HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) – A 22-year-old Hastings man has taken a plea deal in a robbery case.
Andrew Lyle had been accused of attempted murder, robbery and home invasion. The charges stemmed from a robbery at a bank night deposit and a home invasion on May 9.
Lyle pleaded no contest to three counts of robbery, one of discharging a firearm and one of possession of a firearm by a felon. In exchange, prosecutors dropped charges of attempted murder, use of a firearm for a felony and two counts of terroristic threats.
Sentencing is set for April 9.
Lyle’s cousin, Tyrell Lyle, has been given 11-to-18 years in prison for his role in the Hastings robberies.

 

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A state lawmaker says a gambling proposal he introduced would generate millions in Nebraska tax revenue that is currently going to Iowa.
Columbus Sen. Paul Schumacher told a legislative panel Monday that his measure (LR375CA) would help Nebraska cover the cost of education programs and roads. The proposed constitutional amendment would give the Legislature authority to legalize casino gambling.
Schumacher says three casinos within a 60-mile radius of downtown Omaha collect a combined $428 million a year in revenue.
Roughly three-fourths of that total comes from Nebraskans. He says Iowa collects about $93 million a year in tax revenue.
Gambling opponents say the economic benefits are overblown, given the cost of regulating such businesses as well as the likely increases in embezzlement and other crimes related to gambling addictions.

 

MINDEN, Neb. (North Platte Post)-The second of two suspects wanted in connection with a late night pursuit in which shots were fired at a Nebraska State Patrol trooper has been taken into custody.

Petr Strizheus, 18, Harrisburg, SD was taken into custody without incident around noon, Saturday, January 28, at the public library in Minden. Strizheus was arrested by Minden Police and a Kearney County Sheriff’s deputy after the librarian reported a suspicious subject to law enforcement.

Strizheus and another suspect were the subjects of a pursuit that led to an overnight search in Kearney County, when the two ditched the vehicle they were driving near the Fort Kearney Feedlot. The first suspect, Aleksandr Voznyuk, 22, Sioux Falls, SD was located at 2:00 a.m., hiding in a field near the feedlot.

Neither suspect was armed at the time of their arrests. Both men will be lodged in the Buffalo County Detention Center. The investigation into the incident continues.

The Nebraska State Patrol was assisted by the Kearney, Buffalo & Phelps County Sheriff’s Offices, and the Kearney and Minden Police Departments.

 

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A measure to abolish the death penalty in Nebraska has been pulled from debate in the Legislature, but could return later in the session.
Omaha Sen. Brenda Council filed a motion Friday to indefinitely postpone her own bill (LB276) until she can learn more about how state officials obtained a lethal injection drug.
The lawyer for death-row inmates Carey Dean Moore and Michael Ryan has challenged the legality of the sodium thiopental purchase, saying the doses were not supposed to be sold.
Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning has produced documents that show an Indian drug broker bought the drug from a Swiss manufacturer, and then sold the doses to Nebraska.
Council says she will likely seek to revive the bill for more debate later in the session.

 

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) – Federal safety officials have reduced the fine they imposed on a construction company over the death of an employee killed in an accident near the Kearney sewage plant. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration reduced the penalty to $12,740 from the original $19,600.
Seventy-five-year-old William Aschoff, of Niobrara, died in the Sept. 30 accident. His piece of heavy equipment went into a sandpit full of water, and he drowned.
Commercial Construction, of Lincoln, has paid the penalty and corrected all the violations OSHA found.
Officials had said the company failed to provide lifejackets or work vests for employees working over or around water and didn’t have needed rescue equipment stationed nearby.

 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Former 1992 Democratic presidential candidate Bob Kerrey says he will not make a decision this week on whether to run for the U.S. Senate seat he once held.
The former one-term Nebraska governor and two-term U.S. senator is mulling a run to replace U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, who announced last month that he would not seek a third term. Both Democrats and Republicans have acknowledged that Kerrey is the Democrats’ best hope for retaining the seat.
Kerrey had said earlier this month during a nearly week-long trip to Nebraska that he would make a decision shortly after returning to New York, where he’s lived and worked for the past decade. But more than a week later, he’s still weighing his options.
Kerrey says he expects to decide sometime next week.

 

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) – Fireplace ashes have been blamed for a fatal house fire in Scottsbluff.
Deputy State Fire Marshal Mike Turner says the ashes were improperly disposed on the house’s back porch Thursday. The fire was reported a little after 8:20 p.m.
Authorities say 92-year-old Salome Blanco Sr. died of smoke inhalation. His wife, Ramona, escaped.
Gering fire crews were called in to help extinguish the blaze.
Turner says a neighboring residence was damaged as well.

 

FREMONT, Neb. (AP) – Trial has been delayed in a lawsuit over Fremont’s ordinance that bans hiring or renting to illegal immigrants.
A combined lawsuit led by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund is challenging the voter-approved ban as discriminatory.
The case had been scheduled to be heard in federal court on April 10. A U.S. magistrate on Monday granted a joint motion moving the trial to May 15. A pretrial conference is set for April 30.
Both sides have filed summary judgment motions, which would result in a judge ruling in the case before it goes to trial.