed within the state.
The Department of Revenue announced Friday that so-called remote sellers must obtain a sales tax permit and begin collecting the tax by Jan. 1, 2019.
The decision follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave states the authority to force out-of-state online retailers to collect sales taxes on their behalf. Some lawmakers have sought a special session to formally adopt new requirements in Nebraska.
Nebraska loses out on an estimated $30 million to $40 million a year in state tax revenue from online purchases. Customers are legally required to report their online purchases when filing their income tax returns, but few people follow that law.
Some small businesses may be exempt.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska prison officials have scheduled a morning execution next month for their longest-serving death-row inmate as they prepare to carry out the state’s first-ever lethal injection with a never-before-used combination of drugs.
Carey Dean Moore’s execution is expected to take place at 10 a.m. on Aug. 14 at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, the Department of Correctional Services announced Friday in a news release.
The Nebraska Supreme Court set the date earlier this month when it issued a death warrant for Moore, who was sentenced to death for the 1979 murders of two Omaha taxicab drivers, Reuel Van Ness, Jr. and Maynard Helgeland. Moore, 60, has spent 38 years on Nebraska’s death row.
Corrections Director Scott Frakes said in a statement the prison is following the procedures “to ensure the order of the court is enforced.”
Corrections officials plan to execute Moore by lethal injection with diazepam, commonly known as Valium; the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl citrate, the paralytic cisatracurium besylate; and potassium chloride to stop the heart. The corrections department’s supply of potassium chloride is set to expire at the end of August.
Department officials have said all four drugs were purchased in the United States, but declined to say how the drugs were obtained or who provided them. They’re currently fighting lawsuits by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska and Nebraska media outlets that could force them to release documents identifying the supplier.
Nebraska’s last execution was in 1997, using the electric chair, but the state Supreme Court later declared the chair unconstitutional.
Corrections officials said they’re contacting witnesses for the execution. State law allows three witnesses to attend on behalf of Moore, in addition to one member of the clergy. As many as three witnesses may attend on behalf of the victims’ families.
Additionally, Frakes may designate up to six other people to witness the execution. Two of those must be professional members of the Nebraska news media.
After years of delays, Moore has stopped fighting state officials’ efforts to execute him, and he recently accused them of being too “lazy or incompetent” to carry out his sentence. He filed a motion in May to dismiss his court-appointed lawyer, but the state Supreme Court denied his request. Moore also his attorney to stop fighting the state’s attempts to execute him.
Moore’s attorney, Jeff Pickens of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, has said he hasn’t submitted any new court filings in the case since receiving that order. Pickens did not immediately respond to a phone message.
