MERRIMAN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a 15-year-old South Dakota resident has been killed in a Nebraska crash.
The crash happened just after 9 a.m. Sunday on Nebraska Highway 61, just north of Merriman. The Nebraska State Patrol says a southbound pickup ran off the roadway and rolled into a ditch, landing on its roof.
The conditions of the driver and another passenger have not been reported. The patrol identified the 15-year-old as Sydney Lindbloom, of Pierre, South Dakota.
WATERLOO, Neb. (AP) — Onlookers helped a mom and dad and their 9-year-old son escape from the Elkhorn River after their canoe flipped over.
Brandon Monroe and Gary Burns jumped into the water Monday evening after they saw the three tossed into the river near Waterloo.
Monroe says he went after the boy and told his dad to get to the bank quickly. Monroe says an airboat was able to reach the boy’s mother and help her to safety.
LA VISTA, Neb. (AP) — A 25-year-old motorcyclist has been fatally injured in a suburban Omaha collision.
The accident occurred around 2:20 p.m. Sunday on the west side of La Vista. La Vista police say the eastbound motorcycle collided with a westbound car that was turning left in front of the motorcycle.
The motorcyclist was pronounced dead later at an Omaha hospital. Police identified him as Jeremy Liford, of Omaha. The car driver was not injured. He was identified as 36-year-old Joshua Spencer.
The collision is being investigated.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Mike Harper, who is credited with transforming ConAgra from a struggling grain company into a giant food conglomerate, has died in Omaha.
John A. Gentleman Mortuaries said Monday that Harper died Saturday at the age of 88. His daughter Elizabeth Murphy friends had visited her father during his final weeks and that he died peacefully at home.
In addition to his ConAgra work from 1974 through 1992, Harper also helped create the downtown Omaha renaissance by constructing ConAgra’s headquarters campus along the Missouri River and in Nebraska’s economic growth through his insistence the state adopt tax incentives.
Gov. Pete Ricketts said Sunday that Harper “was charming, hard-nosed, generous, and a great role model for any aspiring business executive.”
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police say a man whose body was found in a Lincoln mobile home died of blows to the head.
Police on Saturday identified the victim as 35-year-old Robert Leazer. An autopsy completed Friday shows he died of blunt force trauma to the head.
Police were called to the Contempo Lincoln Mobile Home Park about noon Thursday to check on reports that Trenton Reiner was breaking the windows of his car.
When officers arrived, they received consent from Reiner to enter the home, where they found Leazer’s body.
Officers charged Reiner with first-degree murder. His arraignment is set for Tuesday.
The death was Lincoln’s seventh suspected homicide of the year.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Parks workers in Lincoln are taking a more artistic approach to mowing to differentiate between short- and long-grass areas.
The work is an effort to aid the environment and save the city money, as workers reduce mowing in parts of a number of parks.
Crews began reducing mowing more than a decade ago. That led to complaints from residents, so officials hope the new more artful mowing will better set off the distinction between more manicured and natural areas.
But allowing long grass on about 850 acres of parkland, the city saves an estimated $422,000 annually.
The longer grass also stabilizes areas near streams and reduces pollution.
The city now is planning to plant more native grasses in long-grass areas.
HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — Construction will begin soon to transform a 109-year-old former brewery in Hastings into housing.
The Hastings Brewery Building will be converted into 35 apartments called Brewery Lofts.
The work is part of an $8 million project that also includes the construction of senior housing in an adjacent empty lot.
The Hastings Planning Commission has recommended approval of the proposals.
Community Redevelopment Authority executive director Randy Chick says the project should meet a demand for downtown housing.
The brick brewery is known for its large smoke stack, which will be retained.
Although it began operation as a brewery in 1908, that use ceased with the passage of prohibition in Adams County in May 1917. Since then, it has had a variety of uses.
WOODSTOWN, N.J. (AP) — State police say a rider taking part in a rodeo in New Jersey has died from injuries he received in an accident.
Nineteen-year-old bareback rider Coy Lutz was trampled during his performance Saturday night at the Cowtown Rodeo in Woodstown, about 35 miles southwest of Philadelphia. The Howard, Pennsylvania, resident died a short time later at a hospital.
Further details on the accident were not immediately available Sunday.
Cowtown touts itself as the oldest weekly running rodeo in the U.S. It opened in 1929.
No other injuries were reported.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police have identified a man killed in an overnight shooting in a north Omaha neighborhood.
Officers were called at 2:30 a.m. Saturday to 2019 Lake Street to investigate a shooting. When they arrived, officers found the body of 40-year-old Carlos Alonzo.
No arrests had been reported by midday Saturday.
Police are asking anyone with information about the shooting to contact the Omaha Police Department’s homicide unit or Omaha Crime Stoppers.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police officials say more than 115 police body cameras will be in use in the department within the next few weeks.
Since Monday, 22 officers and nine supervisors from the northwest precinct and gang unit have received daylong body camera training. Many began using a camera on patrol following the training.
About 25 cameras will be given to each of the four precincts and others will go to the gang unit. Both rookie and veteran officers are using the cameras.
Deputy Police Chief Greg Gonzalez says the goal is for all of the department’s roughly 400 patrol officers to be wearing body cameras in the next few years.
