LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Gov. Dave Heineman has chosen an acting Nebraska Commissioner of Labor.

Heineman announced Monday that Department of Labor General Counsel John Albin will assume the role.

Albin has worked at the Department of Labor for more than 24 years, first as an administrative law judge in 1990. He joined the department’s legal division in 1993, and became general counsel in 2000. He was a private practice attorney before joining the department.

The 60-year-old Albin will replace Catherine Lang, who served as the state Commissioner of Labor and director of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development. Lang is leaving later this month to take a private sector job.

Albin, a Humboldt native, earned his law degree from the University of Nebraska in 1979.

PILGER, Neb. (AP) — Stanton County Sheriff Mike Unger says 50 to 75 percent of Pilger was destroyed after two tornadoes roared through northeast Nebraska.

Unger said late Monday that the storm caused “total devastation” in the town of about 350. He says the local school is likely damaged beyond repair.

Unger says five people had to be rescued from a rural home day care northwest of Stanton. That home was hit just before the storm moved into Pilger.

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman has declared a state of emergency, and the National Guard was preparing to assist local emergency responders and help with the cleanup. Heineman and officials with the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency were expected to arrive in the area Tuesday morning.

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The National Weather Service says at least two tornadoes have touched down in northeast Nebraska, causing widespread damage in the town of Pilger.

A spokeswoman for Providence Medical Center in nearby Wayne said ambulances were bringing in two patients who suffered lacerations, and the hospital had sent nurses to Pilger and the town of Wakefield.

Meteorologist Barbara Mayes says the tornadoes that touched down were about a mile apart, near the towns of Stanton and Pilger, 100 miles northwest of Omaha.

The tornadoes did not hit Stanton, but caused extensive damage in Pilger and some rural areas around that town of about 350. At least one of the tornadoes lifted off the ground several times before touching down again.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska woman helped police catch an intruder who barged into her home by snapping a picture of him.

Dawn Babcock was in her bathroom when a stranger entered her home earlier this month. Babcock asked him to leave, but he initially refused.

Then the man grabbed Babcock’s phone, and the two struggled over it before she got it back. Babcock snapped a quick picture of the man as he fled.

Police arrested a 24-year-old man a block and a half away from Babcock’s home after the June 9 incident. He is facing charges of trespassing, disturbing the peace, theft and lying to police about his name.

The suspect is listed as a transient and has a history of trespassing, stalking and indecent exposure charges.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska inmate has been given more prison time for the death of a Lincoln woman who was in a vehicle struck by the state prison van he was driving.

Thirty-six-year-old Jeremy Dobbe had pleaded no contest to manslaughter in the death of 47-year-old Joyce Meeks, who was killed June 25, 2013, in Lincoln. On Monday Dobbe was sentenced to 18 to 20 more years in prison.

Dobbe was seen speeding and swerving before he struck Meeks’ minivan. Dobbe was transporting inmates as part of a state work-release program. Prison records say Dobbe already was serving five to seven years for selling meth, threatening people and making criminal mischief.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Regulators have told the utilities that own Nebraska’s two nuclear power plants not to worry about some unlikely ways upstream dams might fail even though they are studying those flood risks.

The utilities are re-examining flood threats at their nuclear plants that sit on the Missouri River as part of an industrywide review of unlikely safety threats after the 2011 Japanese meltdowns.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission told the utilities this month they didn’t need to consider two of the five dam failure scenarios experts developed.

NRC officials didn’t immediately respond to questions about the decision.

Independent expert David Lochbaum with the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists says it appears regulators decided the flooding scenarios were similar enough that the utilities don’t need to prepare for all of them.

CEDAR BLUFFS, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have released the name of a man who was fatally injured in a Saunders County crash.

He was identified as 45-year-old Terrance Lessig, of Fremont.

The Saunders County Sheriff’s Office says the crash occurred around 8 p.m. Friday at the intersection of two county roads near Cedar Bluffs. Investigators say Lessig’s pickup didn’t halt at the intersection stop sign. It left the roadway and ended up in a ditch. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — High winds have damaged the state champion silver maple tree in the southeast Nebraska city of Beatrice.

Part of the tree landed early Sunday morning on a sign the city bought to describe the tree, which is scientifically known as an Acer saccharinum.

The tree is believed to be the largest silver maple in the state. The Nebraska Forest Service website says that when measured in 2002, the tree had a circumference of more than 22 feet, was 100 feet tall and had a spread of 118 feet. It’s grown since.

The tree sits in Chautauqua Park on the south side of Beatrice.

DAKOTA CITY, Neb. (AP) — The Dakota County Courthouse in Dakota City will be closed during cleanup from the weekend storms.

Courthouse employees in the older part of the building were being advised to wear work attire with rubber footwear for cleanup on Monday. The new addition apparently suffered no leaks or damage.

Heavy storms Saturday night and early Sunday drenched the area. Sioux City, Iowa, for example received 6.15 inches of rain from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon.