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Nebraska Looking at Ways to Grow Urban Agriculture

Lincoln-NELINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska is known for its agricultural production, and now a state senator wants to bring farming into cities and towns.

Sen. Burke Harr of Omaha has introduced a legislative study to look at ways the state can help develop new community gardens. The gardens have become hugely popular in Omaha and Lincoln, with waiting lists for available plots.

The study will focus on new possible places to plant, such as public-school grounds. Senators may also look at a law approved in 2013 in California, which lets cities offer property-tax breaks to landowners who dedicate their land to food-growing for at least five years.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln extension educator Sarah Browning says the gardens provide physical benefits because of the work required and helps growers lower their grocery bills.

6 Cleveland Police Officers Charged in Fatal Chase

police-lights-redCLEVELAND (AP) — In announcing charges against a Cleveland patrolman in the deaths of a driver and his passenger, a prosecutor cites a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibiting police from firing on suspects after a public threat has ended.

Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH’-guh) County prosecutor Tim McGinty says Officer Michael Brelo (BREE’-loh) stood on the hood of the suspect’s car and fired at least 15 shots after a police chase had ended.

In all, 137 shots were fired. Driver Timothy Russell and passenger Malissa Williams were killed. No gun was found on them.

Brelo was charged Friday with manslaughter; five supervisors were charged with dereliction of duty.

The killings have been decried as racially motivated — both victims were black — and a federal investigation is underway. The police union has defended the officers’ actions.

 

New Trial Ordered in Nebraska Custody Dispute

gavel-moreLINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has ordered a new trial to determine whether a boy should remain in the state to live with his biological father or be allowed to move to Mexico with his mother, whose husband was deported.

The decision on Friday overturned a lower-court ruling that said Ruby Maldonado-Morin’s desire to live with her husband in Mexico was not a legitimate reason to remove the boy from the state.

Maldonado-Morin shares custody of the boy with his biological father, Michael Daniels. The boy, Deonte Daniels, has lived primarily with his mother since his birth in 1999.

Maldonado-Morin married Jose Morin in 2001, and argues that her husband treats Deonte as his own son.

Daniels sought sole custody of Deonte last year, after Morin was deported.

Nebraska Boy Given Probation for Attacking Dog with Ax

gavel-and-scaleFAIRBURY, Neb. (AP) — A 13-year-old who tortured his grandfather’s 3-pound dog with an ax has been sentenced to serve probation and receive counseling until his legally an adult.

A Jefferson County judge sentenced the teen Wednesday after the boy admitted to a misdemeanor charge of attempted animal cruelty causing injury.

Authorities say that in April, when he was 12, the boy kicked and hit the Chihuahua with an ax while it was tied to a tree in his grandfather’s yard. The dog’s jaw was shattered and one of its eyes was pulled from a socket in the attack.

A veterinarian treated the dog, but it’s not known whether the animal survived its injuries.

Omaha Man’s First Degree Murder Conviction Upheld

Endre Turner
Endre Turner

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of an Omaha man serving life in prison for killing another man during a home burglary.

The court on Friday upheld the life sentence of 25-year-old Endre Turner.

Turner was convicted of first-degree murder and a weapons count last year for the 2011 shooting death of 21-year-old Richard Harrison. Police say Harrison’s mother discovered his bloody body in a closet on Sept. 29.

Prosecutors said during Turner’s trial that he killed Harrison to keep Harrison from being able to identify him to police.

The Supreme Court acknowledged that officers who interrogated Turner misrepresented the potential punishment he could face, but concluded that his confession was still voluntary and not coerced.

Motorcyclist Killed in Crash was Off-Duty Fireman

douglas-county-sheriffWATERLOO, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a motorcyclist killed early Friday in a head-on crash with a pickup was an off-duty Omaha firefighter, and the truck driver likely faces criminal charges.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office says the crash happened near 240th and Pacific Streets, just south of Waterloo, around 12:20 a.m. Friday when the southbound truck crossed the center line, hitting the motorcycle head-on.

Investigators say 37-year-old Scott Petersen was killed instantly. The Omaha Fire Department says Petersen was a hazardous materials technician who had been with the department for more than seven years. The married father also was a member of the state Urban Search and Rescue Team.

The truck driver, from Fremont, was not hurt. Police believe he may have been drinking alcohol before the crash.

Anti-Abortion Group Targeting Omaha-Area Schools

abolitionist-societyOMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An anti-abortion group that displays graphic signs of aborted fetuses is targeting Omaha-area high schools.

The Abolitionist Society of Omaha has been demonstrating outside several high schools this year, including Millard West, Millard North, Bellevue East and Bellevue West High Schools. The group equates its fight against abortion to the effort to abolish slavery.

Group founder and director Tim Locklear says the group demonstrates outside schools to target young people. Locklear says a large number of high school students nationwide experience unplanned pregnancies and that high school is a time when students’ views on abortion are being formed.

Some students and parents have been upset by the protests and graphic signs, but officials say the protesters have a right to congregate.

University of Nebraska Faculty Oppose Hiring Idea

UNLLINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — University of Nebraska faculty members are voicing their opposition to a proposal to limit or even eliminate faculty and student participation in the hiring of senior administrators.

The university’s Regents Board is considering changing its bylaws to exclude students and faculty from consideration in hiring campus administrators, including chancellors, vice chancellors and deans.

The proposed chance comes as the university looks to replace J.B. Milliken, who left the NU president’s post last month to become chancellor of the City University of New York.

UNL Faculty Senate President and biology professor Ken Nickerson says faculty senate members only learned of the proposed changes within recent days.

Nickerson says the restrictions should pertain only to the presidential search — not to other academic administrative positions.

Drug Helps Breast Cancer Patients Keep Fertility

Medical-ChartCHICAGO (AP) — Doctors may have a way to help young breast cancer patients avoid infertility caused by chemotherapy. Giving a drug to shut down the ovaries temporarily seems to boost the odds they will work after treatment ends, and it might even improve survival.

Chemotherapy often causes early menopause. A Cleveland Clinic researcher led a study of 250 women around the world to see whether giving a drug to make the ovaries go dormant would help.

Two years after cancer treatment ended, women whose ovaries were suppressed were less likely to suffer early menopause, and twice as many of them became pregnant compared to others in the study.

Results were discussed Friday at a cancer conference in Chicago.

Police Say Omaha Fire, Death a Suicide

omaha-policeOMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say a 57-year-old man who died after being pulled from an Omaha mobile home fire set the blaze before shooting himself.

Police say Craig Fuhrer died earlier Wednesday morning at the Nebraska Medical Center.

Emergency crews were called just after midnight to Maplewood Estates in northwest Omaha, where firefighters saw light smoke coming from Fuhrer’s home. Inside, firefighters found Fuhrer injured in a back bedroom.

Paramedics took Fuhrer in extremely critical condition to the hospital, where he died.

Late Thursday, police said it appeared Fuhrer had used an accelerant to start the fire, then shot himself.

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