(AP) — Police are investigating the theft of copper worth thousands of dollars from a power station run by the Omaha Public Power District.
Officers responded to the power station Friday afternoon following a report of a burglary.
A report says a hole was cut into the northeast corner of the fence and a lock was cut on the west gate.
The copper was valued at $3,000. The additional damage was estimated at $350.
(AP) — Omaha police are looking for the driver of a stolen vehicle who rammed into a police cruiser to avoid arrest.
Omaha Police Officer Michael Pecha says the incident happened shortly before 7 a.m. Monday.
Pecha says patrol officers recognized a vehicle at a gas station near I-80 in eastern Omaha as a possible stolen vehicle.
Once officers confirmed the vehicle was stolen, they pulled into the parking lot. Then the stolen vehicle rammed the police cruiser and backed into a tree.
When officers exited their vehicle, the stolen vehicle hit the cruiser again and fled.
The vehicle was located later in Council Bluffs, and a passenger was arrested, but officers are still looking for the driver.
(AP) — The number of confirmed cases of a rare food-borne illness in Nebraska has climbed to 48 as state and federal public health agencies try to figure out where it’s coming from.
An outbreak of cyclosporiasis (sy-kloh-spor-EYE’-uh-sis) is confined mostly to Douglas County in eastern Nebraska and is likely linked to Iowa where 71 people were confirmed sick as of Monday.
Nebraska Epidemioloist Dr. Thomas Safranek says fresh vegetables are likely the culprit but the investigation continues.
Consumers should wash fruits and vegetables to reduce the risk of getting the illness, which causes diarrhea lasting an average of 57 days. It’s caused by a parasite carried primarily in human feces that contaminates food.
The illness is rare in Nebraska. No cases were reported in the last four years.
(AP) — An Indiana doctor has been arrested in the unsolved deaths of four people linked to the Nebraska medical school he attended before being fired in 2001.
Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer says 40-year-old Dr. Anthony Garcia was arrested Monday in Illinois.
Schmaderer says Garcia has been linked to the May slayings of Creighton University professor Roger Brumback and his wife, Mary, as well as the 2008 stabbings of 11-year-old Thomas Hunter and his family housekeeper, Shirlee Sherman.
Roger Brumback and Thomas Hunter’s father worked in Creighton’s pathology department. They fired Garcia for erratic behavior in 2001, when he was a pathology resident.
Schmaderer declined to discuss evidence against Garcia, who lives in Terre Haute, Ind. Garcia doesn’t have a listed phone number, and information about his attorney wasn’t immediately available.
(AP) — A judge at a hearing for a 16-year-old California boy charged with murder in the death of his 11-year-old half brother said the suspect has a history of violent outbursts.
Riverside County district attorney’s spokesman John Hall said Monday the juvenile court judge cited the outbursts and delayed a detention hearing until September at the request of defense attorneys.
Hall says the boy must remain in custody until then. Hall says he could not elaborate on the outbursts.
The disappearance of Terry Dewayne Smith Jr. set off a huge search before a body was found last week matching his description behind the house he shared with his mother and half brother.
The Associated Press is not naming the suspect because he is a juvenile.
A message for defense attorneys was not immediately returned.
(AP) — The National Transportation Safety Board has closed its San Francisco command post, concluding the on-scene investigation into the crash-landing of Asiana Airlines Flight 214.
The NTSB said in a statement Monday that its investigative team has completed the examination of the airplane wreckage and runway at San Francisco International Airport.
The wreckage will still be available for further examination if necessary at a secure storage location at the airport.
Investigators completed several witness interviews over the weekend and were expected to finish interviewing first responders Monday.
The agency says the next phase of the investigation will include additional interviews, examination of the evacuation slides and other airplane components, and more in-depth analysis of the airplane’s performance.
Flight 214 crashed July 6, killing three people and injuring dozens.
(AP) — Some Nebraska veterans have been sharing their war stories with a researcher from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
In some cases, the veterans are telling Brian O’Grady about things they’ve never told their families.
O’Grady says “it’s easier for them to talk to someone they’re not emotionally connected with.” But, he says, he’s given copies of the interviews to their families.
He’s focused on World War II vets but also has talked to men who fought in the Korean or Vietnam wars and to a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
O’Grady plans to publish the stories and may donate the recordings to an archive.
(AP) — Authorities say a driver died after his car rammed into a light pole in Lincoln.
Police say the accident occurred around 5 a.m. Monday at the intersection of South 70th Street and Nebraska Highway 2 in southeast Lincoln.
Police spokeswoman Katie Flood says the car missed a slight curve and ran off the roadway into the pole. The car burst into flames before rescue workers arrived.
Flood says the man has been identified, but his name won’t be released until relatives are informed about his death.
(AP) — Authorities have released the name of a man whose body was found in a building that houses the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club in Omaha.
Police identified him as 48-year-old William Furlong, of Omaha.
Police say emergency workers were dispatched to the building in southeast Omaha about 10:45 a.m. Sunday.
Homicide investigators say there were signs that a crime was involved in Furlong’s death, but no arrests have been reported.
Police haven’t said how Furlong died or released any other information about the case.
(AP) — A Wisconsin man who killed his three daughters to get back at his ex-wife will soon learn if he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison.
A jury found in April that 35-year-old Aaron Schaffhausen was sane when he killed 11-year-old Amara, 8-year-old Sophie and 5-year-old Cecilia at their River Falls’ home. He’ll be sentenced Monday in St. Croix County.
He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison for each death. The judge must decide if that sentence will include the possibility of supervised release after at least 20 years, or if Schaffhausen will stay behind bars forever.
Schaffhausen admitted he killed the girls last July to get back at his ex-wife. Jurors found he had a mental defect, but knew the killings were wrong.
