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Omaha to hold delayed New Year’s Eve fireworks show

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha residents will celebrate New Year’s Eve — about a week late.

Severe cold weather on Dec. 31 forced organizers of the Omaha Holiday Lights Festival New Year’s Eve Fireworks Spectacular to postpone last week’s show.

The fireworks show is now being held Saturday night in Omaha’s downtown Gene Leahy Mall, with a brief ceremony and countdown by Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert.

Those needing or requesting accommodations are welcome to view the fireworks from the fourth floor of the W. Dale Clark Library.

Those seeking more information can find it online at www.holidaylightsfestival.org.

Police say 1 dead in shooting at north Omaha lounge

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say one person has died after an overnight shooting in north Omaha.

Police say officers were called to the Reign Lounge on North 30th Street just before 2 a.m. Saturday for a report of a shooting. Arriving officers found 27-year-old Kyle Leflore suffering from a gunshot wound. Police say Leflore was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

No arrests have been reported, and police are asking the public’s help identifying the shooter.

A reward of up to $25,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest.

US Marshal shoots suspect while serving warrant in Lincoln

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a 25-year-old Gage County man was shot and injured by a U.S. Marshal while being served with a federal arrest warrant in Lincoln.

Lincoln police say two of its officers and the federal marshal tried to serve Thomas Sailors with the warrant Friday night while Sailors was in a sport utility vehicle in an apartment building parking lot. The warrant charges Sailors with possession and attempted distribution of narcotics in Gage County.

Police say Sailors sought to flee and hit at least four cars, including the one driven by the marshal. The marshal then fired shots into the SUV, wounding Sailors. Police say his injuries are not life-threatening.

No one else was injured.

19-year-old airman, Papillion man killed in 3-vehicle crash

BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) — Police in eastern Nebraska have identified two people killed in a three-vehicle crash along the Kennedy Freeway in the Omaha suburb of Bellevue.

19-year-old Khalil Jones, of Daytona Beach, Florida, and 47-year-old Shamus Dean, of Papillion, were killed. Two others were critically injured in crash early Friday.

Officials say Jones was an airman stationed at Offutt Air Force Base south of Omaha.

Investigators say Jones’ car had stalled along the freeway, and Dean had pulled over to help. Police say a towing truck being driven erratically by a 57-year-old Bellevue man crashed into the parked vehicles. Jones and Dean were pronounced dead at the scene, and two teens in Jones’ car were injured.

The tow-truck driver was not injured.

Bill seeks to stop drone use to spy on people, harass cows

Don McCullough from Santa Rosa, CA, USA (commons.wikimedia.org)

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Using a drone to spy on neighbors, drop drugs into prisons or harass cows could lead to criminal charges under a new bill Nebraska lawmakers will consider later this year.

The measure would impose new safety and privacy rules on the remote-control flying machines that are now used for dozens of jobs throughout the state.

Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue says she introduced the bill to protect the public without overregulating drones, the kind of technology she said is critical to the state’s economic growth. The Federal Aviation Administration already oversees drones, but Blood says the agency hasn’t addressed all of the public safety concerns.

The bill would impose restrictions on flying drones near prisons or private property without permission, and using them to harass livestock.

New trial date set for man accused of killing neighbor

MADISON, Neb. (AP) — A new trial date has been set for a man accused of stabbing to death a neighbor at a northeast Nebraska apartment complex.

Court records say the attorney for 49-year-old Rodolfo Castaneda-Morejon had requested a delay. The trial had been set to begin Feb. 12. The new date: June 12.

Castaneda-Morejon has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and use of a weapon.

Prosecutors say he killed 39-year-old Yosvanis Velazquez Gomez on Aug. 25. The court records say Castaneda-Morejon told investigators he confronted Gomez about an inappropriate text message sent to Castaneda-Morejon’s girlfriend, suspecting the two were having a secret relationship. The records also say Castaneda-Morejon acknowledged stabbing Velazquez Gomez several times.

Nebraska lawmakers seek more action to ease prison crowding

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska state lawmakers are once again pushing to reduce prison crowding and employee turnover ahead of a July 2020 deadline that could force state officials to parole more inmates.

Nine senators announced a series of prison measures Friday that they will pursue this year to address crowding and other issues identified in the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services.

One proposal would require the department to create a plan in case it has to release a large number of inmates. Another would continue a state partnership with county jails to hold inmates. Still, another would reinstate longevity-based pay raises for correctional staffers.

Nebraska’s prison system housed roughly 5,200 inmates on Friday in facilities that were designed to hold 3,375.

A prison spokeswoman says the department will review the bills.

Nebraska Supreme Court rejects appeal in 1998 killing case

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 43-year-old Omaha man sentenced to 50-to-80 years for the 1998 shooting death of his former boss will remain behind bars after the Nebraska Supreme Court rejected his appeal.

Greg Glass was convicted of second-degree murder and a weapons count for the death of Adolph Fentress, who was co-owner of Downtown Auto Sales in Omaha.

Police say Glass shot Fentress during an argument at the used-car dealership, where Glass had worked for a time. Glass testified that he confronted Fentress at the dealership because he believed Fentress owed him money.

Glass argued that he fired the weapon in self-defense after Fentress grabbed a tire iron.

On Friday, the Nebraska Supreme Court rejected Glass’ claim that his trial lawyer was so ineffective that it violated his right to a fair trial.

Omaha man sentenced for crash that killed street worker

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha man who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for hitting and killing an Omaha street crew worker nearly a year ago has been sentenced to 14 days in jail and two years’ probation.

Alan Solarana was sentenced Thursday in Douglas County Court after pleading guilty in September to misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide in the Jan. 23 accident that killed 48-year-old Salvatore Fidone III, of Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Police have said Fidone was standing on the driver’s side of a city truck as he and others prepared to fill potholes when a car driven by Solarana drifted from a northbound lane and hit him.

Investigators said Solarana was not speeding on under the influence at the time of the crash.

Nebraska city sues to get settlement back from couple

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s capital city is suing for the return of settlement money paid to a couple who said police wrongly seized $224,000 in cash, coins and from their home, saying that one of the pair violated a nondisclosure agreement when he discussed the case while at a convenience store.

David Tarrence and Tamara Geis received more than $50,000 from the city of Lincoln in November stemming from a lawsuit in which they said police had entered their home in 2014 without a warrant, restrained Tarrence, then forced the couple to leave while officers waited to obtain a search warrant. The lawsuit alleged that a police investigator who then went back into the home for an extended period drafted an affidavit for the warrant seeking things he had “already found … apparently, because he had actually searched the home without first obtaining a warrant.”

In the new lawsuit, city officials say Tarrence was recorded on video on Dec. 8 telling U-Stop store clerks that he “won” his lawsuit and that police had “broke” his and Geis’ civil rights. He also called Lincoln police “constant liars,” the suit says. It wasn’t clear how the city got a copy of the video or learned of its existence.

“From our standpoint, this is a contract action,” City Attorney Jeff Kirkpatrick told the Journal Star on Wednesday.

Bob Creager, an attorney who represents Tarrence and Geis, said his clients are abiding by the confidentiality agreement. Creager declined to comment on the city’s lawsuit.

The couple’s civil rights lawsuit, filed in 2016, said police cut into and destroyed a safe, damaging some firearms and coins in it, and that police smashed carbon monoxide detectors set off by the saw used to cut into the safe. Tarrence and Geis weren’t charged with a crime.

The $53,750 settlement was reached after a federal judge in August said the lawsuit could move forward.

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