(AP) — York High School has been flooded after a vandal or vandals smashed open the fire sprinkler system.
The school was broken into Monday night or early Tuesday morning.
Principal Mitch Bartholomew says water spread throughout the school, including the gym. Upward of 50 people helped with the cleanup.
A damage estimate hasn’t been completed yet.
District Superintendent Mike Lucas says classes are still expected to begin on Aug. 20, as scheduled.
(AP) — A Nebraska-based insurance company that is being fined $325,000 for violating South Dakota laws and regulations says it has taken steps to ensure it is in full compliance.
Omaha-based Ability Insurance says in a statement that the company remains committed to serving its customers and that the fine won’t affect its ability to pay policyholder claims.
The fine levied by South Dakota’s Division of Insurance was the largest such fine in state history. It came after a three-year investigation. State officials say claims denied by Ability have since been reprocessed.
(AP) — A 30-year-old Arizona man has been given Nebraska prison time for exchanging sexually explicit text messages with a 14-year-old girl.
Christopher Vick, of Glendale, Ariz., on Monday was given five consecutive terms of 20 to 60 months in prison for a total of 100 months to 25 years. He’d pleaded no contest and was convicted in May of five counts of enticement by electronic communications device.
Fremont police received a report last September about a man in Arizona exchanging sexually explicit messages with the Fremont teenager. Investigators tracked the messages to Vick, who was arrested in Arizona and extradited to Nebraska.
(AP) — A 24-year-old Lincoln man accused of having sex with a sleeping woman has been sentenced to prison.
Jeremy Tinnean was sentenced on Tuesday to four to five years in prison. Tinnean had pleaded no contest and was convicted of attempted sexual assault.
A 21-year-old woman told police that she, Tinnean and two of his friends had gone to several bars on June 20, 2012. She ended up at a downtown apartment, sleeping on the bed of the man who lived there. She reported that she awoke early the next morning and found that Tinnean was having sex with her.
(AP) — Leaders in Omaha and Bellevue are considering a proposal to turn an abandoned railroad line into a light rail system that would run from north Omaha south into Bellevue.
City council members for Omaha and Bellevue recently attended a briefing on the proposal, led by Omaha community development nonprofit Emerging Terrain.
Planners say the proposed 20-mile light rail system would be coupled with a parallel recreational trail and hubs for an enhanced bus service traveling east and west. Planners say the light rail system could bring an estimated 9,000 jobs and 4,500 new homes to one stretch of the corridor.
Emerging Terrain founder Anne Trumble says the plan would require tens of millions of public and private dollars over the next 10 to 15 years.
(AP) — Lincoln police say an elderly woman has reported being robbed by someone hiding inside her car.
Police say the woman got into her SUV Monday night after leaving a market. She told police she heard a noise in the back seat before a man with a bandanna over his face popped up and placed a gun to her head.
The woman told police that the man ordered her to drive around before he got out at an intersection. He allegedly took her purse and groceries.
Additional information about the case is unavailable.
(AP) — A man accused of emerging from a Colorado portable toilet covered in feces has pleaded guilty to two burglary counts and attempted unlawful sexual contact.
Luke Chrisco was arrested in 2011 after a woman at a yoga festival in Boulder noticed something moving in the tank of the portable toilet, then saw a feces-stained man emerge and run away. Police said he also was suspected of hiding in other bathrooms around Boulder to watch women use the toilet.
Chrisco had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to various charges in May but changed his plea Tuesday.
Chrisco could face up to six years in prison at a sentencing hearing set for Aug. 30.
(AP) — A woman accused of pretending to be a licensed psychologist in Nebraska has been sentenced to four years in prison.
U.S. Attorney Deborah Gilg says Annette Crawley, also known as Kenya Sade Bryant, was sentenced Tuesday for health care fraud and false claims.
Prosecutors say Crawley, who formerly lived in Missouri, created a new identity to obtain a Nebraska license and to obtain employment. Between October 2011 and July 2012, she is accused of using her fake name to work at several behavioral service centers in the state.
Records show Crawley treated more than 200 patients at one center and illegally conducted psychological evaluations that were partially paid for by Medicaid, the Social Security Administration and the state of Nebraska.
(AP) — Authorities are trying to determine what caused the motorcycle accident that killed a 29-year-old Norfolk man.
Brandon Blum died Monday night after the collision around 8 p.m.
Norfolk Police Capt. Michael Bauer says Blum was driving his motorcycle east on Omaha Avenue when a car began to merge into the lane he was in.
Blum drove up on the median and flew off the motorcycle. Bauer says that Blum slid underneath an oncoming 1997 Chevrolet Suburban and his motorcycle struck the SUV.
Blum died at the scene of the accident.
The SUV was driven by 18-year-old Humberto Costilla of O’Neill.
(AP) — The city attorney’s job will be on the line at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting in Grand Island.
Mayor Jay Vavricek has added the item to the council’s agenda and is recommending that the council approve the firing of Bob Sivick.
Sivick, who has no employment contract, says he’s surprised by the mayor’s action and intends to fight to keep his job. He says he and the mayor and other city officials have been struggling for two years over how he should carry out his duties. Sivick says he’s been asked to take actions for political purposes.
Vavricek wouldn’t cite any specific incidents that have prompted him to seek Sivick’s ouster, calling it a personnel matter.
