LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraskans who are on unemployment are expected to lose some extended benefits starting this week.

Local media reports the federal government is phasing out the benefits, which allowed some unemployed workers to collect as much as 53 extra weeks of compensation.

The Nebraska Department of Labor estimates the change will affect between 200 and 250 people per week.

The emergency federal benefits went into effect in late summer 2008, in response to the recession and high unemployment. They have been extended several times, but are set to expire at the end of 2012.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The new position of inspector general of Nebraska child welfare has been filled.

A news release from the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee says Julie Rogers has been selected for the position, which was authorized by a measure approved this past session.

Under the measure, the inspector general has jurisdiction to investigate state and private agencies that serve children as a part of the state’s child welfare system.

The position is affiliated with the Nebraska Ombudsman’s Office and so is part of the legislative branch.

Rogers, who has a law degree, currently is community planning coordinator for the Juvenile Justice Institute at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

She begins her duties on July 23.

GERING, Neb. (AP) — A former Kimball city councilman has been sentenced to 14 to 20 years in prison for attempted sexual assault of a teenage boy.

Forty-nine-year-old Scott Haun was sentenced on Monday in Scotts Bluff County District Court in Gering.

He was charged in October with first-degree sexual assault. He pleaded no contest to the lesser charge in April.

Haun was on the Kimball City Council for 12 years. He resigned prior to his plea hearing.

Authorities have said he admitted to performing a sex act on the 14-year-old boy while visiting the boy’s mother in rural Scotts Bluff County. The boy’s mother has said her son is mentally disabled.

ALLIANCE, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska state trooper shot during a standoff at a drugstore in the Panhandle has left a hospital.

Trooper Tim Flick is the last of four people wounded during the standoff to leave Box Butte General Hospital in Alliance.

Hospital spokeswoman Bonnie Wallace told Scottsbluff media that Flick was released over the weekend.

A hostage shot as he escaped on June 12, 62-year-old Charles Lierk, and 43-year-old Alliance police officer Kirk Felker were released Thursday. Alliance officer Matt Shannon was treated at the hospital and released the day of the shootings.

The 14-hour standoff began when 27-year-old Andres Gonzalez tried to rob Thiele Pharmacy & Gifts.

Gonzalez died after a shootout with officers. Officers found his father dead at home earlier that day.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police say a handgun stolen from a Lincoln store has turned up during an arrest of a man in Northern California.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska State Patrol seized more than $70,000 in a traffic stop along I-80 last week but let the driver go free.

Local media says troopers pulled the man over around 3 p.m. Friday near the Lincoln airport for following another vehicle too closely.

State Patrol spokeswoman says the 27-year-old California man driving agreed to let troopers search his 2001 Ford F350.

The cash was found in a sealed waterproof container in an external gas tank.

The driver swore that he didn’t know about the cash, so he was allowed to leave. Collins says that because the man said the cash wasn’t his, he won’t be able to challenge the seizure in court.

GERING, Neb. (AP) — A 24-year-old Minatare man has been sentenced to prison for possessing child pornography.

Richard Knott had pleaded no contest to 10 felony counts. Prosecutors say the pleas were not part of a deal with Knott, who earlier had pleaded not guilty.

Knott was sentenced on Monday to two to five years on each count, to be served at the same time.

Scotts Bluff County Attorney Doug Warner says more than 10 images of child pornography were found on Knott’s computer when investigators searched Knott’s home on Feb. 24.

Nebraska State Patrol officers began to investigate Knott after being contacted by a Dent County, Mo., investigator with a computer crimes task force. The investigator said he had identified an Internet address in Nebraska that had been sharing pornographic images.

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — University of Nebraska-Lincoln officials say Chinese authorities have detained an assistant business professor who is a Chinese citizen.

University spokeswoman Kelly Bartling said Monday that a family member told school officials late last week that Weixing (WAY’-shing) Li was in Chinese custody. She said the university is trying to verify Li’s whereabouts, but doing so can be difficult.

Bartling said university officials don’t know why he was detained. She declined to identify the family member who notified them, saying the person had asked not to be named and did not want to speak with reporters.

Li has taught at UNL since 2003. Bartling said he was leading 18 students on an annual study-abroad program, and some students became concerned after he stopped returning their emails.

POTTER, Neb. (AP) — Officials say firefighters have contained a blaze that blackened nearly 3,000 acres in the southern Nebraska Panhandle.

Hot spots are smoldering inside the area, which is about 15 miles north of Potter in Cheyenne County. The area is about 80 miles south of a wildfire that’s burned an estimated 3,000 acres in the northwest corner of the Panhandle.

Spokesman Bob Hilpert of the Potter Volunteer Fire Department says the fire was touched off Saturday night by lightning and was soon extinguished.

But Hilpert says wind fanned hot spots back into flames that raced over rangeland and into canyons on Sunday. He says containment was achieved early Monday morning.

There have been no reports of injuries or any damage to structures.

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — Two more former workers accused of abusing residents at a Nebraska center for developmentally disabled adults have entered pleas to abuse charges.

Local media in Beatrice  says Cody Creek and Carmen Yates pleaded no contest to attempted abuse of a vulnerable adult on Monday in Gage County District Court.

Prosecutors dropped a count of strangulation against Creek. They’d already dropped a theft charge against Yates.

They were among five workers charged after an investigation last year at the Beatrice State Development Center.

Matthew Johnson pleaded guilty to two counts of abuse of a vulnerable adult last Friday. Cameron Barnes, of Fairbury, pleaded no contest to two abuse charges on Thursday.

Matthew Pangborn faces a July 9 trial.