CHADRON, Neb. (AP) – Police say a group of scam artists may have been targeting Chadron State College students recently.
Chadron Police Chief Tim Lordino says his department is investigating whether a group that called itself “World Ventures RAT Pack” was running a pyramid scheme.
The group was offering $200 memberships that would give students discounted vacation trips. Then students could recruit additional members and receive some money back.
When police told the group’s recruiters they needed a Chadron solicitor’s license to recruit members, they shut down their meetings.

 

 

 

GREENWOOD, Neb. (AP) – A truck driver from New York City has been fined $100 for colliding with a school bus near Greenwood in eastern Nebraska.
56-year-old Jun Meng, who lives in the borough of Queens, also was ordered to pay $48 in court costs. He’d pleaded guilty last month to careless driving.
Authorities say 28 Kearney High School students and four staffers were on a field trip to Omaha on Nov. 8. The Nebraska State Patrol says Meng’s truck and the school bus were headed east on Interstate 80 near the Greenwood exit when the truck changed lanes. It struck the bus, knocking it atop a concrete construction barrier.
Six students and a teacher were taken to a hospital. The bus driver and Meng weren’t injured.

 

HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) – A 160-acre farm in Clay County in southern Nebraska has sold for $12,000 an acre, which one auctioneer says could be a record per acre at a public sale for Nebraska farmland.
The farm was sold on Monday at an auction in Hastings.
Randy Ruhter, president of Ruhter Auction, says he believes it could be a record or near the record at a public auction in the state.
Ruhter describes the farmland as gravity irrigated farmland with pivot irrigation potential, good water and soil.
A few weeks ago, two farms in eastern Adams County sold for just under $12,000, and another sold for $10,800.

 

SCOTTSLBUFF, Neb. (AP) – Authorities say a skunk shot and killed this week near Lake Minatare in western Nebraska has tested positive for rabies.
Scotts Bluff County Health Director Bill Wineman confirmed news of the rabid skunk on Wednesday. Wineman says family members in the northeast end of the county shot and collected the skunk because it was behaving erratically.
Wineman says the incident is a reminder to residents to stay away from wild animals and to make sure all pets are vaccinated against the disease.
There were about three dozen confirmed cases of rabies in Nebraska in 2011.

 

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A bill that would prohibit minors working with police from lying about their age during alcohol sale compliance checks in Nebraska has been put on ice until April.
Lawmakers, led by bill sponsor Bob Krist of Omaha, have delayed action on the measure until the end of the legislative session.
The move takes the issue off the table, but leaves wiggle room for lawmakers to bring it back.
Krist says he accomplished what he wanted: To draw public attention to the way police mishandle compliance checks and treat business owners unfairly.
He says the state Liquor Commission has agreed to create a summer training program for law enforcement so police will follow the rules when checking to see whether businesses illegally sell booze to minors.

 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) – The State Department’s internal watchdog has cleared the agency of any impropriety in its review of a permit for a controversial pipeline that that would carry Canadian oil across the continental United States.
In a report released to Congress on Thursday, the department’s inspector general’s office said it found no evidence that State Department employees were improperly influenced by proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline, including the applicant TransCanada.
Opponents of the pipeline, which was ultimately rejected, had alleged that TransCanada had an inappropriately cozy relationship with some State Department employees conducting the review. They suggested that this affected an environmental impact statement.
The report said the department incorporated relevant concerns from other federal agencies in the review but expressed concern that its limited resources and expertise impacted the process.

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Motorists who strike livestock on Nebraska roads could have a tougher time winning negligence lawsuits against farmers and ranchers, under a bill set for a legislative hearing.
A proposal by Ogallala Sen. Ken Schilz would require motorists to show evidence that livestock owners committed “specific acts of negligence” that allowed the animals to escape. Schilz will present the measure (LB1021) Wednesday to the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee.
Current Nebraska law says judges and juries cannot infer livestock owners were negligent just because the animals escaped.
But the law does not require evidence of specific negligence.

 

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) – A 34-year-old Kearney man has been charged with felony child abuse, accused of punching his teenage son in the head.
Dennis Wright was arrested last week and released from Buffalo County jail on Monday.
Police say the 14-year-old boy’s mother called police after her son told her his father was beating him.
The boy told officers his dad had hit him several times in the face and head. Wright says the boy was uncontrollable and confronted him during an argument at his home. Police say Wright acknowledged hitting his son once, in an eye.
A public phone listing for Wright could not be found. His lawyer didn’t immediately return a call Wednesday from The Associated Press.

 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Former Sen. Bob Kerrey says he won’t seek the Democratic nomination to replace retiring Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska.
Kerrey’s announcement Tuesday shuts down hopes for a bid both parties called Democrats’ best chance to hold on to the seat.
Kerrey himself had described it as a longshot.
The 1992 presidential candidate and former Nebraska governor moved to New York City after giving up his seat. He spent nearly a week in Nebraska this month to seek advice about whether to run in a state that’s drifted ideologically away from him since he left.
Nelson’s decision not to seek another term this year came as a boon to Republicans, who must net four seats to retake the Senate.
And they’ve prioritized capturing the lone Democratic seat in Nebraska’s congressional delegation.