KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska officials plan to install a permanent fence around Kearney’s Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center campus in an attempt to stop high-risk youths from escaping.
Mark LaBouchardiere is the director of facilities at the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the youth center. He tells The Kearney Hub that the fence is part of the 2018-19 business plan.
LaBouchardiere says the facility has had four escapes so far this year, but there were 17 escapes in 2017 and 36 in 2016.
More than 50 community members attended a Wednesday meeting to discuss additional ways to improve safety and security at youth rehabilitation and treatment centers in Kearney and Geneva. Sen. John Lowe of Kearney introduced an interim study resolution in March.
ALLIANCE, Neb. (AP) – A former police sergeant has been accused of stealing money from his father in western Nebraska.
Box Butte County Court records say 42-year-old Forrest Hickman is charged with felony theft. His attorney didn’t immediately return a call Thursday from The Associated Press. Hickman’s next court date is Sept. 7.
The documents say Hickman transferred more than $28,000 of his father’s money to his own accounts while handling his father’s finances from Sept. 1, 2015, to December 2017. His father was receiving medical care then.
The documents also say Hickman sold his father’s airplane and station wagon without his father’s authorization.
Hickman worked several years for the Alliance Police Department.
ALLIANCE, Neb. (AP) – A man has been imprisoned for fatally shooting his girlfriend’s dog in northwest Nebraska.
Box Butte County District Court records say 30-year-old Adam Swanson was sentenced Monday to two years and credited for three days served. Swanson also was barred from owning or residing with an animal for 15 years. He’d pleaded no contest to animal neglect that resulted in death. Prosecutors dropped a weapons charge in return for Swanson’s plea.
Sheriff’s deputies say Swanson was intoxicated on Jan. 20 when he intentionally shot and killed the dog in its kennel. Swanson and his girlfriend had been arguing at their home about 5 miles (8 kilometers) northeast of Hemingford.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Federal Communications Commission says nearly 9,000 rural Nebraska homes and businesses will be getting access to high-speed internet for the first time.
The commission says four companies will receive more than $41 million from the Connect America Fund to expand broadband internet in dozens of Nebraska counties over the next 10 years.
Most of the money will go to AMG Technology Investment Group LLC, which does business as Nextlink Internet. It will provide the new service to all but about 130 of the 8,900 properties.
MCCOOK, Neb. (AP) — A southwest Nebraska county attorney who wants to employ his daughter for some part-time legal work wants county commissioners to reconsider their decision to not let him hire a second deputy attorney.
The McCook Daily Gazette reports that Red Willow County Attorney Paul Wood had included more than $19,000 for the hire in his 2018-19 budget proposal.
But Commissioners Jacque Riener and Earl McNutt said last week they couldn’t justify spending the money and that their denial had little to do with Wood’s desire to hire his daughter.
On Monday Wood asked commissioners to reconsider his proposal. One commissioner made a motion to do so, but the motion died for lack of a second.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Democratic Lincoln City Councilwoman Jane Raybould has accused U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer of allegedly serving the interests of the Republican Party and its donors over the needs of most Nebraska residents.
The two U.S. Senate candidates discussed trade, health care, immigration and taxes at a Monday debate in Grand Island.
Raybould called Fischer “corrupt,” citing her support for insurance companies, railroads and cable companies. She says Fischer has received $120,000 from health care companies and pharmaceutical companies. Raybould’s campaign says the city councilwoman doesn’t accept donations from corporate political action committees.
Fischer says the accusations are out of desperation. She emphasized her independence as a lawmaker and her ability to find bipartisan solutions to problems. Fischer also highlighted her efforts supporting road work, paid family leave and national security.
HENRY, Neb. (AP) — Nearly 90 firefighters from several departments combined to put out a grass and brush fire along the Wyoming state line in western Nebraska.
Morrill Volunteer Fire Department Chief Matt Hinman said Tuesday that he was headed home after watching for hotspots left behind by the blaze, which was first reported at 3:35 p.m. Monday a few miles north of Henry.
Hinman says no injuries were reported and no structures were burned. He estimated that nearly 2 square miles (518 hectares) were blackened by the wind-driven flames.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A trade agreement between the United States and Mexico is critical to Nebraska agriculture and the state’s overall economy, Gov. Pete Ricketts said Monday after President Donald Trump announced the countries have reached a preliminary deal to replace NAFTA.
Ricketts expressed optimism that a newly revised North American Free Trade Agreement will benefit Nebraska. His comments in an interview came after he returned from a three-day trade mission to Mexico last week that included meetings with business leaders and government officials.
Ricketts said he emphasized the importance of NAFTA during the visit, and has previously encouraged U.S. officials to finalize an agreement. The trip included meetings with business officials to persuade them to invest in Nebraska in the future, as other companies in Canada and Europe have done after some of the governor’s previous trade missions.
An agreement that promotes free trade “would really allow us to continue to grow that relationship (with Mexico) that’s been so beneficial to Nebraska,” Ricketts said. “Sometimes these relationships take time to produce any tangible results, but I think we did a great job of laying that groundwork while we were in Mexico.”
Mexico is Nebraska’s second-largest trading partner, taking more than $1.5 billion in exports last year, according to the state Department of Economic Development. Nearly $1 billion of those exports are agricultural products. Ricketts said Mexico is buying many of its agricultural products from countries such as Russia and Brazil, but Nebraska is well-positioned to grab some of that business once a trade deal is finalized.
The Nebraska Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farming organization, praised Trump’s announcement as a benefit for farmers but said more needs to be done to bring the third NAFTA country, Canada, back to the negotiating table.
“It’s time for our countries to resolve these issues and lock in an updated track agreement,” said Steve Nelson, the group’s president.
KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s new $89 million veterans home welcomed hundreds of visitors during an open house this weekend.
Gov. Pete Ricketts and the Nebraska Department of Veterans’ Affairs hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony Saturday for the Central Nebraska Veterans’ Home in Kearney. Ricketts said the project was a team effort and demonstrates the spirit of Nebraska.
“We seek to make Nebraska the most veteran and military friendly state in the country,” Ricketts said. “With the Central Nebraska Veterans’ Home we are living up to that promise to remember to take care of our veterans.”
New staff members led visitors on tours around the 225-bed, 330,000-square-foot (30,650-square-meter) facility. The campus is comprised of six neighborhoods, which each feature three homes that can accommodate 12 to 15 veterans in private rooms.
The facility has a special care unit, a skilled care unit and an independent living area. There’s also a chapel and physical therapy room.
The project moves the veterans home from Grand Island to Kearney.
“It’s going to be a different location which is something to look forward too,” said veteran Patricia Abbott. “We’re each going to have our own bathroom and it looks like we are going to have bigger rooms.”
Jose Trejo, a current resident at the Grand Island home, said the new Kearney facility is better.
Residents are scheduled to move into it in the fall.
KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — Two people arrested in south-central Nebraska are facing possible prison time for hauling marijuana, including some that had fallen onto Interstate 80.
49-year-old Charlie Red, of Sedalia, Colorado, and 29-year-old Damaisy De La Caridad Rodriguez, of Miami, Florida, pleaded no contest Friday in Buffalo County District Court to felony distribution of marijuana. They face up to 20 years in prison.
Authorities say a motorist saw and then picked up a package that fell from a flatbed trailer being pulled by a pickup on Interstate 80 on Jan. 19. It contained marijuana.
The pickup soon stopped on the interstate shoulder, and Red and Caridad Rodriguez eventually were met by a Nebraska state trooper. The trooper then discovered a false compartment on the bottom of the trailer and several plastic bags of marijuana.
The marijuana totaled around 122 pounds (55 kilograms), with an estimated street value of $366,000.
KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska officials plan to install a permanent fence around Kearney’s Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center campus in an attempt to stop high-risk youths from escaping.
