DAVID CITY, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a crop-dusting pilot has died in the crash of the plane he was flying in eastern Nebraska.
The crash was reported just after 3 p.m. Thursday, about three miles northeast of David City.
The pilot was pronounced dead at the scene. The Butler County attorney’s office identified him as 37-year-old Ragnar Emrich, of Dorchester.
The crash is being investigated.
YORK, Neb. (AP) — A 51-year-old York man who wrongfully received unemployment pay has been given four years of probation.
Court records say Timothy Ballard also was sentenced Monday to 90 days in jail, in 30-day increments, unless waived by the court. The judge also ordered Ballard to pay $150 a month toward restitution of $7,040. Ballard pleaded no contest after prosecutors lowered the theft charge.
The Nebraska Labor Department says in court records that Ballard filed weekly claims for unemployment pay for 60 weeks, between Feb. 7, 2012, and Feb. 7, 2015. The department says Ballard reported no earnings for those 60 weeks but actually was working and being paid during 32 of them.
STANTON, Neb. (AP) — A northeast Nebraska school board member has been found not guilty of charges related to animal cruelty.
Court records say a judge acquitted 44-year-old Kirk Van Pelt after a nonjury trial Thursday in Stanton. Van Pelt had been charged with aiding and abetting cruel mistreatment of an animal and four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child.
Police had said he played a role in the torture of a cat and an opossum. Four juveniles convicted in the case were sentenced to probation and community service. His attorney said there was no evidence that Van Pelt aided any crime or encouraged any delinquency.
Van Pelt is a member of the Stanton Community Schools board.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The city of Lincoln will save more than $570,000 through an agreement to share emergency radio system assets with the state.
Lincoln public safety director, Tom Casady, says the city will operate its new 911 radio system using the Nebraska computer core and will be able to use the statewide radio system for communication, which will be particularly helpful in rural parts of the county.
Through the agreement, the state will be allowed to use Lincoln’s new radio system, which offers better communication service inside the urban area.
Casady said Lincoln will save money now and in the future since it won’t have to buy the core or pay for maintenance in five to 10 years.
The city and state won’t exchange any money in the arrangement.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police are investigating the death of a man whose body was found in a downtown parking garage.
Police say the body was found around 6:30 a.m. Thursday on the floor of the garage connected to the DoubleTree Hotel.
Officials say the body was found between a wall and a parked pickup.
Police blocked at least one entrance to the garage while collecting evidence.
Authorities had not released the man’s name or any other details about his death by late Thursday afternoon.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A new crop will be featured at the Oregon State Fair this year: marijuana.
The fair awards prizes for the curviest vegetable or the most misshapen fruit. This year, marijuana plants will also be on display — and will be judged by a panel of growers before the fair.
The Oregon Cannabis Business Council is sponsoring the exhibit. Chairman Don Morse says nine plants will be displayed in a greenhouse and monitored by a security guard.
Only people age 21 and older will be allowed inside.
Fair spokesman Dan Cox says the exhibit is a nod to the newly legal status of cannabis. Morse says, however, that those hoping for a sample will be disappointed.
The fair runs Aug. 26 through Sept. 5.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A new president has been selected for Central Community College’s Grand Island campus.
Marcie Kemnitz has been dean of instruction for the entire college’s health sciences offerings since February 2009. Pending her approval by the college district board next month, Kemnitz will succeed Thomas Walker. He left to become president of Wayne Community College in Goldsboro, North Carolina.
Before joining Central Community College, Kemnitz was an assistant professor in the Sanford School of Medicine at the University of South Dakota. She holds a doctorate and master’s from the University of South Dakota.
BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) — A suburban Omaha city administrator has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from an altercation in a dentist’s office.
The attorney for Bellevue City Administrator Dan Berlowitz entered the pleas Tuesday in Sarpy County Court in Papillion (puh-PIHL’-yuhn). The misdemeanor charges are trespassing, disturbing the peace and assault.
Berlowitz has been placed on paid administrative leave.
A police report says Berlowitz poked a Bellevue dentist in the chest on June 21 and then pushed the dentist’s in a shoulder. Berlowitz’s attorney, James Schaefer, says Berlowitz felt threatened and says Berlowitz denies assaulting the dentist.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 46-year-old Omaha man who pleaded guilty last month to dragging an officer with his car has been sentenced to up to 12 years in prison.
Robert Mello was sentenced Wednesday in Lancaster County District Court. Police say an officer had reached into Mello’s car on Feb. 4 to try to arrest Mello for shoplifting when Mello began driving forward and backward, dragging the officer.
The officer suffered minor injuries.
Mello pleaded guilty on June 28 to second-degree assault on an officer. He had asked for probation, but Judge Lori Maret sentenced him to eight to 12 years.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Fire officials say an explosion that leveled an Omaha house and killed one person was an accident.
Property inspector Clara Bender died at a hospital following the Monday afternoon blast that also heavily damaged four adjacent homes and injured two other people.
In a report released Wednesday, interim Omaha Fire Chief Dan Olsen says the gas started flowing into the house on Saturday after people moving a clothes dryer didn’t properly shut off a natural gas line to the appliance.
Authorities say the movers reported the smell of gas to the tenant, who called Bender’s cellphone and left a message to report the gas smell. Officials say it’s not known whether Bender received the message before she entered the house on Monday.
