LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Gov. Dave Heineman has appointed an attorney from North Platte as a district judge in central Nebraska. Heineman on Thursday named 58-year-old Richard Birch to the bench in the 11th Judicial District. Birch, who has practiced law for 32 years in Nebraska, replaces Judge John Murphy, who retired earlier this summer. The district covers 17 central and western counties and is based in North Platte.
BROKEN BOW, Neb. (AP) – An Ohio company is planning to build a new grain elevator in central Nebraska near Broken Bow. This new 3.8-million-bushel grain elevator will be run by The Andersons Inc. The Maumee, Ohio, company expects the elevator to be ready for the 2012 harvest. The elevator will be built along the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad’s main line crossing the state. The facility will be able to load grain into either trucks or trains. Elizabeth Babcock is president of the Custer County Economic Development Corporation. She says this will help the area’s economy and give farmers another option of where to sell their grain.
SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) – A moose spotted in Scotts Bluffs County this summer may be on his way home. The moose was first seen south of Gering, but over the past few weeks has wandered north of Minatare and Bayard before coming back to Scotts Bluff County. The moose was seen on Wednesday in a corn field in west Scottsbluff. Game and Parks conservation officer Scott Brandt has been monitoring the animal’s travels. He says he hopes the moose is moving into the high country and heading back to Wyoming or Colorado. Brandt says young moose have typically been kicked out of their original habitat by their mother, and are now searching for an area they can call home. Brandt says some of them go the wrong way.
GIBBON, Neb. (AP) – Five people are being treated at a hospital after a Denver-bound bus rammed into an overturned semitrailer on Interstate 80 in south Nebraska early Thursday. Most passengers suffered minor injuries. The Nebraska State Patrol says 41 people were taken to the Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney after the accident around 2 a.m. Hospital spokeswoman Marsha Wilkerson says 30 people have been treated and released. Some refused treatment. Of the five admitted, one was in critical condition and one was in serious condition. The condition of the three other patients wasn’t immediately available. The other passengers spent about two hours at an American Red Cross shelter until the bus operator, Burlington Trailways, could get another bus there. They continued on their trip around 8:30 a.m.
