WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama and Congress are starting the new year locked in a politically charged dispute over a proposed 1,700-mile oil pipeline from Canada to Texas.
Republicans and some unions say the Keystone XL pipeline will create thousands of jobs. Environmentalists fear it could lead to an oil spill disaster.
The pre-Christmas agreement between Obama and Congress temporarily extending the payroll tax cut included language compelling Obama to make a speedy decision on whether to build the pipeline. The administration says it would rather say “no” than rush a decision in an election year.
The $7 billion pipeline poses a political trap for Obama because it divides his supporters. Environmentalists oppose the project while most labor unions support it.
Republicans say Obama’s stance shows he favors environmentalists over jobs.

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) – Kearney Regional Airport has unofficially reached the threshold for $1 million in federal safety grant funding.
Airport Manager Jim Lynaugh said that the airport had good numbers in January, February and March, so he  expected to surpass the figure needed: 10,000 departures.
Grand Island reports that it expected to reach a record  45,000 departures.
Officials at North Platte Regional Airport and Western Nebraska Regional Airport in Scottsbluff say their airports would be falling short of the 10,000 needed for the funding. Kearney landed under that figure last year but reached it in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) – A 22-year-old Beatrice woman has been convicted on two counts of child abuse for negligence after making a plea deal with prosecutors.
Tieghshia “Teesha” Udell made her pleas Thursday.
Court records say Udell pleaded no contest to the two counts and guilty to one count of driving on a suspended license. In return, prosecutors reduced the abuse charges from felonies and dismissed a third count.
Sentencing is set for Feb. 2.
Police say that on one of the occasions, on Oct. 5, Udell’s neighbors found her 3-year-old son wandering in the parking lot of their apartment complex at 2 a.m., calling for his mother.
Udell later told officers that she’d left the boy sleeping in the apartment while she drove home an intoxicated friend.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – The Nebraska Supreme Court has affirmed the murder conviction of a Lincoln man who bludgeoned his mother to death with an ax.
Matthew Fox had argued he shouldn’t have been declared competent to stand trial because he couldn’t bear to discuss his case.
The court said in a ruling released Friday that Fox’s decision not to discuss his mother’s death with his lawyers didn’t mean he wasn’t competent.
Fox was sentenced to life in prison in 2010 for first-degree murder in his mother’s death. Prosecutors say Matthew Fox, who was 19 at the time, hit his mother with an ax 14 times in October 2008.
He was found incompetent to stand trial twice and spent more than a year in treatment before the lower court found him competent in 2010.

HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) – A 21-year-old Omaha man has been given 11-to-18 years in prison for his robbery and firearms convictions in Hastings.
Tyrell Lyle was sentenced on Thursday. Lyle had pleaded no contest to three counts of robbery and one firearms charge. In exchange for the pleas, prosecutors dropped charges of attempted murder, use of a deadly weapon and two counts of terroristic threats.
Hastings authorities say Lyle and his cousin, 22-year-old Andrew Lyle, of Hastings, robbed two men on May 9 as the men were making a night deposit at a bank.
Authorities say that on the same night, the cousins entered a Hastings home, demanded money from the residents and fired shots at one when he ran.
Andrew Lyle has pleaded not guilty and awaits trial.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – The Canadian company that wants to build a $7 billion pipeline to tar sands oil across the Plains to refineries near the Gulf of Mexico now has a map of areas to avoid in Nebraska.
Nebraska officials released the map of the Sandhills region Thursday to guide TransCanada’s efforts to develop a new route for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
TransCanada agreed in November to develop a new route through Nebraska to avoid the environmentally sensitive Sandhills. The entire project remains on hold while a new route is developed and studied.
TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL project is designed to carry oil from Canada across Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. TransCanada also has proposed connecting it to the Bakken oil field in Montana and North Dakota.

HARRISON, Neb. (AP) – A 32-year-old Nebraska Panhandle man has made a deal to avoid the death penalty and pleaded guilty to killing his 8-year-old stepdaughter.
Salvador Lopez, of Mitchell, on Thursday admitted killing Kerra Wilson.
Her body was found Sept. 22 on remote ranchland in Sioux County, several miles north of their home. A search began the day before when she failed to arrive at school.
In exchange for Lopez’s plea, prosecutors dropped a provision that could have led to the death penalty. Instead, Lopez will be given the mandatory life sentence.
An autopsy showed the girl died of strangulation and head injuries from a shovel.
Prosecutors also say Lopez killed Wilson because she told him she was going to tell her mother that he “had touched her in a bad way.”

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A Nebraska man is facing charges of drunken driving and child abuse after police found him passed out behind the wheel of a car near Raymond with a 3-year-old in the back seat.
The Lancaster County Sheriff’s office says 19-year-old Aaron Simon of Valparaiso was found Tuesday night in the driver’s seat of a car parked behind a convenience store in Raymond.
The 3-year-old was asleep near two full bottles of alcohol. The child, who is believed to be Simon’s nephew, was taken to his grandfather’s home.
Simon told deputies he decided to take a nap on his way home after having several shots of vodka. He was taken to detox and ticketed on suspicion of several charges.
Simon doesn’t have a listed phone number in Valparaiso.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Police in Lincoln say they’re investigating the theft of $14,000 in tools from a construction site over the Christmas weekend.
The items were stolen from a locked storage container between Friday night and Tuesday morning.
Police say some of the equipment included saws, drills, harnesses and welding lead.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Gov. Dave Heineman has granted a request to lower state and U.S. flags to half-staff in honor of state Sen. Dennis Utter of Hastings, who died Tuesday.
Heineman granted the request from Hasting’s Mayor Vern Powers Wednesday.
Flags will be lowered to half-staff in Hastings on Friday, the day of Utter’s funeral.
Heineman also ordered flags to be lowered at the State Capitol and the governor’s residence on Friday in honor of Utter’s service to the state.
Utter, who was elected in 2008, had been suffering from lung disease. He was hospitalized Tuesday morning and died a few hours later.
He was 72.