Sponsored by the National Weather Service offices serving Nebraska, May 25th is NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards Awareness Day in Nebraska. This is the 1st annual NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards Awareness campaign in the state.

NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is a service provided by the National Weather Service and is known as the “Voice of the National Weather Service”. It provides continuous broadcasts of the latest weather information and forecasts from your local National Weather Service office. NOAA Weather Radio

All Hazards broadcasts important forecast and warning information as quick as possible.

With NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards, you will always have access to potentially life-saving emergency information. During severe weather, National Weather Service personnel can interrupt routine weather broadcasts and insert warning messages concerning immediate threats to life and property. A special alert tone can also be activated that triggers an alerting feature on specifically equipped receivers.

In the simplest case, this signal activates audible or visual alarms indicating that an emergency condition exists within the broadcast area of the station. In the most sophisticated alerting system, receivers equipped with Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) technology allow listeners to choose a specific county and what events their radio will sound an alarm for when official NWS watches and warnings are issued.

NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards broadcasts watches, warnings, statements and weather information for all types of hazards, both natural and technological. Working with other Federal and local agencies, NOAA Weather Radio is an “all hazards” radio network. This makes NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards the single source for the most comprehensive weather and emergency information available to the public.

NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards provides the timeliest forecast and warning information from your servicing National Weather Service office. This information can save your life! Please take the time to learn more about NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards.

More information is available from your local National Weather Service office Web site: https://www.crh.noaa.gov/lbf or visit the National Weather Service’s NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards Web Site: https://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr

Monday, June 10^th is the due date to register for the 2013 Tractor Safety Course to be held in North Platte.  The class is planned for Thursday, June 13^th, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and Friday, June 14^th, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. or until testing is completed, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln West Central Research and Extension Center.

Any youth 14 or 15 years of age who works on a farm or ranch other than his parents’ is required to be certified through a tractor safety course.  Extension Educators and field specialists will teach the class.

Cost for the course is $60, which includes all materials, testing, lunches and breaks both days.  Call the Extension Office 308-532-2683 or 1-800-200-1381 or e-mailrsaner2@unl.edu for registration materials.  Registration forms are also available athttps://kearney.unl.edu or lincolnmcpherson@unl.edu

An accused sexual predator has been sentenced to five years in prison for sexually assaulting a child.

Donald Warfield, 70, of North Platte was sentenced in Lincoln County District Court on Monday.

Prosecutors say a fifteen-year-old girl reported last year that Warfield began giving her gifts and inappropriately touching her when she was seven-years-old.  She told authorities the sexual assaults gradually became worse and continued for three or four years.

Warfield entered a no-contest plea to the charge.

Last year, Warfield was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender and entered a plea to a reduced misdemeanor charge.

He was convicted in 2002 of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl.

When District Court Judge Richard Birch asked Warfield if he had anything to say, Warfield said “I don’t remember anything happening.  That’s all I can say.”

Warfield was remanded to the Lincoln County Sheriff to await transport to Lincoln.

Nebraska officials have kicked off their annual seat belt campaign to promote roadway safety.

The “Click It or Ticket” campaign began on Monday and will run through June 2.

Nebraska recorded 212 roadway deaths last year, marking the first time the fatality count has increased in the last three years. Gov. Dave Heineman says the number of roadway deaths this year has put the state on pace to see another year of increased traffic deaths.

The campaign involves 62 law enforcement agencies from across the state. It provides more than 12,000 hours of additional traffic enforcement time, with a focus on the use of seat belts and proper child restraints.

The summer also marks the heaviest time for roads projects.

A North Platte man is facing arson charges after getting carried away with gasoline.

At around 11:00 p.m., Officers with the North Platte Police Department and firefighters from the North Platte Fire Department responded to the 2000 Block of West 16th on the report of a fire.

Upon arrival, Officers were told that Carl McKinney, 26, had started the fire.

Through an investigation, Officers learned that a fire pit had been burning in the back yard of the residence, when McKinney started spreading gasoline from the pit to other areas, including a neighbors fence line.

The fire caused damage to the residence and a television cable.

Officers determined there was probable cause to arrest McKinney and charge him with 2nd Degree Arson.

He was jailed at the Lincoln County Detention Center.

A 67-year-old Stapleton man is dead following a head-on collision north of Stapleton Saturday evening.

Authorities say Roger Beckett was traveling in a minivan on Highway 83 near mile marker 119 just before 5:00 p.m., when a pickup driven by 71-year-old Jesus Gonzales-Torres of North Platte crossed the center line and struck the minivan head-on.

Beckett was pronounced dead at the scene.  His wife Barbara, was transported to Great Plains Regional Medical Center by ambulance.  Gonzales-Torres was also transported to the hospital.

Law enforcement officials say the investigation is still ongoing, but alcohol is believed to have been a factor.

 

(AP) — The average U.S. price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped 11 cents over the past two weeks.

The Lundberg Survey of fuel prices released Sunday says the price of a gallon of regular is $3.66. Midgrade costs an average of $3.84 a gallon, and premium is $3.98.

Diesel held steady at $3.93 gallon.

Of the cities surveyed in the lower 48 states, Tucson, Ariz., has the nation’s lowest average price for gas at $3.18. Minneapolis has the highest at $4.27.

In California, the lowest average price was $3.94 in Fresno. The highest was in San Francisco at $4.07. The average statewide for a gallon of regular was $4.03, up 18 cents.

• Michael William Rickett, 23, North Platte and Erin Taylor Bone, 19, North Platte

 

• Jason Michael Vega, 34, North Platte and Brianna Faye Nichols, 25, North Platte

 

• Zachary Robert Becker, 26, North Platte and Sally Jane Studley, 23, North Platte

 

• Brenton William Roggow, 26, Cape Coral FL and Melyssa Janel Cowley, 25, Cape Coral FL

 

• Benjamin Charles Fritz, 22, North Platte and Shadoe Kristine Wright, 22, North Platte

 

• Jordan Thomas Barta, 21, Broken Bow and Shantel Jessie Rookstool, 18, Broken Bow

 

• Daniel Rees Frickey, 27, Hershey NE and April Dawn Truesdale, 33, Hershey NE

 

• Justin Alan Foust, 30, North Platte and Courtny Lyn Vera, 32, North Platte

 

• Aaron Leon Conley, 41, Sutherland NE and Kamala Kay Livingston, 48, Aurora CO

 

• Treyton Tell Wasserburger, 25, Hershey NE and Dayna Rachel Olson, 23, North Platte

(AP) — A Hastings ethanol plant that announced in February that it would temporarily shut down will not reopen.

The Ag Processing Inc. cooperative said Friday that it is permanently shutting down the 55-million-gallon-a-year plant, citing the plant’s age and high utility costs associated with running it.

Officials had cited a slowdown in the economy, high corn prices and low oil prices for the temporary shutdown.

Matt Caswell, vice president of corporate relations with AGP in Omaha, said the company didn’t see “any turn-around in the industry anytime soon.”

Most of the plant’s 43 employees found jobs within AGP’s other operations in Hastings. AGP also operates a soybean processing plant, vegetable oil refinery and an AminoPlus production facility in the city.

APG says none of those facilities have been impacted by the ethanol plant’s closure.

The first application period for big-game hunting permits begins Monday and runs through June 7.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission says that for deer, residents and nonresidents may apply for one permit in any one draw unit. The draw units are Republican Mule Deer, Platte Mule Deer Conservation Area, Platte Whitetail, Frenchman Mule Deer Conservation Area and Frenchman Whitetail.

Residents and eligible landowners may apply for one antelope buck or either-sex firearm permit or one muzzleloader permit.

Residents and eligible landowners may apply for one elk permit.

Residents have preference over nonresidents in the application process. The permits will be drawn in mid-June.

All remaining big-game permits will be available on a first-come, first-served basis beginning July 8.