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15-Year-Old Fatally Shot in Chicago

chicago-policeChicago police say a 15-year-old boy was found fatally shot in a backyard about four blocks from President Barack Obama’s home on the city’s South Side.

Cornelius German had been shot in the back and was found unresponsive at about 9:40 p.m. Monday in the 700 block of E. 50th Place.

Police Department spokesman John Mirabelli says German was a gang member but that the motive for the shooting was not yet certain.

German was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after he was found.

Obama’s home is just blocks away in the Kenwood neighborhood.

Mirabelli says no one is in custody as of Tuesday morning.

NE Lawmakers Support Inmate Parenting Program

NE Legislature
NE Legislature

Nebraska lawmakers advanced a bill that would support a program that teaches inmates how to be good parents.

Senators voted 38-1 on Monday to advance the measure sponsored by Sen. Kate Bolz of Lincoln.

The bill would let the state take over an existing inmate parenting program that was created by a nonprofit in 2009. Parents in the program are taught relationship and parenting skills.

Bolz says the program helps reduce the likelihood convicted parent will return to jail. About 7 percent of the program’s participants who have been released from jail have returned. The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services estimates the recidivism rate for such a group is more than 25 percent.

The program would cost the state $250,000 a year to fund.

NE Family Honored for Conservation Efforts

beel-familyA northern Nebraska ranching family has won a statewide award for land stewardship.

The Beel family of Johnstown was given this year’s Nebraska Leopold Conservation Award. The award is presented annually to private landowners who engage in sustainable land-management practices.

The family has worked on the land for 75 years. The ranch is owned and operated by brothers Frank, Henry and Adam, and their wives Jennifer, Mary and Jenny.

The Beel family will receive $10,000 and a crystal. The Sand County Land Foundation, Nebraska Cattlemen and Cargill present the award annually. The Beel family was recognized last week by Gov. Dave Heineman.

Kids Pitch Business Ideas to Warren Buffet

warren-buffetA select group of young entrepreneurs have won an opportunity to pitch their business ideas to investor Warren Buffett.

The kids, who are between 7- and 16-years-old, were chosen out of nearly 4,000 entries in the online contest.

The contest is tied to “The Secret Millionaires Club” cartoon that Buffett appears in to teach financial lessons. The contest is sponsored by the Fairholme Foundation and overseen by the By Kids For Kids Co.

Five individuals and three teams will be flown to Omaha to present their ideas to Buffett and a panel of judges.

An online vote from May 6-13 will help determine which of the finalists will win grand prizes of $5,000. The runners up will receive $500 prizes.

TSA Delays Policy Allowing Small Knives on Planes

TSAFederal officials say they’re delaying a policy that would allow passengers to carry small knives, bats and other sports equipment onto airliners.

The Transportation Security Administration said Monday that the policy change has been delayed to accommodate feedback from an advisory committee made up of aviation industry, consumer and law enforcement officials.

John Pistole (PIH’-stohl), head of the Transportation Security Administration, proposed the policy change last month, saying it would free up the agency to concentrate on protecting against greater threats. TSA screeners confiscate about 2,000 small folding knives from passengers every day.

The policy was to go into effect Thursday. The TSA’s statement said the delay was temporary, but no new date for implementation was provided.

The policy has been fiercely opposed by flight attendants’ unions.

NE Humane Society Offers Reward in Dog Poisoning Case

nebhumaneThe Nebraska Humane Society says another dog has been poisoned in the backyard of an Omaha couple.

The group says 3-year-old Murphy became violently ill only minutes after being let into the backyard on April 4. He survived. A urine test later came back positive for strychnine.

Murphy belongs to the girlfriend of Paul Wagner, who lives with his parents in north Omaha. Two dogs belonging to his parents died in November after eating tainted meat in the same backyard. The meat was laced with strychnine.

The Nebraska Humane Society is offering $2,500 for information leading to the arrest of the person or people responsible for the poisonings.

17-Year-Old Injured in Forklift Accident

ambulanceA 17-year-old Osceola boy has been hospitalized after being run over by a forklift in eastern Nebraska.

Authorities say the accident occurred about 11:30 a.m. Saturday on a farm southeast of Ulysses in Butler County. The forklift was driven by an 18-year-old man.

The Butler County Sheriff’s Office says the boy has been flown to a Lincoln hospital. His name and condition haven’t been released. The Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident.

A sheriff’s dispatcher said Monday that she had no information on the situation.

School-Funding Measures Divide NE Lawmakers

ne-legislature-13Lawmakers are divided over proposed changes to Nebraska’s school-funding formula, with rural senators expressing support for the measure and many urban lawmakers saying they oppose it.

Sen. Kate Sullivan, chairwoman of the Education Committee, said Monday that the bill was an attempt to compromise on the formula, which is often controversial.

Urban lawmakers argue that more state dollars should flow to districts with increasing student enrollments, higher property-tax levies and less spending per student.

Rural lawmakers say their education costs are higher because they have to offer better salaries to attract quality teachers. They also argue that students have to travel greater distances to reach schools.

State aid is intended to fill the gap between schools’ needs and what they can collect through local taxes.

NYC Proposal Would Increase Legal Age to Purchase Tobacco

smoking-21No one under 21 would be able to buy cigarettes in New York City, under a proposal unveiled Monday to make it the most populous place in America to set the minimum age that high.

Extending a decade of moves to crack down on smoking in the nation’s largest city, the measure aims to stop young people from developing a habit that remains the leading preventable cause of death, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said as she announced the plan. Eighty percent of the city’s smokers started lighting up before they were 21, officials say.

But the proposal may face questions about its effectiveness and fairness. A retailers’ representative suggested the measure would simply drive younger smokers to neighboring communities or corner-store cigarette sellers instead of city stores, while a smokers’ rights advocate called it “government paternalism at its worst.”

Under federal law, no one under 18 can buy tobacco anywhere in the country. Four states and some localities have raised the age to 19, and at least two communities have agreed to raise it to 21.

A similar proposal has been floated in the Texas Legislature, but it’s on hold after a budget board estimated it would cost the state more than $42 million in cigarette tax revenue over two years.

Several New York City smoking regulations have survived court challenges. But a federal appeals court said last year that the city couldn’t force tobacco retailers to display gruesome images of diseased lungs and decaying teeth.

The EPA Voices Concern Over the Keystone XL Pipeline, Again

epaThe Environmental Protection Agency again is raising objections to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would carry oil from western Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast.

The EPA said that despite more than four years of study, the State Department still has not done sufficient analysis of the project’s environmental impact

In a letter to the State Department on Monday, the EPA urged State to conduct a more thorough analysis of oil spill risks and alternative pipeline routes, as well as greenhouse gas emissions associated with the pipeline.

The concerns are similar to objections the EPA raised about the project in 2011. The State Department has authority over the pipeline because it crosses a U.S. border. A draft report in March said the project would not create significant environmental impacts.

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