A relative of two young boys killed in an apparently murder-suicide says their grandmother insisted on picking the children up alone despite the objections of their mother.

Connecticut state police say that after getting the children from a daycare center on Tuesday the grandmother, Debra Denison, apparently shot and killed them before turning the gun on herself.

Marcia White says the boys’ mother, Brenda Perry, had asked the grandmother to bring along another relative. White says Denison’s struggles with mental health were well known and Perry told Denison the boys were too much of a handful for her.

White is a paternal great-grandmother of the slain boys, 2-year-old Alton Perry and 6-month-old Ashton Perry. She said Wednesday that Denison wanted to pick the boys up because it was Alton’s birthday.

State Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh has been ticketed on suspicion of drunken driving in his northwest Omaha district.

Chief Deputy Sheriff Marty Bilek with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department says Lautenbaugh was stopped in his northwest Omaha district around 2 a.m. Wednesday after he was seen driving erratically. Bilek says Lautenbaugh was taken to the sheriff’s office and given a breath test indicating his blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal driving limit of .08.

Bilek says Lautenbaugh was not arrested, but was not allowed to drive home.

Lautenbaugh issued a written statement to news media saying he’s embarrassed and that he takes full responsibility. He also says he will immediately seek “an alcohol evaluation and follow whatever is recommended.”

Lautenbaugh has served in the Legislature since 2007.

An Omaha woman is caught in a bureaucratic web that has seen her struggle to obtain a driver’s license and even a marriage license.

The Associated Press reports that Mary Ann Walters’ troubles stem from sharing the same name and birthday as a woman wanted on a 20-year-old arrest warrant in North Carolina. When that woman didn’t show up in court to face the charges, her name was entered into a national database of wanted people.

Even though the Mary Ann Walters in Omaha has a different Social Security number, that has not been enough for Nebraska officials to issue her a new driver’s license.

Walters says she had to send proof of her identity to North Carolina and wait weeks to get a new license.

Nebraska lawmakers have given first-round approval to a bill that would let keno players run through more games in an hour.

Lawmakers voted 25-14 on Wednesday to advance the measure.

The bill by Sen. Russ Karpisek of Wilber would reduce the minimum waiting time between games from five minutes to three. Gambling opponents say the bill will disproportionately hurt the poor, but cities say revenue from the games has helped pay for police cruisers, park renovations and other substance-abuse treatment programs.

Profits from player losses are shared by local bar owners, cities and the state. The bill would generate an estimated $408,000 for the state’s general fund in the budget year that begins on July 1.

A county prosecutor says a Missouri highway patrol trooper acted lawfully during a traffic stop that left a Nebraska man dead.

Holt County Prosecuting Attorney Robert Shepherd determined that trooper Christopher Sullivan was justified in using deadly force during the stop in January near Craig in northwest Missouri.

Fifty-year-old Thomas Schroeder of Omaha, Neb., was stopped for speeding when the trooper suspected he was intoxicated. The two men struggled and investigators say Sullivan was hit several times before shooting Schroeder.

Investigators found several drivers’ licenses and other forms of identification, partially consumed bottles of liquor and $3,800 in cash in Schroeder’s car.

Missouri patrol officials say Sullivan is back on duty.

A southeast Nebraska woman has been given 15 days in jail and 18 months of probation for driving drunk with children in her vehicle.

Andrea Weber, of Fairbury, had pleaded guilty to several charges, including drunken driving, reckless driving and attempted assault on an officer. Weber also was fined $500 at her sentencing on Monday.

Court documents say Weber initially refused to pull over for Beatrice police on Oct. 31. When she did stop, police found two children, ages 3 and 4, in the car. Police say that when an officer tried to stop Weber from returning to her car, she kneed him in the groin.

 

A former Lincoln police officer in prison for stealing from a police union charity fund has pleaded no contest to a new crime.

Cassandra Briggs has pleaded no contest to falsely claiming that her ATM card had been stolen while she was in prison.

Briggs entered the plea to a felony forgery charge, so her prison sentence may grow because she faces up to five more years. She’s already serving a two to four year sentence for stealing from the charity program.

Police say Briggs initially denied knowing anyone in Florida where the withdrawals were made but later admitted her mother lives there.

Briggs’ mother told investigators that Briggs had given her the ATM card to help pay for her son’s care while she’s incarcerated.

The Navy says two sailors from its Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit have died while conducting diving operations at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

Officials said in a news release that the deaths occurred Tuesday. While one diver was pronounced dead at the scene, the other was transported to a local medical facility, where he was pronounced dead later. The unit is based at Joint Expeditionary Base, Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia Beach.

The divers’ names were not immediately released.

The deaths are under investigation.

Late last month, an engineering technician died while performing maintenance at an underwater test facility at the Army site.

That diver died while completing routine underwater test infrastructure maintenance at APG’s Super Pond, which is used to conduct shock test programs, as well as other research and development.

Beer lovers across the country have filed $5 million class-action lawsuit accusing Anheuser-Busch of watering down its Budweiser, Michelob and other brands.

The suits were filed in Pennsylvania, California and other states on behalf of consumers allegedly cheated out of the beverage’s stated alcohol content. Budweiser and Michelob each boast being 5 percent alcohol, while some “light” versions are said to be just over 4 percent.

Lead lawyer Josh Boxer of San Rafael, Calif., said Tuesday the suits are based on information from former employees at some of the company’s 13 U.S. breweries. Boxer said water is added just before bottling, and cuts the stated alcohol content by 3 to 8 percent.

The multinational Anheuser-Busch InBev calls the claims groundless, and says its beers fully comply with labeling laws.

The Nebraska Court of Appeals has again said a Lincoln man was wrongly convicted of attempting to sexually assault an underage girl.

The appeals court slammed the work of Mohammed Nadeem’s trial attorney and said the jury in his case should have been allowed to consider whether Nadeem was entrapped by police.

Last year, the appeals court ordered a new trial for Nadeem because potential jurors were given numbers to use rather than their names during jury selection, saying it might have unfairly led jurors to believe Nadeem was dangerous. But in October, the Nebraska Supreme Court reversed that decision, sending the case back to the Nebraska Court of Appeals.

On Tuesday, the appeals court said Nadeem should be immediately released from prison on an appeal bond.