LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Jane Raybould is requesting correspondence and any records of financial assistance between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a Nebraska ranch co-owned by Republican U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer.
Raybould submitted the Freedom of Information Act request Tuesday as part of her ongoing criticism of Fischer, a first-term incumbent in a GOP-dominated state.
Raybould has attacked Fischer’s campaign donations and personal finances, noting that her net worth has increased substantially while in office. Fischer, who ranches with her husband, has previously said she values her integrity and doesn’t appreciate the attacks by a campaign desperate for attention.
The request seeks to uncover whether Fischer, her husband or their ranch received various forms of USDA assistance.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 74-year-old man serving a life term has died in a Lincoln prison.
State prison officials say Elijah Jones died just after 4 p.m. Monday at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln.
Officials have not said what caused Jones’ death, but acknowledged that Jones was being treated for a long-term medical condition.
Nebraska law requires a grand jury investigation anytime someone dies in state custody.
Jones had been in the prison system since 1983, when he was convicted of first-degree murder for the 1979 shooting death of Elijah Kelly in an Omaha club.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska search-and-rescue team is joining the emergency forces responding to Hurricane Florence as it heads toward the Eastern Seaboard.
More than three dozen members of Nebraska Task Force 1 left Tuesday morning for Raleigh, North Carolina. The deployed members include two K-9 search units.
The task force is composed of firefighters from Lincoln, Omaha and other departments, as well as civilian members: doctors, structural engineers and rigging specialists. Members helped out last September when Hurricane Irma struck Florida and Hurricane Harvey hit Texas.
YORK, Neb. (AP) — A York prison inmate who attacked a guard and a prison nurse has been given 12 to 23 more years behind bars.
32-year-old Lakrecia Donnell was sentenced Monday. She’d pleaded no contest to assaulting an officer, to using a deadly weapon to commit a felony and to assault with body fluids on an officer.
Court records say Donnell already was serving time at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women for assaulting an officer, burglary and other crimes.
In a York courtroom Monday she said she was sorry and said she took full responsibility for her actions.
Quinton PhillipsKEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a 22-year-old man lied to police about being robbed in Kearney.
Buffalo County Court records say Quinton Phillips, of Riverdale, is charged with misdemeanor theft and false reporting. The records don’t list the name of an attorney who could comment for him. Phillips’ arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 3.
Police say Phillips worked for a security company and had been assigned to make a night deposit of money from the Viaero Center after a hockey game Saturday night. He told police he was robbed before he could make the deposit, but officers say he lied and had taken the money for himself.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Latest on a lawsuit over the Keystone XL Pipeline (all times local):
4:10 p.m.
Native American tribes in Montana and South Dakota say the Trump administration approved the Keystone XL oil pipeline without fully considering its potential damage to burial grounds and other cultural sites.
Attorneys for the Fort Belknap and Rosebud Sioux tribes sued the U.S. State Department on Monday, asking a court to rescind the line’s permit.
The tribes argue that President Donald Trump ignored the rights of tribes when he reversed a prior decision by President Barack Obama and approved the project last year.
State Department spokeswoman Julia Mason says the agency is not commenting on the lawsuit.
The $8 billion TransCanada Corp. pipeline would carry up to 830,000 barrels of crude daily from Canada to Nebraska. It would pass through the ancestral homelands of the Rosebud Sioux in central South Dakota and the Fort Belknap tribes in Montana.
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11:30 a.m.
Native American tribes in Montana and South Dakota say the Trump administration unlawfully approved the Keystone XL oil pipeline without fully considering its potential damage to cultural sites.
Attorneys for the Fort Belknap and Rosebud Sioux tribes sued the U.S. State Department Monday, asking a court to rescind the line’s permit.
The tribes argue President Donald Trump ignored the rights of tribes when he reversed a prior decision by President Barack Obama and approved the project last year.
The $8 billion TransCanada Corporation pipeline would carry up to 830,000 barrels of crude daily from Canada to Nebraska. It would pass through the ancestral homelands of the Rosebud Sioux in central South Dakota and the Fort Belknap tribes in Montana.
State Department representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Nebraska State Patrol (NSP) Troop C – Grand Island will provide traffic control and special enforcement operations surrounding Husker Harvest Days in Hall County.
During the event, which runs from September 11-13, troopers will have an increased presence working to reduce the potential for serious injury and fatality crashes.
“Husker Harvest Days always brings great crowds to the area,” said Captain Jeromy McCoy, Commander – Troop C. “Our troopers will be working with local law enforcement to help traffic flow and safety with the large increase of vehicles on the road.”
In an effort to reduce congestion and expedite traffic flow, troopers will provide traffic control efforts throughout the three-day event. Portions of Husker Highway, the road leading to the show, may be turned into a one-way road at times to allow for better traffic flow.
Motorists are asked to maintain adequate following distance to allow themselves plenty of time to react to changing conditions and to remain alert for law enforcement personnel directing traffic.
Traffic enforcement assistance will be provided by the Nebraska State Patrol, Nebraska Department of Transportation, Hall County Roads Department, Hall County Sheriff’s Office, Hall County Sheriff’s Posse, and the Husker Harvest Days Staff.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said Sunday that neither his Republican Party nor the Democrats stand for “very much more than being anti” and that’s why he often thinks about becoming an independent.
“The main thing that the Democrats are for is being anti-Republican and anti-Trump, and the main thing Republicans are for is being anti-Democrat and anti-CNN. And neither of these things are really worth getting out of bed in the morning for,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The first-term senator, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, said he considers himself “an independent conservative who happens to caucus with the Republicans.”
He said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he was nonetheless “committed to the party of Lincoln and Reagan as long as we can try to reform it and get it back to being a party that’s about the universal dignity of all Americans and the First Amendment as the beating heart of American life. But right now, that’s not what the party talks about very much.”
Sasse said he would like both major parties “to be healthier and be competing to be better than the other one amongst a bunch of good ideas, instead of trying to be less bad than the other one.”
Neither party, he said, has “a long-term vision” for the future of the nation or is “very much more than being anti. And anti, or anti-anti or anti-anti-anti. It’s pretty boring stuff.
Asked when he last considered bolting the GOP and becoming an independent, Sasse said: “I probably think about it every morning when I wake up and I figure out, why am I flying away from Nebraska to go to D.C. this week? Are we going to get real stuff done?”
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is asking for elk hunters’ cooperation in testing for chronic wasting disease.
The commission’s Todd Nordeen says staffers at check stations will be asking hunters to allow removal of lymph nodes from elk carcasses to test for the disease.
The tests have about a two-week turn-around, and staffers will notify hunters if their animals tested positive. All test results will be posted to links at the bottom of the commission’s website page on the disease.
Nordeen says lymph nodes from deer will be collected during the firearm deer season.
The deadly disease attacks the brains of deer, elk and moose. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends avoiding consumption of meat from animals that look sick or test positive for the disease.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are planning to lead the largest drone-based study of tornadoes and severe storms ever conducted.
More than 50 scientists and students from four universities will participate during the 2019 and 2020 storm seasons. The project has received a $2.5 million in support from the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
University officials say the study is the largest of its kind, based on the geographical area covered and the number of drones and other assets deployed.
The University of Colorado Boulder, Texas Tech University, the University of Oklahoma and the National Severe Storms Laboratory are also participating.
The research is intended to improve the conceptual model of supercell thunderstorms.
