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Man gets jail, probation for using stolen credit card data

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A Grand Island man has been given jail time and probation for using stolen credit card information to make dozens of purchases.

Hall County District Court records say 32-year-old  pleaded no contest to five counts of forgery after prosecutors dropped dozens of other counts of forgery and criminal possession of financial transaction devices. He was sentenced Wednesday to a year in jail and five years of probation.

Police say the fraudulent credit card transactions occurred from February into July 2017. Investigators think the card information was taken from skimmers used on gasoline pumps and then programmed onto credit card blanks.

Kearney college student accused of sexual assault

Miguel Guzman

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have charged a University of Nebraska at Kearney student with felony sexual assault.

Buffalo County Court records say 20-year-old Miguel Guzman is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on March 19. His attorney didn’t immediately return a call Friday from The Associated Press.

The alleged attack occurred last Sunday off the Kearney campus. Court records with details have been sealed from public view.

Missing Native American women bill passes in Legislature

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A bill to help Nebraska policymakers identify the number of missing-person cases involving Native American women has won final approval in the Legislature.

Lawmakers passed the measure Friday on a 45-0 vote.

The measure would require the Nebraska State Patrol to conduct a study on missing Native American women cases and identify what can be done to address the problem. The patrol would also work with tribal and local law enforcement, Native American tribes and American Indian organizations as well as the U.S. Department of Justice.

The bill by Sen. Tom Brewer, of Gordon, is intended to help officials identify the scope of the problem and any barriers to fixing it. The patrol would submit a report to lawmakers by June 1, 2020.

Omaha landlord countersues ex-tenants, claims $1M in damages

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The landlord of an Omaha apartment complex whose tenants were evacuated by the city because of squalid conditions has countersued dozens of his former tenants, alleging they breeched their lease agreements by failing to keep the apartments clean.

Kay Anderson filed a lawsuit this week saying tenants at Yale Park Apartments didn’t properly clean their homes or give adequate notice of needed repairs, The Omaha World-Herald reported. The suit alleges that tenants caused at least $1 million in damage at the property.

“The discounted rent charged to plaintiffs was contemplated, set and reduced specifically because of the plaintiffs’ agreement to perform certain duties and obligations, particularly related to maintenance, upkeep and cleanliness,” the suit contends.

Anderson, who charged $550 to $595 for two- and three-bedroom apartments, also alleges that the complaints filed to the city were misleading and slanderous, and targeted AB Realty, the limited liability company that owns the complex.

“The complaint was designed and is being maintained to harass the defendants in a malicious and concerted effort to attempt to coerce and intimidate AB Realty to sell and/or abandon the Yale Park Apartments,” Anderson’s lawsuit states.

The complex was shuttered in September after Omaha housing inspectors received more than 100 complaints from occupants about the conditions, including unsafe electrical circuits, natural gas leaks and units infested with mice, bedbugs and maggots. The apartments were primarily housing refugees from Myanmar.

More than 90 tenants sued Anderson in December, seeking refunds on security deposits and rent, as well as damages for living in the dilapidated buildings.

“We think the counterclaims are wholly without merit and we intend to continue to pursue our claims vigorously,” said Mark Laughlin, an attorney for the former tenants.

Lawmakers vote to strip cities of power to ban Airbnbs

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers have passed a bill to strip cities of their power to ban short-term rentals such as Airbnb.

The measure won final approval Friday with a 46-0 vote. It now goes to the governor.

The bill by state Sen. Adam Morfeld, of Lincoln, still allows cities to tax short-term rentals and regulate them for health and public safety purposes.

It also gives online short-term rental companies to enter into an agreement with the state to collect and pay sales taxes that are owed.

Charge dropped against ex-officer in Omaha stun gun death

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A misdemeanor assault charge has been dropped against a former Omaha police officer in the 2017 stun gun-related death of a mentally ill Oklahoma man.

The Douglas County Attorney’s office said in a news release Friday that after reviewing audio and video taken from the scene of 29-year-old Zachary Bearheels’s death, prosecutors “cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that McClarty was not justified in his actions.”

McClarty and another officer, Scotty Payne, were both fired and charged after police video showed Payne repeatedly stunning Bearheels and McClarty repeatedly punching Bearheels after he was already on the ground. Bearheels died shortly after the confrontation.

A jury acquitted Payne last year of second-degree assault and use of a weapon in Bearheels’ death.

The Omaha Police Department issued a statement saying prosecutors’ decision to drop the charge does not affect the department’s decision to fire McClarty.

Nebraska Catholic dioceses get extension to produce records

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Roman Catholic parishes, schools and other institutions in Nebraska will have 11 more days to produce records subpoenaed by the state Attorney General’s Office in its investigation into possible child sex abuse.

The state’s top prosecutor and representatives for the Catholic dioceses in Omaha and Lincoln met in court Friday — the deadline for church officials to produce the records — and agreed that the dioceses would have until March 12 to produce the records.

The agreement came three days after Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson subpoenaed more than 400 Roman Catholic churches and institutions in the state seeking any records related to child sexual assault or abuse.

In a news release following the hearing, the attorney general’s office said it was apparent that records the dioceses voluntarily provided last fall “were not complete.”

The dioceses also are seeking to quash the subpoenas as they’re written, saying they’re too vague. A hearing on that motion will be held March 12.

Omaha woman who started food rescue organization honored

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha field office of the FBI has honored a food rescue organization and its founder with the 2018 Director’s Community Leadership Award.

The office presented Beth Ostdiek Smith, founder of Saving Grace Perishable Food Rescue, with the award earlier this week.

Started in October 2013, Saving Grace redirects perishable food that had been destined for landfills to food pantries, shelters, senior citizen centers and other nonprofits that feed the hungry in the Omaha area. Saving Grace picks up donated items from more than 50 stores, restaurants and other entities and delivers them the same day, free of charge.

The Director’s Community Leadership Award was created in 1990 as a way to honor those who combat crime and for outstanding contributions to the community, among other things.

Third arrest made in Feb. 5 shooting death of Omaha man

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say they’ve made a third arrest in an Omaha shooting last month that left one man dead and a woman injured.

Omaha police say in a news release that 38-year-old Christina Stover was arrested Friday and booked into Douglas County jail on suspicion of two counts of being an accessory. Her arrest followed those of 26-year-old James Sawyer and 27-year-old Adonus Moses on suspicion of first-degree murder, assault and several weapons counts.

All three are suspected in the Feb. 5 shooting that killed 18-year-old Elijah Foster and injured a 20-year-old woman. Officers who responded to the shooting found Foster’s body near a vehicle in northeast Omaha. The woman was found injured a few blocks away.

March roars in like a lion with rain, snow, bitter cold

CHICAGO (AP) — A winter storm is making its way across much of the U.S., bringing rain, snow and bitter cold to some areas.

The storm was spreading from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and into the Rocky Mountains on Saturday, with rain to lower elevations and heavy snow at higher elevations. The fast-moving storm is expected to move across the Great Plains and Midwest overnight, where temperatures in the storm’s path are expected to plummet. Some areas of Kansas may get as many as 8 inches (20 centimeters) of snow.

According to the National Weather Service, wind chills in northern Illinois could drop to minus-28 (minus-33 Celsius) by Monday morning. The National Weather Service said the usual low temperature for this time of year in Chicago is 24 degrees. Michigan also is in store for a bitter-cold start to March, with temperatures 20 degrees (-6.7 Celsius) to 30 degrees (-1 Celsius) below normal forecast Sunday through Wednesday. Temperatures in the northern part of the state could be as low as minus-13 (-25 Celsius) on Sunday night into Monday morning.

Meanwhile, winter storm watches are in effect for the upper East Coast beginning on Sunday night, with heavier snow possible in some areas.

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