WATERLOO, Neb. (AP) — Waterloo firefighters have rescued seven tubers from a sandbar in the rising Elkhorn River.
Firefighters in their rescue boat on Sunday found the group of tubers on a sandbar between Waterloo and King Lake. The tubers had stopped on the sandbar to eat lunch.
Authorities say the river rose 3 feet in just four hours, thanks to rain upriver. The fast current and floating debris raised the danger to the tubers.
No injuries have been reported.
(AP)–Scientists have made big progress on a “bionic pancreas” to free some people with diabetes from the daily ordeal of managing their disease.
Doctors say that a wearable, experimental device passed a real-world test by constantly monitoring blood sugar and automatically giving insulin or a sugar-boosting drug as needed.
Doctors tested it for five days in adults and teens with Type 1 diabetes, the kind often diagnosed in childhood. It improved blood-sugar control more than standard monitors and insulin pumps did.
The device was developed at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston University. Results were featured Sunday at an American Diabetes Association conference in San Francisco and were published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police say a man hit by a car as he ran across two lanes of interstate traffic was fleeing the scene of an earlier crash.
Police say 29-year-old Anastacio Calderon-Colesio was hit by a car on U.S. Highway 75 late Friday night. He was taken to an Omaha hospital with serious injuries, including a broken arm.
Police say Calderon-Colesio had been involved in an unrelated crash that damaged property and was fleeing on foot — jumping over a median barrier — when he was hit.
Investigators believe Calderon-Colesio was drunk at the time of the crash and when he was hit by the car. Police say they will be seeking a DUI arrest warrant for him.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Casey Kasem, the smooth-voiced radio broadcaster who became the king of the top 40 countdown, has died at age 82.
Danny Deraney, publicist for Kasem’s daughter, Kerri, says Kasem died Sunday morning.
Kasem’s “American Top 40” began on July 4, 1970, in Los Angeles. The No. 1 song on his list then was “Mama Told Me Not to Come,” by Three Dog Night.
The show continued in varying forms — and for varying syndicators — until his retirement in 2009. In his signoff, he would tell viewers: “And don’t forget: keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.”
CHESHIRE, Conn. (AP) — Police in Connecticut say an apparent hoarder has died after the cluttered first floor of her home collapsed into the basement.
Authorities say 66-year-old Beverly Mitchell was found in her Cheshire home Saturday, two days after a postal carrier called police to request a welfare check because her mail was piling up.
Cheshire police say they went to the home Thursday but didn’t find anyone. Police say the first floor was piled waist-high with clutter, and they didn’t realize until Friday that the floor had collapsed.
Officials say they found Mitchell’s body while removing debris with a backhoe through a hole in the house.
Police say Mitchell had declined offers of help from social service officials over the years.
STANTON, Neb. (AP) — The severe thunderstorms that spawned large hail and strong winds earlier this month left a lasting mark on many Nebraska communities.
Aaron Volkman said it will take weeks or even months to repair all the damage to his rural home near Stanton.
The June 3 storms also caused significant hail damage in Blair, Fort Calhoun, Uehling and Craig, Nebraska, and in the western Iowa town of Missouri Valley.
The hail shredded the siding on the north and west sides of Volkman’s home. Several windows were shattered and the roof had holes in it.
Volkman says a contractor estimated that the repairs will cost $54,000 although insurance will cover the bill.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln officials are ready to sign off on new ice skating rink seven years after getting a $7 million donation for the project.
The City Council is scheduled to vote on the project by the end of June. The University of Nebraska Board of Regents approved its role in the project in May.
Once the city approves the agreement, construction can begin. University officials hope ice rink will be ready by the fall of 2015.
Former state auditor John Breslow first announced his intention to donate $7 million for the ice rink in 2007. But the project languished while university and city officials focused on finishing the Pinnacle Bank arena for basketball and events.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — In a move intended to boost spending in the central Nebraska city of Grand Island, ammunition company Hornady Manufacturing has issued employee cash bonuses in the form of $2 bills, with a request from management to spend the money in town.
Vice President Jason Hornady said the company recently handed out $61,000 worth of $2 bills to its employees as part of the company’s annual bonus pay.
Hornady says getting 30,500 $2 bills to give to employees takes some doing. He orders the bills from a bank about a month in advance.
Hornady Manufacturing is one of Grand Island’s leading employers with more than 300 people on its payroll.
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say drug traffickers are disguising methamphetamine as a liquid to smuggle it into the United States from Mexico.
It’s sealed in tequila bottles or plastic detergent containers to fool border agents and traffic officers. Once deep inside California’s Central Valley, a national distribution hub, meth cooks convert it into crystals — the most sought-after form on the street.
Mike Prado of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigation’s Fresno unit says conversion labs are popping up in neighborhoods, as in the case of a lab that caused a house in Fresno to explode two years ago rattling neighbors’ nerves.
Prado says these labs are dangerous because they’re hidden away in densely populated apartment buildings and foreclosed homes in quiet neighborhoods where children play on the street.
CEDAR BLUFFS, Neb. (AP) — A man has died in a single-vehicle crash in eastern Nebraska.
The Saunders County Sheriff’s Office says the crash happened Friday evening at the intersection of two county roads near Cedar Bluffs.
Investigators say a large pickup driven by a 56-year-old man failed to stop at the intersection stop sign, left the roadway and ended up in a ditch. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene.
Authorities have not yet released the driver’s name.
