We have a brand new updated website! Click here to check it out!

Illinois Man Convicted of Marriage Fraud in Nebraska

dept.-of-justiceAuthorities say a man born in Kuwait has been convicted of marriage fraud in Nebraska.

A news release from the office of U.S. Attorney Deborah Gilg (gihlj) says 47-year-old Ibrahim Matari was sentenced to time served and was given 30 days to leave this country.

Prosecutors say Matari came to the United States in 2000 on a student visa and remained after it expired. He and his family lived in Oak Park, Ill.

Prosecutors say he obtained a marriage license with a U.S. citizen in Douglas County, Neb., in August 2009. They married and soon filed a petition to adjust Matari’s status.

Federal officers interviewed them and discovered the sham. The woman, Crystal Foster, has pleaded guilty to harboring an alien and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 7.

Vermont Man Busted with Pot on I-80 Sentenced

state-patrol-logoA 26-year-old Vermont man caught hauling more than 100 pounds of marijuana has been given Nebraska prison time.

Online court records say Nathaniel Miller was given four to six years at his sentencing Thursday in Lancaster County District Court. He’d pleaded no contest on March 26 to attempted possession of a firearm while possessing illicit drugs. Prosecutors had lowered the charge in return for Miller’s plea.

The Nebraska State Patrol says Miller, of Jericho, Vt., was driving a pickup east on Interstate 80 near Lincoln when he was pulled over on Sept. 3 last year. The patrol says more than 104 pounds of pot was found in packages hidden under the truck bed liner The patrol says a disassembled gun was found in the truck’s camper.

$2 Million Powerball Ticket Sold in Seward

powerballSomeone who bought a Powerball ticket at a Seward store can claim his or her $2 million prize.

The Nebraska Lottery says the Powerball ticket with the Power Play option was sold at the Gas N Snaks store on Jackson Avenue in Seward.

Wednesday night’s Powerball numbers were 21, 22, 26, 30, 57 and Powerball 27. The lottery says no one won the jackpot, but the Seward ticket buyer matched the first five numbers.

The lottery says this is the second $2 million Power Play Powerball ticket sold in Nebraska since the game was upgraded in January 2012. Mark Davies, of Bennington, won a $2 million in August 2012.

Ohio Teenager Leads Police to Bodies of Two Other Teens

Blaine Romes, 14 and Blake Aaron Romes, 17
Blaine Romes, 14 and Blake Aaron Romes, 17

Authorities in northwest Ohio say one of three teenage boys named in an Amber Alert has been located several counties away and has pointed them to the bodies of the other two.

Ottawa police say the Thursday morning alert about two missing 17-year-olds and a missing 14-year-old was issued after a mother returned to a Putnam County trailer home and found a crime scene. Police and the sheriff have released no details about that scene, the bodies or where they were found. Autopsies are planned.  However, the Toledo Blade identifies the bodies as those of Blaine Romes, 14 and Blake Aaron Romes, 17.

Investigators say one of the 17-year-olds and a missing car were found in Columbus, about 90 miles southeast of Ottawa. Authorities say the teen was detained and told them where the bodies were.

There has been no word on any possible charges.

Whole Foods, Inc. Mixes-Up Labels on Chicken Salad and Vegan Version of the Salad

whole-foods-incWhole Foods Market Inc. says labels on a chicken salad and those on a vegan version of the salad were reversed at some of its cold food bars in the Northeast.

Whole Foods says the mislabeled salads — a curried chicken salad and a vegan curried “chick’n” salad — were sold in 15 stores in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. They were sold on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Food and Drug Administration noted the vegan salad contains soy, and the curried chicken salad contains egg. It said people who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to soy or eggs run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they eat the salads.

The company, based in Austin, Texas, said no illnesses have been reported.

Oregon Smokejumpers Skydive into Illegal Pot Farm

pot-farmA team of smokejumpers parachuting into a fire in the mountains of Southern Oregon landed in an illegal marijuana garden being prepared for growing season.

The six smokejumpers from a base in Redmond found the site Monday evening, when there was a rash of lightning strikes.

Jackson County sheriff’s spokeswoman Andrea Carlson says the smokejumpers notified authorities, who hiked into the remote site in the Rogue River-Siskiyou (SIS’-kee-yoo) National Forest. They seized two guns and more than 1,000 little pot plants.

Carlson says the site near the community of Applegate was being cultivated by growers for Mexican drug gangs, and it’s been used before.

She says the smokejumpers saw some people but weren’t sure whether they were pot growers, so no one was arrested.

The smokejumpers extinguished the fire after it burned less than an acre.

Omaha Man Serving Life for Murder Files Appeal with NE Supreme Court

Trevelle Taylor
Trevelle Taylor

The Nebraska Supreme Court will hear arguments in the appeal of an Omaha man given life in prison for the gang-related shooting death of a 20-year-old man.

Trevelle Taylor was 17 when prosecutors say he shot Justin Ganines to death in 2009. He was sentenced after turning 18 in 2010 to life in prison. While the words “life without parole” do not appear in his sentence, the sentencing judge set no discharge date for Taylor “until the Pardons Board of the State of Nebraska commutes the sentence or offers a specific term of years.”

The now 21-year-old Taylor’s attorney says that amounts to a life sentence without parole and cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year declaring mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juvenile killers unconstitutional.

Union Pacific Trains Collide in Iowa

Union-PacificThe Union Pacific Railroad is updating information from a morning collision between two trains in central Iowa.

An eastbound coal train and westbound train carrying cargo containers collided Thursday morning derailing 13 coal cars and 22 cars of the intermodal cargo train —which carries ocean-going containers on flatbed cars. That’s more train cars than originally reported.

Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis says there are no injuries.

The crash shut down a section of the company’s mainline track near Grand Junction about 60 miles northwest of Des Moines.

The cause of the 6:20 a.m. collision is not immediately clear.

Davis says the derailment has halted traffic on main tracks between Chicago and the company’s Iowa and Nebraska destinations. Trains are being detoured. Cleanup is expected to be finished late Friday.

NE Inmate Sues Dept. of Corrections Over Nude Drawing Confiscation

Tecumseh State Correctional Institution (Courtesy of NE Dept. of Corrections)
Tecumseh State Correctional Institution
(Courtesy of NE Dept. of Corrections)

(AP) — An inmate is suing Nebraska’s corrections agency over the confiscation of pencil drawings that depict nudity and sex acts.

Christopher Payne filed a lawsuit last month in Lancaster County District Court against the state Department of Correctional Services. He claims officials at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution violated his constitutional rights by taking 11 pencil drawings from his cell between October and January.

34-year-old Payne says he thought his drawings were a legitimate form of artistic expression.

The corrections agency’s policy on hobbies bans artwork depicting nudity, sex acts, violence, bondage, sadomasochism, bestiality and acts of degradation.

The newspaper reports that corrections officials did not respond to a request for comment on the policy.

NASA: Space Station Power System Has Radiator Leak

nasa(AP) — The International Space Station has a radiator leak in its power system. The outpost’s commander calls the situation serious, but not life-threatening.

The six-member crew on Thursday noticed white flakes of ammonia leaking out of the station. Ammonia runs through multiple radiator loops to cool the station’s power system. NASA said the leak is increasing from one previously leaking loop that can be bypassed if needed. NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs said engineers are working on rerouting electronics just in case the loop shuts down. The Earth-orbiting station has backup systems.

Space station Commander Chris Hadfield of Canada tweeted that the problem, while serious, was stabilized. Officials will know more Friday.

The space station always has enough emergency escape ships for the crew, but there are no plans to use them.

Copyright Eagle Radio | FCC Public Files | EEO Public File