DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The corn and soybean crops in Iowa and Nebraska are significantly ahead of schedule and looking very good for a plentiful harvest this fall.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture in its weekly crop progress report Monday says Nebraska corn is rated 87 percent good to excellent and in Iowa its 79 percent.
Soybeans are 85 percent good to excellent in Nebraska. In Iowa it’s 76 percent.
The crops are significantly ahead in development in both states.
Corn silking is more than a week ahead of schedule in Iowa with 88 percent silked. It’s 82 percent in Nebraska.
Soybean blooming in Nebraska is at 78 percent compared with 71 percent of the five-year average and in Iowa 81 percent of the crop is blooming ahead of the 66 percent average.
ALLIANCE, Neb. (AP) — A 41-year-old insurance saleswoman is accused of fraud in the Nebraska Panhandle.
Box Butte County Court records say Mandy Fair is charged with felony counts of insurance fraud and identity theft. The records don’t list the name of an attorney who could comment for her. Fair is scheduled to be in court Tuesday.
She’s accused of turning in fraudulent insurance applications from Aug. 17 to Oct. 11 last year. Prosecutors say she did so to be paid bonuses and advance commissions.
On July 21, 2018 around 1:00 a.m. Deputies were advised to watch for a yellow sports car on Interstate 80 traveling west from mile marker 195 (between Brady and Maxwell) at a high rate of speed. Deputies located the vehicle and stopped it for traveling over the posted speed limit at mile marker 176.
The driver was identified as thirty-one-year-old Council Bluffs, Iowa resident Chauntl Wilson. Ms. Wilson was issued a citation for speeding and allowed to leave. As Ms. Wilson pulled away she accelerated very rapidly, Deputies noticed she again was going over the posted speed limit and checked her speed with radar. Deputies observed Ms. Wilson was traveling 142 miles per hour, westbound on Interstate 80.
Deputies tried to stop Ms. Wilson again, but she refused to pull over. A pursuit began but eventually, Ms. Wilson pulled over about mile marker 162 on Interstate 80. Ms. Wilson was arrested for Willful Reckless Driving and taken to the Lincoln County Detention Center. While doing an inventory of her car, Deputies discovered user amounts of suspected Marijuana in the vehicle. Further charges may be forthcoming.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Applications will be accepted for the 2018 bighorn sheep permit lottery through Aug. 3.
Only Nebraska residents are eligible to apply. The lottery allows the winner to hunt for a bighorn during the season that begins Nov. 27 and ends Dec. 22.
The once-in-a-lifetime hunt includes up to four days of guide service from Nebraska Game and Parks staff and up to four nights of meal and lodging at Fort Robinson State Park. Proceeds from the lottery provide support for the management of the species in five areas of Nebraska’s panhandle region.
The winning permit will be drawn Aug. 16. A $29 nonrefundable application fee must accompany each application.
Those interested can apply at a Nebraska Game and Parks office or online at OutdoorNebraska.org.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s highway safety administrator says it’s tough to explain why more pedestrians have been killed this year on the state’s roads compared to last year.
Figures from the Nebraska Department of Transportation’s Highway Safety Office show that 13 pedestrians have been killed on Nebraska roads so far this year. At this time last year, the state had eight pedestrian fatalities, the Omaha World-Herald reported.
The state has seen an average of 10 pedestrian deaths annually from 2007 to 2016, according to the Highway Safety Office. Such deaths have been increasing in recent years, including 18 in 2015.
“There really isn’t anything we can put our finger on that is common,” Highway Safety Administrator Fred Zwonechek said. “There’s not anything we can really look at and say, ‘This is the reason they’re up.'”
The deaths have occurred in rural and urban settings. Zwonechek said he hopes the increase is “just an anomaly.”
Pedestrians and drivers need to pay attention to avoid such deaths, Zwonechek said. People who are walking should cross at crosswalks, wear bright colors, follow traffic signals and ensure they’re visible to drivers, he said. Drivers also need to commit their full attention to driving and be aware of their surroundings, he said.
“We’re all pedestrians at some point,” Zwonechek said. “So we all ought to be paying attention.”
While the number of pedestrian deaths has increased, fatal bike crashes have decreased, even as more people are riding bikes, Zwonechek said. So far this year, there have been no fatal bike crashes, while there were two fatalities during the same period last year, he said.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A year after Iowa began cracking down on texting while driving, advocates and lawmakers in Nebraska hope to implement a similar policy.
Nebraska and Iowa both banned texting while driving in 2010 but classified the infraction as a “secondary offense,” meaning drivers must commit another traffic violation to be pulled over. Iowa made texting a primary offense last year, joining the majority of other states and offering Nebraska a legislative roadmap should the state decide to follow suit.
The issue has created a clash between conservative principles of limited government and personal accountability with a desire to reduce roadway tragedies. Now it’s up to legislators to strike a balance between concerns about unintended consequences and the risk of lost lives through inaction.
“If it was an important issue, it would be front and center, but it’s not viewed as such,” said Rob Reynolds, who has advocated for tougher distracted driving laws since his 16-year-old daughter was killed in a 2007 crash in Omaha caused by a teen who was texting while driving.
Over the past several years, Nebraska legislators have considered bills to make texting a primary offense or ban the use of hand-held electronic devices while driving, but the efforts have failed. Only four states — Nebraska, Florida, Ohio and South Dakota — treat texting as a secondary offense, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. Two states, Arizona and Missouri, ban texting for young drivers but not adults. Montana doesn’t have a statewide ban.
The Iowa State Patrol announced earlier this month that citations issued by state troopers for texting increased by over 620 percent since the state shifted to primary enforcement in July 2017. The Nebraska State Patrol saw about a 50 percent decrease over the same period.
Iowa legislators approved the change in 2017 by wide margins. The bipartisan legislation added social media, games and internet surfing to the ban on texting, but allowed phones to be used for navigation and safety alerts.
Iowa state Sen. Michael Breitbach, a Strawberry Point Republican, said the tipping point came from new lawmakers who brought an increased awareness of the effects of distracted driving.
It would take a similar change in the Nebraska Legislature, said state Sen. Bob Krist, an Omaha Democrat who has repeatedly introduced bills to make texting a primary offense. Krist blamed the Legislature’s transportation committee for holding up past legislative efforts.
“The complement of that committee over the years has not wanted to address primary offense,” said Krist, who’s running for governor against incumbent Republican Pete Ricketts.
Nebraska state Sen. Merv Riepe, an Omaha-area Republican, said Iowa’s success at enforcing a stricter texting ban could open the door for Nebraska.
“It’s always easier to do something when you’ve got a real model that seems to be working,” Riepe said. “Iowa could be that model.”
Opponents to increased enforcement in Nebraska have focused on personal freedom, said Eric Koeppe, president and CEO of the National Safety Council of Nebraska. He said his organization, which lobbies for stricter enforcement of the texting ban, believes motorists have a shared responsibility for safety that demands attentiveness.
“Our responsibilities are not only to ourselves but all of the other people we share the road with,” Koeppe said.
But Spike Eickholt, a lobbyist for the Nebraska Criminal Defense Attorneys Association, said officers already can stop drivers who are texting for other traffic violations. He argued that broadening police powers would erode the freedom of motorists.
Nationally, the American Civil Liberties Union has opposed texting bans on similar grounds. The organization also raises concerns about racial profiling.
The ALCU of Nebraska opposes making texting a primary offense, spokeswoman Heidi Uhing said in an email. Last year, the ALCU of Iowa called Iowa’s action “problematic” and “ineffective,” in part based on its theory that some drivers try to conceal their phones to avoid detection — creating a worse safety hazard.
Veronica Fowler, a spokeswoman for the ACLU of Iowa, questioned how law enforcement officers identify potential violations.
“It is almost impossible for them to know when people are using their phone,” Fowler said.
Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Nathan Ludwig said troopers look for people scrolling and manipulating text on their phones. He said officers will pull up alongside cars or watch for signs of distracted driving.
“It’s pretty easy to tell when somebody is texting because they’re not looking around at you, they’re just in tune to their phone,” Ludwig said.
While there’s widespread agreement texting while driving is dangerous, it’s unclear whether taxing bans are effective in reducing crashes.
Collision insurance claim rates linked to distracted driving typically are flat, or even increase slightly, following the adoption of texting bans, said Jessica Cicchino, vice president of research for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. She called that a “perplexing result” for researchers.
“We don’t see that these laws are improving the bottom line of reducing crashes,” Cicchino said.
Iowa is on track for a decline in crashes linked to electronic devices so far this year, with 486 reported between January and June compared to 575 in the first six months of 2017, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation. Current data for Nebraska isn’t available.
Adam Lathrop, executive director of the Iowa-Illinois Safety Council, supports Iowa’s action but said it could take time to see results, noting it took decades before seat belt use was widely adopted.
“It took time to get there,” Lathrop said. “Texting will get there as well, but until we make it something that is culturally frowned upon doing, I don’t know that we’ll have the widespread change that we’re looking for.”
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s unemployment rate rose from 2.8 percent in May to 2.9 percent in June, the state Labor Department said Friday.
The preliminary June rate matches the June 2017 figure and is well below the current overall U.S. rate, which rose to 4 percent last month from 3.8 percent in May.
“The increase in the unemployment rate corresponded with an increase in new entrants to the labor force,” said state Labor Commissioner John Albin. “Nonfarm employment continued to climb in June, reaching another new high.”
State nonfarm employment for June was 1,041,142, up nearly 1,800 for the month and more than 15,000 for the year. Private industries with the most year to year growth were manufacturing, up 3,951; professional and business services, up 3,516; and leisure and hospitality, up 2,846. Month to month, the largest gains were seen in mining and construction, up 1,999; professional and business services, up 1,907; and leisure and hospitality (up 816).
The preliminary Omaha-area rate rose to 3.1 percent in June from 2.8 percent in May. The new rate is a tenth of a point lower than that of June 2017. Lincoln’s preliminary rate also rose three-tenths of a point, to 2.9 percent, matching the year-ago figure. Grand Island’s preliminary rate for June rose to 3.1 percent from 2.9 percent in May. The new figure was a tenth of a point higher than June 2017.
The unemployment rates for Grand Island, Lincoln and Omaha have not been seasonally adjusted, so they cannot be directly compared with the state unemployment rate.
Here are preliminary area labor market unemployment rates for June, followed by the May rates:
VALENTINE, Neb. (AP) — The U.S. Geological Survey reports that a minor earthquake shook rural areas near the Nebraska and South Dakota border around Valentine, Nebraska.
The service reports that a 3.5 magnitude earthquake occurred just after 2 a.m. Saturday about 10 miles (16.09 kilometers) northwest of Valentine in far north-central Nebraska. The National Weather Service says it received a few calls of some rumbling in Valentine.
There were no reports of injuries or damage.
Earlier this spring, several minor earthquakes were reported in Custer County, about 100 miles south of Valentine.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts has announced the retirement of State Fire Marshal Jim Heine and plans by state Energy Office Director David Bracht to leave that post next month.
Heine says he will retire effective Sept. 30, following 29 years of service. Ricketts says a search for a new fire marshal has begun.
Bracht will end his service on Aug. 1 to return to his private law practice, Kutak Rock, in Omaha.
Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality Director Jim Macy will serve as interim director of the energy office.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Weak economic growth is expected to continue in rural parts of 10 Plains and Western states, but all the recent trade disputes may shrink profits.
Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says the new tariffs are hurting grain prices, which were already weak.
The overall economic index for the region declined to 53.8 in July from June’s 56.1.
That score still suggests growth because it is above 50, while any score below 50 indicates a shrinking economy.
Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.
The bankers say they’re concerned about the ongoing trade tensions with China and the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The confidence index fell to 42.7 in July from June’s 48.8.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The corn and soybean crops in Iowa and Nebraska are significantly ahead of schedule and looking very good for a plentiful harvest this fall.
