Lincoln will have an indoor football team next spring when the Council Bluffs Express becomes the Lincoln Haymakers.

The team’s owners said Tuesday that the Lincoln team will be part of the new Champions Professional Indoor Football League.

The team’s majority owner is Ho-Chunk Inc., the Winnebago tribe’s economic development corporation. Justin Hayes and Brad Lindgren also own part of the team that will play in Lincoln’s Pershing Auditorium.

The Lincoln Haymakers will hold an open try-out on Oct. 20. But the team has already signed two former Nebraska running backs: Cory Ross and Marlon Lucky.

Ross will also serve as assistant director of player personnel and help with marketing.

The Nebraska State Patrol is focusing renewed attention on a 13-year-old unsolved murder in northeast Nebraska.

A patrol news release this week says the body of 54-year-old Jeanne Kassebaum was discovered by family members in the bathtub of her West Point home on Aug. 21, 1999. Initially, her death was ruled an accident, until an autopsy determined she had been strangled.

Nebraska State Patrol Investigator Melanie Lueders says the patrol believes there are “still people out there who know more about what happened the night she died.”

Kassebaums’ picture and information about her death are featured in a 2010 deck of playing cards designed to help crack cold cases in Nebraska. A full deck of the cards can be viewed on the Nebraska State Patrol website.

A 15-year-old student has been arrested, accused of threatening to shoot people at Omaha’s North High School.

School district spokesman David Patton said Tuesday that the boy wasn’t armed and made the threats during a confrontation with a student at another district school.

An Omaha police report shows the alleged threat was made and investigated Sept. 7, although the student was not arrested until Sept. 10. An investigating officer noted in the report that the student threatened “to shoot people at the school, causing another Columbine and Von Maur incident by killing people.”

The Von Maur comment references the December 2007 Omaha mall shooting in which a gunman killed himself and eight others. “Columbine” refers to the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in suburban Denver that killed 15 people.

A 22-year-old driver has been given a year of probation for the death of a friend who’d fallen from the back of a truck in southeast Nebraska.

Cody Barnes had pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vehicular homicide. Barnes, of Smithfield, was sentenced on Tuesday.

Authorities say 20-year-old Cody Fanning and some other friends were riding in the truck bed in April in Crete when Barnes turned. Fanning fell out and struck his head on the street. He died at a hospital.

The accident occurred near Doane College, where Barnes and Fanning were students.

Saline County Attorney Tad Eickman says Barnes had stopped the truck before the accident and told Fanning to sit down. But Fanning was standing just before he fell.

A Wisconsin company says it’s buying Midwest Metals Recycling of Omaha.

Sadoff Iron & Metal Co. already has a scrap metal operation in Lincoln. Sadoff says it will take over Midwest Metals by the end of September. The sale terms were not disclosed.

Midwest Metals was founded in 1991 as an aluminum can recycler and expanded into recycling other metals.

Sadoff Iron & Metal is part of Sadoff & Rudoy Industries, LLP, which is based in Fond du Lac, Wis.

A Minnesota consulting firm has completed a strategic plan for promoting Nebraska tourism that followed more than two dozen forums and comments from hundreds of people.

Conventions, Sports and Leisure of Minneapolis developed the statewide plan, which is aimed at expanding tourism in the state. The Nebraska Legislature ordered the plan, which includes a look at current issues and a strategy for expansion.

Nebraska Tourism Commissioner Mike Kesselring says the state’s tourism industry is eager to think creatively and improve how it promotes its attractions.

Officials say they held 28 forums and focus groups and heard from more than 500 tourism, business and community representatives.

The report is available online at industry.visitnebraska.org.

Authorities say a 12-year-old boy has been arrested after inappropriately touching a female faculty member at Westridge Middle School in Grand Island.

The boy was arrested on suspicion of third-degree sexual assault and attempted first-degree sexual assault.

School district spokesman Jack Sheard said Monday that the incident occurred Friday at Westridge’s Skills Academy. The Skills Academy is a special program for students who have behavioral or emotional issues.

A Nebraska man has been sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for distributing child pornography.

Prosecutors said Monday that 31-year-old Brent Bailey, of Lincoln, for having more than 300 files depicting child pornography on his computers.

The Nebraska State Patrol arrested Bailey after investigators traced child pornography to his computer in 2011.

The patrol searched Bailey’s home in December and found video and image files containing child pornography on a desktop computer in the kitchen.

Bailey pleaded guilty to receiving and distributing child pornography in June. Bailey’s past record included a prior conviction for attempted sexual assault.

After his prison sentence, Bailey will be on supervised release for the rest of his life.

Recent rains slowed down the harvest in Nebraska, but there wasn’t enough rain to change the dry soil conditions statewide.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday that the corn harvest is already about 23 percent done. That’s well ahead of the average of 2 percent at this time of year.

But the corn crop remains in poor condition because of this summer’s dry weather. About 33 percent of the corn crop is in good or excellent condition. That’s well below the average of 79 percent.

The soybean harvest has also started. About 19 percent of that crop is in good or excellent condition. That’s also well behind the average of 78 percent at this time of year.

 

A Nebraska couple that claimed more than $48 million in federal tax refunds has been sentenced to six years in federal prison.

Prosecutors say that 61-year-old David L. Kleensang and 59-year-old Bernita M. Kleensang of Hay Springs were sentenced on Monday. They were found guilty after a June trial.

Federal prosecutors say the Kleensangs claimed in their 2007 returns that the government owed them $48.5 million, even though they hadn’t filed since 2003. They also failed to file between 2008 and 2011.

Authorities say the couple continued to claim multimillion-dollar refunds even after they were warned that the filings appeared fraudulent.

The couple also argued they did not have to pay taxes because they were not federal employees and did not live in Washington, D.C.