TOBIAS, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a driver was killed in a rollover crash off a highway in southeast Nebraska’s Saline County.
The accident occurred a little after 1:30 p.m. Tuesday on Nebraska Highway 74 on the north end of the village of Tobias. The Saline County Sheriff’s Office says 30-year-old Tobias resident Samantha Isack was driving alone and headed east when her car ran off the roadway and rolled, ejecting her. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The crash is being investigated.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Former convicts who apply for a job in Nebraska would get the chance to explain the circumstances behind their crimes and the steps they’ve taken to rehabilitate themselves under a bill advanced by lawmakers.
Senators gave the measure first-round approval Wednesday with a 39-2 vote.
The measure by state Sen. John McCollister, of Omaha, would require employers to give job seekers the opportunity to explain themselves if applicants are forced to disclose their criminal records. It would only apply to businesses with 15 or more employees.
McCollister says the bill is designed to help former convicts who often struggle to find work after their sentences end, while allowing businesses to avoid hiring inappropriate people for a job.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln police have accused a University of Nebraska-Lincoln assistant professor of defacing U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry campaign signs last fall.Patricia Wonch-Hill has been cited for three counts of misdemeanor vandalism. Her university phone rang busy during several calls Wednesday from The Associated Press, and she didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking a response to the police allegations. Court records don’t list an attorney for her.
Police say fingerprints from Wonch-Hill were found on stickers used to vandalize Fortenberry campaign signs in Lincoln last October. The vandalism included giving his picture big, googly eyes. One of the signs was also defaced with a strip of tape that turned the Republican’s name into a flatulence reference.
He won his eighth term the following month to represent the state’s 1st Congressional District.
Police Sgt. Angela Sands said the damage to property — estimated at $100 — went beyond free speech.
Editor’s Note: Wonch-Hill is a graduate of North Platte High School.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Lawyers representing 11 Nebraska inmates who sued the state over prison conditions are seeking class-action status for the lawsuit.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska filed a motion Tuesday seeking the status in federal court.
The lawsuit filed in August 2017 criticizes the state prison system for what the lawsuit calls the excessive use of solitary confinement and gross negligence of inmates’ medical and mental health issues. It also points to persistent overcrowding as well as “dangerous” understaffing.
The organization enlisted at least six experts with experience in treatment of prisoners with mental health, medical and dental needs and their disability rights to back up the filing. The experts detailed in hundreds of pages problems they said extended far beyond just the 11 inmates who filed the lawsuit.
Attorney General Doug Peterson said is reviewing the filings.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A former treasurer has been sentenced for stealing from the Jewish Federation of Lincoln.
Federal prosecutors say Jennifer Rosenblatt, of Overland Park, Kansas, was sentenced Tuesday in Lincoln to six months in a residential re-entry center and six months of home confinement. She also was ordered to pay nearly $107,000 in restitution.
Prosecutors say Rosenblatt, formerly of Lincoln, was treasurer of the federation from 2009 through June 2016. They say Rosenblatt made payments to her personal credit card accounts from funds in the federation’s bank accounts.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Gov. Pete Ricketts is once again promoting Nebraska to Mexican business and government leaders.
Ricketts visited the country last week for the second time in two years on an international trade mission. He’s the first U.S. governor to visit with the administration of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who took office in December.
Ricketts says he met with the president’s chief of staff, Alfonso Romo, as well as Mexican business executives who have opened facilities in Nebraska. He says he’s planning at least two more trade missions this year, one of which will likely go to Asia.
Mexico is a major trading partner with Nebraska and buys hundreds of millions of dollars in corn, soybeans, beef and other products from the state each year.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A federal jury has awarded $1.2 million to a Lincoln firefighter who claimed the city’s fire department retaliated against him after he reported a female recruit had been harassed.
The Lincoln Journal Star reports firefighter Troy Hurd wasn’t in the Omaha courtroom Tuesday afternoon when the jury announced its decision. Hurd still works for Lincoln Fire and Rescue and was on duty Tuesday.
Hurd filed a formal complaint alleging that firefighter trainer Eddie Mueller treated firefighter Sara Khalil differently because she’s a woman born in Iraq. After the complaint, Hurd says he was passed up for promotions and written up for issues that didn’t lead to discipline for others.
After an investigation, the city concluded the department had retaliated against Hurd, prompting the city to conduct two training sessions and remove the disciplinary actions from Hurd’s file.
At the trial, a city attorney disputed that Mueller, who is now a captain, treated Khalil different and argued the fire department had only been inconsistent in its discipline.
Acting City Attorney Chris Connolly says the city was reviewing its options.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An assistant U.S. attorney has denied allegations that federal agents and prosecutors wrongly kept a man arrested in an August immigration raid from seeing his attorney.
A law firm hired to represent Eric Beringer, a supervisor for Elkhorn River Farms in north-central Nebraska’s Holt County, made the allegations earlier this month. John Berry says a lawyer from his firm was told he couldn’t see Beringer until the day after the Aug. 8 raid. Berry is moving in court to suppress anything Beringer said to federal agents or prosecutors.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Woods says in a court filing that Berry had called her office that day but didn’t say who his law firm would be representing. Woods also says Beringer didn’t indicate he wanted an attorney present after being read his rights and agreeing to speak.
Woods says the lawyer from Berry’s firm was told he couldn’t speak with Beringer because other suspects were being processed and for “security and logistical concerns.”
BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska mayor is warning that his city could lose property tax revenue if county officials move ahead with their choice for the site of a new mental health crisis center.
Bellevue Mayor Rusty Hike tells The Omaha World-Herald that the nearly 7-acre (2.8-hectare) property would be better used for private development, and that the city would loses out on potential revenue because the crisis center will be tax-exempt.
Sarpy County Board Chairman Don Kelly says he plans to meet with Hike on Thursday to discuss the issue.
The board selected the site last week. The center would serve as a short-term emergency facility where people can get voluntarily mental health and substance abuse assessments. Officials hope the center will alleviate burdens on hospitals and the county jail.
Valley County District Court records say the Rev. John Kakkuzhiyil (kah-kuh-ree-AL’) entered a written plea of not guilty Monday to a charge of forcible sexual assault. His trial is set to begin May 6.
The woman who accused him has obtained a protection order against the cleric. She says he assaulted her in November when she went to his Ord home on business. She says she blacked out after having a couple of drinks with him.
The Grand Island Diocese says Bishop Joseph Hanefeldt placed Kakkuzhiyil on leave Dec. 15 upon learning that the Nebraska State Patrol was investigating the allegations.
