In connection with the severe weather and flooding in early March of this year, United States Attorney Joe Kelly urges individuals not to let disaster strike twice and to report storm related fraud 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to the Justice Department’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 1-866-720-5721 or at[email protected].

The Department of Justice manages and tracks complaints of fraudulent activity, including sham charities and people posing as government officials or contractors who prey on storm survivors, looking to steal identities or storm benefits.

When a storm survivor makes a complaint, NCDF investigators review the complaint and, as appropriate, refer the complaint to the proper federal, state, or local agency in the relevant jurisdiction.  Since the NCDF’s creation in 2005, it has received more than 95,000 complaints.

The NCDF is the result of a partnership between the U.S. Department of Justice and various law enforcement and regulatory agencies to form a national coordinating agency within the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice to improve and further the detection, prevention, investigation and prosecution of fraud related to natural and man-made disasters and to advocate for the survivors of such fraud.

Additionally, federal disaster aid was approved for affected individuals, families, and other eligible applicants in approximately 27 designated counties and one tribe.  The deadline for eligible homeowners, renters, and business owners to apply for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Individual Assistance has been extended to June 19, 2019, and the deadline for Public Assistance is June 20, 2019.  Those who sustained losses in the designated counties can apply for assistance by registering online at DisasterAssistance.gov or by calling 1-800-621-FEMA (3362).  For TTY users, call 800-462-7585 or use 711 or Video Relay Service to call 800-621-3363.

MONA Goes West 2019 is a cooperative venture between the two art organizations, is a day-long celebration of western Nebraska art and artists at the Prairie Arts Center in North Platte, 416 N. Jeffers St.

The event, includes a silent art auction, Brigitte Timmerman’s “Sandhills Cowboy” movie featuring Marty and Donna Blocker, Lloyd McCarter and the Honky Tonk Revival Band, a beer garden, demonstrations by Jackson Dinsdale Art Center mobile glass blowing van from Hastings College, Lauren Olson, and Kyle Rosfeld’s Art of Boot Making as well as food trucks and more. Admission from noon to 4:00 p.m. is $5 per person.

From 4:00- to 6:00 p.m., there is a patron reception with a live art auction, cowboy poetry by RP Smith, an accordion player, cocktails and appetizers; cost is $100 per person.

The Prairie Arts Center is a creative space, a place to gather, explore, learn and share.  This working art center, once a historic 1913 Post Office Building, now stands as the cornerstone of downtown North Platte.  At PAC, you can view the beautiful structure, take a class, experience monthly gallery exhibits, shop the gift shop, rent a space, get to know the local artists and help create a cultural legacy in Western Nebraska.

Located in the heart of the state, the Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA) is the home of the official state art collection, numbering over 5,000 works by artists of regional, and national, and international acclaim. MONA offers a friendly Museum experience, where the views are great and where the power of art captures the spirit of Nebraska.

To make reservations, or for more information, contact the Prairie Arts Center at (308) 534-5121 or the Museum of Nebraska Art at (308) 865-8559.

The City of North Platte and Keep North Platte and Lincoln County Beautiful want to encourage a cleaner community by holding cleanup days for households in North Platte June 5-11.  Roll-off dumpsters will be placed throughout the City and items will be able to be disposed of in the dumpsters free of charge.

The purpose of the cleanup is to assist residents in maintaining their properties.  The dumpsters will be able to hold furniture, small appliances, and any other junk items citizens want to dispose of.  Items prohibited include commercial building supplies, tree limbs or grass clippings, hazardous materials, asbestos, tires, electronics or refrigerated appliances.  Each bin will be monitored and violators will be charged.  The City is asking that only households participate (no commercial business) and that people do not dump on the ground outside of the dumpsters.  They will be collecting them daily as needed.

You can find a dumpster near you at Centennial Park – southeast parking lot; Gary’s Super Foods on 4^th Street – west of the parking lot; Parkade Plaza – west end of the old Alco Building; City of North Platte Public Service Building – 1402 North Jeffers – north end of the parking lot.

“We want to urge the residents to take full use of this program.  We can make a difference in keeping our community a cleaner, greener, more beautiful place to live, work and play,” said Mona Anderson, Executive Director of Keep North Platte and Lincoln County Beautiful.

This is the first year the program has been offered.  Layne Groseth, Public Service Director agreed, “We want this program to be successful so that it can continue to be offered in the future.  It discourages illegal dumping and promotes a beautiful community.”

The dumpsters will be in service beginning the morning of June 5^th and will be picked up the afternoon of June 11^th.  If the dumpster is not present, it is being dumped and will be returned as quickly as possible.

Residential tree limbs and other yard waste can be disposed of at the North Platte Transfer Station free of charge Monday – Saturday 7 AM – 4 PM.  Hazardous waste is accepted at the Hazardous Waste Facility located at 1308 North Sycamore the 2^nd and 4^th Thursdays of every month from 7 AM – 1 PM.  Electronics can be recycled at ABC Recycling for a per pound fee Monday- Friday from 8 AM – 5 PM.  Tires are accepted at the North Platte Transfer Station for a fee. There may be a free tire collection event at a later date.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Some residents are facing evacuations amid new flooding along the Nebraska-Iowa border just weeks after thousands of people in the region were forced from their homes because of flooding.

Rural and riverside residents along the Missouri River in Mills County, Iowa, were preparing this week to evacuate, the Omaha World-Herald reported Wednesday. In Nebraska, along the Platte River, residents around Hanson Lakes just south of Bellevue were sandbagging a levee that was already being overtopped by the river.

The Plattsmouth Emergency Medical Services Department warned that the Platte and Missouri Rivers were rapidly rising around Plattsmouth. The department tweeted: “If you are in an area which previously flooded a few months ago, get out NOW.”

The new flooding comes in the wake of recent heavy rains. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stepped up releases from Gavins Point Dam upstream on the Missouri River.

In Hamburg, Iowa, residents and farmers were again scrambling to shore up a levee and add about 3 feet to its height to hold back water from the Missouri River. It’s a scramble that local residents have repeated over the years to try to protect the town of about 1,000 people near the Missouri state line.

About 30 people who gathered Tuesday to fill and stack sandbags to try to hold back rising water. Among them was Chip Frazier, president of Sanitary Improvement District 101, which oversees the Hanson’s Lakes area.

“We’re doing the best we can to fight off the Platte River,” Frazier said, noting the water overtopping the levee in spots.

“It’s like whack-a-mole,” he said. “As soon as we fill a low spot, we get more low spots, start getting boils in the dike.”

The area also flooded in March, leading to evacuations. Roughly one-third of the community’s residents were still displaced from their homes, Frazier said.

The historic March flooding caused an estimated $3 billion in damage in the Midwest.

Further east near the Des Moines River in Ottumwa, some residents in flood-prone areas near the river’s banks were forced out of their homes by floodwaters. The river crested Wednesday at about 1 inch below major flood stage, at 18.9 feet.

Others toiled to place sandbags around their homes to keep water out. A shelter was opened Wednesday for Ottumwa residents forced from their homes.

Update 5/29/19 12:50 p.m.

FAA officials have reported that the Automated Weather Observation System (AWOS) is up
and running. United Express reports that today’s flight from Denver to Kearney is scheduled
to arrive in Kearney on time at 3:43 p.m. and subsequent flights are back on schedule.

---

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) – The south-central Nebraska city of Kearney has announced that some flights have been cancelled in the wake of storm damage at the Kearney Regional Airport.

The Kearney Hub reports that the Federal Aviation Administration’ Automated Weather Observation System at the airport was damaged during Monday night’s hail storm. The system provides weather information to flight crews for aircraft landings and takeoffs.

The damage forced the cancellation of United Express flights to and from Denver until further notice.

The following students qualified for the President’s List at Mid-Plains Community College during the 2019 spring term. To make the list, each student had to complete 12 or more applicable credit hours in college-level courses and maintain a grade point average (GPA) of 3.9 or greater on a 4.0 scale.

Nebraska

Anselmo – Luke Christen

Beaver City – Daniel Dringman

Blair – Mark Starks

Brady – Madison Christophersen, Jessica Most, Kyle Mull

Broken Bow – Tristen Beck

Brule – Justin Candy

Culbertson – Courtney Searcey

Curtis – Colleen Mortensen

Eddyville – Zachery Jones

Gothenburg – Dillon Higgins, Dillon Wilkerson

Grant – Beau Wood

Imperial – Diana Benitez Aguilar, Taylin McNair, Kent Silvester

Indianola – Kayela Parker, Rhonda Tryon

Lewellen – Ramona Steward, Shaun Swoboda

Lexington – Katy Esquivel Cruz, Bianca Gomez

McCook – David Brewster, Easton Gillen, Mary Kain, Steven Keenportz, Mackenzie Larson, Brittanie Nolan, Trevor Oberg, James Slaten, Sydney Thompson, Ethan Wilcox

North Platte – Emily Bagley, Alyssa Bergeron, Drake Berry, Ty Brouillette, Terry Brown, Haley Burford, Ciera Carlson, Montannia Courtney, Jestynne Crankshaw, Taitiana Ditch, Isabelle Eisenrich, Hannah Fitzpatrick, Danny Fourtner, Colleen Griffin, Callie Haneborg, Allynne Hasenauer, Rachel Hatch, Matthew Haynes, Dawson Heinzen, Ashley Husemoller, Charles Kirk, Haiden Kreber, Zachary Kring, Tatum Lange, Rebecca Lindley, Kathleen McIntyre, Jayden Miles, Brian Mixer, Angel Murphy, Lindsi Orr, Jade Osborn, Kaitlyn Ostrander, Ashlynn Picquet, Dalton Prokop, Tanner Ruda, Tanis Sack, Kelsey Salazar-Allen, Ben Schanou, Tate Simonson, Shawn Simpson, Amanda Smith, Jonathan Spradlin, Savanna States, Patricia Tofilau, Zane Turner, Jade Vak, Daniel Wardyn, Gary White

Oconto – Marshall Still

Ogallala – Justine Gall, Ethan LeGrande, Jamie Rivas, Kama Svoboda

Ord – Ashley Carson

Scottsbluff – Payton Franklin

Stapleton – Kaylie Beierman

Sutherland – Angela Evans, Jocey Nelson

Valentine – Sheyenne Hammond

Wallace – Abbey Rohde

Walton – Austin Jensen

Wauneta – Zachary Thompson

Alaska

Nome – Stephanie Nielson

California

Vacaville – Justin Duchscher

Colorado

Colorado Springs – Makenna Bodette

Delta – KC Carlson

Fleming – Bailey Chintala, Shaylee Johnson

Granby – Kiera Barr

Wheat Ridge – Emily Anderson, Aurora Storrer

Yoder – Kylia Johnson

Florida

Hialeah – Ricardo Jimenez

New Port Richey – Katie Cox

Iowa

Hubbard – Ricks Polk

Oregon

Milton-Freewater – Chance McGirr

Utah

Ogden – Brooklyn Evans

Tremonton – Jerusha Miner

Wyoming

Laramie – Luke James

Australia

Maida Vale, Western Australia – Shae Muggridge

Willetton, Western Australia – Emma McLean

Canada

Brampton, Ontario – Samuel Lebel

Victoria, British Columbia – Emily Charchuk

Summerville, New Brunswick – Shaun Hickey

Spain

Badalona, Barcelona – Laura Mata Garcia

 

The following students qualified for the Dean’s List during the 2019 spring term at Mid-Plains Community College. To be eligible, they had to complete 12 or more applicable credit hours of college-level courses and maintain an overall grade point average (GPA) of 3.5 – 3.89 on a 4.0 scale.

Nebraska

Albion – Branden Roberg

Arcadia – Clay Bauer

Arthur – MacKenna Turner

Bartley – Kaleb Sughroue

Beaver City – Jordan Taylor

Brady – Colton Lovitt, Jerry Mull, Rebecca Stearns

Callaway – Jessie Parshley

Cambridge – Aubri Ross

Cozad – Adriana Buss, Kolton Heins, Triteny Werner

Culbertson – Beth Hoyt, Matthew Johnson, Derrek Mintling, Matthew Searcey, Adelina Wilcox, Grant Wilkinson

Curtis – Rylie Brown

Gering – Kaylee Bohnsack

Gothenburg – Amelia Petska

Grand Island – Chance Boersen

Grant – Logan Cunningham, Whitney Spencer

Hershey – Myesha Dickens, Amanda Reiber

Holdrege – Tatiana Young

Imperial – Clarissa Chaparro, Abigail Frias

Indianola – Jacy Ahlemeyer, Drew Hofman, Alec May, Wyatt McConville, Patrick Sughroue, Bethany Vogel, Genna Vogel, Jack Vogel

Lexington – Cesar Venegas-Villezcas

McCook – Kyle Geisler, Allison Johnson, Lindi Johnson, Julia Lytle, Nicholas Macfee, Alyson Marin, McKenzie Mason, Jaydenn Miller, Mary Osborne, Taylor Patterson, Chantel Sawyer, Danielle Slaby, Elise Stevens, Kaleb Taylor, Kyle Van Pelt, Monique Witt

North Platte – Brittanya Allen, Larry Allen, Trey Bahler, Britni Bandy, Lauren Brott, Kayla Bush, Nicholas Bussard, April Claussen, Jami Davis, Jamon Davis, Evan DeKok, Jed Dizmang, Morgan Fischer, Tyler Floro, Tiffany Gies, Amanda Hanson, Nicole Harris, Micaelia Hernandez, Elizabeth Honeywell, Megan Johnson, Abby Jones, Josie Keck, Maureen Kohn, Jamie Lauderdale, Alex Lawson, Nicholas Lemke, Tacie Lucas, Amber McClanahan, Hallei Morales, Megan Morash, Kendal Naranjo, Natasha Nutt, Stephanie Owino, Tanner Pantenburg, Jonathan Perkins, Breasia Reyes, Makenna Smith, Seth Smith, Nathan Snider, Lyndell St. Clair, Brandon Tolle, Eric Travis, Kade Wroot

Oconto – Seth Pearson

Ogallala – Kyle Podowski

Omaha – Connor McGonigal

Oxford – Jacinda Vollmer

Papillion – Emily Marsden

Paxton – Ashley Lugar, Justin Neilsen, Dalton Perlinger

Scotia – Colton Gydesen

Sidney – Trinity Langley

Stapleton – Aspen Sullivan

Sutherland – Alyssa Weber

Thedford – Ronda Haumann

Valentine – Michelle Witt Moore

Venango – Valerie Perez

California

Pleasant Hill – Liliana Belton

Colorado

Brighton – Makayla Harris

Broomfield – Megan Hernandez-Belew

Centennial – Jesse Bloom

Colorado Springs – Mallory Brown

Haxtun – Christopher Kelley

Lakewood – Angel Mojica

Littleton – Haley Jacobsen, Ashlynn Krueger

Severance – Kassidy Powers

Wray – Kedric Tufton

Florida

St. Petersburg – Emily Joseph

Hawaii

Makawao – Maysen Medeiros

Iowa

Glenwood – Madisen Liddell

Hamburg – Masen Nelson-Maher

Kansas

Effingham – Jade Hollands

Glade – Trenton Solida

Oberlin – Benjamin Glading

Topeka – Onyessah Rocha

South Carolina

Anderson – Yasnier Laureano

South Dakota

Aberdeen – Karley Martin

Utah

Salt Lake City – Mikayla Gibson

Washington – Sydney McArthur

Virginia

Fort Belvoir – Preston Parry

Australia

Boronia, Victoria – Nicola Cross

Italy

Rome – Tommaso Mostarda

Mozambique

Nelo Nducuia

Spain

Reus – Anna Sanjuan

Ukraine

Ilya Tyrtyshnik