COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A 25-year-old Council Bluffs man has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for crossing state lines to have sex with a minor.

Tyler L. Gunderson was sentenced Monday. He had pleaded guilty to interstate travel with the intent to engage in a sexual act with a juvenile.

According to prosecutors, Gunderson travelled to Omaha, Nebraska, to pick up a juvenile that he had met there and drove the victim to several locations in Council Bluffs to have sexual intercourse last year.

Gunderson has also been ordered to serve ten years of supervised release once he is released from prison.

NEBRASKA CITY, Neb. (AP) — A man paroled after serving 41 years for murder has been sentenced to five years for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl in southeast Nebraska.

Seventy-year-old Laddie Dittrich was sentenced Tuesday in Otoe County District Court. He’d been convicted of groping the girl at a rural home on Nov. 23, 2014.

Dittrich was one of three men convicted in 1973 of the slaying of an Omaha trucking company official.

In April 2013 the Nebraska Pardons Board commuted Dittrich’s sentence of life in prison without parole to 80 years to life, which allowed Dittrich to seek parole because he’d already served more than half of the 80-year minimum.

His parole has been revoked.

NEBRASKA CITY, Neb. (AP) — A 17-year-old girl is accused of running her pickup over a woman in the Nebraska City library parking lot.

On Tuesday Otoe County Attorney David Partsch charged the girl with assault, use of a weapon and leaving the scene of an injury accident. The Associated Press generally doesn’t name juveniles accused of crimes.

Partsch says the girl and 22-year-old Amber Shipley got into an altercation outside the Morton-James Public Library about 5:30 p.m. Monday. The girl left to take a friend to work and then returned a parking lot adjacent to the library.

Partsch says the girl drove toward Shipley and ran her over. Shipley is being treated at a Lincoln hospital.

The girl’s father took her to the police station Monday night to surrender.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska has received nearly $450,000 in federal grant funding to address domestic violence against Native American women.

The Department of Justice announced the award Wednesday while unveiling more than $97 million in grant funding for American Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages.

The Justice Department says American Indians and Alaska Natives experience disproportionate rates of violence and often struggle to access services.

Deborah Gilg, the U.S. attorney for Nebraska, says the grant will help the Santee Sioux continue their commitment to alleviating the high rates of domestic violence.

WHITNEY, Neb. (AP) — Firefighters have contained wildfire that burned nearly 1,800 acres of grassland in northwest Nebraska Tuesday.

The Nebraska Emergency Management Agency says five volunteer fire departments worked with firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service and two air tankers to deal with the fire in Dawes County.

Wind spread the fire through tall grass east of the village of Whitney quickly. It was contained by 6 p.m.

Crawford Fire Chief Brian Prosser, who coordinated the response, says the fire was likely caused by a mechanical problem on a hay baler.

Nebraska declared an emergency for the area to free up state disaster-relief money.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Metered parking in downtown Omaha is about to cost more — in some cases, double the current rate.

Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert said in a news conference Wednesday that the new rates and extended meter hours will go into effect Oct. 13.

Right now, motorists have to feed meters between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays. That changes to 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. next month. Parking on weekends and holidays will still be free.

The new rates will rise from 25 cents to 50 cents an hour at 2-, 3- and 4-hour meters. Some 10-hour meters currently 25 cents an hour will rise to 50 cents an hour.

Officials say the new rates will bring in another $500,000 a year.

 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man who went into prison for an Omaha murder when he was 17 has been given a new sentence and a chance at freedom.

A Douglas County district judge on Tuesday resentenced 51-year-old Dwayne Tucker to 50 to 70 years, with credit for nearly 33 years and eight months. Under the state’s “good time” law, he could be released in around 15 months.

Authorities say Tucker and his 21-year-old half brother, Willie Tucker, robbed a restaurant in December 1981. Willie Tucker fatally shot the cashier, 18-year-old Lisa Lisko. Dwayne Tucker also was given life in prison without parole, because he participated in the deadly robbery.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that people convicted as juveniles cannot be locked up for life without the chance of parole.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 23-year-old Lincoln man has been sentenced to 30 months to five years in prison for fracturing his 3-week-old son’s skull.

Koty Buesing was sentenced Tuesday. He had pleaded guilty to negligent child abuse resulting in serious injury.

According to authorities, the child’s mother noticed swelling on the left side of his head on Dec. 19. Authorities say Buesing told her he had accidentally hit the baby’s head under the kitchen table when he picked him up off the floor while making him a bottle.

Police say the parents took the child for a checkup on Christmas Eve and were referred to Children’s Hospital in Omaha, where the baby was treated for a skull fracture and bleeding on the brain.

A doctor told investigators the boy’s injuries were suspicious.