Today: Sunny, with a high near 81. Northwest wind 7 to 10 mph.
Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 57. West northwest wind 5 to 7 mph becoming light and variable.
Friday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 88. Southwest wind 5 to 9 mph.
Friday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 62. South southeast wind 7 to 9 mph.
Saturday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8am, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 89. South southeast wind 6 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Saturday Night: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 62.
SundayA : 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 8am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 84.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Less than a year into its existence, a state commission charged with helping problem gamblers has been castigated by the state auditor’s office for its handling of two contracts that appear to violate the state’s conflict-of-interest laws.
State Auditor Mike Foley issued a report late Tuesday on the Nebraska Commission on Problem Gambling, formed in July 2013. Foley says the commission named Jerry Bauerkemper, director of the not-for-profit Nebraska Council on Compulsive Gambling, as its interim director. Bauerkemper took a leave of absence as the not-for-profit’s director, but remained employed by it — even as the public commission he headed awarded two contracts valued at more than $200,000 to Bauerkemper’s organization without bidding out the work.
Foley also questions whether Bauerkemper’s organization provided the work it was paid to do.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Top officials from all three branches of Nebraska government will look at ways to reduce prison crowding and costs, while maintaining public safety.
Nebraska officials and the Council of State Governments began a formal review Wednesday of the prison system. The study will examine alternatives to incarceration, such as probation and drug courts.
Lawmakers this year established a 19-member working group to look for solutions, led by Gov. Dave Heineman, Speaker of the Legislature Greg Adams and Nebraska Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Heavican.
Group members will look at what other states have done recently to reduce their prison populations. Nebraska’s prisons housed 5,175 people as of May 31, placing the system at 158 percent of its operating capacity.
A North Platte woman is in jail on a felony charge after she allegedly burglarized the home of her friend’s parents while they were out of town.
At around 10:15 a.m., on June 9, North Platte police responded to the report of a burglary in the 2800 block of West C Street.
Upon arrival, the owners of the home told officers that they had been out of town and had returned to find that their home had been rummaged through and several items were missing.
Through an investigation, officers developed a suspect, Jennifer Rosenburg. Officers learned that Rosenberg had been staying with the homeowner’s son, at a different address, and had access to the keys to the home. Investigator John Deal said Rosenberg also knew the victims were out of town.
Following further investigation, investigators located some of the stolen items in Rosenberg’s possession.
As a result, Rosenberg was arrested on June 17 and charged with felony burglary.
She was jailed at the Lincoln County Detention Center.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska State Treasurer Don Stenberg has set nine seminars across the state starting this week for employers making child support payments on behalf of their employees.
Among the topics to be covered will be new hire reporting, income and medical withholding, employee verification and termination and electronic payments. Stenberg says more than 85 percent of child support payments from employers on behalf of their employees are sent electronically.
The seminars are designed for human resource and payroll managers, as well as business owners, accountants, controllers and bookkeepers, and will cover changes in laws and practices relating to the withholding of court-ordered child support payments.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)–The National Weather Service says it received reports of several tornadoes in Nebraska after a severe storm system tracked across the northern Plains.
Meteorologist Darren Snively in the North Platte office says radar, spotter reports and pictures show that three tornadoes touched down Tuesday night in Cherry and Hooker counties, in the northwestern part of the state.
He says the Weather Service had received reports of a semi-trailer overturned and a car that rolled over in the area. No injuries were reported.
The Weather Service says tornadoes were also reported in the northeastern part of the state, near the South Dakota border.
Meteorologist Scott Dergan says it didn’t appear that those storms hit populated areas, but some farmsteads were damaged.
The Cedar County Sheriff’s Office had no reports of injuries.
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) — A dive team has rescued a 30-year-old woman from a sandbar near North Platte.
Melissa Stafford and Tristyn Jefferson had entered South Platte River to cool off on Tuesday afternoon. They soon were knocked off their feet by the current and struggled to reach safety.
About a mile downstream they made it to a sandbar. Jefferson went back in the water and eventually reached the riverbank. A friend who had not entered the water, Nathan Beebe, saw what happened and ran to the nearby Iron Eagle Golf Course, where he found a golfer with a cellphone to call 911.
Firefighters showed up a little after 2 p.m. They called in the county dive team, which reached Stafford and rescued her.
Today: Sunny, with a high near 87. Southwest wind 6 to 15 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 22 mph.
Tonight: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly between 11pm and 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 55. North wind 7 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 82. West wind 7 to 10 mph.
Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 57. West wind 5 to 7 mph becoming south southeast in the evening.
Friday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 88. South wind 5 to 9 mph.
Friday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 62.
KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — Police are still trying to find out who killed a Kearney woman whose body was found inside her burning home six years ago.
The body of 21-year-old Kelcey Fike was found in the mobile home on June 17, 2008, at the R-Villa South Trailer Court in west Kearney. No arrests have been reported.
Kearney police Capt. Mike Kirkwood said investigators “are open to any possibility of who committed this homicide.”
Police have said Fike died shortly before the fire engulfed the bedroom she shared with her boyfriend. Police say the boyfriend was out of state at the time of the fire and is not considered a suspect.
Investigators have said that why somebody killed Fike is as much a mystery as who killed her.
A North Platte man is in jail on a felony charge after he allegedly chased and threatened his girlfriend with a bat.
At around 4:09 a.m., on Tuesday, North Platte police responded to a disturbance in the 2300 block of East Philip.
Upon arrival, a female victim told officers that she had attempted to enter the residence she shares with her boyfriend, Christopher Meadows, when he came outside and told her she couldn’t come in.
She said an argument ensued and Meadows went into the residence and retrieved a baseball bat before approaching her outside again. Investigator John Deal said Meadows then chased the female for about a block while holding the bat.
The victim was able to wave down a citizen who stopped and transported her from the area.
A short time later, officers made contact with Meadows and placed him under arrest.
He’s been charged with domestic assault (threatening in a menacing manner). Due to a prior domestic assault conviction, the charge was enhanced to a felony.
Meadows was jailed at the Lincoln County Detention Center.
