LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lawmakers say friends and family members who suffered from chronic illnesses have convinced them that Nebraska should allow medical marijuana.

Senators on Friday rallied behind the Cannabis Compassion and Care Act, introduced by Sen. Tommy Garrett of Omaha.

Garrett calls it inexcusable that Nebraskans should be forced to illegally obtain a substance which studies have shown can alleviate debilitating symptoms.

Forms of medical marijuana have been legalized in 23 states and the District of Columbia.

Sen. Sue Crawford of Bellevue also introduced a bill this year allowing for a study examining the effects of using cannabidiol to treat seizures.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Wrongly convicted Nebraska prisoners could have more chances to demonstrate their innocence under two bills presented to a legislative committee.

One bill offered Friday would remove the three-year window to seek a new trial based on newly discovered, non-DNA evidence.

The second would allow judges to order DNA testing on evidence that wasn’t previously tested, or where new technology could lead to more accurate or probative results. Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln says current law only allows the tests when such options weren’t available at trial.

Ada Joann Taylor, one of the so-called “Beatrice Six,” told lawmakers she’d still be in prison if one of her co-defendants hadn’t kept pushing for DNA tests to exonerate them in the 1985 Beatrice murder.

NEW YORK (AP) — Some new evidence this is a particularly bad flu season: Flu-related hospitalizations of the elderly are the highest since the government started tracking that statistic nine years ago.

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that about 198 out of every 100,000 people 65 and older have been hospitalized with flu-related illness this flu season.

It’s the highest level seen since the government started tracking the statistic in the 2005-2006 flu season. The previous record was 183 per 100,000, during the flu season two years ago.

That flu season and this one were dominated by a virus known as H3N2. This year, the flu vaccine is not built for the H3N2 strain, that’s spreading most widely.

DALTON, Neb. (AP) — Two people have been arrested as authorities investigate the passing of counterfeit money in the Nebraska Panhandle.

A 22-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman were taken into custody on Thursday in Dalton as officers searched a home there. Online court records don’t show that the two suspects have been formally charged.

Cheyenne County Sheriff John Jenson says fake $20 bills have been passed at Sidney businesses, and Scottsbluff police say fake $100 bills have been passed there.

• Today: Partly sunny, with a high near 52. South wind 6 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.
• Tonight: A slight chance of rain and snow after 5am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 27. South southeast wind 5 to 8 mph becoming northeast after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
• Saturday: A chance of rain and snow, mainly after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 38. Northeast wind 6 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
• Saturday Night: A 30 percent chance of snow before midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 17. North wind 8 to 13 mph.
• Sunday: Partly sunny, with a high near 25. Blustery, with a north wind 14 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.
• Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 11.
• Monday: Partly sunny, with a high near 47.
• Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 24.

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Renters and some homeowners could end up saving money under a proposed income tax credit in the Nebraska Legislature.

Sen. Kate Bolz of Lincoln presented the bill to a legislative committee Thursday as part of the ongoing debate over property taxes.

The measure would create an income tax credit that residents could claim once their property tax bill reaches a certain percentage of their income. Renters could also claim the credit based on a percentage of their rent.

Renee Fry of the OpenSky Policy Institute, which supports the bill, says most of the tax reductions would go to low- and middle-income residents.

Mark Intermill, a lobbyist for AARP Nebraska, says the bill provides additional cash to those who need it most to cover basic necessities.

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) — Western Sugar Cooperative officials say the co-op must dispose of 10,000 tons of rotten sugar beets and has offered them free to livestock feeders.

The co-op’s Jerry Darnell said the problem cropped up at its Scottsbluff plant in November, when temperatures dropped from 40 degrees to minus 20. Piles of beets outside froze, trapping warm air inside that led to the rotting.

Darnell says the co-op wants “to process everything we buy and make it into refined white sugar. This year Mother Nature has not cooperated, and it’s throwing us a curveball.”

He says the loss will affect growers, because there are fewer beets to process into sugar and, thus, less sugar to sell.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An annual state agriculture conference is expected to focus on helping small and mid-sized Nebraska farmers prepare a transition plan for their operations.

Director of Agriculture Greg Ibach announced the annual agriculture conference with Gov. Pete Ricketts in a news conference Thursday. The Governor’s Ag Conference is set for March 4 and 5 in Kearney.

Ibach says a study showed more than 50 percent of the state’s small and medium dairy farms don’t have successors. A panel will address how to transition operations to younger farmers.

Ricketts says the conference will also address connecting the state’s urban and rural sectors through agriculture and increasing foreign exports to countries in Asia.

Representatives from the US Department of Agriculture, The Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce and the Scoular Company will speak.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A proposal to raise the cost of marriage licenses issued by Nebraska counties has yet to reach a vote in the Legislature.

The bill continued to face opposition Thursday from Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, who has promised to prolong the debate until the measure is withdrawn. Lawmakers adjourned for the day without voting on the bill.

Opponents say the proposed increase from $15 to $50 amounts to a tax increase of more than 300 percent for couples getting hitched.

Sen. Kathy Campbell of Lincoln has said the current $15 fee doesn’t cover the cost of collecting and filing marriage licenses. The new fee was proposed by the Nebraska Association of County Officials, which notes that the fee hasn’t been changed in 20 years.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge won’t delay a lawsuit challenging Nebraska’s gay marriage ban while the U.S. Supreme Court is considering the issue for the country.

Judge Joseph Bataillon (buh-TAL’-yuhn) in Omaha declined a request from the Nebraska attorney general’s office for the delay, saying in his ruling Tuesday that the state didn’t show the delay was necessary. A spokeswoman for the attorney general declined to comment.

The lawsuit was filed in November by seven same-sex couples seeking to have their marriages recognized in Nebraska despite the state’s ban passed by voters in 2000.

The nation’s high court has announced that it will decide whether same-sex couples have a right to marry everywhere in America under the U.S. Constitution. A ruling on cases in four other states is expected by late June.