(AP) — Officers are still searching for a 17-year-old who escaped while being picked up on a juvenile warrant in Hastings.
Hastings police and the Adams County Sheriff’s office said Friday that the boy remained at large.
He was handcuffed when he got away from officers around 5:30 p.m. Thursday. It’s unclear what crime was alleged on the warrant.
The Associated Press generally doesn’t name juveniles accused of crimes.
(AP) — The government’s latest report card on food poisoning is out, and it has some good news: a drop in illnesses from salmonella.
Last year, salmonella cases fell 9 percent, compared to the previous three years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that’s the largest drop in a decade.
But officials were cautious about making too much of it. Last year was compared to a time period that included a large salmonella outbreak tied to eggs.
Overall, there wasn’t much change. The CDC report found no significant change in most kinds of food poisoning. There was a spike in illnesses caused by a bacteria found in raw shellfish like oysters, but the number of cases was still relatively small.
(AP) — A former village clerk in eastern Nebraska has been accused of embezzling nearly $80,000.
69-year-old Mary C. Terry, of Cedar Creek, faces a felony charge of theft by deception. Court records do not list an attorney.
An arrest affidavit says Terry wrote checks to herself without approval from the village board. The money was allegedly taken from the village’s general fund. Terry denies the allegations.
Authorities believe Terry stole the money between January 2009 and January 2014. They suspect she took more money but statute of limitations restricts criminal charges.
Cass County Attorney Nathan Cox says Terry turned herself in to authorities on April 3. She was released on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond.
Terry is scheduled in court on April 29.
(AP) — Officials say aquatic improvements at Burchard Wildlife Management Area in southeast Nebraska are complete.
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission says the rehabilitation includes the construction of a new outlet structure, a boat ramp facility, angler access nodes and a handicap-accessible fishing pier.
However, the reservoir remains low. The new boat ramp facility remains closed because water levels are seven- to eight feet below full pool. Small vessels are allowed if they’re launched from the shoreline.
Other improvements include offshore breakwaters to protect shorelines, and a sediment dike and basin on the reservoir’s north arm. Water levels have been deepened near new breakwaters and underwater rock shoals and cedar tree fish attractors have been added in the reservoir basin.
(AP) — Authorities say a Denver man accused of killing his wife while she was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher ate marijuana-infused candy before the attack.
Search warrants released Thursday said 44-year-old Kristine Kirk told dispatchers her husband bought and ate the candy before he started hallucinating and frightening the couple’s three children.
Police say 47-year-old Richard Kirk also may have taken prescription pain medication before he began acting erratically.
It was not clear whether the pot influenced his behavior.
Authorities say Richard Kirk shot his wife in the head about 12 minutes into her call with 911.
Police say she told dispatchers her husband was getting a gun from a safe before a gunshot sounded and the line went quiet. The department is investigating whether police responded quickly enough.
(AP) — Police have arrested a male suspect in a string of random Kansas City-area highway shootings that have wounded three people.
Kansas City, Mo., police Chief Darryl Forte declined to identify the suspect during a Thursday night news conference near the suspect’s home in Grandview. He says he will discuss the case in further detail at another news conference Friday.
Police are searching the suspect’s single-story home and a green Dodge Neon with Illinois license plates that was behind it has been towed away.
Police said last week that they had connected 12 shootings since early March in which vehicles were targeted on Kansas City-area highways and roads.
Most of the reported shootings were in the southern part of Kansas City, Mo., known as the Grandview Triangle where several highways intersect.
(AP) — A 48-year-old Grand Island man has now been found competent to stand trial on charges that he tried to kill his estranged wife.
Jesus Parra returned to court on Wednesday and was declared competent, as long as he continues to take his medication.
In February he’d been declared mentally incompetent and was sent to the state psychiatric hospital in Lincoln for treatment. He was to remain there until “the disability is removed.”
Parra already has pleaded not guilty to weapons charges and charges of assault, child abuse and attempted murder. Police say he attacked and injured Rosa Olivas de Parra at her home in April 2013. Police say the couple’s adult daughter was cut while trying to intervene.
(AP) — Nebraska health officials are offering information about job openings to potential employees via a drive-thru method.
The state Department of Health and Human Services says it’s hosting a job fair Tuesday in Omaha that involves people entering and exiting a parking lot. Officials will be at two stations to hand out information.
Potential employees will be able to park their vehicles and submit applications.
The agency will advertise openings in divisions including children and family services, developmental disabilities, Medicaid and others.
Officials say the drive-thru job fair has been well received in the past. The event will run from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at 1215 S. 42nd St.
(AP) — The husband of a New Jersey woman accused of driving their children into a river says one of the teens called him from the sinking van.
Jeffrey Smith tells The Associated Press his daughter then kicked out a window and was rescued by a good Samaritan.
Police say the passer-by, Darnell Taylor, also helped Smith’s wife and two of their sons get out of the car. Smith says the boys had called 911 from the submerged vehicle.
Smith says he was running errands with a fourth child Tuesday when his wife allegedly drove into the Delaware River in Florence Township. Joann Smith is charged with attempted murder.
Jeffrey Smith said Thursday that his wife has been battling mental illness for more than a decade.
(AP) — A Nebraska school principal has apologized for sending students home with a flier that advises those who are bullied to not tattle on their tormentors.
Some parents of fifth-graders at Zeman Elementary, in Lincoln, complained and posted angry comments on Facebook.
Zeman principal Donna Williams apologized directly to the families on Wednesday, and the district posted the apology on its Facebook page.
Among other things, the flier says telling on the bully makes the bully want to retaliate. And the flier asks, “Would we keep our friends if we tattled on them?”
District student services director Russ Uhing says the LPS philosophy is: Ask the bully to stop. Walk away. If the bullying continues, tell a parent or teacher.
