OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — More than 250,000 fish were killed this week at a southwest Omaha lake, drawing complaints from some anglers.

But Nebraska Game and Parks officials say the move will lead to better fishing in the Chalco Hills Recreation Area for years to come.

A low dosage of the chemical rotenone was applied Tuesday to the lake, killing thousands of gizzard shad and some sports fish. The fish washed up on the shores of the 245-acre lake near 154th Street and Giles Road.

Game officials say the gizzard shad, which are considered bait fish, were competing with bluegills, crappie and small bass for food.

Shad are highly susceptible to rotenone when water is cold. Other fish are more tolerant and are expected to thrive and multiply.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Attorney General’s Office has launched a review of the operations of Goodwill Omaha in the wake of an Omaha World-Herald investigation showing the charity’s top executives have been paid more than Goodwills nationwide.

State law empowers the attorney general to protect the financial assets of Nebraska charities.

Longtime Goodwill Omaha CEO Frank McGree received total compensation of $933,444 in 2014. Also, 13 of the nonprofit’s executives were paid more than $100,000 in 2014, siphoning a significant portion of the $4 million generated from Goodwill’s stores in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa from job-training programs. McGree, who had led the Omaha charity for 30 years, announced his resignation in late October.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha’s award-winning zoo has reached a new milestone — its 2 millionth visitor for the year.

The zoo says 32-year-old Jacque Keys, of Omaha, and her two young children marked the occasion Tuesday when they walked through the front gate of the Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium.

It’s the first time the zoo has recorded 2 million visitors within a year — a mark fewer than a dozen American zoos ever reach.

Zoo staff members, including zoo director Dennis Pate, gathered at the gate to welcome the Keys.

The family was also given a prize package worth about $4,000, including a $500 zoo gift card, a zoo-themed gift basket, a personal photographer for the day at the zoo and a two-year zoo membership.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A number of car crashes were reported in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa Saturday as snow fell in the area.

Police had to close major roads in Omaha and Council Bluffs, Iowa, Saturday afternoon because of car crashes involving multiple vehicles.

The National Weather Service says one or two inches of snow is expected in the area.

In Omaha, police shut down several lanes of northbound U.S. Highway 75 near Interstate 80 after a crash. Serious injuries were reported in the crash, but details of those injuries weren’t immediately available.

Across the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, a crash on southbound Interstate 29 blocked the highway between the exits for North 25th Street and North 16th Street.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Bradshaw man has been sentenced to 16 to 20 years in prison for his role in a failed murder-for-hire plot.

31-year-old Derrick Shirley was sentenced Thursday. He pleaded no contest to possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony in exchange for his testimony against Robert Honken, of Aurora, who was convicted of trying to hire Shirley to kill Honken’s wife.

Authorities say Shirley was paid by Honken, but never tried to kill his wife. According to court documents, Honken then tried to hire another person, but that person instead contacted authorities.

Honken was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in November. He’s scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 20 and faces up to 50 years in prison on each count.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man serving life in prison for a 2003 kidnapping has lost his appeal before the Nebraska Supreme Court.

The court on Friday rejected the appeal by Rosario Betancourt-Garcia, who was convicted in Madison County of kidnapping, conspiracy and use of a firearm.

Court records say Betancourt-Garcia was identified by his victim as one of two men who kidnapped and terrorized him. The other man, Jose Luis Trevino, was convicted in 2005 and sent to prison.

Officials say Betancourt-Garcia was mistakenly deported to Mexico shortly after the crimes occurred. He returned to the United States and lived in Texas until he was arrested in 2013.

The court vacated part of his sentence on the conspiracy conviction but ordered a judge to resentence him to life in prison on that count.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A woman has been sent to prison for helping her boyfriend dump his mother’s body.

25-year-old Gabriela Guevara was sentenced Friday to six to 14 years in prison. She pleaded no contest in August to being an accessory.

Guevara’s one-time boyfriend, Roberto Martinez-Marinero, is serving a life sentence for two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his mother, 45-year-old Jesus Ismenia Marinero, and his 4-year-old half brother, Josue Ramirez-Marinero.

After killing his mother, Martinez-Marinero took her two youngest children in an attempt to eliminate witnesses. He dumped his then-11-month-old half brother in a La Vista trash bin. The child was found later, bruised but otherwise uninjured.

He threw the 4-year-old boy off a bridge to his death.

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 23-year-old Lincoln man has pleaded no contest to manslaughter for a motorcycle crash that killed his girlfriend more than two years ago.

Tyler Wilson entered the plea Thursday. A no contest pleas is one in which the defendant does not admit guilt, but acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to convict.

Wilson was driving his motorcycle with his 21-year-old girlfriend, Jessie McCain, on the back of the bike in July 2014. Prosecutors say he was traveling at more than 80 mph on a street where the speed limit was 40 mph when he hit a Jeep, killing McCain.

Wilson faces up to 20 years in prison when he’s sentenced in February.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 34-year-old Lincoln has been sentenced to up to 30 years in prison for trying to kidnap a 3-year-old girl from a grocery store last year.

Bentiu Wal was sentenced Thursday to 20 to 30 years. Police say store surveillance video showed he grabbed the girl from behind near the exit of the store and tried to leave with her. The child’s mother intervened and hit Wal until he let go of the girl and left the store.

Wal’s attorney said he was intoxicated at the time and doesn’t remember the incident.

Wal will get credit for a little more than a year he spent in jail awaiting trial.

PELLA, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say two of the three people killed when a pickup truck crashed into an Iowa Wal-Mart store were employees, while the third was shopping.

Law enforcement officials said Friday that those killed in the Thursday morning crash were 31-year-old Carrie Zugg, of Leighton, and 29-year-old Lindsey Rietveld, of Bussey, both employees of the Pella store, and 76-year-old Ruth Jean DeJong, of Pella, a shopper. DeJong’s husband, 77-year-old Robert DeJong, was injured in the crash and remained hospitalized.

The only other injured person was the driver of the truck, 66-year-old Dennis Mockenhaupt, of Knoxville, Iowa. Investigators say Mockenhaupt plowed at a high rate of speed through a glass front entrance. Officials declined to say Friday what caused the crash, but had earlier said it was believed to be an accident.