News – Page 1529 – North Platte Post Archive

Funeral set for Nebraska soldier in Lincoln

Posted on August 18, 2011

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Funeral services are scheduled for a Nebraska Army National Guard soldier who died aboard a downed helicopter in Afghanistan.
Thirty-year-old Sgt. Patrick Hamburger was among 30 Americans and eight Afghans who died Aug. 6 when a rocket-propelled grenade fired by a Taliban insurgent downed their Chinook helicopter enroute to a combat mission. Wyuka Funeral Home and Cemetery in Lincoln says Hamburger’s funeral will be at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Christ’s Place Church in Lincoln. Burial will be at Wyuka Cemetery. Hamburger was a flight engineer with the National Guard’s Company B, 2nd Battalion, 135th General Support Aviation unit based in Grand Island. He grew up in Lincoln and had been a member of the National Guard since 1998. He was in Afghanistan less than two weeks before his death.

Nebraska’s 2011 ACT average matches past 4 years

Posted on August 17, 2011August 17, 2011

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Nebraska’s 2011 high school graduates have scored a point higher than the national average on the ACT college entrance exam. According to a report released Wednesday, Nebraska’s average score was 22.1, compared with 21.1 nationally. By comparison, Iowa’s average composite score was 22.3 out of a possible 36. Minnesota was ranked No. 1 in the nation, with an average of 22.9. The report says 76 percent of Nebraska’s 2011 graduates took the test. Nebraska has averaged 22.1 since 2007.

Bridgeport man to stand trial on enticement charge

Posted on August 17, 2011August 18, 2011

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) – A western Nebraska man accused of sending sexually explicit texts and videos to a 14-year-old girl will face trial in Scotts Bluff County District Court. KNEB radio says 39-year-old James Jay, of Bridgeport, waived his preliminary hearing in county court on Tuesday, and will face arraignment in district court on Friday. Jay is charged with child enticement by electronic communication device and enticement by electronic communication device. According to court documents, the girl told her mother about the communications. An investigator with the Nebraska State Patrol used the girl’s cellphone and posed as the teen. Jay was arrested in late July. He remains in jail on $200,000 bond.

Hershey woman’s trial set in child sex assaults

Posted on August 17, 2011

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) – A 39-year-old Hershey woman faces trial in November on allegations that she did nothing to stop her husband from sexually assaulting children.
Deanna Fischer has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of
intentional child abuse. A Lincoln County District Court judge set Nov. 23 for Fischer’s trial date. Her husband, Daniel Fischer, who also was charged, committed suicide in April. He had faced several counts of sexual assaulting children. According to court documents, five girls ages 7 to 15 reported being assaulted by Daniel Fischer at the couple’s home in Hershey. Authorities say Deanna Fischer photographed some of the assaults and did nothing to stop them.

Neb. state senator to introduce bath salts ban

Posted on August 17, 2011

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A Nebraska state senator wants impose a ban on bath salts, a synthetic drug that has grown popular in other parts of the country. Omaha Sen. Heath Mello says he will introduce a bill when the
Legislature convenes in January to ban the new designer drug before it becomes a larger problem in Nebraska. The drug’s two main ingredients are stimulants that can cause paranoia, hallucinations and sometimes violent behavior. Mello says at least 25 other states have banned bath salts. The drug is typically labeled “not for human consumption,” which allows it to escape federal bans. Mello says the drugs are readily available on the internet, and can be as dangerous as heroin, ecstasy and PCP.

Chadron council sets Oct. 4 date for recall vote

Posted on August 17, 2011August 17, 2011

CHADRON, Neb. (AP) – The Chadron City Council has set Oct. 4 as the recall election date for Mayor John Chizek and Vice Mayor Steve Duncan. Chizek and Duncan abstained from the election date vote on Monday might. The affidavits filed by Dr. Robert Penor for the recall drive say neither Chizek nor Duncan was acting in the best interests of Chadron or its residents. Penor says Chizek and Duncan have taken too many liberties in putting items on the council agenda and in their comments during council sessions. Chizek and Duncan reject the accusations.

(Update) Details released on murder-suicide in Grand Island

Posted on August 17, 2011August 17, 2011

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) – Grand Island police have identified a couple who died in an apparent murder-suicide in Grand Island. Police say 43-year-old Margarita Rodriguez and her estranged husband, 33-year-old Antonio Rodriguez, died Monday morning. Police on Tuesday said officers went to an apartment on a domestic disturbance report and found Margarita Rodriguez in the entryway. She had been shot and later died at a hospital. Police say officers spotted her husband and a chase began. It ended on U.S. Highway 281, when Antonio Rodriguez shot himself. The deaths are under investigation.

TransCanada touts proposed oil pipeline’s safety

Posted on August 17, 2011August 17, 2011

Pipeline_contruction_vertical_resize — Oil pipeline pieces

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) – A Canadian company that wants to build a massive pipeline linking Alberta’s oil sands to U.S. refineries says it would include safety measures to prevent a spill like the one that fouled the Yellowstone River last month. TransCanada executives visiting Montana on Tuesday offered that pledge to shore up support for its $7 billion project assailed by environmentalists as too risky. The U.S. State Department plans to release its final analysis of the Keystone XL pipeline this month. Opponents say approval could lead to more spills like the Exxon Mobil pipeline rupture in July that spewed an estimated 1,000 barrels of oil into the Yellowstone. TransCanada president Alex Pourbaix says the line would be buried at least 25 feet beneath major river crossings to lower the risk of spills.

Neb. death row inmate wants to question officials

Posted on August 17, 2011August 17, 2011

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Nebraska death row inmate Carey Dean Moore wants to question Attorney General Jon Bruning and other officials over attempts to go forward with his execution when they didn’t have a legal drug on hand to put him to death. The Lincoln Journal Star reports that Moore’s attorney, Jerry
Soucie, says it was cruel and unusual punishment to allow Moore to think his execution was looming when the state had no way to carry it out. Soucie made the argument in a court filing in Douglas County. Moore was to be executed in June for the 1979 slayings of two Omaha cabbies. The Nebraska Supreme Court issued a stay while Soucie challenged the purchase from an Indian company of one of the drugs used by Nebraska to carry out lethal injections.

Husband of ‘Real Housewives’ star Armstrong dies

Posted on August 16, 2011August 16, 2011

armstrong-and-hubby-pic — Russell and Taylor Armstrong

LOS ANGELES (AP) – The estranged husband of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Taylor Armstrong has been found dead in his Los Angeles home. Los Angeles County coroner’s spokesman Ed Winter says 47-year-old Russell Armstrong was pronounced dead at 8:16 p.m. Monday in a home on Mulholland Drive. Death was caused by hanging and Winter says a suicide note hasn’t been found. Russell Armstrong was an investment banker and venture capitalist. His publicist, Rebekah Iliff, says he’s the founding managing director of Crescent Financial Partners. She also confirms Armstrong and his wife were in the midst of a divorce. The death was first reported by TMZ.com.