Employees of a Lincoln massage parlor have been robbed at gunpoint.
Lincoln Police Capt. Jim Davidsaver tells the Lincoln Journal Star that just after 6:30 p.m. Sunday, a man walked inside Golden Jasmine Massage and pointed a black handgun at two female employees.
Davidsaver says the man demanded cash, and after getting a small amount, forced the employees into a bathroom. He then fled.
Officers arrived minutes later, but could not find a suspect.
Police continued to investigate.
The White House says curbing gun violence is a complex problem that will require a “comprehensive solution” including addressing gun control measures.
Still, spokesman Jay Carney says gun control is not the only solution to stopping shootings like the horrific attack at a Connecticut elementary school Friday. He says no single piece of legislation or single action will fully address the problem.
Obama has said he is going to use the “power” of his office to tackle gun violence. Carney says the president will engage the American people and lawmakers on this issue in the coming weeks, as well as meet with law enforcement officials and mental health professionals.
Carney did not offer any specific policy proposals or timeline for tackling gun violence.
A mediator who worked with Adam Lanza’s parents during their divorce in 2009 says his mother said she didn’t like to leave him alone and that his parents went out of their way to accommodate him.
Lanza killed his mother before going to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Friday morning and killing 20 children and six adults before taking his own life.
Marriage therapist Paula Levy recalled Monday that during about 10 two-hour sessions, Nancy and Peter Lanza were respectful of each other and concerned about their son’s needs. She says the couple told her Adam Lanza had been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, an autism-like disorder, and they spent considerable time talking about how to provide for his well-being.
Levy says the Lanzas agreed how to divide caretaking responsibilities and as a result said little about Adam’s problems.
A weekend fire in an apartment complex near downtown Omaha kept firefighters busy and left one pet dead.
The fire occurred Sunday on the fourth floor of the Central Park Tower Apartments. No one was home in the apartment were the fire started, so firefighters had to force their way into the apartment.
Once inside, they found a small dog dead. The fire, caused by a pot of oil left unattended on the stove, was contained to the apartment.
Firefighters estimate the fire caused $100,000 damage to the building. A fire report says no other occupants of the building were displaced.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — With Christmas only days away, authorities in southeast Nebraska say thieves have been targeting rural properties’ fir trees.
Every year, the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office fields a handful of reports of evergreens taken from acreages, presumably destined to serve as Christmas trees.
Authorities say homeowners’ best defense is to spray fox urine on the trees they want to keep. The urine puts off little smell when the temperature is below 50 degrees. But if a sprayed tree is brought inside, the smell is overwhelming.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the city of Lincoln both utilize a fox urine mixture to protect their trees from thieves.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Another one of the five people involved in killing an Omaha drug dealer in a botched robbery last year has received a life sentence.
Nicholas Ely was sentenced to life on Friday for his role in the July 2011 death of Kris Winters. The 22-year-old was also sentenced to five to 15 years for a weapons charge.
Winters was killed after a botched robbery attempt at his home. Ely was one of four men involved in the robbery who sent a teen girl in to pose as a marijuana customer before the robbery.
Ryan Elseman has also received a life sentence, and Marcus Patton will face a mandatory life sentence in a few weeks.
Two others, Drake Northrop and Emily Gusman, testified for prosecutors and will face lesser sentences.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission says a record 103 active bald eagle nests were recorded in Nebraska in 2012, breaking the record of 90 set in 2011.
Bald eagles have been increasing as a breeding species in Nebraska since 1991. Joel Jorgensen, nongame bird program manager for Game and Parks, says the recent jump in nest numbers is due in part to observers spending a few days surveying areas that had not been checked for a few years.
Eagle populations throughout the country declined greatly during most of the 20th century primarily because of the use of DDT and similar pesticides.
After the banning of DDT and many years of intense management efforts, the bald eagle was removed from the federal and state lists of threatened and endangered species.
Saturday Night Live” paid tribute to the children and adults killed at a Connecticut elementary school.
Not known for taking anything seriously or tenderly, the show made a sweet departure in its opening moments. Rather than the usual comical opening, a children’s choir appeared on camera and angelically sang “Silent Night.”
Then the members of the New York City Children’s Chorus bellowed out the show’s time-honored introduction: “Live from New York, it’s ‘Saturday Night!'”
Later in the show, actor Samuel L. Jackson made a distinctive contribution of his own in a cameo appearance. He pretended to be miffed at being cut short as a guest on the mock talk show “What Up with That?” and dropped a couple of vulgarities, including an F-bomb and the term sometimes shortened to “B.S.”
An effort to cut costs and ease prison overcrowding by paroling more Nebraska inmates is falling short, thanks to a surge of new inmates and offenders who are serving longer sentences.
Prison officials tell The Associated Press that the department is requesting $5.1 million from lawmakers to hire new staff and reopen a housing unit at the Omaha Correctional Center that closed last year.
The number of parolees has surged from nearly 850 in fiscal year 2010 to more than 1,300 in fiscal year 2012. But the number of new prisoners has grown as well, and a Department of Correctional Services researcher says inmates are also serving longer sentences.
Omaha Sen. Brad Ashford says the increase is due to more incarcerated sex offenders and inmates sentenced for gun-related crimes.
Authorities have released the names of the 26 people gunned down in a rampage at a Connecticut elementary school.
All six adults killed at the school were women. Of the 20 children who were shot to death, eight were boys and 12 were girls. All the children were ages 6 or 7.
Investigators are trying to learn more about 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza, who killed himself after the massacre.
The names and ages of the victims:
Charlotte Bacon, 6 years old, female
Daniel Barden, 7 years old, male
Rachel Davino, Staff member, 29 years old, female
Olivia Engel, 6 years old, female
Josephine Gay, 7 years old, female
Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 6 years old, female
Dylan Hockley, 6 years old, male
Dawn Hochsprung , Principal, 47 years old, female
Madeleine F. Hsu, 6 years old, female
Catherine V. Hubbard, 6 years old, female
Chase Kowalski, 7 years old, male
Jesse Lewis, 6 years old, male
James Mattioli, 6 years old, male
Grace McDonnell, 7 years old, female
Anne Marie Murphy, Staff member, 52 years old, female
Emilie Parker, 6 years old, female
Jack Pinto, 6 years old, male
Noah Pozner, 6 years old, male
Caroline Previdi, 6 years old, female
Jessica Rekos, 6 years old, female
Avielle Richman, 6 years old, female
Lauren Rousseau, Staff member, 30 years old, female
Mary Sherlach, Staff member, 56 years old, female
Victoria Soto, Staff member, 27 years old, female
Benjamin Wheeler, 6 years old, male
Allison N. Wyatt , 6 years old, female
Nancy Lanza, 52 years old, female
