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Store Offers Diamonds with Buffett’s Signatures

Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett

(AP) — Berkshire Hathaway shareholders who hope to get Warren Buffett’s autograph at the annual meeting this weekend now have the option of buying a diamond with the billionaire’s signature inscribed on it.

Berkshire’s Borsheims jewelry store is selling loose diamonds in sizes up to 5 carats with a tiny version of Buffett’s signature.

And a few lucky shareholders will have the chance to buy one of the diamonds or other jewelry from Buffett on Sunday because he plans to pose as a Borsheims salesman again that afternoon.

Shareholders get a discount at Borsheims because Berkshire owns the west Omaha store. Several shareholder events are planned there throughout the weekend.

Buffett and Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger will answer questions from an arena full of shareholders on Saturday at the annual meeting.

Justice Department to Collect Data on Stops, Arrests

Eric Holder
Eric Holder

(AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder says the Justice Department plans to collect data on police stops, searches and arrests in an effort to study racial bias in law enforcement.

Holder said in a video message Monday that the data will be collected in five pilot cities over two years as part of a new initiative called the National Center for Building Community Trust and Justice. He said racial disparities in the criminal justice system “breed resentment” toward law enforcement.

The $4.75 million project will be funded through grants; the cities will be named later.

After the acquittal of neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in the Florida death of Trayvon Martin, President Barack Obama directed the Justice Department to work with local law enforcement to help ease tensions between police and minorities.

Authorities ID Nebraska Crash Victims

Hall-County-Sheriff(AP) — Authorities have released the names of a motorcyclist who was killed and a car driver who was injured in a collision on U.S. Highway 30 just east of Grand Island.

The accident occurred just after 4 p.m. Sunday. The Hall County Sheriff’s Office says the motorcycle was headed east when it struck the driver’s side of a northbound car that was turning left onto the highway at Gunbarrel Road.

The motorcycle driver was pronounced dead at the scene. On Monday the Sheriff’s Office identified him as 52-year-old Rodney Beckman, of Marquette.

The car driver was taken to St. Francis Medical Center in Grand Island. She was identified as 59-year-old Constance Baasch, of Grand Island. Her injuries were considered non-life-threatening.

Utah Woman Accused of Killing 6 Babies Charges

Megan Huntsman
Megan Huntsman

(AP) — Prosecutors have filed six first-degree murder charges against a Utah woman accused of killing six babies after giving birth to them, and keeping their bodies in boxes in her garage.

The charges were filed Monday morning shortly before 39-year-old Megan Huntsman appeared in court for the second time. She was informed of the charges during the brief hearing.

Prosecutors say Huntsman is the only suspect in the deaths of the babies. They say a seventh dead infant found in the garage appears to have been stillborn.

Investigators believe Huntsman’s estranged husband, Darren West, is the babies’ father, though they are awaiting DNA results to confirm that. West is not a suspect.

Huntsman is being held on $6 million bail.

Authorities say they think they know her motive, but they have declined to reveal it publicly.

University of Nebraska Chief Leaving for NY Job

J.B. Milliken
J.B. Milliken

(AP) — University of Nebraska President J.B. Milliken will be stepping down on Friday before stepping up to his next challenge as chancellor of City University of New York.

Milliken announced in January that he’d accepted the new job, leaving the Nebraska post he’s held since 2004.

The move is a continuation of the intellectual awakening Milliken underwent as a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

When Milliken returned to the Nebraska system, it was coming off four years of double-digit tuition increases totaling 47 percent. He’s helped slow the rate of increases to an average annual rate of 4.2 percent over the last decade.

Milliken says he’s “always been a big believer that affordable access is priority No. 1 of public universities.”

Consolidation Costs Nebraska Town Its School

newcastle ne(AP) — It’s a year of “lasts” for Newcastle High School in northeast Nebraska.

The last prom, the last set of finals, the last high school graduation in the village of 325 people.

Newcastle officials have been struggling with declining enrollment and so have agreed to consolidate the district with the Hartington district. The merger is expected to be approved Tuesday during a meeting of the State Committee for the Reorganization of School Districts in Lincoln.

The plan for next year has students from fifth grade through high school attending school in Hartington, 28 miles away. Hartington administrators have said students from prekindergarten through fourth grade will remain at Newcastle for at least for a year. Beyond that, it’s uncertain.

Hastings Veterans Club Closes as Memberships Fall

vfw(AP) — The Veterans of Foreign Wars Club chapter in Hastings has sold its building because of dwindling membership.

The Hastings Tribune reports that Friday night’s bingo game was the last public event at the VFW club in downtown Hastings

Keith Dreher with the local VFW post says he’s seen membership drop from more than 700 15 years ago to about 360. Veterans of World War II and the Korean War are dying and younger veterans haven’t embraced the club.

Dreher says the group decided to sell its downtown building before it started losing significant amounts of money.

Shirley Murphy made sure to attend Friday’s last bingo night. She says it will be hard to see the club close because she has been attending events there for so long.

 

Tornadoes Kill 16 in Arkansas, 1 in Oklahoma

arkansas tornado april 2014(AP) — A state agency has raised the death toll from a huge tornado that cut a sporadic 80-mile path through central Arkansas to 16.

The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management reported on its website early Monday that there are now 10 confirmed deaths from Sunday’s tornado in Faulkner County. There are still five confirmed deaths in Pulaski County and one in White County.

The tornado touched down Sunday about 10 miles west of Little Rock at about 7 p.m., then carved a 80-mile path of destruction as it passed through or near several suburbs north of Arkansas’ capital city. It grew to be a half-mile wide and remained on the ground for much of that route, authorities said.

The tornado was the largest of several spawned by a powerful storm system moving through the central and southern United States. It also formed a tornado that killed a person in Quapaw, Okla., on Sunday before moving northward into Kansas.

Fight to Ban Synthetic Drugs Not Over in Nebraska

k2(AP) — Nebraska will again expand its ban on synthetic drugs under a new law, but some say the law doesn’t go far enough.

The law targets the newest generation of synthetic drugs that mimic the effects of marijuana. It was passed in the legislative session’s final day and signed by Gov. Dave Heineman last week.

Despite its passage, the law disappointed Steve Tucker, whose 18-year-old son, Billy, died in October from an overdose of the synthetic marijuana “K2.”

Tucker, of Greenwood, says the new law doesn’t stop substances developed recently in eastern Europe that will likely reach Nebraska soon.

Sen. Ken Schilz of Ogallala, who sponsored the bill, says some provision had to be removed from the bill in order for it to gain approval.

Teen’s Arm Severed in New York Eatery’s Pasta Machine

odd-news(AP) — A teenage employee at an Italian restaurant in northern New York has severed his arm while cleaning a pasta machine.

A spokeswoman for Massachusetts General Hospital tells The Associated Press that 17-year-old Brett Bouchard was listed in serious condition there Sunday morning.

He was flown there after the accident Thursday night at Violi’s Restaurant in Massena on the Canadian border.

Restaurant manager Mia Violi tells The Watertown Daily Times that Bouchard was cleaning the pasta machine when his right arm got caught and severed at the elbow. She says employees are trying to figure out how the machine got activated while he was cleaning it.

It’s not yet clear whether the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration will investigate the accident.

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