LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture has signed a cooperative agreement with Mississippi State University to train students for poultry-related careers.
The new program includes three semesters at the Nebraska college in Curtis and a semester at MSU’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Students enrolled in the program will earn an associate of applied science in animal science degree with a concentration in poultry science.
Ron Rosati is the dean of the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture. He says he chose to partner with the Mississippi university’s poultry science department because of its reputation for training leaders in agriculture.
MSU’s program is one of six nationwide that offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in poultry science.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police are seeking a gunman witnesses say burst into a Lincoln apartment were a group was playing dice, demanded money and randomly fired into the crowd of people there.
The Lincoln Journal Star reports that the shooting happened Thursday night, injuring one person.
Lincoln Officer Angela Sands says seven people were inside the apartment at the time of the ambush. One man was shot in a leg and taken to a local hospital. He is expected to recover.
Police say some of the people in the apartment knew the gunman, who has not been found.
Police say several of the witnesses are cooperating with investigators.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Union Pacific says it expects to finish installing and testing a new automatic braking system on the railroad by the end of 2020.
The Omaha, Nebraska, based railroad said it is continuing to install the required positive train control system on 17,000 miles of its track.
The installation should be largely completed this year, but the railroad expects to continue testing and refining the system in next year and in 2020.
Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board have been urging railroads to install such systems for years because they can prevent deadly railroad crashes.
Union Pacific operates 32,400 miles of track in 23 western states.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former Omaha teacher and coach accused of child sexual assault has been sentenced to up to 30 years in prison.
47-year-old Daryl Clark was sentenced Wednesday to 25 to 30 years in prison after pleading no contest to attempted visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct and enticement by electronic devise. State law requires him to serve at least half the sentence, so he will be eligible for parole after 12½ years.
Prosecutors had already dropped three counts of child sexual assault when they determined the girl had been 16, the age of sexual consent in Nebraska. They amended other charges in exchange for Clark’s pleas.
Clark was a middle school business teacher and coached youth softball.
DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — Much of Iowa and Nebraska are bracing for another wintry blast overnight into the weekend, with parts of eastern Iowa already under a winter storm warning.
The National Weather Service says a winter storm is expected to drop as much as 8 inches of snow in east-central Iowa, including the cities of Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Muscatine, and Davenport. The weather service says snow will start falling by late Thursday afternoon, continuing throughout the day Friday. Most of Iowa is under a winter weather advisory, where 2 to 5 inches of snow is expected.
The weather service has placed most of Nebraska under a hazardous weather outlook for Thursday night into Friday, with 1 to 3 inches of snow expected, as the storm system moves southeast across the state.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former Omaha police officer charged in the stun gun-related death of a mentally ill man has pleaded not guilty to two criminal counts.
Scotty Payne entered the pleas Wednesday in Douglas County Court at his arraignment on charges of assault and use of a weapon. Police investigators say Payne discharged a stun gun 12 times last June while trying to take 29-year-old Zachary Bearheels into custody after a reported disturbance at a local convenience store.
Payne and another officer, Ryan McClarty, were both fired and charged after police video showed Payne stunning Bearheels and McClarty repeatedly punching Bearheels after he was already on the ground. Bearheels died shortly after the confrontation.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — School officials and police say a 7-year-old student was found with an unloaded handgun on a Grand Island school bus.
The bus driver took the gun from the student Wednesday morning and contacted school staff.
Police Capt. Jim Duering says school officials had already seized the gun by the time police arrived. A statement from Grand Island Public Schools say the gun was unloaded and that the student had no ammunition for the gun and that “no students or staff were ever in danger.”
Police say the student was not taken into custody, but officers did take the gun. Duering says a police report has been turned over to the Hall County prosecutor’s office for review.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska state senator charged with driving under the influence apologized for his actions Thursday and accepted responsibility hours after he was stopped on Interstate 80.
Sen. Mike McDonnell of Omaha was arrested in Sarpy County on suspicion of first-offense DUI, failure to stay in a traffic lane and refusing to submit to a breath-alcohol test.
McDonnell, a former Omaha fire chief, was pulled over by a Nebraska State Patrol trooper Thursday just before 1 a.m. on the interstate on his way home from Lincoln. Authorities say he twice refused to submit to a breath test.
“I take full responsibility for my actions and the decisions I make, but I also need to apologize to this (Legislature) for making a decision that was more about me than about the people I’m representing,” McDonnell said in Thursday morning in a somber legislative floor speech.
McDonnell apologized to his family and constituents as well and described his decision as “selfish.” In a gathering with reporters after his speech, the 52-year-old said he doesn’t plan to step down and promised that that he would never drive impaired again.
McDonnell declined to specify where or with whom he was drinking, but said he was coming home from a late meeting. He said the meeting did not include any other state senators or lobbyists.
“At the time, I thought I was making a good decision,” he said.
McDonnell, a registered Democrat, was elected in 2016 to represent Legislative District 5, which includes portions of south and midtown Omaha.
At least three state lawmakers have been convicted of driving under the influence in recent decades, but all remained in office.
Former state Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh of Omaha was ticketed for DUI in February 2013, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two days of house arrest, one year or probation and a $500 fine.
Former state Sen. Danielle Conrad pleaded guilty to first-offense DUI and refusing to take a breath test after she drove into a city snowplow in February 2007. Conrad paid $1,000 in fines, served a year of probation and had her license suspended for 60 days.
Former state Sen. Kermit Brashear of Omaha pleaded no contest to drunken driving in 1996 and was sentenced to six months of probation and a 60-day license suspension. He was fined $150. Brashear later became speaker of the Legislature.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture has signed a cooperative agreement with Mississippi State University to train students for poultry-related careers.
