President Barack Obama has named veteran Secret Service agent Julia Pierson as the agency’s first female director.
Pierson, a 30-year veteran of the agency, currently is its chief of staff.
Obama announced Pierson’s nomination Tuesday in a statement. He said she has had an exemplary career and is “eminently qualified” to lead the agency, which recently has been marred by scandal.
Pierson does not need to be confirmed by the Senate.
(AP) A judge has increased bail for a pregnant nanny accused of causing the death of a 4-month old Omaha boy.
Sarah Cullen must post $75,000, or 10 percent of $750,000, to be released before her trial in the death of Cash Bell. Her previous bail was set at $5,000, or 10 percent of $50,000. She had been free for the past two weeks.
Cullen was arrested in early March on a warrant charging her with child abuse resulting in Cash’s death. Authorities say the baby suffered two skull fractures.
Cullen’s attorney argued his client, who is six months pregnant, was not a flight risk or a risk to the community. Prosecutors say Cullen has a history of abusing children.
Cullen denies causing Cash’s injuries.
The Department of Health and Human Services is asking lawmakers for an additional $2.1 million to help pay telephone-service costs for ACCESSNebraska, the state’s public benefits portal.
Nebraska Children and Family Services director Thomas Pristow told lawmakers Tuesday that officials are working to reduce the costs and phone wait-times.
Officials predicted a cost savings when the system was launched in 2008, but Pristow says those estimates were too optimistic.
Pristow says wait-times and employee workloads at the call centers have been dropping. He says a decision to switch from a toll-free number to a local phone number for Lincoln residents is saving about $1,000 a day.
Sen. John Harms of Scottsbluff says he’s still hearing complaints about the system from constituents, some of whom don’t have computers or telephone access.
As lawmakers nationwide debate arming teachers and administrators to prevent another school shooting, one Colorado school district has already voted to allow its superintendent and a principal to carry guns on campus.
A board that oversees schools in rural Dolores County voted in February to allow the principal of Dove Creek High School and the superintendent to double as security officers, who under state law are allowed to carry guns on elementary, middle and high school campuses. They will receive an additional $1 salary and must complete a concealed-carry course.
But some say the decision sidesteps laws meant to keep schools gun-free and would put guns in the hands of staff who aren’t trained to shoot in crisis situations.
The debate was sparked after mass shootings in Aurora and Connecticut.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, says it’s setting up lockers in about a dozen stores so that shoppers who order on its website can pick up their items without having to wait in line checkout line.
The test, which is being conducted in an undisclosed market, is part of Wal-Mart’s strategy to offer more convenience for web-savvy shoppers to make their purchases wherever they want.
Wal-Mart officials disclosed the test Tuesday at a media event at its company’s global e-commerce offices in San Bruno, Calif., located in Silicon Valley. The test accounts for just a tiny fraction of its 4,000 U.S. namesake stores.
A study by a national group of financial-risk analysts says the federal health care law will raise claims costs in Nebraska’s individual health insurance market by an average of nearly 31 percent.
The Society of Actuaries estimates that President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act will raise claims costs nationally by an average of 32 percent per person in the individual health insurance market by 2017. That’s partly due to sicker people joining the pool.
Medical claims costs are the main driver of health insurance premiums.
The study finds wide disparities among states.
The estimates assume every state will expand its Medicaid program. Gov. Dave Heineman is opposed to expanding Medicaid in Nebraska.
The report did not make similar estimates for employer plans, the mainstay for workers and their families.
A court filing shows a suspended Roman Catholic priest in Connecticut accused of taking in more than $300,000 from sales of methamphetamines plans to plead guilty to one of the charges against him.
Kevin Wallin is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Hartford next week for a hearing in which he would plead guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Tuesday’s filing was obtained by The Associated Press.
A message left with his attorney wasn’t immediately returned.
Authorities say the 61-year-old Wallin had methamphetamine mailed to him from co-conspirators in California and made more than $300,000 in drugs sales out of his Waterbury apartment last year.
Wallin is the former pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport.
Utility officials say the troubled Nebraska nuclear power plant that has been idle since 2011 might be ready to restart this spring.
But first they’ll have to convince federal regulators the plant is ready.
Omaha Public Power District officials showed off the progress Tuesday at the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant. The plant about 20 miles north of Omaha has been shut down since April 2011 because of a series of safety concerns and flooding.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says significant work remains at the plant. Spokeswoman Lara Uselding says the utility has addressed less than half of the more than 450 items on the plant restart checklist.
Regulators say they won’t let the plant restart unless they’re confident it is safe. They’re holding a public meeting Wednesday in Omaha.
Federal regulators say Omaha’s Happy Hollow Club has paid nearly $66,000 in back wages to 38 workers who weren’t properly paid overtime or were required to turn a percentage of their tips.
A news release from the U.S. Labor Department said Tuesday that the club violated several provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The department says the club wrongfully took a percentage of the tips to help pay people who cleared tables. The club also didn’t follow guidelines on minimum wages after the tips totals were added to the $2.13 an hour in direct wages. And the department says some employees’ time records weren’t maintained.
The department says the club has agreed to comply with the regulations.
A 29-year-old Omaha man has made a plea deal with prosecutors and faces sentencing in May for having sex with a 14-year-old girl in a child prostitution case.
Alex Rahe pleaded no contest last week after prosecutors lowered the charge. Court records say he was convicted of sexual assault of a minor on April 22.
His sentencing has been scheduled for May 2.
The girl’s mother has been convicted of prostituting her 7- and 14-year-old daughters by using online ads across south-central Nebraska. Her maximum prison sentences total 170 years.
The Post is not using her name in order to protect her daughters’ privacy.
