OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Parents of the toddler who was killed by an alligator at Walt Disney World in Florida say they will always remember their sweet little boy.
Melissa and Matt Graves spoke to a group of several hundred people gathered at a high school football stadium Saturday to remember Lane Graves on what would have been his third birthday.
Lane died June 14 after an alligator pulled him into a lagoon at Disney’s upscale Grand Floridian Resort.
Melissa Graves said the family wanted to celebrate Lane’s “first birthday in heaven.”
Matt Graves said Lane’s life brought the family so much joy. The crowd wore blue shirts and released blue balloons into the air.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha’s zoo is blaming staff miscommunication for an incident in which a boy using a wheelchair was barred from the zoo’s new splash pad.
Nicole Steng said she took her 8-year-old son, Titus, in July to the new Alaskan Adventure at the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium.
But a young staffer and zoo supervisor told them Titus’ wheelchair couldn’t go onto the pad because pad’s ground cover wasn’t durable enough to handle the wheels.
There were no signs posted to that effect, and zoo spokeswoman Dawn Ream says that’s because wheelchairs are allowed. Ream says electric-powered rental scooters are barred because they aren’t waterproof.
Ream blamed the incident on miscommunication and says the rules were made clear at a meeting in mid-August.
HEBRON, Neb. (AP) — A southeastern Nebraska man has been sentenced to 30 to 40 years in prison for several counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child.
60-year-old Harold Stone, of Davenport, was sentenced Thursday in Thayer County District Court.
A jury convicted Stone in June of four counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child and one count of felony child abuse.
Prosecutors say Stone began a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl at his business and home.
The victim disclosed the sexual abuse in May 2015, and a search of Stone’s home turned up a variety of digital photos, emails and text messages.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 50-year-old Hartington man has been released from prison after the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that courts cannot impose a separate “habitual criminal” sentence.
The high court on Friday ordered the release of Barney Meyer. Meyer had been sentenced in 2012 to two to four years in prison for theft and burglary counts for stealing copper wire, plus an additional 10 years on a habitual criminal count.
But the state’s high court said it has previously made clear that the state’s habitual criminal law is not a separate offense. It’s a factor considered to enhance the sentences of other crimes.
The high court agreed with a lower court that because Meyer had already served his time on the other charges, he should be released.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Creighton University in Omaha will hold a lecture later this month on the role of free speech on college campuses.
A panel of visiting lecturers will examine the issue in “Campus as a Safe Space or Free Speech Zone” on Sept. 27. The event will begin at 7:30 a.m. at the Harper Center Auditorium.
Panelists include Antony Davies of Duquesne University; Stanley Fish, of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University; Jonathan Rauch of the Brookings Institution; and Omar Wasow, of Princeton University.
The lecture is free and open to the public, and is sponsored by Creighton’s Institute for Economic Inquiry.
PAWNEE, Okla. (AP) — The Latest on the large earthquake in Oklahoma (all times local):
9:10 a.m.
The Pawnee County emergency management director says no injuries have been reported and no buildings have collapsed following a magnitude 5.6 earthquake that ties a 2011 temblor for the strongest in Oklahoma history.
Mark Randell said the Saturday morning quake did cause cracks and damages to city buildings, some of which date to the early 1900s.
The U.S. Geological Survey reports the quake struck at 7:02 a.m. about nine miles northwest of Pawnee, a town of about 2,200 about 70 miles northwest of Oklahoma City.
The U.S.G.S. also reports a 3.6 magnitude aftershock in the same area at 7:58 a.m.
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8:55 a.m.
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin says that crews are checking bridges and structures for damage after the 5.6 magnitude earthquake, which ties a 2011 temblor for the biggest on record in the state.
Fallin tweeted Saturday morning that the Oklahoma Department of Transportation is checking bridges in the Pawnee area for damage. The quake was centered about 9 miles northwest of the town of about 2,200 people.
Fallin also tweeted that state officials want structural engineers to look at building safety in the wake of the quake, which the U.S. Geological Society happened at 7:02 a.m.
No major damage was immediately reported. The quake was felt as far away as Nebraska.
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7:20 a.m.
CHICAGO (AP) — An earthquake has rattled a swath of the Great Plains from Nebraska to North Texas.
The United States Geological Survey said that a 5.6 magnitude earthquake happened at 7:02 a.m. Saturday in north-central Oklahoma. It also tweeted that aftershocks may occur.
People in Kansas City, Missouri; Fayetteville, Arkansas; and Norman, Oklahoma, all reported feeling the earthquake. Dallas TV station WFAA tweeted that it felt the quake, too.
Sean Weide in Omaha, Nebraska, said he’d never been in an earthquake before and thought he was getting dizzy.
Weide said he and one of his daughters “heard the building start creaking” and said it “was surreal.”
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former Opera Omaha music director accused of looting his mother’s bank account has been imprisoned.
On Thursday 53-year-old John Gawf Jr. was given one to two years behind bars. In July Gawf pleaded no contest to abuse of a vulnerable adult. Prosecutors say he took about $113,000 from Thelma Gawf from May 2015 to January.
Gawf told an investigator that he used the money to gamble.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a Lincoln bank worker is suspected of stealing more than $10,000 from a customer’s account.
The 36-year-old woman turned herself in to police Thursday afternoon and was cited and released. Officer Katie Flood says the woman is scheduled to be charged in court later Friday. Online court records don’t yet list the name of her attorney.
Flood says U.S. Bank officials noticed suspicious activity on a 93-year-old man’s account and reported it to police Aug. 2. Flood says the woman used money from the customer’s account to make several deposits into her own account between March 22 and June 27.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police say a Minnesota man driving a semitrailer has died in rollover crash that also seriously injured his wife.
Police say 66-year-old Danny Ryan, of Hayfield, Minnesota, was driving the truck eastbound on Interstate 80 in Omaha around 6 a.m. when the truck swerved, overcorrected and rolled into a ravine, landing on its roof.
Police say Ryan was pronounced dead at the scene. His wife, 61-year-old Debra Ryan, who was a passenger in the truck, suffered two broken legs. Police say it took nearly two hours for rescuers to extract the woman from the mangled cab of the truck.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha man convicted of burning a gay pride rainbow flag has been given two years of probation.
Online court records say 25-year-old Cameron Mayfield was sentenced Wednesday. He’d been convicted of felony arson as a hate crime.
Prosecutors say Mayfield took the flag from the porch of a lesbian couple who lived near him, set it on fire and waved it in the middle of a street in March 2015. Mayfield’s attorney argued the act was a drunken prank and not a hate crime.
