Troopers and Communication Specialists with the Nebraska State Patrol will put in overtime hours during the Boys State Basketball Tournament March 7-9 in Lincoln, as part of a special enforcement effort designed to reduce the potential for serious injury and fatality crashes.

Troopers will conduct high visibility patrol on the Interstate and highways leading to Lincoln beginning on Thursday March 7 and continuing through Saturday, March 9.

“State Basketball is a fun and exciting time, but it is also a time when traffic volumes can be extremely heavy on roadways into and out of the Capital City,” said Colonel David Sankey, Superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol. “By increasing enforcement and raising awareness, we hope to increase voluntary compliance of all traffic safety laws.”

A $9,340 grant from the Nebraska Office of Highway Safety (NOHS) will help to pay for the special enforcement efforts.

Motorists are reminded to obey the posted speed limits, always wear their seat belt and never drive impaired or distracted.  Weather and road construction can play a factor in travel plans. Fans headed to state tournament games are reminded to check road and weather condition reports by utilizing 511, Nebraska’s Advanced Traveler Information System at < www.511.nebraska.gov >  the 511 Mobile Traveler Site at < https://www.ndortraveler.mobi > or by dialing 511 (800-906-9069) from any landline or cellular phone for information.

UPDATE

Court records show the father of a 10-year-old Nebraska boy has died, days after he fell in their home and was found being cared for by his son.

An amended petition filed in court Monday says 45-year-old Bienvenu Asumani died Sunday. Additional information about his death wasn’t available.

Asumani was taken to a hospital, while his son was put in state custody.

Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Dan Zieg, who filed the petition, couldn’t immediately be reached.

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Investigators say a 10-year-old boy helped keep his father alive more than a week after the man slipped at their Lincoln home.

The Associated Press reports that the boy answered the door when a Lincoln investigator went to their home Friday. The boy’s school principal had called police after not seeing the boy at school for four days.

The boy said his father had fallen on a wet floor more than a week before, striking his head. The boy says he gave his father fluids and nutritional items.

A court affidavit says the man’s eyes were open and he was breathing but couldn’t answer questions from the investigator. He’s been taken to a Lincoln hospital.

A judge has put the boy in the state’s care.

Four people were injured when a folded-up basketball hoop fell from a gymnasium ceiling during a youth wrestling tournament at Weeping Water School in eastern Nebraska.

Weeping Water Fire Chief Ernie West says the hoop apparatus pivoted down, “the cable or a bolt broke, and it came down and struck four people” on Sunday around 1:30 p.m.

Authorities say two people were flown to a hospital for treatment and two others were taken by ambulance. Their names and conditions aren’t available.

The Kyle Sorensen Memorial Wrestling Tournament was under way when the accident occurred.

Weeping Water schools Superintendent Ken Heinz says the hoops are routinely inspected, but he wouldn’t say when the one that fell was last inspected.

Heinz says the gym will be closed while the accident is investigated.

Scientists say a baby born with the AIDS virus appears to have been cured thanks to faster and stronger treatment than is usual for newborns.

Scientists at a major AIDS meeting say the Mississippi child is now 2½ and has been off HIV drugs for about a year with no signs of infection.

If the child remains healthy, it would mark only the world’s second reported cure. Specialists say it offers promising clues for more research to fight pediatric HIV.

Doctors don’t usually give high-dose treatment right after birth, before first confirming that a newborn really is infected.

Sunday’s announcement in Atlanta suggests doing so in this case wiped out HIV before it could form hideouts in the body that usually reinfect anyone who stops medication.

 

The mayor of Grand Island has been arrested for suspicion of drunken driving.

Mayor Jay Vavricek was arrested in Howard County on Saturday.

City spokeswoman Wendy Meyer-Jerke released a statement Sunday acknowledging Vavricek was stopped. The statement says he is awaiting the results of a blood test.

It says he apologizes to his family, the community and others who are dependent upon him “for the events that have occurred in the last 24 hours.”

Vavricek says he will take corrective action so “they will never be affected like this again.”  He says he will comment no further since the matter will be addressed by the judicial system.

A telephone number listed for him had been disconnected.

Vavricek is the owner of Hometown Family Radio, which operates 15 radio stations across Nebraska, including two in North Platte.

 

A 32-year-old Beemer man has been sentenced to four to seven years in prison for molesting a 10-year-old girl and for a drunken driving crash.

Rudy Lindstrom was sentenced Thursday in Lancaster County District Court after pleading guilty to third-offense DUI and no contest to third-degree sexual assault of a child.

Lincoln police say Lindstrom hit a parked car on the night of April 12, injuring a 25-year-old man in the driver’s seat, then drove away.

After being arrested, his blood-alcohol level tested more than three times the legal driving limit.

Police say in August, a 10-year-old girl reported that Lindstrom had touched her sexually in Lincoln when she was eight or nine.

A police officer is recovering after hitting a sport utility vehicle that investigators say pulled out in from of him in a downtown Lincoln intersection.

The Associated Press reports that Officer Peter Lensing was taken to a hospital Friday morning after plowing into the SUV with enough force that the SUV rolled.

Police say Lensing suffered an injury to his hand, but was released from the hospital Friday. Police say the officer riding with Lensing wasn’t hurt, nor was the teenager driving the SUV.

Police say the boy’s father came to the accident scene and picked him up.

A Nebraska civil rights group is suing Sarpy County on behalf of a man who says he was jailed for four days because sheriff’s deputies wrongly believed he was an illegal immigrant.

The Nebraska chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union says 48-year-old Ramon Mendoza, of Papillion, was jailed in March 2010. In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Sarpy County District Court, Mendoza says he was pulled over and arrested by a sheriff’s deputy for not having a valid driver’s license or proof of car insurance.

The lawsuit says Mendoza was not allowed to call his family or a lawyer and that law enforcement officials used racial slurs to address him. It also says officials ignore a naturalization certificate, Social Security card and other documents provided by his family.

The Lincoln Regional Center is now featuring the artwork of Nebraskans who have struggled with mental illness.

The new, monthly “Artist of the Arboretum” show opened on Friday. The art shown will reflect the hope and role that art can play in helping people recover from mental health problems.

The first artist featured is photographer Deborah A. Hahn, of Kearney. Here photography reflects her personal journal after once being a patient at the Lincoln center.

The art exhibit in the center’s lobby is open from 8:30 a.m. through 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. The display will feature a new artist every month.

Police in St. Paul, MN have set up a special tip line to help find a missing woman who is believed to be dead.

Kira Trevino, 30, was last seen on the night of February 21 as she left work at the Mall of America.  However, police say they found so much blood in her car and home that they believe she is dead.

Police are particularly interested in tracking the movements of her husband, who has been charged with murder after police found large amounts of blood evidence in the couples home.

A security camera at a gas station near the couple’s home showed a man put gas in Kira Trevino’s car at around 2 a.m. last Friday, then drive toward Interstate 35E instead of heading in the direction of her home.  Unfortunately, the image is grainy and police are unable to identify the man.

Eight hours later, security cameras at the Mall of America recorded Trevino’s car entering the parking lot, but police are unable to tell who is in the car.  They were able to see a person in the back of the vehicle throw something aside.

Investigators say they are following all tips and leads in an attempt to find the missing woman.