On Wednesday September 19^th, officers from the North Platte Police Department received a report of a sheep running loose near West ‘E’ St and N. Oak Ave. in North Platte.

Upon arrival officers were unable to locate the wooly culprit. Officers searched the area locating the animal making a run-for-it southbound on Elm St. Officers also noticed a male subject running on foot about 10 paces behind.

The man was dressed in cowboy attire while swinging a lasso over head possibly in attempt to restrain the sheep.

The officer was in pursuit of the animal. With help from the cowboy they eventually cornered the sheep in an open garage then loaded and transported the ewe to the North Platte Animal Shelter, where it’s still being housed.

A release from the NPPD says,

“She had on a green collar and was sporting a full/thick fleece.  If you own the sheep or can assist law enforcement in identifying the owner please contact the NPPD at 308.535.6789.”

On Wednesday September 19^th, Governor Dave Heineman joined the Rotary Club for lunch and to discuss current issues, one of them being unemployment in Nebraska and to answer some questions from Rotary members. The current unemployment rate is the 2^nd lowest in the country at 4%.

Gov. Heineman began with thanking the fire departments and communities for working together during the streak of wild-fires that blackened grasslands and trees in the north-western panhandle and north-central Nebraska. “Every one of those fire departments, the communities, Nebraskans all across our state furnished food, water, Gatorade, all sorts of supplies to help out,” Gov. Heineman said during his first few minutes at the podium and continued, “I just say a special thank you to those who were involved in those efforts.”

While Gov. Heineman was at the stand he gave an update on the unemployment rate, why Nebraska is such a great place to live and what his main focus is for Nebraska to keep moving forward.

According to Gov. Heineman the first focus is getting every child a great education, the second focus is jobs. “We want to create enough jobs to keep every person in Nebraska,” Gov. Heineman continued “Now we can say for the first time in our history two of the last three years our population growth in our state exceeded the national average.” Gov. Heineman attributes the population growth to Nebraska retaining more young people, creating more jobs so families can move to Nebraska.

Young Nebraskan citizens leaving the state was one of the first issues Gov. Heineman addressed when he entered office. Gov. Heineman says, “We want to continue to move on that front.”

Gov. Heineman began to discuss what separates Nebraska from other states, “We believe in a financial concept Federal Governments never heard of, we don’t spend money we don’t have,” Gov. Heineman explained “We balance our state budget by controlling spending, not by raising taxes. We passed the largest tax relief package in the history of the state, we modernized our economic incentive program that a lot of people are using these days in business called the Nebraska Advantage.”

Gov. Heineman explained that in the past six years a little over 300 separate companies chose Nebraska as the state to move to or expand because of the Nebraska Advantage. According to Gov. Heineman those companies will invest nearly 8 billion dollars in the Nebraskan economy while creating more than 20,000 new jobs.

Listen to Governor Dave Heinemans Interview With North Platte Post Below!

Today: Patchy frost before 9am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 83. Calm wind becoming south southwest 5 to 9 mph in the morning.

Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 46. Northwest wind around 8 mph.

Friday: Sunny, with a high near 79. Northwest wind 9 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.

On Monday September 17^th a traffic stop led to the arrest of two individuals who both had active arrest warrants and the discovery of a stolen vehicle reported missing.

Around 9:30am an officer from the North Platte Police Department stopped a vehicle near Rodeo Rd. and N. Sycamore where the officer noticed the passenger 24-year-old Shane Melton.

Melton was wanted for his involvement in an injury accident on August 8th where he allegedly fled the scene on foot leaving his disabled vehicle.  Officers had probable cause to arrest Melton for Driving Under Suspension, Leaving the Scene Injury Accident and No Proof of Ownership or Insurance. Melton also had one out-of-county warrant from Stapleton.

The operator of the vehicle 24-year-old Michael Stone of Sugar Creek, MO had seven active Lincoln County warrants. Upon investigation the officer learned that the stopped vehicle was stolen and reported missing

by a female who lives in Missouri.

Officers found multiple controlled substances during a search of the vehicle.

Officers had probable cause to arrest Stone for Possession of Stolen Property a class three felony and Possession of Control Substance a class five felony.

Both Melton and Stone were jailed in the Lincoln County Detention Center.

The recent flash of wildfires in the northwest Nebraska panhandle may be a reason mountain lion sightings have increased.

On Sunday morning around 10AM a male mountain lion was spotted in a tree by a 10-year-old girl Mikayla Jaggers, she then told her father Jeff Jaggers about the mountain lion. Once the young Jaggers was safe inside the family’s home east of Rushville, Jeff Jaggers shot the mountain lion out of the tree.

The tree occupied by the mountain lion is located near a chicken coop.

Nebraska Game and Parks officials obtained the carcass of the mountain lion for testing. The wildfires in the panhandle burned more than 200 square miles of grasslands and trees which could attribute to increased mountain lion sightings.

The family of a retired California firefighter who disappeared from an Amtrak train says it now appears that he may have fallen from the train somewhere in eastern Colorado or western Nebraska.

Charlie Dowd’s family members had been organizing searches in Omaha and Lincoln for the 69-year-old San Mateo man because they believed he may have mistakenly gotten off the train at one of those stops.

But Jen Dowd said Tuesday Amtrak police told the family a passenger on the California-to-Chicago train saw Dowd standing near a train door Thursday night. Another passenger later found an exterior door ajar around 11 p.m. Thursday.

Jen Dowd says the search for her father will now focus on the 160 miles of track between Fort Morgan, Colo., and McCook, Neb.

Today: Sunny, with a high near 82. Breezy, with a west wind 6 to 11 mph becoming north 18 to 23 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 32 mph.

Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 37. North wind 9 to 14 mph becoming light and variable in the evening. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph.

Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 82. Light and variable wind becoming southwest 5 to 9 mph in the morning.