OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Firefighters have rescued from a creek a 78-year-old woman who fell around 30 feet into a ravine behind her west Omaha home.
Firefighters were called to the scene near Zorinsky Lake around 1 p.m. Monday. The woman had fallen when the ground crumbled beneath her while she was pulling weeds behind her house.
Her rescuers lowered a basket that she got into so she could be pulled to safety up the ravine bank. Firefighters say she suffered only minor injuries.
HEBRON, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say an 87-year-old woman has died at a hospital after a collision on U.S. Highway 81 near Hebron in southeast Nebraska.
The Thayer County Sheriff’s Office says Loetta Krause died at a Lincoln hospital. She lived in Hebron.
The collision occurred around 6:20 p.m. Saturday. The Sheriff’s Office says Krause’s car was eastbound on Dove Road when it was struck on the passenger side by a northbound sedan as she tried to cross the highway.
The other driver and a passenger in his car were taken to the Hebron hospital.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Department of Health and Human Services officials say a patient has been found after walking away from a Lincoln psychiatric hospital.
Department spokeswoman Kathie Osterman says the man left the grounds of the Lincoln Regional Center around 4 p.m. Saturday by jumping a security fence during designated outdoor time.
The man was located and returned to the hospital by 9 p.m.
State employee union director Mike Marvin says he was concerned that other hospital employees and the public hadn’t been notified about the escape. He says people should have been aware, particularly if the patient had a history of violence.
Osterman says information about specific patients isn’t released because of federal patient privacy requirements. Those requirements and state laws allow law enforcement to know minimal information for identification and location purposes.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 31-year-old Ceresco woman has been accused of stealing nearly $66,000 from her employer.
Online court records say Dana Steingard is charged with felony theft. A phone listed for her wasn’t in service Tuesday. The records don’t list the name of an attorney who could be contacted to comment on Steingard’s behalf.
An affidavit in support of an arrest warrant says the owner of Energy Pro Lighting & Electrical reported to police July 11 that he’d found several unauthorized checks that he said Steingard had written to herself when she was his office manager. A subsequent audit found more suspicious transactions, including personal purchases Steingard had made with a company credit card, from October 2014 through July this year.
ROSENDALE, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a 9-year-old girl rolled a utility vehicle, killing her 8-year-old passenger, on a rural road in western Missouri.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol says the crash happened Monday on a county road near Rosendale, about 75 miles north of Kansas City, Missouri. The patrol says the girl driving the Polaris Ranger UTV overcorrected, and the vehicle overturned on its side.
The patrol identified the girl who died as Alexis Walker of Leavenworth, Kansas. The young driver was rushed to a hospital in serious condition.
No other vehicles were involved.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An Indiana man who fell from a golf cart at a car racing event in Lincoln earlier this month has died.
Lincoln Police Officer Katie Flood said Anthony “Tony” Rietdorf died Sunday at a Lincoln hospital.
Rietdorf suffered a traumatic brain injury on Sept. 4 during the fall from the golf cart. He had been competing at the Sports Car Club of America’s Solo Nationals in Lincoln.
The 36-year-old from Fort Wayne, Indiana, was married with a young son.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha Public Schools is testing a new grading scale that makes it harder to pass a class.
About 12,000 elementary, middle and high school students across all schools in the district will participate in the field test.
The new grading scale is the latest round of changes to the district’s standards-based grading system, which has been tweaked several times since a shaky rollout in 2010 confused teachers, parents and students.
The district has sent letters home and emailed all families in the district as well as compiled brochures, videos and other materials.
Staff, parents and students will be able to provide feedback throughout the semester that could determine whether Omaha Public Schools decides to adopt the adjusted grading scale districtwide for the 2017-2018 school year.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln woman faces up to a year in jail when she’s sentenced in November for vehicular homicide.
Online court records say 47-year-old Arnetta Cooper was convicted Friday in the traffic death of 53-year-old Alan Kitto Jr. Police say Cooper’s sport utility vehicle struck Kitto and his scooter on Aug. 5 last year at a Lincoln intersection.
Cooper’s sentencing is set for Nov. 4.
HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — A federal safety agency has proposed more than $411,000 in penalties against the operator of a south-central Nebraska grain elevator where a worker was killed.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said in a news release Monday that Cooperative Producers Inc. was being cited for three egregious willful and three serious violations following the agency’s investigation. OSHA says 41-year-old Jason Weston died March 16 at the CPI elevator in Prosser after his lifeline tangled in an unguarded, rotating auger.
A CPI spokesman didn’t immediately return a call from The Associated Press.
OSHA has placed the company in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program, which focuses on employers that the agency says commits willful, repeat or failure-to-abate violations.
The company has 15 business days to contest OSHA’s findings.
COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a 40-year-old Columbus man has been killed while walking north of the city.
The accident occurred just before 1 a.m. Sunday, about a mile and a half north of the city limits. The Platte County Sheriff’s Office says Shawn Hassler was walking south in the southbound lane of 48th Avenue when he was struck by a southbound car.
The Sheriff’s Office says Hassler was pronounced dead at the scene. The car driver and a passenger received minor injuries. Their names haven’t been released.
