(AP) — A toddler in eastern Nebraska is recovering after nearly drowning in a family pool.
The 2-year-old girl was found floating Wednesday evening at a home in Papillion. She was taken to a nearby hospital before being transferred to another hospital. She is in stable condition.
Papillion police say the child slipped out of a door and entered a gate that led to the backyard pool. Another child found the girl, and someone at the scene performed CPR until medics arrived.
An Alma man is arrested and 23 vehicles seized in an investigation into an illegal auto dealership in Alma.
Just after 11: 30 a.m., Wednesday, August 7, the Nebraska State Patrol, in conjunction with the Nebraska Motor Vehicle Industry Licensing Board, and the Harlan County Attorney, served both a search warrant and an arrest warrant at the High Plains Claims Company, 904 Brown Street in Alma.
The warrant service followed a nearly month long investigation into the operation of an automotive dealership without a license by Max Siegel, 53, Alma. A total of 36 vehicles were inventoried, with authorities seizing 23 vehicles from the property to include, cars, pickups, SUV’S and motorcycles. Motor vehicle titles, financial records and currency were also seized.
Siegel was arrested and lodged in the Harlan County Jail on a charge of operating an unauthorized auto dealership.
(AP) — The superintendent of a Christian school in Lincoln says he lost his job because he performed in a community production of “The Producers.”
The Broadway musical by Mel Brooks has gay characters, Nazi jokes, some coarse dialogue and racy lyrics.
Harold Scott has been superintendent for two years at Parkview Christian School, which has ties to Calvary Community Church. Scott said on Wednesday that he was told that Calvary’s pastor, the Rev. Carl Godwin, thought Scott’s participation in the show at The Lofte Theatre would reflect poorly on the school and church.
Scott says he did nothing wrong and that his involvement in theater “should in no way interfere with the career I love.”
Godwin didn’t immediately return a call Thursday from The Associated Press.
(AP) — A federal judge has consolidated the lawsuits of five people cleared by DNA evidence in the 1985 killing of a Beatrice woman and set trial for next year.
The trial comes after a federal appeals court ruled last fall that lawsuits filed by Joseph White, Thomas Winslow, Ada JoAnn Taylor, James Dean and Kathleen Gonzalez against Gage County officials can continue.
The five were convicted of killing Helen Wilson and spent a combined 87 years in prison before they were exonerated in 2008 after DNA testing implicated another man.
A sixth person wrongly convicted in the case, Debra Shelden, did not sue the county.
On Sunday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Zwart ordered the trial to begin Jan. 6 and allocated 10 days for trial, from jury selection to closing arguments.
(AP) — Gage County supervisors are talking about closing the county jail and housing inmates elsewhere.
The discussion occurred Wednesday as the Board of Supervisors reviewed budget proposals from Sheriff Millard “Gus” Gustafson for his patrol department and the jail.
For the 2013-2014 fiscal year, Gustafson sought a little more than $981,000 for his law enforcement budget and $744,000 for the corrections department.
Board Chairman Matt Bauman says county voters in 2009 rejected building another jail to replace the current building, which needed work to bring it up to code.
Bauman says that “as you crunch the numbers initially, it looks like you may be able to board these prisoners cheaper than what we can continue to run” in jail costs.
(AP) — At least three people in two states have beaten astronomical odds to become the nation’s latest Powerball millionaires.
Sue Dooley, senior drawing manager production coordinator for the Multi-State Lottery Association, said late Wednesday night that three tickets matched the winning numbers and will split the lottery’s latest massive jackpot: $448 million.
The winning numbers drawn Wednesday night were: 05, 25, 30, 58, 59 and Powerball 32.
The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger reported early Thursday that a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Lottery said that one of the multimillion-dollar tickets was purchased at a supermarket in South Brunswick, N.J., and the other ticket was sold in Little Egg Harbor, N.J.
Information on the Minnesota ticket was not available early Thursday.
(AP) — Police are investigating a fatal shooting in northeast Omaha that occurred just days after another slaying nearby.
Omaha police Lt. Catherine Milone says the man was pronounced dead at the scene early Thursday morning. He’d been found outside a public housing complex.
Investigators say a wounded man showed up at an Omaha hospital about 45 minutes after the body was found. Investigators are checking into whether he was shot at the same time and location as the slain man.
Their names haven’t been released.
On Sunday 28-year-old twin brothers were shot at a party a couple of blocks away. One died; the other was treated at a hospital and released.
No arrests have been reported in either of the cases.
(AP) — The University of Nebraska College of Law will open a new frontier in space law by launching a space law doctorate program this fall semester.
The school already offers a one-year program for a master of laws in space, cyber and telecommunications law. Its graduates have gone on to careers working for private companies, federal agencies and military units, as well as for think tanks, consultants and law firms.
Matthew Schaefer is director of the college’s Space, Cyber and Telecommunications Law program, and he says the Nebraska law school breaks new ground as the only doctoral-level space law program in the United States.
(AP) — A 2-year-old girl has been hospitalized after being found unresponsive in a backyard pool in an Omaha suburb.
Papillion police say the girl was found by a relative about 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Medics were able to restore her heartbeat, and she was taken to nearby Midlands Hospital. Later she was transferred to Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha.
Police Lt. Chris Witted says the girl slipped out a door and was able to open a gate to the above-ground pool. Her name hasn’t been released.
(AP) — The FBI has reopened its investigation of the 1964 kidnapping from a Chicago hospital of an infant who was seemingly reunited with his parents more than a year later.
That’s what everyone thought until that boy — now a 49-year-old Henderson, Nev., college administrator — got his and his parents’ DNA tested this year. Paul Fronczak says the tests showed he’s not his parents’ biological son.
Fronczak told the Chicago Sun-Times in June they got their DNA tested because he long wondered why he didn’t resemble his parents, Chester and Dora Fronczak.
The couple’s son was abducted from Michael Reese Hospital. The case seemed to end happily when they were reunited with a boy resembling theirs who was found abandoned in New Jersey.
The case was reopened Wednesday.
