No injuries have been reported in a train derailment in eastern Nebraska’s Dodge County.

Union Pacific Railroad spokesman Mark Davis says 21 cars went off the tracks around 4:45 a.m. Tuesday just west of North Bend. They were part of a train headed from Wisconsin to Wyoming. The train consisted of three locomotives and 138 empty coal cars.

The derailment is blocking both tracks in the area. Davis says he had no estimate for when the tracks would be cleared.

He says the derailment cause is being investigated, but heavy winds are suspected.

(AP) — The sheriff’s department in Denver says a deputy has been arrested on suspicion that he helped a fugitive who left the county jail wearing a deputy’s uniform.

Matthew Andrews is a two-year veteran of the department. He’s accused of assisting the escape, a class-three felony. The 36-year-old was arrested Monday at Denver police headquarters.

Sheriff’s officials say 24-year-old Felix Trujillo was being held in connection with an aggravated robbery when he escaped Sunday night.

Denver police are trying to determine what motive Andrews might have had for helping Trujillo escape.

Sheriff’s officials say Andrews underwent a background check before he was hired.

An Iowa infant’s heart transplant at a Nebraska hospital is the first of its kind in the state.

Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha says the pediatric heart transplant performed early Monday on 2-week-old Lainey Wilkinson is the first in Nebraska.

Officials say the operation went well for Lainey, who was born with a congenital heart defect. She is recovering as expected in the intensive care unit.

Officials say the United Network for Organ Sharing gave the hospital interim approval last month to begin performing heart transplants. Officials say it’s a significant development for families in the immediate area and around the Midwest.

Lainey has been hospitalized at Children’s since her birth. Her parents are from Council Bluffs, Iowa

The Walt Disney Co. says Annette Funicello, who went from Mouseketeer to beach party movie icon, has died at age 70.

Funicello stunned fans and friends in 1992 with the announcement she was suffering from multiple sclerosis. Yet she was cheerful and upbeat, grappling with the disease with a courage that contrasted with her lightweight teen image of old.

The pretty, dark-haired Funicello was just 13 when she gained fame on Walt Disney’s television kiddie “club,” an amalgam of stories, songs and dance routines that ran from 1955 to 1959.

Cast after Disney saw her at a dance recital, she soon began receiving 8,000 fan letters a month, 10 times more than any of the 23 other young performers.

Queen Elizabeth has authorized a ceremonial funeral, that’s one step short of a state funeral, for Margaret Thatcher.

The former British prime minister, the only woman ever to hold that job, died today at the age of 87. Flags are at half staff at Buckingham Palace, Parliament and Downing Street.

Admirers saw Thatcher as a savior who rescued Britain from ruin and laid the groundwork for an economic resurgence. Critics say she ushered in an era of greed that kicked the weak into the streets and allowed the rich to become filthy rich. Like her close friend and political ally Ronald Reagan, she seemed motivated by an unshakable belief that free markets would build a stronger country than reliance on a strong, central government.

She’s also remembered for standing beside the United States as the West won the Cold War over the Soviet Union.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is remembering Thatcher as someone who “didn’t just lead” her country, but “saved” it. He says she’ll be remembered as “the greatest British peacetime prime minister.”

President Barack Obama says she was both a great champion of freedom and an example to women everywhere.

Nebraska lawmakers are trying to set a new minimum prison sentence for convicted murderers who committed their crimes as juveniles.

Lawmakers began debate Monday on a sentencing bill, introduced in response to last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that invalidated life-without-parole sentences for juveniles.

Sen. Brad Ashford, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, presented a bill amendment that would set a 30-year minimum sentence for Nebraska offenders. The proposal would also allow judges to consider potential mitigating factors in sentencing, including an offender’s age, maturity and participation in rehabilitation programs.

Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh of Omaha is proposing a minimum 60-year sentence. Lautenbaugh argues that a 30-year sentence would let inmates qualify for release in as few as 15 years, under current sentencing guidelines.

 

A western New York man will get $1.6 million to settle a dispute stemming from flooding from a nearby development that left him inundated with frogs.

The award settles a seven-year legal fight involving Paul Marinaccio, the town of Clarence and a developer.

Marinaccio says runoff diverted onto his 40-acre property turned it into wetlands filled with frogs. He says the abundant amphibians forced him inside because a childhood incident left him with a crippling frog phobia.

the dispute was resolved last month when the State Court of Appeals decided Marinaccio wasn’t entitled to punitive damages.

The developer’s attorney says his client did only what the town told him to do.

A drainage channel will be dug under a post-verdict agreement.

The family of a 13-year-old Nebraska girl says she has died from injuries after her hair got caught in the engine of an ATV.

Emma Kringle’s family said in a statement through Lincoln’s Bryan West hospital that she died Monday. Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner says Emma had been on life support so her organs could be harvested. Doctors determined Saturday night that she was brain dead.

The accident occurred Saturday afternoon while Emma was driving the three-wheeled ATV near Branched Oak Lake northwest of Lincoln. The ATV crashed when her ponytail got tangled in the engine.

She was riding with her 9-year-old cousin. Wagner says both girls were wearing helmets.

Emma Kringle lived with her family on the southeast side of Lincoln.

Starting today, Monday, April 8, The Nebraska State Patrol, Criminal Identification Division will begin taking appointments for fingerprinting services offered at the Nebraska State Patrol Investigative Services Center, 3800 NW 12 Street, Suite A, in Lincoln.

Individuals needing fingerprinting for a Nebraska permit or licensure covered by state statute, will need to call the Criminal Identification Division during regular business hours at (402) 479-4971 to schedule an appointment.

“In the past you just came out and had to wait in line to get your fingerprints taken,” said Colonel David Sankey, Superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol. “It is our hope that by scheduling appointments, we can limit the wait for those citizens needing this service.”

Fingerprinting services are provided by the Nebraska State Patrol free of charge.  A list of Nebraska permits or licensures covered for printing services can be found on the Nebraska State Patrol website under theFingerprinting Appointments link.

The city attorney for Grand Island says he’ll hire another lawyer to handle the prosecution if the City Council proceeds with a misconduct charge against Mayor Jay Vavricek.

The city code covering removal of the mayor specifies that the city attorney would be the prosecutor. But City Attorney Bob Sivick says that he would have a conflict of interest because his clients include the mayor, the city and the City Council.

Sivick says he’s lined up an attorney from the Omaha suburb of Ralston to do the job if the council decides at its meeting Tuesday night to move forward against the mayor.

The misconduct charge cites Vavricek’s drunken-driving arrest on March 2. Vavricek pleaded no contest to reckless driving and was fined.