(AP) — A 2-year-old boy has been found unhurt in a northeast Nebraska cornfield.
The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office says the boy was reported missing from his Walthill home around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Several volunteers and agency staffers joined in the search for him. A volunteer found the boy around 11 p.m. in a cornfield not far from the boy’s home.
He was soon returned to his family.
(AP) — A 30-year-old driver has died after a rollover crash in northeast Nebraska’s Boone County.
The crash occurred a little before 12:30 a.m. Thursday on Nebraska Highway 91, just west of Albion.
The Nebraska State Patrol says Shane Thome, of Albion, was driving east when he lost control of his vehicle. It rolled after entering a ditch, ejecting him.
The accident cause is being investigated.
(AP) — A 24-year-old former Hastings College soccer player is scheduled to be sentenced in November for killing a roommate in Omaha.
Twenty-four-year-old Greg Dodds pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and a weapons charge on Wednesday.
Authorities say Dodds stabbed and slashed to death 22-year-old Vedant Patel March 5, 2012. Officers who arrested Gregory found him sitting in a vehicle, making comments about being responsible. He said God told him to kill Patel.
Two doctors later found Dodds insane at the time of the killing and blamed it on his drug use.
Dodds pleaded no contest after making a deal with prosecutors who lowered the charge.
The sentencing is set for Nov. 18.
Dodds graduated the Hastings school in 2011.
(AP) — The trial of a lawsuit filed by Nebraska landowners challenging Gov. Dave Heineman’s decision to approve a new route for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline through the state will be held Friday afternoon in Lincoln.
In June, a Lancaster County District judge rejected a motion by state officials to dismiss the lawsuit, filed by three Nebraska landowners. They say a law passed during a special legislative session in 2011 as a way to reroute the pipeline away from Nebraska’s environmentally sensitive Sandhills was unconstitutional.
The landowners say the law doesn’t allow for judicial review and doesn’t spell out what criteria should be considered when a pipeline project is being evaluated.
Those who favor the pipeline have cited the nation’s need for more oil and praised its potential economic impact.
(AP) — An autopsy has been scheduled on the body of an infant found not breathing at a Lincoln motel.
Paramedics and police officers responded to a report about the child a little after 2 p.m. Thursday at the Sharon Motel, a few blocks north of downtown.
Police Capt. Jim Davidsaver said the child was less than a year old.
The child’s death is being investigated.
(AP) — A woman and her teenage son have settled a lawsuit filed against the Malcolm school district alleging the district didn’t protect the boy from bullying.
Court records say the lawsuit filed in February 2011 was settled last week at the request of both parties. Terms were not disclosed.
The boy was an eighth-grader during the 2009-2010 school year. The lawsuit says the district didn’t react properly to harassment of the boy. In one instance, the lawsuit says, tormenters pushed his head into a toilet bowl.
The lawsuit also says the district violated his rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to accommodate the boy’s diabetes.
The boy, who has since left the school, was referred to as John Doe in the lawsuit in order to protect his identity.
(AP) — Douglas County officials will launch a pilot program this fall that will require repeat drunken-driving offenders to take twice-daily blood alcohol tests.
Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning says officials are modeling the 24/7 Sobriety Program on one that’s been in place in neighboring South Dakota since 2005. An independent study of South Dakota’s program released last year showed that it reduced repeat DUI cases by 12 percent and domestic violence rates by 9 percent.
The program gives people convicted three or more times of drunken driving a chance to stay out of jail as long as they don’t drink alcohol.
Participants will take a test twice a day — once in the morning, once at night — at the Criminal Justice Center in Omaha and pay $2 for each test.
(AP) — The former owner of a Nebraska meatpacking company has agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle a class-action lawsuit by former employees.
Private equity firm MatlinPatterson agreed to the settlement without admitting any wrongdoing. The firm was a majority owner of Premium Protein Products when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2009.
Former employees claimed the company violated federal law when it furloughed hundreds of employees for months without pay and then filed for bankruptcy.
The company’s Hastings plant was sold in 2010 and its Lincoln plant remains closed.
The law firm representing the employees called the settlement a good result. A message for officials with MatlinPatterson was not immediately returned Thursday.
(AP) — The owners of a Colorado cantaloupe farm have pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from a 2011 listeria epidemic that killed 33 people.
Brothers Eric and Ryan Jensen were arrested Thursday on misdemeanor charges of introducing adulterated food into interstate commerce. They appeared in federal court later and were released on unsecured bonds.
Prosecutors say federal agencies determined the Jensens didn’t adequately clean their cantaloupe.
Criminal charges in food-contamination cases are rare. Prosecutors say they’re pursuing this case because of the number of deaths.
It was the deadliest outbreak of foodborne illness in 25 years. The federal Centers for Disease Control say people in 28 states ate the fruit.
(AP) — Toyota is recalling 615,000 Sienna minivans in the U.S. because they can inadvertently shift out of park and roll away.
The recall involves Siennas from the 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009 models years.
Toyota said Thursday that the shift locking device can potentially be damaged. If that happens, the minivans can shift out of park even if the driver isn’t depressing the brake pedal.
Toyota said it has gotten reports of 21 accidents and 2 injuries related to the problem.
Owners will be notified of the recall by mail. Dealers will replace the shift-lock device for free.
