SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) — A 12-year-old western Nebraska boy injured in a car crash earlier this week has died.

Nebraska State Patrol Lt. Jamey Balthazor said Robert Canseco of Scottsbluff died Friday.

Conseco was injured Wednesday when the teenage girl driving the vehicle he was in failed yield and struck a pickup truck.

Conseco and another 12-year-old in the same vehicle, Eli Aguilar Jr. of Gering, were both seriously injured.

Both boys were taken to Children’s Hospital in Denver for treatment, and Conseco died there.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska has released a smartphone app designed to help people record interactions with police and report questionable behavior.

ACLU of Nebraska Executive Director Danielle Conrad says she hopes this new technology will help citizens monitor possible civil rights violations.

ACLU officials say a March 2013 incident in Omaha demonstrates the importance of this app. Questions about excessive force were raised after a neighbor filmed Omaha police officers arresting three brothers. Six officers were fired and a civil lawsuit is pending.

The program, called Mobile Justice Nebraska, is initially available only for Android phones, but an iPhone version is expected later.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — In the wake of a late early-voting surge in Omaha that delayed results in a congressional race, some election officials say Nebraska should consider adopting all mail-in voting like in Colorado, Oregon and Washington state.

Douglas County Election Commissioner Dave Phipps believes a mail-in system would not only save taxpayers money, it would have averted the problem his office had in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District race when thousands of voters either mailed in ballots or walking in to his office to vote Monday and Tuesday. Workers didn’t finish counting those ballots until Friday.

Sarpy County Election Commissioner Wayne Bena sees advantages to an all mail-in system. Bena says he’ll push for the Nebraska Legislature to conduct an interim study on conducting Nebraska elections.

• Christopher Todd Ison, 36, North Platte and Kristen Marie Ramsden, 40, North Platte

 

• Clefford Rey Neth, 32, North Platte and Velvet Jayne Nuzum, 23, North Platte

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska education officials are moving forward in seeking a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Nebraska, one of the few states that has not sought a waiver, hopes to have an application by April.

State education officials have been talking with federal education officials about it for months. On Thursday, the Nebraska State Board of Education discussed a draft statement indicating its intent to apply for the waiver.

It’s the first time the board has said it definitely wants to start the application process.

More than 40 states have waivers from the federal law, which requires 100 percent proficiency in reading and math by this year. The waivers allow states flexibility from the law’s requirements and sanctions.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska secretary of state’s office says turnout in this week’s election increased slightly with the addition of early ballots.

Secretary of State John Gale says in a statement that turnout in Tuesday’s election was around 47 percent. Gale initially predicted 50 percent turnout statewide.

Gale says 63 of Nebraska’s 93 counties exceeded that turnout, and another three were statistically close. McPherson County in central Nebraska had the highest turnout, at nearly 72 percent. Thurston County in northeast Nebraska had the lowest, at about 31 percent.

The numbers aren’t considered official until the Nebraska Board of State Canvassers meets in December.

U.S. Cellular, in conjunction with its partner King Street Wireless, has announced that Nebraska residents primarily in rural areas have 4G LTE available. The company is updating more than 1,200 4G LTE cell sites across the country. By the end of this year, more than 93 percent of U.S. Cellular customers will have access to 4G LTE speeds that are up to 10 times faster than 3G.

Western Nebraska communities that recently received 4G LTE service from U.S. Cellular include Bartley, Beaver City, Brady, Culbertson, Curtis, Hershey, Imperial, Indianola, Maxwell, McCook, Mullen, Paxton, Stapleton, Sutherland, Thedford, Trenton and Wauneta.

U.S. Cellular customers in and around Omaha, Lincoln, Beatrice, Bellevue, Columbus, Fremont, Grand Island, Hastings, Holdrege, Kearney, La Vista, Lexington, Nebraska City, Norfolk, North Platte, Ogallala, Papillion, Seward, Wayne, West Point and York received 4G LTE access last October.

In addition to Nebraska, this latest U.S. Cellular network expansion adds vast 4G LTE coverage in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and North Carolina. It also brings additional 4G LTE service to areas in Iowa, Illinois, Maine, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.

CRAWFORD, Neb. (AP) — Federal regulators have granted a 10-year license extension for a uranium mine in the northern Panhandle of Nebraska.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission renewed the license for the Crow Butte Resources mine east of Crawford through Nov. 5, 2024.

Crow Butte’s parent company, Cameco Resources, filed for the 10-year renewal in 2007. The NRC allowed the operation to continue because of a huge backlog of license filings.

Environmental groups have opposed the operation, saying water carrying dissolved uranium has contaminated aquifers, including the Arikaree aquifer underneath the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, across the Nebraska state line in South Dakota.

The NRC said in announcing the extension on Thursday that “there would be no significant environmental impact from continuing operation for another 10 years.”

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — An Ohio airline has won a recommendation to provide government-subsidized service to another Nebraska airport.

On Wednesday the Kearney City Council voted to recommend Aerodynamics Inc. to the U.S. Transportation Department. Aerodynamics proposed providing 50-seat planes for two inbound and two outbound Denver flights Monday through Friday, with one inbound and one outbound flight on Saturday and Sunday.

On Monday the company won a recommendation from the North Platte Airport Authority, and the company was selected by the Scottsbluff airport board last month.

City Manager Mike Morgan says Aerodynamics could be serving Kearney by March 1 if the Transportation Department approves the city’s recommendation.

Aerodynamics is headquartered in Beachwood, Ohio.

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials say the nasal spray version of the flu vaccine did not protect young children against swine flu last winter and might not work again this year.

Preliminary results from studies found that AstraZeneca’s FluMist had little or no effect against swine flu in young kids. That was the most common bug making people sick last winter.

Why it didn’t work isn’t clear. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it’s possible the spray vaccine won’t work again for swine flu this season.

But officials say the spray is still OK to use. Though the flu season is just getting started, early tracking suggests swine flu won’t be a big player this year. Other strains are expected to be the major threat and the vaccine works against those.