O’NEILL, Neb. (AP) — Supporters and opponents of the Keystone XL oil pipeline are expected to converge in a northern Nebraska town to testify before a commission that will decide whether to approve the route through the state.
The Nebraska Public Service Commission has scheduled a public hearing Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the O’Neill Community Center in O’Neill. A similar hearing was held May 3 in York, and a five-day hearing with formal arguments is scheduled to run from Aug. 7-11 in Lincoln.
Commission members will accept public comment on a first-come, first-served basis. No decision is expected at the hearings.
The $8 billion pipeline would transport oil from Canada, across Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska, where it would connect with an existing pipeline to Texas Gulf Coast refineries.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska authorities have taken custody of an Omaha homicide suspect from Colorado.
Authorities say 31-year-old Antoine C. Johnson was booked Tuesday at Douglas County Corrections on second-degree murder and weapons charges. Johnson was taken into custody in Denver last month and extradited back to Omaha.
Johnson is suspected of shooting 29-year-old Trent Stutheit on April 16 in an apartment complex parking lot. Stutheit was taken to an Omaha hospital, where he later died.
POLSON, Mont. (AP) — The search for a Nebraska man who is missing in a northwestern Montana river is focused in an area that a dog indicated should be searched.
Lake County Sheriff Don Bell said Tuesday that search and rescue crews have been using an underwater camera to search the area, but the Flathead River is running high and fast, hampering the search for 23-year-old Richard Mitchell of Minatare, Nebraska.
Mitchell fell into the fast-moving water just below the SKQ Dam on the Flathead Indian Reservation on May 31. Bell says he and others had hiked down to an overlook area and continued past posted boundaries.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska state regulators have shut down an Omaha day care and cited two employees for child neglect.
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services said it filed an emergency protective order Tuesday to bar Ami Moore from caring for children other than her own. State officials also cited her husband, Kenneth, who also works for the day care.
State officials say they found trash throughout the home. They say a kitchen table was covered with groceries, dirty dishes, an unopened can of beer, a container of lighter fluid and several prescription medications. They say three bedrooms also had large piles of clothing on floors and trash stuffed under beds. Fifteen children were in the home.
A phone message left with the Moores Tuesday evening was not immediately returned.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A longtime legislative staffer who has worked on prison and child welfare issues is running for a seat in the Nebraska Legislature.
Josh Henningsen of Omaha will formally launch his campaign next week. He’s looking to replace state Sen. Burke Harr of Omaha, who is ineligible to seek re-election in 2018 because of term limits.
Henningsen has worked as legal counsel for the Legislature’s Judiciary and Health and Human Services committees. He also helped on prison oversight committees and an intergenerational poverty task force. He currently works for the Nebraska inspector general for child welfare.
The 37-year-old Henningsen says he’s running to help create safe and inclusive communities, invest in education and give children and families the chance to succeed.
Henningsen is a registered Democrat. The seat is officially nonpartisan.
SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) — The annual revival of the Pony Express has been chosen as the official event to celebrate Nebraska’s 150th birthday.
More than 700 horse-riders began the mail service trip in Missouri Monday and will travel nearly 2,000 miles via the Pony Express National Historic Trail to California by June 15. Riders are expected to enter Nebraska Tuesday, which has the most miles among the eight states included, at 565.
This year’s commemorative letter honors Nebraska’s sesquicentennial, describing the Great Platte River Road’s history and featuring the iconic Chimney Rock. The envelope will also showcase the U.S. Postal Service-issued Nebraska Sesquicentennial postage stamp.
Though the original Pony Express only operated for 19 months in the 1860s, it was the most direct means of connecting the new state of California with the rest of the U.S.
BOYS TOWN, Neb. (AP) — Boys Town has a new statue that shows hardship isn’t exclusive to one race or gender.
The Omaha home for troubled boys and girls unveiled the 7-foot-tall statue Tuesday. The work by sculptor Matthew Placzek depicts an older boy carrying a smaller girl on his back. She is white, he is black. Its title: “The Work Continues.”
Boys Town was founded by Father Edward Flanagan in 1917 as a boys orphanage. It has grown into a nonprofit organization with about a dozen facilities around the U.S.
The iconic “Two Brothers” statue is displayed elsewhere at Boys Town. The Rev. Steven Boes (bayz) is Boys Town’s executive director, and he says the new statue “beautifully illustrates the diversity of the children and families that Boys Town serves.”
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska officials have chosen a series of new public health priorities that they hope to address between now and 2021.
The list announced Tuesday includes obesity, depression and suicide. State officials also hope to address health care disparities among people of different races, incomes, genders and geographies.
The priorities are part of the Nebraska State Health Improvement Plan. They were selected with help from hundreds of Nebraska stakeholders and data from a state health assessment.
Officials say obesity continues to increase at an alarming pace. In 2014, 30 percent of the adult population was considered obese. The suicide rate increased between 2010 and 2014, to a rate of 13.3 deaths per 100,000 people. That’s the highest rate for any year in the past decade.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) â A new state law in Nebraska requires all school districts to adopt policies outlining how they’ll address a number of challenges faced by pregnant or parenting students.
The bill was approved last month despite objections from some rural senators who said that smaller school districts don’t need another mandate regarding teen parents.
But Sen. Tony Vargas says he sponsored the bill because schools aren’t consistently supporting those students.
The first part of the law requires public, private and parochial schools to accommodate teen moms who breast-feed and provide a private space where they can pump and store milk.
The second part requires public school boards to create policies addressing student absences, providing alternate coursework and identifying quality child care options.
Rowdy Moon, a bareback rider for Mid-Plains Community College, competes at the Will Lantis Yellow Jacket Stampede hosted by Black Hills State University in Spearfish, S.D. in April. Moon will head to his second College National Finals Rodeo next week. (Photo courtesy of Knippling Kustoms)
Sargent cowboy Rowdy Moon will have an advantage when he climbs behind the chutes in Casper, Wyo. next week. He has been there before.
Moon qualified for the College National Finals Rodeo last year as a freshman at Mid-Plains Community College. He returns June 11-17 as a seasoned sophomore and the number one bareback rider in the Great Plains Region.
“Since I’ve been around that arena, I don’t think I’ll have quite the jitters,” said Moon. “I was pretty nervous last time. It’s a big stage.”
Moon was second in the region heading into nationals in 2016. He finished the CNFR in 19th place after riding broncs to scores of 65 and 68.
His competition included Wyatt Denny and Denny’s traveling partner Clayton Biglow. Denny won the bareback riding at the CNFR last year and Biglow came in second. The two competed at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo later in the year, where Biglow finished seventh in the world and Denny ended up 10th.
Being up against that kind of competition pushed Moon to work harder and adjust his technique.
“I think I’ve gotten better,” said Moon. “I have faster feet and don’t lean into my free arm as much as I used to.”
The last time he rode a bronc was early May in Dickinson, N.D. Moon took some time off competing to recover from a groin injury, but hasn’t stopped practicing.
“I’ve been on the spur board and ride horses every other day so I can work on holding my feet in the right position,” said Moon. “I’d like to at least make the short round in Casper.”
His long-term goal is to one day travel the professional rodeo circuit, but until then, Moon plans to focus on college.
He graduated from MPCC with an Associate of Applied Science degree in Business and a Business Administration emphasis in May. He will transfer to Chadron State College in the fall.
O’NEILL, Neb. (AP) — Supporters and opponents of the Keystone XL oil pipeline are expected to converge in a northern Nebraska town to testify before a commission that will decide whether to approve the route through the state.
