LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A Nebraska man is facing charges of drunken driving and child abuse after police found him passed out behind the wheel of a car near Raymond with a 3-year-old in the back seat.
The Lancaster County Sheriff’s office says 19-year-old Aaron Simon of Valparaiso was found Tuesday night in the driver’s seat of a car parked behind a convenience store in Raymond.
The 3-year-old was asleep near two full bottles of alcohol. The child, who is believed to be Simon’s nephew, was taken to his grandfather’s home.
Simon told deputies he decided to take a nap on his way home after having several shots of vodka. He was taken to detox and ticketed on suspicion of several charges.
Simon doesn’t have a listed phone number in Valparaiso.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Police in Lincoln say they’re investigating the theft of $14,000 in tools from a construction site over the Christmas weekend.
The items were stolen from a locked storage container between Friday night and Tuesday morning.
Police say some of the equipment included saws, drills, harnesses and welding lead.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Gov. Dave Heineman has granted a request to lower state and U.S. flags to half-staff in honor of state Sen. Dennis Utter of Hastings, who died Tuesday.
Heineman granted the request from Hasting’s Mayor Vern Powers Wednesday.
Flags will be lowered to half-staff in Hastings on Friday, the day of Utter’s funeral.
Heineman also ordered flags to be lowered at the State Capitol and the governor’s residence on Friday in honor of Utter’s service to the state.
Utter, who was elected in 2008, had been suffering from lung disease. He was hospitalized Tuesday morning and died a few hours later.
He was 72.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A Democratic state senator from Omaha says he’s planning legislation addressing the use of court settlement money by the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office.
Sen. Heath Mello says in a news release that his bill would direct settlement funds into the budgets of Nebraska’s schools. The bill also would require settlement money directed for another purpose must be deposited into a fund created by the Legislature, with appropriate oversight and transparency.
Criticism arose after Attorney General Jon Bruning awarded a $100,000 grant from a cash pool intended for environmental issues to a Nebraska farm coalition that was formed to fight an animal welfare group. The coalition includes the politically influential Nebraska Farm Bureau.
Bruning is a Republican candidate to replace Democratic U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, who isn’t seeking a third term.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Nebraska wildlife officials say they have euthanized a mountain lion found in a steel-jawed bobcat trap in Dawes County in the state’s panhandle.
Officials with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission say the animal was found and put down on Monday.
The trap was legally set and the trapper called officials as soon as he discovered the mountain lion. The animal was described as an adult female weighing about 120 pounds.
Officials say they try to tranquilize any mountain lion that is accidentally trapped if it can be done safely and the animal is uninjured, but the mountain lion’s leg was still trapped and it was pulling the stakes that secured the trap in the ground free.
Officials say the animal would not have survived had it escaped.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson survived nearly two decades representing heavily Republican Nebraska by carving a distinctive path down the political center.
But with that road becoming more difficult in today’s polarizing political climate, Nelson is stepping away – and swinging the door wide open for the GOP.
Nelson announced Tuesday that he wouldn’t seek a third term. The former two-term governor is the lone Democrat in Nebraska’s five-member congressional delegation.
The 70-yaer-old conservative Democrat was facing a tough campaign against several Republican challengers who’ve spent several months attacking his support for President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul and federal stimulus legislation.
Democrats lamented Nelson’s decision to retire, fearing it sets up the GOP for an easy victory. Republicans must net only four seats to take back the Senate in 2012.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Misdemeanor charges against the son of Nebraska Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy have been dismissed.
Authorities say Joel Sheehy accidentally shot himself in the face with a 9 mm pistol early on the morning of Feb. 2.
The now-22-year-old Sheehy was charged later with possession of an unregistered firearm and failure to appear in court.
Joel Sheehy’s attorney, Michael Kelley, says there was some sort of misunderstanding about the court hearing, but he wasn’t Sheehy’s attorney at the time.
City Attorney Marty Conboy says he asked a judge in August to dismiss the firearms charge and the other allegation because Joel Sheehy was intending to register the pistol. Conboy says other guns at Sheehy’s west Omaha apartment had been registered.

SHELTON, Neb. (AP) – Authorities say a 25-year-old Shelton man has died after being injured in a car crash earlier this month.
Kyle Gilliland died Friday at The Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
Gilliland was alone in his car when it went out of control northeast of Kearney on Dec. 17.
The Buffalo County Sheriff’s Office says car hit an embankment, went airborne, struck a utility pole and came to rest on its wheels.
Gilliland was first taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney and later was transferred to the Omaha hospital.