OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha City Council is scheduled to vote next week on a proposal to ban flying lanterns.

The proposed ordinance would ban the sale and possession of the lanterns and impose fines of up to $200 on violators. The lanterns are small paper air balloons powered by a flame.

Mayor Jean Stothert (STAH’-thurt) is backing the ban proposed by Fire Chief Bernie Kanger. He has said the lanterns are a fire hazard because they can land on rooftops, fields or wooded areas without people noticing.

Omaha Police Department Lt. Mike Davis says the lanterns also pose a threat to the police helicopter. Davis says that if a lantern were to clog the helicopter’s engine air intake, “the engine’s going to quit and we are coming down.”

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police say a child’s scooter was used to assault a man in Lincoln.

The assault was reported early Sunday morning. Police say a man approached a house to ask for help because he was lost, but the residents wouldn’t help and were verbally abusive. The man walked away but was attacked from behind about a block later and knocked out. When he awoke he discovered that $214 was missing from his wallet.

He managed to contact a friend to come pick him up, and they went to the house the lost man had approached earlier. Police say both men were assaulted there, and one was struck by the scooter.

Police arrested a 29-year-old man on suspicion of assault. No robbery arrest has been reported.

SILVERTON, Colo. (AP) — A helicopter is bringing searchers to the remote site in the southwestern Colorado mountains where five people died in a plane crash.

National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson says no one survived when the twin-engine Cessna 310 went down at 4:15 p.m. Sunday.

The victims’ names and hometowns haven’t been released. There’s no immediate word on the cause.

Knudson couldn’t say whether the plane is the same Cessna 310 reported overdue on a flight from Barstow, California, to Amarillo, Texas.

The plane crashed near Silverton in the San Juan Mountains. A San Juan County Sheriff’s Department search team was at the scene, and an NTSB investigator was en route.

A team from neighboring La Plata County is assisting. La Plata officials say a National Guard helicopter is being used to reach the remote site.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An estimated 300 people gathered for an “Officer, I Have Your Back Rally” at the Omaha Police Department on Monday.

They stood shoulder to shoulder along a plaza wall many holding signs and others wearing blue shirts with a “support blue” design.

Local organizers held the Labor Day rally to give people a place to show their support of police after four fatal shootings of law enforcement officers in the U.S. in recent weeks.

Melissa Nguyen, president of the Strength Behind the Badge organization, says she’s been married to a police officer nine years and never has she worried as she does now, especially when he’s in public in uniform, whether it’s pumping gas or at a restaurant.

STEELE CITY, Neb. (AP) — Hail the size of tennis balls shredded crops in southeast Nebraska near the Kansas State line and tornado warnings were issued for Jefferson and Gage counties but have been allowed to expire.

The National Weather Service issued warnings beginning around 3:30 p.m. when a rope tornado was sighted by a storm chaser about six miles southwest of Fairbury. The storm tracked southeastward toward Endicott and Steele City.

The weather service in Omaha noted tennis ball-sized hail caused farm field damage.

Winds gusting to 60 miles per hour and golf ball-sized hail were reported in southern Gage County.

A severe thunderstorm watch has been issued for Gage, Jefferson, Johnson, Pawnee and Richardson counties in Nebraska until 9 p.m. Monday.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say a 40-year-old man has died at a hospital after a motorcycle crash in southwest Omaha.

The accident was reported around 11 p.m. Sunday. Police say the speeding motorcycle crashed after it went out of control while approaching the intersection of South 156th and Valley streets.

Police say the motorcyclist died shortly after arriving at Creighton University Medical Center. He was identified as Adam Walker, of Omaha.

 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police say a man who displayed bizarre, erratic behavior before being taken into custody has died at a hospital.

Police say Patrick Ennis died Sunday afternoon. An autopsy has been scheduled.

Officers were sent to a south Omaha address Friday afternoon after witnesses reported an intoxicated man with self-inflicted injuries overturning patio furniture and possibly suffering from a medical condition. Officers say they found the 50-year-old Ennis standing over a stair railing, clenching his fists. Police say he first obeyed commands to put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed, but then he resisted, struggling with officers.

Officers say Ennis began having trouble breathing, so they removed the handcuffs and CPR was performed until paramedics arrived.

Police say an internal investigation is being conducted.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Omaha Man Bizarre Behavior

CLAY CENTER, Neb. (AP) — Some members of a Clay Center church have gathered to share memories and worship at a special service at the church’s original rural site.

Sunday’s service was one of four special services scheduled for Zion Lutheran Church. The church was organized on Nov. 11, 1890, and opened its first building in 1891 on land six miles west and two miles north of Clay Center in southern Nebraska.

The U.S. Navy took over the property for the Naval Ammunition Depot in 1942, so the church and adjacent parsonage were moved to Clay Center on Feb. 9, 1943. The church was destroyed by fire in 1951.

At Sunday’s special service, people sat in lawn chairs in the grass and fought strong winds that blew hymnal pages.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Relatives of a Nebraska National Guardsman who died during World War II have gathered to honor his service and sacrifice.

Staff Sgt. Floyd Whittaker died on July 15, 1944, during the battle for St. Lo in northern France. Sunday’s gathering at the historic Ferguson House in Lincoln was organized by Nebraska’s chapter of the Honor and Remember Society, which recognizes soldiers who died in service to their country.

Going through her brother’s past during the 30-minute ceremony was emotional for 98-year-old Mabel Stansbury, who never forgot the experience of losing him during the war. She says “it was really a blow to our family, as it was to so many others.”