LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man has pleaded not guilty to what authorities say was a drug-related slaying in Lincoln.
Court records say 33-year-old Jamez Henderson entered his pleas Wednesday in Lancaster County District Court to a second-degree murder charge, use of a firearm, methamphetamine possession, and three other crimes.
Henderson and six other people are suspected in the Dec. 15 shooting death of 41-year-old Jamie Watson. His body was found in a car trunk.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An administrator at a University of Nebraska-Lincoln center has been accused of using university money to pay personal airplane travel expenses.
Online court records say 29-year-old Laviania Thandayithabani (tehn’-daye-uhth-uh-PAH’-naye) is charged with felony theft. Her attorney didn’t immediately return a call Thursday from The Associated Press. She’s assistant director of operations for the Nebraska Transportation Center, which aids collaboration by university, industry and government officials on transportation issues and research.
University police say in court documents that they found 17 charges on the university travel portal system from April 2015 through December 2016 totaling more than $11,300. Officials say none of the trips was approved.
Her next court appearance is scheduled for March 28.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Grand Island authorities have released the names of a woman who was fatally injured and a man who was hurt in the collision of their cars.
The collision occurred around 2:15 p.m. Wednesday. Police Capt. Jim Duering identified the woman Thursday as Ivelynn Dwinell, of Grand Island, and the man as Larry Roebuck Jr., of Phillips.
Duering says Dwinell was pulling out of a restaurant driveway to head north when her car was struck by Roebuck’s southbound car.
Dwinell was pronounced dead later at a hospital. Roebuck was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
The collision is being investigated.
SIDNEY, Iowa (AP) — At least three students have been injured in a collision between a school bus and a pickup truck near the front of a school in southwest Iowa.
Authorities say the collision occurred around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Sidney Junior/Senior High School in Sidney. District Superintendent Gregg Cruickshank says the bus had just left the grounds to take seven students to vocational classes in Sidney when the oncoming pickup swerved across the street and hit the bus.
Cruickshank says a student driving the pickup was flown to an Omaha, Nebraska, hospital for treatment. The superintendent says the bus driver and two boys on the bus were taken to a local hospital as a precaution.
He declined to release any names.
Cruickshank also says classes continued as scheduled Wednesday.
HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — An April sentencing hearing has been scheduled for a 76-year-old Hastings woman who pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide.
Online court records say Marylin Gish pleaded guilty Tuesday to the misdemeanor count. Her sentencing is scheduled for April 24.
Police say Gish was driving a pickup Sept. 7 when she turned onto the street Joyce Schiffler was crossing and struck the 72-year-old woman. Gish told police she didn’t see Schiffler, who died later at a Lincoln hospital.
GENEVA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say they’ve captured all 11 girls who escaped from the state’s Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center in Geneva.
The Nebraska Health and Human Services Department said Tuesday night that two girls left the grounds around 5:30 p.m. The department says a fire alarm was pulled around 7:30 p.m., which unlocked doors in a cottage and allowed nine more girls to flee the campus.
The department said Wednesday morning that all the girls were back in custody and returned to the Fillmore County facility by 2 a.m. Wednesday.
The department says an investigation will be undertaken to find out what policies or procedures should be changed to prevent future escapes.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have charged a Grand Island woman for not letting someone stop a fight between her teenage daughter and another girl.
Court records say the 36-year-old woman is charged with felony intentional child abuse. The Associated Press is not naming her in order to preserve the privacy of her daughter. The AP generally doesn’t name juveniles accused of crimes.
Authorities say the woman’s 15-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old girl had agreed to fight each other. The older girl got the upper hand and began choking her opponent. Police say the woman wouldn’t let a bystander pull the girls apart or stop her daughter from choking the other girl.
Police say the 15-year-old will be charged with strangulation. The younger girl will be charged with mutual consent assault.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say they’ve arrested a man who fired at a Nebraska state trooper during a chase.
The chase began early Tuesday morning in Valley and ended when the man’s car went into a ditch. The man took off running but was captured with the help of a police dog.
The man was taken to an Omaha hospital for treatment of his injuries. His name hasn’t been released.
The trooper was not hit by the man’s gunshots. The trooper’s name hasn’t been released either.
VALPARAISO, Neb. (AP) — A man has been hospitalized after he was found in a creek where his pickup truck crashed in eastern Nebraska.
The Saunders County Sheriff’s Office says a passer-by spotted the truck around 9 a.m. Monday. Sheriff’s Deputy Robert Thorson says the man was found lying mostly in the creek water and likely had been for several hours.
The truck had crashed off Nebraska Highway 79 about a mile south of Valparaiso and was lodged in a creek bank.
The man’s name hasn’t been released.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — New Jersey-based megabus.com says it will resume service from Nebraska through Iowa to Chicago.
Megabus.com said in a news release Tuesday that the service will begin March 1, with one bus daily in both directions and additional service on weekends and holidays as needed.
The buses will serve Lincoln and Omaha in Nebraska, stop in Des Moines and Iowa City/Coralville in Iowa and Moline and Chicago in Illinois. The service to Lincoln and Moline is new.
The company says Windstar Lines will provide buses and megabus.com will manage ticket sales and customer services.
Megabus.com is based in Elizabeth, New Jersey. It announced in November that it was ending the service because low gas prices had reduced demand for service.
