(AP) — Authorities in Omaha have launched a task force to investigate any connection between last week’s killings of a Creighton University professor and his wife and the 2008 slayings of an 11-year boy and his family housekeeper.

Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said Monday that the public should report any suspicious activity as authorities investigate the deaths of Dr. Roger Brumback and his wife, Mary, as well as the unsolved 2008 stabbings of Thomas Hunter and 57-year-old Shirlee Sherman.

The Brumbacks were found slain May 14 in their Omaha home. Schmaderer has refused to say how they were killed.

Roger Brumback was a pathology professor and colleague of Thomas Hunter’s parents, who both work at Creighton. Schmaderer will only say authorities are “exploring very hard” the possibility the killings are related.

(AP) — Two FBI special agents on the agency’s elite Hostage Rescue Team have been killed in a training accident in Virginia.

The FBI’s national press office said in a statement Sunday that the accident happened off the coast of Virginia Beach on Friday. No other details were given and the cause is under investigation.

The special agents were identified as 41-year-old Christopher Lorek and 40-year-old Stephen Shaw,

FBI Director Robert Mueller said in the statement that “we mourn the loss of two brave and courageous men” and “our hearts are with their wives, children and other loved ones who feel their loss most deeply.”

The Hostage Rescue Team is part of the Critical Incident Response Group based at Quantico in northern Virginia.

An Omaha police officer is recovering after being bitten and punched by a 19-year-old woman who didn’t want to follow instructions.

Officer James Shade says police were called to a west Omaha apartment building around 2 a.m. Saturday because a man wanted a woman removed from his apartment.

Officers escorted the woman out and told her to leave, but that’s when she attacked Officer Michael Decker.

The woman was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an officer and possessing drug paraphernalia.

(AP) — Eligible landowners are being urged to enroll cropland affected by the 2011 Missouri River flood into two federal land conservation programs to take advantage of flood habitat recovery funds.

The Missouri River Post Flood Habitat Recovery Program provides eligible landowners incentives for enrolling cropland into the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program and Continuous Conservation Reserve Program.

All lands eligible for CRP and CCRP located on the 500-year Missouri River Floodplain are eligible for the flood recovery program. There will be a one-time incentive payment of $100 per acre for each CRP acre enrolled with Farm Services Agency.

The next general signup is May 20-June 14. Landowners interested should contact Scott Luedtke at the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission at 402-471-5561 or scott.luedtke(at)nebraska.gov.

(AP) — The beef-processing company that makes the product that critics call “pink slime” continues to struggle more than a year after the initial stories on the lean bits of beef that Beef Products Inc. produced.

The Dakota Dunes, S.D., based company lost 80 percent of its business after the uproar over what BPI calls lean finely textured beef.

The meat BPI separated from trimmings and treated with ammonia to kill bacteria was widely used in hamburger, but consumers objected to it after media reports depicted it as unsavory.

The private company closed three of its four plants, scrapped expansion plans in South Sioux City and eliminated more than 700 jobs. Those won’t return soon.

(AP) — Public safety officials in Connecticut say about 50 people have been hurt after two commuter trains collided outside New York City. Four of those injuries were deemed serious.

No fatalities were reported following Friday evening’s collision near Fairfield on the Metro-North Railroad.

The rail line referred to it in a news release as a “major derailment.”

A spokesman for public safety officials in nearby Bridgeport says about 250 people were on the two trains that collided after one derailed.

The railroad says a train that departed New York City’s Grand Central station en route to New Haven derailed. A westbound train on an adjacent track then struck the derailed train.

Some cars on the second train also derailed as a result of the collision.

Amtrak suspended service indefinitely between New York and Boston.

 

(AP) — A major insurer is recommending 11 Nebraska hospitals for spine surgeries and knee or hip replacements because they deliver quality care at a reasonable cost.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska says these hospitals all meet quality standards demonstrate cost efficiency.

Dr. Dave Filipi with the insurer says this list should help Nebraskans decide which hospitals to use.

The list includes six hospitals in Omaha: The Nebraska Medical Center; Alegent Creighton’s Immanuel, Bergan Mercy and Lakeside hospitals; the Nebraska Spine Hospital; and Methodist Hospital.

Three Lincoln hospitals were also honored: Saint Elizabeth and BryanLGH East and West hospitals.

Fremont Area Medical Center in Fremont and Saint Francis Medical Center in Grand Island were also named hospitals of distinction.

An Omaha gay-rights group is seeking the return of some $1,800 donated to a Lincoln woman convicted of lying about being attacked in her home by masked men who carved anti-gay slurs into her skin.

Beth Rigatuso, president of Heartland Pride, says that the money was given to Charlie Rogers by donors at a candlelight vigil held on Rogers’ behalf last July.

Rogers, a former Nebraska basketball player, had told police that three masked men broke into her Lincoln house and assaulted her. But police say Rogers faked the attack.

Rogers was ordered to repay more than $10,000 given to her. A probation officer distributed the money to donors and a Lincoln police charity. But the Omaha group says it didn’t get its share.

(AP) — Police say a man stabbed his estranged girlfriend at least 20 times in a Grand Island church parking lot before cutting his own throat and fleeing.

Police say the man, identified as 41-year-old Aslin Nabarro, and 33-year-old Mirna Medina-Colocho argued in the parking lot Friday morning before Nabarro pulled out a knife and began stabbing the woman in the torso and head.

Police say he then inflicted a deep cut to his own throat, fled and collapsed in an alley less than a block away.

Both Medina-Colocho and Nabarro were taken to a local hospital, where each underwent surgery. A nursing supervisor at St. Francis Medical Center said both in stable condition Friday evening. Their conditions were not available Saturday.

Military officials say a Humvee carrying six Navy SEALs and two other sailors overturned during a training exercise at Fort Knox in Kentucky, killing one of the SEALs and injuring the others on board.

Lt. David Lloyd, a spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Group Two in Virginia Beach, Va., says the Humvee was part of a convoy on the post when it overturned Wednesday night. What caused it to flip remains under investigation.

The Navy says the SEAL who died was Special Warfare Operator Third Class Jonathan H. Kaloust, who was based in Virginia. He was from Massapequa, N.Y.

Lloyd says the seven survivors were treated for minor injuries and released from a hospital.

The sailors had been conducting tactical training, but Lloyd would not release further details about the exercise because it was considered sensitive.