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

Winnebago Tribe requesting land to be returned

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Two Democratic National Convention delegates from Nebraska are asking President Barack Obama to return a piece of the state to a South Dakota Indian tribe.

Frank LaMere says he and his daughter, Lexie, will present delegates with a resolution aimed at Whiteclay, Neb., at the party meeting in Charlotte, N.C. Both are members of Nebraska’s Winnebago Indian Tribe.

Whiteclay is known for beer sales on the border of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where alcohol is banned. It was part of Pine Ridge when Congress created the reservation in 1889.

The resolution seeks an executive order to restore a 50-square-mile buffer zone known as the Whiteclay extension, which was designed to protect Pine Ridge from whiskey peddlers. President Theodore Roosevelt opened all but one square mile to settlers in 1904.

Road work to begin Monday on Panhandle highway

BRIDGEPORT, Neb. (AP) — Officials say construction work will restrict traffic on U.S. Highway 385 in the Nebraska Panhandle.

The Nebraska Roads Department says the work will begin Monday a stretch of more than 10 miles southeast of Bridgeport. Work will include milling, repaving and guardrail placement.

The project will require lane closures and is expected to be completed this summer.

Caseworkers relationship with an inmate leads to arrest

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — State prison officials say a Nebraska Department of Correctional Services caseworker has been arrested for allegedly having a sexual relationship with an inmate.

Local media says 27-year-old Elizabeth Blake faces charges of sexual abuse/sexual assault of an inmate and prohibited acts of a correctional employee.

The department says it learned about a possible sexual contact between Blake and an inmate. Authorities say an investigation resulted in Blake’s arrest and resignation.

Blake was a unit caseworker at the Community Corrections Center in Omaha. She started with the department in November.

Blake’s case is not on the state’s online court system, and it’s unclear if she has an attorney.

Congressional members on health care ruling

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Most in Nebraska’s congressional delegation derided the U.S. Supreme Court’s upholding on Tuesday of the federal health care law.

Only U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, Nebraska’s lone congressional Democrat, lauded the opinion, saying it “ushers in a new era of affordable and accessible health care for all Americans.”

U.S. Sen. Mike Johanns, refrained from criticizing the high court, but called on Congress to redouble efforts to repeal the law.

U.S. Reps. Lee Terry and Adrian Smith issued statements saying they were disappointed in the decision.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry said Americans will decide at the polls whether they want the health care overhaul, adding, “I think we can do much better than a nearly 3,000-page law that shifts more costs to unsustainable government spending, cuts Medicare and erodes health care liberties.”

U.S. Senator’s opinion on Federal Health Care Law

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson says he feels vindicated by the Supreme Court’s opinion on the federal health care law— mostly by its rejection of a provision to force states to expand Medicaid coverage.

Nelson, Nebraska’s only congressional Democrat, was lambasted by conservatives for providing the final voted in 2009 to advance the health care bill. He was accused of trading his vote for a deal to give Nebraska federal funding for Medicaid expansion, an agreement opponents dubbed the “Cornhusker Kickback.”

Nelson says he was trying to get federal funding for all states, because he disagreed with the measure’s threat to withhold states’ entire Medicaid allotment if they failed to expand Medicaid.

The high court disagreed with that provision, too, Nelson said, adding that “Sometimes, the irony of all ironies occurs.”

Woman attempts to bail out of probation appointment by getting stabbed

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — A Beatrice man has been sentenced to six months in jail for his role in stabbing a woman so she could get out of going to a probation appointment.

Local media says Jerry Duke II was sentenced for obstruction of government operations on Thursday in Gage County District Court. He pleaded no contest.

Prosecutors say Jessalyn Stierwalt asked Duke and Scott Roberson-Turman to stab her in the abdomen and shoulder last July so she could avoid going to a probation meeting the next morning because she needed time to “sober up.”

During Thursday’s sentencing, Judge Daniel Bryan Jr. said he couldn’t believe “anybody can be that stupid.”

Stierwalt and Roberson-Turman, who also pleaded no contest to an obstruction charge, were sentenced in May to a year in prison.

Hearing delayed for alliance gunman’s suspected assistant

ALLIANCE, Neb. (AP) — A hearing is delayed for a woman suspected of helping hide the body of a Denver man in western Nebraska.

Joshua Bullock is believed to have died at the hands of a gunman who was killed in a standoff in Alliance earlier this month.

Rose Siefke  is charged with being an accessory. Local media in Chadron says a preliminary hearing, set for Friday, has been reset for July 17.

Investigators believe Siefke helped Andres Gonzalez hide Bullock’s body. Bullock’s burned pickup was found near Chadron in December. Human remains were found near Chadron last week.

Gonzalez wounded three officers and his pharmacist hostage before dying in a shootout with police on June 12. Earlier in the day, officers found Gonzalez’s father dead at his Alliance home.

Escape the heat at Salvation Army

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Salvation Army will keep its doors around Omaha open for people in need of a break from extreme heat that has reached triple digits this week.

Four Salvation Army locations across the Omaha area are designated as community cooling stations: the Kroc Center in southeast Omaha, North Corps in north Omaha, the Lied Renaissance Center in central Omaha and the Council Bluffs Corps in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The stations will be open through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. On Saturday and Sunday, the locations will open at 8 a.m. and close at 5 p.m.

Cold drinks will be provided, and the organization is seeking donations of bottled water.

Man found near crash site dies with body temp of 110

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities are checking whether the death of an Iowa man after an Omaha accident was related to the extreme heat.

Omaha police say officers were dispatched to a field in east-central Omaha about 3:45 p.m. on Wednesday. They found a man who had collapsed about a half-mile east of a vehicle that had crashed into a dirt mound in a construction zone.

Police say he was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. Medical officials say his core body temperature had reached 110 degrees. The National Weather Service says the temperature was 101 about the time of the accident.

The man was identified as 48-year-old Paul Tamayo, of Council Bluffs, Iowa.

An autopsy has been scheduled.

Young man murders over teenage girl

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An 18-year-old has been found guilty of second-degree murder in Omaha.

Online court records say Daion Williams also was convicted on Tuesday of a weapons charge.

Williams was tried as an adult for a fatal shooting that occurred on Nov. 29 last year, when Williams was 17. Police say he fatally shot 20-year-old Bryant Morgan as a result of a love triangle involving Williams, Morgan and a teenage girl.

Copyright Eagle Radio | FCC Public Files | EEO Public File