We have a brand new updated website! Click here to check it out!

Company to pay $500K fine for spill protection violations

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha-based company has agreed to pay a $500,000 fine levied by federal regulators citing spill protection violations at production facilities in Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says Ag Processing Inc. didn’t have adequate Clean Water Act protections at several vegetable oil and biodiesel production facilities. The facilities are in Algona, Eagle Grove, Everly, Manning and Sheldon, Iowa; Hastings, Nebraska, and Dawson, Minnesota.

AG Processing also will be installing an electronic monitoring system on seven large crude soybean oil storage tanks at its Everly and Emmetsburg, Iowa, facilities.

The settlement’s consent decree is subject to 30 days of public comment and review by a federal court.

Man gets 4-8 years for robbing bank in downtown Fremont

FREMONT, Neb. (AP) — A man has been imprisoned for robbing a bank in downtown Fremont.

The Fremont Tribune reports that 53-year-old Leonard Lovell was sentenced Monday to four to eight years. He’d pleaded no contest to robbery.

Police say Lovell entered the U.S. Bank branch on April 18 and soon handed a note to a teller that threatened violence toward the bank and employees. He displayed no weapon.

Lovell was caught about 15 minutes later in the bank’s vicinity.

He said in court Monday he knows “it was a very foolish and very wrong thing for me to do.”

Chickens, goats among animals seized at Grand Island home

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have rescued goats, rabbits, a tortoise, a dog and more than 200 chickens found on a Grand Island property.

The animals were seized Thursday and Friday. An animal control officer said some of the animals were dying as they were being moved. Several carcasses also were found, as well as chicken bones.

Officials say the property owner is being cited for the excessive number of animals on the property, their condition and the lack of shelter, food, and water.

Nebraska officials agree to license Lincoln detox program

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln will be able to maintain a program that serves as an alternative to jail for people arrested while extremely intoxicated.

The state Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to license the civil protective custody program run by The Bridge Behavioral Health nonprofit.

The unit would’ve closed if the state had denied its license because medical staff would likely refuse to work at an unlicensed facility, said The Bridge director Tammy Stevenson.

Police bring more than 3,600 people to the program annually to be detoxed. Clients include people arrested for drunken driving, trespassing or urinating in public.

The Bridge officials have agreed to moderate the program’s discharge policy to meet licensing regulations. The program currently holds clients in locked rooms for 24 hours or until their blood alcohol content is zero, which state licensure officials viewed as overly restrictive and unnecessary.

Staff members will now begin to release people when their BAC level drops to less than 0.08 percent, which is the state’s legal limit for driving.

Staff will use a discharge assessment list to evaluate clients for potential early discharge, Stevenson said.

Discharging clients earlier can be an issue because people with chronic alcohol problems can sometimes experience worse withdrawal systems as their BAC nears zero, Stevenson said. But clients will be encouraged to stay voluntarily at the program’s social detox unit, she said.

The program is a good alternative to transporting people to jail or a hospital, said Todd Wiltgen, the Lancaster County Board chairman.

“This is very welcome news,” he said. “We appreciate HHS’s work on renewing the license and are very relieved.”

Police say pedestrian hit, killed in Omaha parking lot

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say a man walking in a downtown Omaha parking lot has been hit and killed, and the two people in the vehicle that ht him have been arrested.

Police say officers were called to the lot early Saturday morning for a person down and found 60-year-old Jeffrey Grieves fatally injured.

Investigators say Grieves was hit by a car that had just entered the lot. Police say the car briefly stopped, but then fled the scene.

Police later found the car and arrested the suspected driver, 19-year-old Orlando Santacruz-Navarro, on suspicion of leaving the scene of a fatal crash. A passenger, 20-year-old Jesus Dominguez-Navarro, was arrested on suspicion of tampering with evidence.

It’s not clear whether either man yet had an attorney by Saturday afternoon.

Dad gets jail, probation for beating 13-year-old son

NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — A Norfolk man has been sentenced to jail and given probation for beating his 13-year-old son.

The 36-year-old father on Thursday was given 60 days behind bars — with credit for one day served — and 18 months of probation. He’d been found guilty of child abuse and assault.

The Associated Press isn’t naming the man in order to protect the boy’s privacy.

The boy told police that his dad was upset with him because he’d come home late and wasn’t where he was supposed to be after school. He reported that his father pinned him down on a bed and slapped him and punched him several times.

The judge noted that the father had been drinking and smoking marijuana before confronting the teenager.

2nd man arrested in gas station shooting death of Omaha man

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police say a second man has found and arrested in Iowa on suspicion of first-degree murder in the shooting death of another man at an Omaha gas station.

Police said Friday that federal marshals and local police arrested 19-year-old Covarrubias Saturnino in Sioux City, Iowa.

Earlier this week, Omaha police arrested 37-year-old Antwan Lovejoy on charges of first-degree murder and two weapons counts.

Officers responded around 6 a.m. Sunday to investigate a report of shots fired at the store. They found 27-year-old Andrew Peek lying between gas pumps suffering from a gunshot wound. Peek later died at Nebraska Medical Center.

Police say store surveillance video shows Lovejoy shooting Peek and then Lovejoy and Saturnino fleeing in Peek’s car.

Nebraska man drowns in Beaver Lake at Plattsmouth

Google Maps

PLATTSMOUTH, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man has drowned in a Plattsmouth in southeastern Nebraska.

Emergency crews were called Friday morning to Beaver Lake for a report of a possible drowning.

Officials say 70-year-old Kirk Caven was pulled from the water after Beaver Lake Marina employees spotted him floating in the water. Authorities say Caven had been trying to launch his fishing boat from a boat ramp when it drifted away, and he swam after it without wearing a life jacket.

The employees called 911 and used their boats to help pull Caven from the water. Caven was pronounced dead at a Bellevue hospital.

Driver cited in Omaha collision that killed motorcyclist

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a teenage driver has been charged with misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide for a crash that killed a motorcyclist earlier this month.

Omaha police said Friday that the 17-year-old driver from Omaha was cited for a collision on Aug. 2 that killed 25-year-old Evan Welsch, of Omaha.

Police say Welsh’s westbound motorcycle collided with the teen driver’s eastbound sport utility vehicle that turned left in front of the motorcycle.

Welsh was declared dead at the scene of the crash.

It’s not clear whether the teen is being charged as an adult or as a juvenile. The Associated Press typically does not name juveniles charged with crimes.

Arrests made in home invasion killing of Lincoln woman

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police have arrested three men suspected in the home invasion shooting death earlier this summer of a 36-year-old Lincoln woman.

Lincoln police said in a release Friday that 25-year-old Dante Williams was arrested in Omaha, and 26-year-old Damon Williams Jr. and 25-year-old Tawhyne Patterson were arrested in Texas. All three are suspected in the July 31 killing of 36-year-old Jessica Brandon in her north Lincoln home.

Police had released surveillance video showing three intruders entered the home just after 3:30 a.m. Four children were among seven people in the home when the woman was shot. No one else was injured. Brandon was pronounced dead at a Lincoln hospital.

Lincoln police say the motive for Brandon’s killing is still being investigated.

Copyright Eagle Radio | FCC Public Files | EEO Public File