The annual Festival of Trees has raised $7,000 for the Miss Nebraska scholarship program and the Children’s Miracle Network.
Organizers say 22 Christmas trees and 14 wreathes went up for auction on Sunday. The three-day event drew more than 475 people, and included an auction.
Jay Engel, executive director of the Miss Nebraska Pageant, says the event will help pay for scholarship for girls who enter the 2014 pageant.
Some of the trees at the fundraiser sold for $175.
KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska officials say 13 teenagers are awaiting discipline after escaping a youth rehabilitation center in Kearney.
The state Department of Health and Human Services says two teens left on foot Saturday night from Kearney’s Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center. An additional 11 teens followed.
Additional staff and Kearney police were called in to help apprehend the youths. The last escapee was returned to the center hours later.
Department spokesman Russ Reno says the youths took key cards to leave the center. Additional information about the circumstances of the escapes was not released.
Reno says the Buffalo County attorney will determine if the youths will be charged criminally. One 18-year-old escapee was arrested on a warrant for failure to appear in court.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska lawmaker has started an online petition to build support for a Medicaid expansion proposal that has stalled in the Legislature.
State Sen. Jeremy Nordquist unveiled a new website on Monday as lawmakers prepare for another debate on the bill next year. Nordquist says the website was intended to engage the public while sending a message to elected officials who have blocked the legislation.
The expansion measure would help cover about 50,000 low-income adults and save an estimated 500 lives a year.
Nordquist, a Democrat, also called on Republican Gov. Dave Heineman to forfeit his state-funded health insurance until all Nebraskans get coverage. Earlier this year, he introduced a bill that would prohibit elected state officials from getting taxpayer-subsidized coverage.
A Heineman spokeswoman declined to comment.
A 52-year-old North Platte woman is facing a felony charge after she rammed her car into the Connection Homeless Shelter.
According to Officer Rodney Brown, officers responded to the report of a vehicle striking and damaging the Connection, 414 East 6th, at around 6:45 p.m. on November 27th.
Police arrived and spoke to the driver of the vehicle, Connie Boss. Officers said Boss appeared to be under the influence of something.
Officers conducted a search of Boss’ belongings and discovered Vicodin, for which she did not have a prescription.
Boss was arrested for felony possession of a controlled substance and driving under the influence of drugs 2nd offense. She was jailed at the Lincoln County Detention Center.
(AP) — Agriculture officials say the October blizzard that killed thousands of cattle in northwest Nebraska and southwest South Dakota will have a lasting impact in the region.
Dawes County extension educator Scott Cotton said the blizzard had a bigger impact because it followed a summer of drought and last year’s wildfires.
About 3,000 animals in Nebraska and 15,500 in South Dakota are estimated to have died because of the blizzard.
Cotton says ranchers must wait for Congress to approve a new farm bill before they can receive any significant aid.
Cotton says about 80 ranching families suffered major losses in the blizzard, and about 200 families were affected in some way. He says that represents a significant portion of the ranchers in Sioux and Dawes counties.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A state program that pays Nebraska meat processors to prepare donated deer meat is making progress in feeding the hungry.
The Hunters Helping the Hungry program has received 236 deer so far this year, in the midst of hunting seasons. Last year, hunters donated 213 deer.
Processors prepare the meat and distribute it in two-pound bags through a network of regional community groups. The meat ends up in local food pantries to help feed needy families.
The program is funded by donations. Teresa Lombard, who oversees the program for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, says the effort still has money this year to pay for deer processing.
The program got off to a slow start in 2012 because of a disease outbreak that cut into eastern Nebraska’s deer population.
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska State Patrol says it is seeing an increase in marijuana possession arrests since neighboring Colorado legalized it just over a year ago.
Lincoln County, one of the first points drivers reach on Interstate 80 after coming out of Colorado, has led the state in number of drug arrests for the past several years.
Nebraska State Patrol Capt. Jim Parish says officers have seen an upswing in the number of people stopped carrying marijuana.
It’s common now to see someone with a prescription for medical marijuana and a card authorizing them to carry it in Colorado. They think they’re OK. But it’s still illegal in Nebraska.
He says if they’re going to use marijuana they ought to stay in Colorado where it’s legal.
ODESSA, Neb. (AP) — A woman left behind a dining room full of happy Thanksgiving diners in south-central Nebraska when she paid their buffet bills.
The woman entered the Sapp Brothers travel center just off Interstate 80’s Odessa interchange on Thursday and walked up to the cash register. She told an employee she wanted to pay for everyone’s meals.
Waitress Token Brown says the woman wanted to remain anonymous as she paid $574 to cover the meals and gave big tips to the waitresses and cooks.
Brown says the woman said she “just felt like God told her to come in and pay for everybody’s meal and pay it forward.”
