(AP) — Iowa authorities have confirmed that a body found in the Missouri River is that of a missing Nebraska man.
Iowa officials and police in Fremont, have identified the man as 56-year-old Thomas Hill, of Fremont.
The body was found Saturday off Fremont County, Iowa, south of Omaha. Hill was reported missing on April 18. His car was found parked near the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge in Omaha.
An Iowa autopsy report says Hill drowned.
(AP) — Two 16-year-olds are facing assault charges after an altercation that left another teen critically hurt.
Family members say Aquilee Muse was taken off of life support Tuesday after doctors said he was brain dead.
Police say Muse was walking with several other teenagers when they were confronted Friday afternoon by the two 16-year-olds in Omaha.
Police say Muse sustained a head injury in the attack and was hospitalized in critical condition. Doctors said Saturday that Muse was not expected to survive.
(AP) — Authorities in Lincoln have arrested an 18-year-old high school student after homemade explosives were found in his car at school.
Lincoln police say George Carl Chen was taken into custody Monday. He faces felony charges of unlawful possession of explosive materials and possession of a destructive device. Court records do not list an attorney.
Police say they discovered on May 7 more than 160 rifle rounds and 26 homemade firecrackers in Chen’s car at Lincoln East High School. Another 50 rounds were found in his backpack.
Chen told investigators he uses the rounds for target practice. He said the fireworks were from Fourth of July celebrations. Officer Katie Flood says there’s no evidence that Chen meant to harm anyone at the school.
(AP) — Some University of Nebraska-Lincoln students have been learning valuable lessons in mentoring troubled youths.
Anne Hobbs teaches the two-semester juvenile mentoring class. She said each student is matched with one youth at the Geneva or Kearney youth treatment and rehabilitation centers. The students see their mentees once every other week during the fall and spring semesters. The goal is to provide positive role models to the juveniles and train the college students to work with troubled youths.
Students spend months with their mentees and expect the relationships they’ve built to blossom once the youths are released. But, says Hobbs, the younger people often sever those ties.
Hobbs says “the addiction is so strong with these kids.”
(AP) — One person has been injured in an Omaha house fire.
The blaze was reported around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday at a home about a mile and a half west of downtown. The injured person was taken in serious condition to Nebraska Medical Center.
Firefighters think the fire began in the rear of the house. The fire cause is being investigated.
(AP) — A New Jersey man is considering suing for the right to use medical marijuana in an Atlantic City casino.
Daniel Price’s lawyer, Michelle Douglass, says that Revel Casino Hotel failed to accommodate his disability when a security guard told him he could not take his marijuana into the casino last month.
The 23-year-old Atlantic City resident is a registered medical marijuana patient. He tells The Press of Atlantic City that he uses the drug to treat seizures and irritable bowel disease.
State guidelines encourage patients to smoke cannabis at home. But they are not barred by law from using it in private businesses.
Revel, like all Atlantic City casinos, has a smoking area. Lisa Johnson, a Revel spokeswoman, declined to comment to the newspaper.
No lawsuit has been filed.
(AP) — Firefighters say they still have a grip on a Texas Panhandle wildfire that has destroyed 156 structures, including at least 89 homes.
No injuries have been reported from the fire that has scorched a 4-square-mile area around Lake Meredith, between the towns of Sanford and Fritch.
Texas A&M Forest Service spokesman Troy Duchneaux (doosh-NOH’) says about 2,100 people remain evacuated from roughly 1,300 homes as of late Monday.
He says the fire is still about 65 percent contained and the prospects for continued success are good, with early morning temperatures in the upper 30s expected and relative humidity expected to reach 60 percent. He says a house-by-house search and damage assessment is planned for Tuesday.
(AP) — The new headquarters building for the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska will provide space for an array of services and a community center the tribe will share with the Niobrara community in northeast Nebraska.
The building is expected to be ready for occupancy early next year and contain around 9,000 square feet, which is more than double the space in the former grain and feed building the tribe operates out of now.
Other tribal sites in Lincoln, Norfolk and Omaha and in Sioux City, Iowa, also offer services for tribal members.
The 3,600-member Ponca Tribe of Nebraska is the name used to describe the Northern Ponca Tribe since the tribe was officially restored to sovereign nation status in 1990. It doesn’t have a reservation.
(AP) — Some Nebraska voters will have to drive further than normal to cast their ballots in Tuesday’s primary because of damage from this weekend’s storms.
Secretary of State John Gale said Monday that two polling places in Seward County will be relocated because of the damage.
Beaver Crossing voters will have to go to Goehner Fire Hall in Goehner on Tuesday. Cordova voters will have to drive to Utica to vote at the Utica Senior Center.
In Clay County, officials decided to keep Sutton’s polling place at the local Senior Community Center, but they’ll have to set up a generator because Sutton remains without power.
Gale says the 10 inches of snow that fell in western Nebraska isn’t expected to force any polling places to move in Scotts Bluff County.
(AP) — It’s clear that tornadoes caused significant damage across eastern Nebraska this weekend, but the expert assessment of the storms won’t be complete until at least Tuesday.
The National Weather Service sent crews of storm experts out Monday to look at the damage Sunday’s storms left behind. But the crews weren’t able to survey all the damage.
The weather service and the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency say it is clear Sunday’s storms produced tornadoes, but it won’t be clear how many there were until the damage assessments are done.
NEMA officials say trained spotters identified 12 to 15 likely tornadoes on Sunday as the storms moved across the state.
