(AP) — Thousands of customers are still without power following a thunderstorm that caused widespread damage in the Omaha area.

Omaha Public Power District said Tuesday morning that more than 10,600 of its Douglas County customers didn’t have electricity. That’s down considerably from the outage’s peak of 52,000 late Monday morning.

OPPD workers were being helped by crews from other utilities, including the Nebraska Public Power District.

Winds reaching 70 mph knocked down trees and limbs, damaging vehicles, homes, businesses and other a variety of buildings on Monday before the storm blew into Iowa.

National Weather Service forecasters are keeping an eye on a storm system that’s moving toward Omaha with winds that could reach 50 mph.

(AP) — One small rodent is getting the blame for a massive power outage in southern and eastern sections of Wichita.

Nearly 10,000 customers of Westar Energy were affected by the outage Monday afternoon.

Authorities say a squirrel crawled into equipment at a substation, causing a transformer to blow out. A fire then broke out at the substation. Firefighters were quickly able to bring it under control.

Power was restored to the Westar customers in about one hour.

(AP) — The Supreme Court says generic drug manufacturers can’t be sued in state court for a drug’s design defects if federal officials approved the brand-name version the generic drug copied.

The justices voted 5-4 to agree with generic manufacturer Mutual Pharmaceutical Co, Inc., which wanted a $21 million judgment against it dismissed.

A New Hampshire jury gave that to Karen L. Bartlett after she took sulindac, the generic form of the drug Clinoril, in 2004. It caused her outer skin layer to deteriorate and burn off, leaving at least 60 percent of her body as an open wound. She is also now legally blind.

The federal appeals courts upheld her verdict, but the justices said federal law pre-empts the New Hampshire law that allowed Bartlett’s lawsuit.

The Nebraska State Patrol in conjunction with the Hall County Sheriff’s Office took three impaired drivers off area roads during a special enforcement effort held on Saturday, June 22.

The special enforcement effort which included high visibility patrols throughout Hall County during the evening hours on Saturday, June 22, was paid for thanks in part to a more than $2,000 grant from the Nebraska Office of Highway Safety (NOHS).

In addition to the three DWI arrests, five juveniles were cited for minor in possession of alcohol, two drivers were cited for driving under suspension, two speeding citations, six warnings were issued for seat belt violations and one citation was issued for violation of the child restraint law.

(AP) — An eastern Nebraska man has been sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay more than $18,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to a federal charge of bankruptcy fraud.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says U.S. District Court Judge John Gerrard sentenced 57-year-old Ross Boydston, of Creston, on Monday.

In March, Boydston pleaded guilty to bankruptcy fraud after being accused of selling livestock that had been pledged as collateral to American Mortgage Company without notifying the company of the sales and without remitting the proceeds to AMC. He also lied about the sales after filing for bankruptcy.

Besides probation, Boydston must pay restitution of $18,044.

(AP) — A 14-year-old West Texas boy is dead after he ran into a bull statue on the Texas Tech University campus and impaled himself on one of its horns.

University spokesman Chris Cook says Miguel Martinez impaled himself while playing hide-and-seek with friends in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday morning.

Campus police say Martinez was at the museum with two adults and two minors when police were called to the scene. Police say Martinez was running on the National Ranching Heritage Museum on the Texas Tech campus when the horn pierced his chest.

(AP) — Authorities have released the name of a driver killed in a crash off U.S. Highway 34 in southeast Nebraska.

York County Sheriff’s Department identified him as Steve Opfer, of Polk.

Firefighters from Bradshaw had been sent to what was reported as a cornfield fire after 12 a.m. Saturday. They soon found that a car was aflame in a field.

The accident occurred a half mile east of the Hamilton/York County line.

(AP) — Although a Virginia woman became the third wing walker to die in two years when a fiery crash killed her and a pilot at an Ohio air show, those in the business insist such fatal accidents are rare.

Forty-four-year-old wing walker Jane Wicker and 64-year-old pilot Charlie Schwenker were killed Saturday in a crash that was witnessed by thousands of horrified spectators at the Vectren Air Show near Dayton. The cause is not yet known.

John Cudahy, president of the International Council of Air Shows, says from 1975 to 2010 just two wing walkers were killed in the U.S. But since 2011, three wing walkers have died, including Wicker.

Cudahy says the spike appears to be a coincidence and that the business is “not quite as dangerous” as it seems.

In a scenario all to familiar to North Platte residents, a strong thunderstorm has knocked out power to more than 50,000 utility customers in the Omaha area.

The storm that moved across the area Monday morning generated winds near 70 mph, heavy rains and hail nearly an inch wide. No injuries were reported immediately after the storm.

The storm knocked down tree limbs and entire trees in places across Omaha before it moved east into Iowa. A weather spotter reported a 69 mph wind gust in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

The Omaha Public Power District reported that nearly 49,000 utility customers in Douglas County were without power around midmorning on Monday. Most of the other power outages were in Sarpy County.

 

(AP) — A worker has been injured at a Valmont Industries plant in eastern Nebraska.

Company spokesman Jeff Laudin (LAH’-dihn) says the accident happened around 3 a.m. Monday at the Valley plant. Laudin says it occurred in the building where steel lighting poles are made.

Laudin says he doesn’t know how the accident happened or the extent of the worker’s injuries. The worker was taken to an Omaha hospital for treatment. His name hasn’t been released.