LINCOLN – A 157-pound male mountain lion was harvested on the evening of Oct. 5 in Knox County near Lewis and Clark Lake.
This is the first mountain lion harvested in the Prairie Unit, which has been open since Jan. 1. Mountain lion hunting is open in the Prairie Unit until the end of the year. All other mountain lion units are closed at this time.
For more information about mountain lions in Nebraska, visit the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission’s mountain lion web page at OutdoorNebraska.org.
Category: News
UNL Student Remains Hospitalized After Attack
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a University of Nebraska-Lincoln student injured in an attack near the Capitol remains in critical condition.
Police say 22-year-old Patrick Pantoja remains hospitalized Monday following the early Friday morning attack. He is being treated for severe head trauma.
Police say Pantoja and 27-year-old Emmanuel Nartey were walking from an apartment to the UNL campus when they were approached by three men who demanded cash. Police say when the students replied they had no money, they were attacked. A wallet and smartphone were taken.
Officer Katie Flood says no arrests have been made in the case.
Nebraska Man Faces Charges After High-Speed Chase
STANTON, Neb. (AP) — A man faces charges after a high-speed chase in northeast Nebraska over the weekend.
Stanton County Sheriff Mike Unger says 34-year-old Richard A. Ahlman was involved in a disturbance in Norfolk early Saturday morning. He is accused of fleeing by car from responding Norfolk police and refusing to stop.
Unger says Ahlman led authorities through residential streets before he was stopped in Stanton and taken into custody.
Ahlman faces charges of driving while intoxicated, reckless driving and operating a motor vehicle to avoid arrest. Court records do not list an attorney.
Drugmaker Provides Experimental Drug for Ebola
WASHINGTON (AP) — A North Carolina drugmaker says it is providing an experimental antiviral drug for patients with Ebola, an emergency step authorized by the Food and Drug Administration.
Chimerix Inc. says physicians sought federal permission to use company’s drug, called brincidofovir, which is in late-stage testing for other types of viruses. The company did not identify the physicians making the request.
Last Tuesday doctors in Dallas diagnosed the first U.S. case of Ebola in a man who recently arrived from Liberia.
Brincidofovir is an oral antiviral drug being tested to fight more common viruses, including one that infects patients undergoing bone marrow transplants. Laboratory tests suggested it might also fight Ebola.
Two other experimental drugs developed specifically for Ebola have been used in American patients. None have been approved by the FDA.
Man Dies in Cass County Tree-Trimming Accident
PLATTSMOUTH, Neb. (AP) — A 76-year-old Norfolk man has died after being struck by falling tree branch in Cass County.
The accident was reported at 10:10 a.m. Saturday at a property in rural Plattsmouth. The Cass County Sheriff’s Office says Lon Marotz died at the scene before he could be flown to a hospital.
The accident occurred as Marotz trimmed a tree at his daughter’s residence.
Boy Left in Car During Church Choir Practice Dies
PHOENIX (AP) — Phoenix police say a 3-year-old boy has died a day after being left in a hot car for several hours while his mother and a family friend were in church for a choir practice.
Officer James Holmes says the family friend had taken the boy and other children to a church where the friend and the child’s mother had choir practice late Saturday morning. The mother had arrived earlier.
Haden Nelson was not discovered missing for three hours, following the end of choir practice at 2 p.m. By then, temperatures had reached the high 90s, and Holmes said the child wasn’t breathing when he was found in the vehicle.
The boy was hospitalized in extremely critical condition but died Sunday afternoon.
The case will be referred to prosecutors to decide whether to press charges.
Parents Urged Journalist with Ebola Not to Go
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The parents of an American video journalist who contracted Ebola in Liberia say they tried to talk him out of going there last month.
But 33-year-old Ashoka Mukpo couldn’t be dissuaded. He was flown to Omaha on Monday to be treated at the Nebraska Medical Center.
Mukpo’s father, Dr. Mitchell Levy, says his son wanted to help the people of Liberia because he lived there for two years while working with a nonprofit.
Diana Mukpo says she’s proud of his willingness to help others.
It’s not clear how Mukpo was infected, but Levy says it may have happened when he helped clean a vehicle in which someone had died.
Doctors are still evaluating Mukpo to determine how he will be treated.
Police: Separate Lincoln Delivery Drivers Robbed
liLINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln police are investigating separate robberies of delivery drivers at gunpoint.
Capt. Charles Butler said the suspect descriptions are similar for the crimes that happened two hours and four blocks apart on Sunday.
A pizza delivery driver tells police a man took a small amount of cash and a cellphone. A sandwich delivery driver says a man stole only a cellphone.
Police say in both reports the suspect had similar features and was wearing a grey sweatshirt.
Sentencing Set for Mom Who Tried to Kill Autistic Girl
BEULAH, Mich. (AP) — A northern Michigan woman who acknowledged trying to kill herself and her autistic 14-year-old daughter is scheduled for sentencing and could get up to life in prison.
Kelli Stapleton pleaded guilty last month to first-degree child abuse after originally being charged with attempted murder. A two-day sentencing hearing begins Monday in Benzie County Circuit Court.
The 46-year-old defendant drove her daughter Isabelle to an isolated location in September 2013, gave her sleep-inducing medication and ignited charcoal in two grills inside a van. She and Isabelle survived, but her daughter sustained brain damage. Authorities say she has since recovered.
Kelli Stapleton was an advocate for autism awareness and kept a blog that described the challenges of finding and affording proper treatment for Isabelle, who was prone to violent outbursts.
Feds Probe Power Steering in Ford Midsize Cars
DETROIT (AP) — U.S. safety regulators are investigating complaints of power-assisted steering failure in three Ford Motor Co. midsize car models.
The probe covers 938,000 Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ cars from the 2010 through 2012 model years, as well as the 2011 Mercury Milan.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it found 508 complaints alleging that the cars lost power-assisted steering, causing increased steering effort.
Four complaints say the problem caused crashes.
The agency says in documents posted Monday on its website that in many cases, a warning message appeared as the failure happened. Restarting the car corrected the problem in some cases, but the problem returned in others.
The agency says it will check the scope and frequency of a problem. It could seek a recall.
Ford says it’s cooperating.