SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) – A former Scottsbluff police officer has lost his appeal for his child pornography case to be dismissed.
Scotts Bluff County District Judge Randy Lippstreu has rejected arguments by Tyler Reinpold. Reinpold had said the initial search of his property and the seizure of his computer violated his constitutional rights because authorities didn’t have a warrant.
Reinpold faces a Jan. 23 trial on 10 counts of possessing child pornography. His lawyer has said the pornographic images were part of an investigation Reinpold was conducting.
Prosecutors say a relative discovered the images of girls ages 11 to 14 in August 2010 while he was fixing Reinpold’s computer.
Reinpold was a Scottsbluff police officer for about three years before being dismissed in January.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman is urging lawmakers to adopt nearly $326 million in tax cuts.
The Republican governor proposed a legislative package Thursday that would eliminate an inheritance tax collected by counties and reduce corporate and individual income tax rates over a three-year period. It also would widen tax brackets, so families would see more of their income taxed, but at lower rates.
Heineman told lawmakers in his State of the State address that Nebraska cannot wait for additional tax cuts, which he described as key to helping middle-class families and enabling businesses to grow.
The governor also called for cuts in Medicaid spending and reductions in spending on home health services.

YORK, Neb. (AP) – The state of Nebraska and a former inmate have settled her lawsuit that said she was forced to deliver her daughter in a toilet at the women’s prison in York.
The agreement calls for Charlene Clifton to be paid $25,000.
Clifton was serving time for felony assault of an officer in Dodge County. She was released in February 2010.
Clifton’s lawsuit says she told prison staffers she was in labor about noon on June 4, 2009. The suit says Clifton was told she couldn’t go to a hospital until her water broke, and she was sent back to her cell about 10 p.m. But on the way, she went into a restroom and gave birth to her daughter in a toilet.

GERING, Neb. (AP) – Western Nebraska officials have identified the 93-year-old woman who died after her car was caught by a railroad crossing signal as a freight train approached.
Scotts Bluff County Attorney Doug Warner says that Vera Clary, of Gering, died in the Wednesday afternoon accident.
Warner says a driver behind Clary told police that Clary was crossing the railroad tracks when the warning signal’s arms came down and caught the rear of her vehicle. After that, Clary’s vehicle crept forward a bit but it remained on the tracks when the Union Pacific train arrived.
Warner says Clary may have become confused after the crossing arm hit her car. Clary was ejected from her car when the train hit it, and she died at the scene.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – The Nebraska Supreme Court has set an execution date for death-row inmate Michael Ryan, who was condemned to die for a 1985 murder at a farm near Rulo.
The court scheduled the execution for March 6.
Ryan was convicted of torturing and killing James Thimm at his compound. His execution would be the first in Nebraska since 1997, and its first by lethal injection.
The order came two days after Attorney General Jon Bruning’s office filed documents with the high court saying a legal challenge by Ryan’s lawyer was frivolous and irrelevant. Ryan’s lawyer had challenged the state’s method of obtaining one of three drugs needed to carry out the sentence.
Attorney General Jon Bruning said in a statement Wednesday that officials will now prepare to carry out the sentence.

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) – The last of five former workers charged in an abuse investigation at the Beatrice State Development Center has pleaded not guilty.
30-year-old Matthew Pangborn, of Beatrice, pleaded not guilty to 11 charges on Wednesday in Gage County District Court. Pangborn is charged with six counts of abuse of a vulnerable adult and five counts of strangulation.
A judge set a status hearing for Feb. 29.
The other defendants in the case – Cody Creek, Carmen Yates, Matthew Johnson and Cameron Barnes – also have pleaded not guilty.
The five were fired and charged after a report said at least seven residents were routinely slapped, shoved, pinched, punched and choked, often until they fell unconscious.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – An executive with a Canadian company attempting to build a $7 billion pipeline to carry oil from Canada to refineries along the Gulf Coast says a new proposed route will be proposed soon.
Speaking Wednesday in Bismarck, TransCanada Corp.’s Alex Pourbaix told North Dakota officials and oil industry representatives that the company would present its amended plan to federal regulators “in a matter of a very few weeks.”
The U.S. government in November delayed a decision on granting a permit for Keystone XL, largely because of worries about the pipeline’s environmental impact, especially in Nebraska.
The disputed route runs through six states from Canada to Texas.
So-called feeder pipelines would connect the Keystone XL to the rich oil fields in North Dakota and Montana.

SIDNEY, Neb. (AP) – Not-guilty pleas have been entered for Nebraska Panhandle man who is accused of killing his live-in girlfriend.
Forty-six-year-old Craig Johnson said nothing as the court entered the pleas on Tuesday. Johnson is charged with second-degree murder and use of a weapon to commit a felony. No trial date has been set.
Johnson is accused of killing 42-year-old April Smith at the home the two shared eight miles west of Sidney. Authorities found Smith’s body Dec. 12 with her hands and legs bound by wire and rope. An autopsy showed she suffered a blow to the head. There were signs she was choked, and there were cuts and bruises on her face and body.
Johnson remains held in the Cheyenne County jail on $1 million bail.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A Nebraska state senator plans to withdraw his proposal to make unwanted mouth-kissing a sex crime.
Lincoln Sen. Bill Avery was scheduled to pull his bill Tuesday after questions arose about how authorities would enforce it.
The measure (LB797) would have counted mouth-kissing without consent as sexual contact for purposes of filing a sexual assault charge.
Avery said earlier this week that the bill sought to address a serious matter. He proposed it after a man approached one of his constituents while she was mowing a lawn, offered her water, and then kissed her on the lips without permission.
The female’s family members later learned that the man was a sex predator, but authorities could only charge him with disturbing the peace.

MCCOOK, Neb. (AP) – A father and son convicted of causing a crash that injured four people in southwest Nebraska have been sentenced to prison.
Fifty-three-year-old Leslie Sides and his son, 26-year-old Eric Sides, had pleaded no contest to two felony counts and two misdemeanor counts of assault. In return, prosecutors dropped several charges.
The two were sentenced on Monday. Eric Sides was given a combined 11-to-15 years in prison. His father was sentenced to a combined six-to-nine years.
Prosecutors say the Sides got into their trucks on Aug. 19, 2010, and chased a vehicle that had driven through the horseshoe driveway at the Sides’ home in rural Bartley. The vehicle was knocked into a spin, and it overturned.
Four people in it were injured.