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Former, current Winnebago Tribe members plead guilty

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A current and a former member of the Winnebago Tribe’s governing council have pleaded guilty to misusing federal money to pay themselves bonuses.

The Sioux City Journal reports that former councilman Amen Sheridan entered his plea Friday in Omaha’s federal court. Current member Jeff Miller pleaded guilty to the same charge on Thursday.

As part of agreements that both signed with prosecutors, Sheridan and Miller are both expected to be sentenced to five years of probation on Oct. 19. Miller must repay $40,213, and Sheridan must repay $13,404.

The two are part of a group of nine former council members charged with giving themselves bonuses out of $388,972 in federal money intended to provide health care to tribal members.

The Winnebago Reservation is located in northeastern Nebraska and northwestern Iowa.

Nebraska farmer sues over crop damage from herbicide

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska farmer has sued herbicide manufacturers, saying his neighbors’ use of the company products damaged his soybean crop last summer.

Shane Greckel filed the federal lawsuit last week against Monsanto and other companies whose products contain the herbicide dicamba.

Experts say problems have arisen with dicamba as farmers began to use it to kill weeds in soybean and cotton fields where specially engineered seeds had been planted to resist the herbicide. Because it can easily evaporate after being applied, the chemical sometimes settles on neighboring fields planted with seeds that are not resistant to dicamba.

Greckel says that’s what happened on his fields near Bloomfield.

Monsanto spokesman Jeff Neu told the Journal Star that the company hadn’t yet been served with the lawsuit but would review it.

About 200 expected to lose Omaha jobs with office closing

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — TreeHouse Foods says about 200 workers will be affected by the closing of its Omaha office.The company announced this week that it expects to finish the closure by the end of January and move the work to Green Bay, Wisconsin, and company headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois. The closure is part of a business restructuring. The company also said it will provide separation pay and outplacement assistance.

Many of the 200 likely are former ConAgra Foods workers who worked for a ConAgra unit that TreeHouse bought in a deal announced in 2015. ConAgra had bought that unit — private-label food manufacturer Ralcorp — in 2013.

Man gets 8-15 years for robbing bank in Lincoln

Roosevelt Erving

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A judge has sentenced a 24-year-old man to prison for robbing a Lincoln bank branch.

Lancaster County District Court records say Roosevelt Q. Erving was sentenced Thursday to eight to 15 years. He’d pleaded guilty to the Sept. 25 robbery of a Union Bank branch. The judge credited him with 282 days already served.

His girlfriend, 27-year-old Danielle Lawson, faces aiding and abetting and other charges. She’s pleaded not guilty but is expected to change her pleas at a Sept. 6 hearing.

Texas College Transfer signs with NPCC

North Platte – First year Lady Knights basketball coach Jeff Thurman continues adding to the 2018-19 Lady Knight basketball team by signing Madisyn Francis, a transfer from Ranger College in Texas.

Francis, a 4’ 11” point guard played her high school basketball at North Shore High School in Houston, Texas.  She graduated in 2017.

At Ranger, Francis played sparingly, averaging 1.8 points per game and 0.4 rebounds per game. She had a career high with 11 points against Southwest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf.

At North Shore, during her senior season, Francis averaged 14.6 points per game and six rebounds per game. She also averaged 4.4 assists per game and 3.7 steals per game.

“I was told that a school in Nebraska was looking for players and that they gave the coach my name,” Francis said. “Coach Thurman contacted me and I liked his energetic approach.”

Francis is planning to major In nursing.

“Madisyn brings that sophomore leadership and junior college basketball experience that will be invaluable for our incoming freshman. Her ability to handle the ball and play off the ball with help us as well,” Thurman said. “She is a high-character student-athlete and we are very excited for her to join our program and institution.”

Francis joins Leilani Pinedo from Tucson, Ariz.; Alizea McClanahan, Katie Cox, Emily Joseph from Tampa, Florida;  and Jordan Novinger from Centennial, Colo., in the 2018-19 recruiting class for the Lady Knights.

The Latest: Sheriff says at least 11 dead in boat accident

BRANSON, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on a deadly tourist boat accident in Missouri (all times local):

12:30 a.m.

A Missouri sheriff says at least 11 people have now been confirmed dead after a boat carrying tourists on a lake in a popular vacation city capsized and sank.

Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader says seven people have been hospitalized and five others remain missing. He says divers have ended their search of Table Rock Lake in Branson for the night.

The National Transportation Safety Board said on Twitter that investigators will arrive on the scene Friday morning.

Rader says stormy weather is believed to be what caused the Ride the Ducks boat to capsize Thursday night.

National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Lindenberg says the agency issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the Branson area Thursday evening. He says winds reached speeds of more than 60 mph.

Branson is about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast of Kansas City and is a popular vacation spot for families and other tourists looking for entertainment ranging from theme parks to live music.

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9:50 p.m.

A sheriff in Missouri says a tourist boat has apparently capsized on a lake, leaving eight people dead and several others hospitalized.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader says the accident occurred Thursday night after a Ride the Ducks tourist boat reportedly sank on Table Rock Lake.

Rader says an off-duty sheriff’s deputy working security helped rescue people. He says recovery efforts are ongoing, with some passengers still unaccounted for.

A dive team is assisting.

Rader says weather is believed to have caused the boat to capsize

Nebraska fire marshal, energy office director stepping down

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts has announced the retirement of State Fire Marshal Jim Heine and plans by state Energy Office Director David Bracht to leave that post next month.

Heine says he will retire effective Sept. 30, following 29 years of service. Ricketts says a search for a new fire marshal has begun.

Bracht will end his service on Aug. 1 to return to his private law practice, Kutak Rock, in Omaha.

Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality Director Jim Macy will serve as interim director of the energy office.

Trade tensions weigh on outlook for rural parts of 10 states

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Weak economic growth is expected to continue in rural parts of 10 Plains and Western states, but all the recent trade disputes may shrink profits.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says the new tariffs are hurting grain prices, which were already weak.

The overall economic index for the region declined to 53.8 in July from June’s 56.1.

That score still suggests growth because it is above 50, while any score below 50 indicates a shrinking economy.

Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.

The bankers say they’re concerned about the ongoing trade tensions with China and the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The confidence index fell to 42.7 in July from June’s 48.8.

South Dakota man killed, woman injured in Nebraska crash

HARTINGTON, Neb. (AP) — A South Dakota man has died and a woman has been critically injured in a single-vehicle crash in northeastern Nebraska.

The 26-year-old Keannan Simpson, of Yankton, South Dakota, died following a Monday afternoon crash on a rural road near Hartington.

Investigators say Simpson was driving when he lost control of his sport utility vehicle and rolled several times.

Officials say Simpson was thrown from the vehicle and taken to a Yankton hospital, where he died.

A 25-year-old Yankton woman who was riding in the SUV also was thrown in the crash and is in Sioux Falls hospital in critical condition.

The Cedar County Sheriff’s Office says neither Simpson nor his passenger were wearing seat belts.

2 Nebraska murder suspects arrested at Missouri Walmart

TROY, Mo. (AP) — Two suspects in a Nebraska murder case are in custody in Missouri after being arrested at a Walmart store.

Police in Troy, Missouri, say 29-year-old Raymond Davis of Des Moines, Iowa, and 20-year-old Krystal Martin of Hawk Point, Missouri, are jailed without bond, awaiting extradition to Nebraska.

Davis and Martin were arrested on June 30, but the arrests weren’t disclosed until Tuesday.

Troy police say in a news release that they were contacted by Bellevue, Nebraska, police on June 30. The Bellevue department had been tracking Davis’ movements and believed he was at or near the Walmart store in Troy.

Officers arrested Davis and Martin as they left the store.

Police have not disclosed details of the killing. Authorities in Bellevue did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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