LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court is scheduled to consider approving a rule change that would allow cameras in courtrooms across the state.
Judges in seven of 12 judicial districts have already allowed expanded media coverage in their courtrooms.
Justice Jeff Funke says judges and attorneys have been working on the issue since May 2015.
Funke says a March 1 start date will give time to address comments sent to the clerk of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals by Nov. 15.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An unseasonably warm week has aided farmers in getting crops out of fields in Iowa and Nebraska although both states remain slightly behind the five-year average.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday in its weekly crop update that in Iowa 71 percent of corn is harvested, about two days behind the average. The soybean crop is 89 percent harvested, about five days behind average.
Farmers in southwest and south central Iowa still have a third or more of their soybeans to harvest.
Nebraska experienced a week with temperatures averaging nine degrees above normal helping to get 91 percent of the soybean crop in, near the 96 percent five-year average.
Corn farmers in Nebraska are 69 percent harvested which is near the 70 percent five-year average.
KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — A December sentencing hearing is scheduled for an 18-year-old accused of assaulting an employee at the state Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center in Kearney.
Court records say Marco Pena pleaded no contest to felony assault and two counts of misdemeanor assault after prosecutors agreed to not file eight more assault-related counts. His sentencing is set for Dec. 6 in Buffalo County District Court.
Officials say that on Aug. 24 Pena was given a broom to sweep his room. He soon menaced staffers with it and then broke it into pieces. Staffers forced their way back into Pena’s room and gained control of him after a melee. One of the staffers suffered a rib wound that required treatment at a hospital.
LEXINGTON, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say an Omaha woman has died after a collision on Interstate 80 in central Nebraska.
The collision occurred late Saturday afternoon at the Lexington interchange in Dawson County. The Nebraska State Patrol says a westbound car ran off the roadway, across the median and into an eastbound vehicle.
The dead woman was a passenger in the car. The patrol identified her as 19-year-old Lexa Douglas.
The patrol says five other people in the two vehicles were hospitalized.
The crash is being investigated.
OGALLALA, Neb. (AP) — Volunteers are being sought to help clean up Lake McConaughy (muh-KAH’-nuh-hay) State Recreation Area in western Nebraska.
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission says it has joined the Keep Keith County Beautiful organization and Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District in organizing the cleanup day. The event is scheduled to run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Nov. 5. The lake sits just north of Ogallala in Keith County.
Trash bags, buckets, pickers and orange vests will be available for volunteers to use.
A park entry permit is required of each vehicle entering the recreation area.
Today
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The University of Nebraska Medical Center has been awarded nearly $20 million in federal funds to develop a new training, simulation, and quarantine center for highly infectious diseases, such as Ebola.
The Omaha medical center announced the $19.8 award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Friday.
The training center will have its own floor in UNMC’s already-planned $102 million Global Center for Advanced Interprofessional Learning. That 183,742-square-foot facility will be at the southeast corner of 42nd and Emile Streets. Construction is set to begin soon and be completed by September 2018.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — As Nebraska lawmakers prepare for meetings this week and later in the month, members still haven’t decided whether to further punish a senator who acknowledged having cybersex on a state computer.
Sen. Bill Kintner of Papillion could face impeachment, expulsion or a formal censure for misuse of state property. If they take action, some lawmakers say censure is the most likely choice.
The married, conservative state senator was fined $1,000 in August by an independent state ethics panel, but his fellow lawmakers haven’t been able to agree on how or if they should punish him.
The Legislature’s Executive Board will meet Thursday and could recommend disciplining Kintner at a Legislative Council meeting on Nov. 17-18. The board could also recommend that lawmakers wait to act until next year’s regular session.
SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) — When a group of Western Nebraska parents learned their kids’ day care center would close at the end of January, they decided to try and open their own replacement facility.
It’s not yet clear whether parents will have the new day care ready when Calvary Lutheran’s facility closes.
Calvary Director Becky Jo Wylie says the recent minimum wage increase was a factor in the closing.
Stu Kissick says he and a group of other parents formed the nonprofit Twin Cities Early Child Care Center and started raising money when they learned of the closing.
An anonymous donor gave the group a building and may contribute to renovations. Kissick says he hopes the community will support the effort to build a quality day care center.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say prospects look good for people hunting pheasant, quail and partridge in Nebraska.
The seasons opened Saturday for the upland birds. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission says pheasant and quail numbers are higher than the five-year average over most of the state.
Surveys indicate pheasant abundance is higher in the central and Sandhills regions, compared to 2015. Abundance in other regions of the state is predicted to be similar or slightly lower than 2015.
Quail numbers continue to be high across the species’ Nebraska range.
The hunting seasons for pheasant, quail and partridge end Jan. 31.
