LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Nebraska has its first flu case of the season.
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services says lab tests confirmed influenza A in a Douglas County man in his 30s who had traveled outside the U.S.
Nebraska chief medical officer Dr. Joann Schaefer says now is the time to get vaccinated before flu activity increases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends flu vaccinations for everyone 6 months and older. It can cause serious complications in young children, the elderly, pregnant women and people with chronic lung disease or other health ailments.

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Alaska’s senior senator is criticizing the Obama administration’s plan to delay a decision on a massive oil pipeline.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski says the decision sends a message to the world that — quote — “the United States lacks a clear energy policy and is willing to turn its back on its neighbor.”
The administration announced Thursday that it’s delaying a decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to allow time to study possible new routes that avoid environmentally sensitive parts of Nebraska. The company behind the project, Canada-based TransCanada Corp., will have to find a way to move the proposed pipeline.
Murkowski said in a statement that there are hundreds of oil pipelines between the U.S. and Canada. She called the administration’s actions “troubling and unprecedented.”

ELWOOD, Neb. (AP) – Three men accused of a racially motivated beating in south-central Nebraska have pleaded guilty.
Online records say the three made their pleas in Gosper County District Court last month.
The victim of the July 28 beating at Johnson Lake was a Hispanic man who suffered a broken eye socket, fractured skull and a stab wound.
The men were originally charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree assault against a person because of race.
After a deal with prosecutors, 21-year-old Matthew Hansen, of Canon City, Colo., pleaded guilty to felony assault. He’ll be sentenced on Nov. 30.
Twenty-eight-year-old Jeremiah Hilderbrand and his brother, 26-year-old Anthony, also made deals with prosecutors. Each was sentenced to 89 days in jail, time served, for misdemeanor assault.

BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) – A 22-year-old Bellevue woman has been arrested, accused of assaulting an officer who stopped to check on her.
A Bellevue Police Department news release says the incident occurred a little before 7 p.m. Monday. The department says the officer had noticed a woman who appeared to be hitchhiking although she wasn’t wearing any shoes and was covered in mud.
The department says the woman soon began assaulting the officer. Two passers-by came to the officer’s aid and helped control the woman until other officers arrived.
The officer was treated for minor injuries. Police say the woman apparently wasn’t injured.
She was identified as Sarah Owens.
Owens remains in Sarpy County custody. Her attorney in an unrelated case, Michael Schirber, said Tuesday that he knew nothing about the new allegation.

YORK, Neb. (AP) – A 28-year-old convicted sex offender has pleaded not guilty to several charges, including sexual assault of an underage girl in York.
Jason Morehead made his pleas Monday in York County District Court. Besides the two counts of sexual assault, Morehead was charged with procuring alcohol for a minor.
Prosecutors say Morehead assaulted the 15-year-old girl at least twice in July.
Morehead is charged in an unrelated case with felony possession of a controlled substance and three misdemeanor drug-related counts.
Morehead was convicted of false imprisonment of a minor in June 2005 in Seward County.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Occupy Omaha protesters have dropped their request for an overnight camping permit at a park west of downtown.
The group was going to ask the City Council for a permit to camp at Elmwood Park. The city says that request has been removed from the council agenda.
Occupy Omaha members say they’re working on a new protest plan and expect to have one ready before the end of the week.
Three people were arrested last week when police evicted Occupy Omaha protesters from a parking lot near downtown.
The Occupy movement began in New York, decrying what protesters see as corporate greed and the growing gap between rich and poor.

FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa jury has convicted a woman of murder in the 2001 death of her neighbor, rejecting her claim that she shot him in self-defense during a home invasion.
Forty-five-year-old Tracey Richter says she shot 20-year-old Dustin Wehde to protect herself and her three children after he and another man broke into her home in December 2001. She says the second intruder fled.
But Monday’s verdict supports prosecutors’ claim that there was no home invasion and Richter shot Wehde to keep him quiet about his role in a plot to frame her ex-husband. Richter was involved in a custody battle at the time.
Richter later moved to Omaha, Neb., where she was arrested last summer. She faces life in prison at sentencing.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) – More than three dozen people have marched through the south-central Nebraska city of Grand Island as part of the national Occupy movement.
The group marched on Saturday in connection with Transfer Day. Members of the Occupy Wall Street movement had asked people to transfer their accounts from megabanks that many believe helped create the financial crash of 2008 by issuing subprime loans.
The Occupy movement began in New York, decrying what protesters see as corporate greed and the growing gap between rich and poor.
Among signs the Grand Island marchers carried were ones that said “Save The Middle Class” and “Bail Out Our Grandkids, Not The Banks.”

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – The first of five Nebraska bills aimed at oil pipelines is set for a public hearing.
The Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee has scheduled a public hearing on a bill by Fullerton Sen. Annette Dubas. The proposal (LB1) would give the state’s Public Service Commission the authority to oversee siting for major oil pipelines. The commission would have to approve a pipeline developer’s application before the developer could use eminent domain to make way for such a project.
Dubas introduced the bill during a special session aimed at the Keystone XL, a proposed pipeline that would cut through the Nebraska Sandhills and Ogallala aquifer. The project is awaiting U.S. State Department approval.

MINDEN, Neb. (AP) – The last of four people charged in the death of a 4-year-old Minden boy has been given probation and a suspended jail sentence.
20-year-old Katie Payne was sentenced on Wednesday to 90 days in jail and five years of probation. The jail time was suspended, pending Payne’s performance on probation.
Payne had pleaded no contest to intentionally committing child abuse without injury.
Dustin Scoville and Sharon Turnell were sentenced to 49-to-50 years in prison. Sharon Turnell’s husband, Charles Turnell, was sentenced to 19-to-20 years.
The child, Landon Payne, was Sharon Turnell’s nephew and had lived with the couple since August 2009. The boy died Dec. 22, 2009, a day after he was taken to a hospital.