LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — State officials are considering whether to resume a mountain lion hunting season in Nebraska next year, a move likely to generate intense debate.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has set a public hearing for the proposal on June 22 at Mid-Plains Community College in Ogallala.

The proposed season would let hunters harvest up to eight mountain lions in two designated areas of northwest Nebraska’s Pine Ridge region.

State biologists say the number of adult and kitten mountain lions increased to 59 last year, compared to as many as 33 during the last official hunting season in 2014. They say the population is now established enough to sustain a harvest.

Sen. Ernie Chambers, of Omaha, has fought to eliminate mountain lion hunting in Nebraska the last few years.

ELWOOD, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say one person had been killed in a head-on crash in southwestern Nebraska.

Radio station KRVN reports that that the two-vehicle crash happed around 9:20 a.m. Tuesday on Highway 23 just east of Elwood in Gosper County.

Sheriff Dennis Ocken says arriving first responders found a fuel truck in the ditch on the north side the highway and a pickup truck with extensive front end damage.

The driver of the pickup was pronounced dead at the scene. The extent of any injuries to the driver of the fuel truck was not immediately available. Their names were not immediately released. Officials say the vehicles were traveling in opposite directions and collided head-on.

Ocken says no fuel from storage tank of the fuel truck was spilled.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha man has been given 24 to 40 years in prison for setting up the armed robberies of seven men who thought they were going to meet women they’d messaged on a dating app.

Court records say 20-year-old Jordan Kellogg was sentenced Monday in Douglas County District Court. He’d pleaded no contest to four counts of robbery. Prosecutors dropped three more counts and one of attempted robbery in exchange for Kellogg’s pleas.

Police say each robbery last fall involved two or three assailants. The robbers posed as women online and arranged dates the same day they started talking to the victims.

Police also say Kellogg had an accomplice, Janonta Liggins. He’s awaiting trial after pleading not guilty to two counts of robbery and three weapons counts.

MURRAY, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say four teenage girls were injured while tubing on a lake in eastern Nebraska’s Cass County.

Medics were sent Saturday evening to Lake Waconda, southeast of Murray. Cass County Sheriff William Brueggemann says the boat pulling the tube made a quick turn, which threw the girls into a rock wall on the northeast side of the lake.

One girl with head injuries was flown to Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Injuries to the other girls included a broken leg and pelvis. Three of them are 13; one is 15. Their names haven’t been released.

The boat driver was cited for negligent driving.

PLATTSMOUTH, Neb. (AP) — An Iowa man has been sentenced to jail for his role in a fatal traffic accident in eastern Nebraska.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that Michael Bauman, of Rock Rapids, Iowa, was sentenced Thursday in Plattsmouth to 250 days in jail. He also was fined $1,000, and his driver’s license was revoked for a year. He’d pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vehicular homicide.

Authorities say he was driving south on Nebraska Highway 43 south of Eagle around 9 a.m. on July 14, 2017, when he turned his semitrailer left into the path of a northbound motorcycle. Forty-seven-year-old Chris Badman died in the collision. He lived in South Bend, Nebraska.

 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man shot by officers rammed two police cruisers near the scene of a planned robbery in south Omaha.

None of the officers was injured during the incident Saturday evening near the GI Forum restaurant.

Police say a 911 caller said two men in a stolen sport utility vehicle were going to rob the restaurant. Officers soon found the SUV in the area and parked behind it. Police say the SUV driver then revved up and hit reverse to ram the cruisers twice, prompting two officers to open fire. They were identified as Jacob Chong and Matthew Stigge.

The SUV stopped and the driver and two passengers were handcuffed. The driver was taken to Nebraska Medical Center for treatment of gunshot wounds. His passengers were treated for minor injuries.

The driver hasn’t been charged yet.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An eastern Nebraska county and its medical provider are being sued over what complainants say is the inadequate treatment of inmates at the county jail.

Negligence and malpractice claims have been filed against Douglas County and the jail’s Tennessee-based medical provider, Correct Care Solutions. The contract company has come under scrutiny for inmate deaths and alleged poor treatment nationally.

The claims filed by attorneys Thomas White and Benjamin White outline more than a dozen Douglas County inmates denied proper treatment for their maladies, including advanced lung cancer, chlamydia, a stroke and a broken hip.

The Whites allege Correct Care has financial incentives to give minimal medical care.

An attorney for Correct Care says each case should be evaluated on treatment decisions, not attorneys’ theories.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The NAACP, American Civil Liberties Union and others are worried that a proposal to add school resource officers to Lincoln’s middle schools will lead to disproportionate treatment of minorities and marginalized groups.

The Lincoln City Council and the city’s Board of Education will vote this week on the Safe and Successful Kids initiative. The proposal will fund and administer six middle school resource officers and a threat-assessment officer, in addition to mental health services and support for community learning centers.

The NAACP, ACLU, and others are concerned that placing police officers in schools will feed into the “school-to-prison pipeline,” where young students of color, in particular, are funneled into the juvenile justice system.

Proponents say the initiative will make schools safer and create positive relationships between police and students.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Two Omaha health systems are teaming up with a violence prevention group to try to stop escalating violence in Nebraska’s largest city.

The trauma centers at the Nebraska Medical Center and Creighton University Medical Center-Bergan Mercy are often scenes of grief and anger as a result of violence. Because of that, the hospital’s two health systems — Nebraska Medicine and CHI Health, respectively — are partnering with YouTurn, which supports families in crisis during stressful times and works to defuse any potential retaliation stemming from violence.

YouTurn will provide “street outreach workers” to the two trauma centers to intervene and mitigate potential retaliation when victims of violence become patients there. Omaha police work in conjunction with YouTurn to deploy staff at each trauma center.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A private school in southeast Nebraska is offering an education that emphasizes outdoor time, practical learning and Christian values.

The Skyview Learning Academy, which sits on a 20-acre (8-hectare) plot with a pond and has a 60-tree orchard, opened its doors in 2014, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.

Michele Ray founded the school located in Douglas, a village about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from Lincoln. She said she wanted a different kind of school for her children than what’s offered in public schools. Ray said letting kids outside in nature and teaching them about healthy living should begin at an early age.

The school, which also has freely roaming dogs, cats and chickens, doubled its enrollment by its second academic year from 13 to 26. The school enrolled nearly 40 students for the 2017-18 year.

Ray said the school has replaced its cafeteria with classroom space to accommodate the growing number of enrolled students. She hopes to enroll 60 students next school year, which would allow for a teacher’s aide.

The school offers a media center, kitchen and gymnasium, but Ray hopes to add a two-level entryway, two more classrooms, a cafeteria and a mud room. It’s also built a new chicken coop and raised garden beds.

Skyview charges parents $600 per month to help fund projects. It also hosts an annual banquet that has raised between $5,000 and $6,000.

Tina Doerr, who enrolled her daughters in the school for the 2017-18 year, said she finds its tuition a worthwhile expense because of the unique learning experience.

“I love the nature focus and the Christian atmosphere,” she said. “I feel like being outside they develop so much better. It forces them to use their imaginations 100 percent.”

Doerr said the school allows students to learn at their own pace.