Nebraska lawmakers are trying to set a new minimum prison sentence for convicted murderers who committed their crimes as juveniles.

Lawmakers began debate Monday on a sentencing bill, introduced in response to last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that invalidated life-without-parole sentences for juveniles.

Sen. Brad Ashford, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, presented a bill amendment that would set a 30-year minimum sentence for Nebraska offenders. The proposal would also allow judges to consider potential mitigating factors in sentencing, including an offender’s age, maturity and participation in rehabilitation programs.

Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh of Omaha is proposing a minimum 60-year sentence. Lautenbaugh argues that a 30-year sentence would let inmates qualify for release in as few as 15 years, under current sentencing guidelines.

 

A western New York man will get $1.6 million to settle a dispute stemming from flooding from a nearby development that left him inundated with frogs.

The award settles a seven-year legal fight involving Paul Marinaccio, the town of Clarence and a developer.

Marinaccio says runoff diverted onto his 40-acre property turned it into wetlands filled with frogs. He says the abundant amphibians forced him inside because a childhood incident left him with a crippling frog phobia.

the dispute was resolved last month when the State Court of Appeals decided Marinaccio wasn’t entitled to punitive damages.

The developer’s attorney says his client did only what the town told him to do.

A drainage channel will be dug under a post-verdict agreement.

The family of a 13-year-old Nebraska girl says she has died from injuries after her hair got caught in the engine of an ATV.

Emma Kringle’s family said in a statement through Lincoln’s Bryan West hospital that she died Monday. Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner says Emma had been on life support so her organs could be harvested. Doctors determined Saturday night that she was brain dead.

The accident occurred Saturday afternoon while Emma was driving the three-wheeled ATV near Branched Oak Lake northwest of Lincoln. The ATV crashed when her ponytail got tangled in the engine.

She was riding with her 9-year-old cousin. Wagner says both girls were wearing helmets.

Emma Kringle lived with her family on the southeast side of Lincoln.

Starting today, Monday, April 8, The Nebraska State Patrol, Criminal Identification Division will begin taking appointments for fingerprinting services offered at the Nebraska State Patrol Investigative Services Center, 3800 NW 12 Street, Suite A, in Lincoln.

Individuals needing fingerprinting for a Nebraska permit or licensure covered by state statute, will need to call the Criminal Identification Division during regular business hours at (402) 479-4971 to schedule an appointment.

“In the past you just came out and had to wait in line to get your fingerprints taken,” said Colonel David Sankey, Superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol. “It is our hope that by scheduling appointments, we can limit the wait for those citizens needing this service.”

Fingerprinting services are provided by the Nebraska State Patrol free of charge.  A list of Nebraska permits or licensures covered for printing services can be found on the Nebraska State Patrol website under theFingerprinting Appointments link.

The city attorney for Grand Island says he’ll hire another lawyer to handle the prosecution if the City Council proceeds with a misconduct charge against Mayor Jay Vavricek.

The city code covering removal of the mayor specifies that the city attorney would be the prosecutor. But City Attorney Bob Sivick says that he would have a conflict of interest because his clients include the mayor, the city and the City Council.

Sivick says he’s lined up an attorney from the Omaha suburb of Ralston to do the job if the council decides at its meeting Tuesday night to move forward against the mayor.

The misconduct charge cites Vavricek’s drunken-driving arrest on March 2. Vavricek pleaded no contest to reckless driving and was fined.

UPDATE:

Authorities are investigating the collapse of a deep pit that buried two young cousins at a home construction site in North Carolina.

The bodies of 6-year-old Chloe Jade Arwood and 7-year-old James Levi Caldwell were pulled Monday from a 24-foot-deep pit in the town of Stanley, outside of Charlotte.

Crews had been searching for the children since Sunday afternoon, when the girl’s father Jordan Arwood called 911 to report the collapse. Officials were on the scene within minutes but couldn’t get to the children.

Lincoln County Sheriff David Carpenter says investigators are following up on reports from neighbors that the father was digging the two-story-deep pit for some type of protective bunker.

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(AP) — Authorities are still searching for the bodies of two children who were trapped when dirt fell on them while playing in a hole at a home construction site near Charlotte.

Lincoln County Emergency Management officials say a father of one of the children called 911 Sunday afternoon. The Charlotte Observer reported that Jordan Caldwell told operators he saw the dirt collapse on the 6-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy.

Officials say crews were on the scene within minutes but couldn’t get to the children, who were trapped about 20 feet below a new home that was under construction.

Neighbors told the newspaper a man building the home had been digging with a backhoe earlier in the day.

Authorities said late Sunday they didn’t expect to find the children alive.

A 13-year-old Nebraska girl was critically hurt this weekend when her hair got caught in the engine of the ATV she was driving.

Lancaster County Sheriff’s Sgt. Derek Horalek says Emma Kringle was hurt Saturday afternoon in the accident near Branched Oak Lake, which is near Malcolm.

She remained in critical condition Sunday in a Lincoln hospital.

Authorities say Kringle was driving the three-wheeled ATV when her ponytail became entangled in the engine’s moving parts. That caused her to crash.

An Omaha doctor has been charged with first-degree sexual assault and witness tampering after a woman says the 83-year-old man forcibly performed oral sex on her.

The 26-year-old woman told police Nosrat Massih invited her to his Omaha condo to look it over, then removed her clothes and forced himself on her. She told police Massih had been drinking.

Massih was charged Wednesday and posted 10 percent of a $20,000 bail to be released from jail. Online court records do not show that Massih has a lawyer. Massih could not be reached Saturday for comment.

His preliminary hearing on the charges has been set for April 29 in Douglas County Court.

Police are investigating a fatal shooting at an apartment complex in central Omaha.

Omaha police were called to the apartments near 83rd Street and Underwood Avenue on Saturday afternoon.

The officers found a Jer’ray Moore lying in front of the building with a gunshot wound.

The 23-year-old Moore died later at Alegent-Creighton Medical Center.

The Southern California church headed by popular evangelical Pastor Rick Warren says his 27-year-old son has committed suicide.

Warren’s Saddleback Valley Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif., says in a statement Saturday that Matthew Warren had struggled with mental illness and deep depression.

Warren is the author of “The Purpose Driven Life.” In 2008, his church sponsored a presidential forum with Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney had been invited to a similar forum last fall, but Warren canceled it, saying the campaign had become too uncivil.

Saddleback’s website says that about 20,000 people attend weekend services at the church near Los Angeles.