WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — An American Eagle regional jet carrying 55 people makes an emergency landing in Kansas after a smoke alarm for the jet’s baggage compartment is activated.
The Embraer ERJ 145 landed safely at Wichita Eisenhower National Airport around 7 a.m. Monday. Airport officials say no indications of smoke or fire were found.
A Wichita Airport Authority spokeswoman says the jet was flying from Grand Island, Nebraska, to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport when the alarm sounded.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha school district could get its own drug dog to sniff lockers and patrol hallways during random searches next school year.
Omaha Public Schools spokeswoman Monique Farmer says the district is working with the Omaha Police Department to buy and train a drug-sniffing canine that could appear in middle and high schools this fall.
The plan is still in its early stages. It follows a school security survey that asked parents, students, teachers and principals last fall whether they would support additional school security measures, including metal detectors and drug- and gun-sniffing dogs.
There were 263 expulsions and suspensions related to drugs in the 2014 to 2015 school year, a steep drop from the previous school year.
NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a sheriff’s deputy and another driver were slightly injured in a collision near Norfolk.
The accident was reported a little before 9 p.m. Saturday at the intersection of U.S. Highway 275 and Nebraska Highway 24 on the southeast corner of Norfolk. Police say the Stanton County sheriff’s deputy was driving a marked cruiser and heading south on Nebraska 24 when it was struck by a northbound vehicle that turning left, across the cruiser’s path.
The deputy was identified as 25-year-old Tyler Evans, of Stanton. The other driver was identified as 18-year-old McKenna Warner, of Norfolk. Warner was cited for failure to yield.
COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to prison after leading officers on a multicounty chase that began in Columbus, Nebraska, and reached speeds of 110 miles per hour.
According to court records, 41-year-old Carlos Bejarano-Rodriguez was sentenced to two years in prison for attempted possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person and operating a motor vehicle to avoid arrest-willful reckless driving.
Court documents say Bejarano-Rodriguez has been previously sentenced to prison six times in California. He was being sought on an outstanding warrant from San Bernardino, California, at the time of the chase.
Authorities say that Bejarano-Rodriguez also traveled northbound in the southbound lanes during part of the Nov. 1 chase. Police in-car video shows that the trooper intentionally nudged the vehicle’s bumper, causing the suspect’s vehicle to spin.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Several people who evacuated have returned to their rooms after a motel fire in Lincoln.
Firefighters responded to reports around 7 p.m. Sunday at Americas Best Value Inn on Northwest 12th Street. Fire officials say the blaze started in the motel laundry room and was contained there.
There were no reports of injuries. The fire cause is being investigated.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police are investigating a shooting at an apartment building that injured two people.
The shooting was reported at an apartment building in eastern Omaha around 9:30 p.m. Saturday.
Police said two people were taken to the hospital with serious injuries, but they are expected to survive.
Authorities say witnesses gave police conflicting information about what led to the shooting.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — State prosecutors say an Omaha mental health counselor has been ordered to pay more than $300,000 for filing fraudulent Medicaid claims.
The Nebraska Attorney General’s Office says 42-year-old Lawanda Cook was ordered Friday to pay $312,759.
Prosecutors say an investigation found that Cook submitted 1,599 Medicaid claims with no supporting clinical records, as required by law, and was paid a total of $208,506. Cook says she failed to maintain progress notes or clinical records to support the claims.
Last year, Cook was sentenced to nine months in jail for causing the motor vehicle death of 55-year-old Joanne Smith. Police say Cook was distracted when she ran into the back of Smith’s car as Smith was unloading items from the trunk on an Omaha street.
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Authorities are investigating the latest of what residents in one western Iowa neighborhood believe is a series of dog poisonings dating back years.
Several dogs have died mysteriously along Rosebud Lane just outside Council Bluffs in the last six years.
The latest being investigated by the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office is that of a golden retriever puppy belonging to the father of Tara Campbell of Council Bluffs. A trip to Campbell’s eastern Nebraska veterinarian after it became six Tuesday showed the dog had anti-freeze crystals in its urine. The dog later died.
Sheriff’s investigators are testing refried beans found in the yard where the puppy had been tethered.
Campbell says she has had two other dogs die suddenly in the last six years.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Three years after it was filed, a lawsuit filed by a Papillion man who says he was unlawfully detained and wrongly treated as an illegal immigrant has been dismissed against Sarpy County.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon dismissed the lawsuit against the Sarpy County sheriff, jail staff and a federal immigration agent on Thursday. The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska had sued on behalf of Ramon Mendoza in 2013.
Bataillon said the lawsuit failed to show Mendoza’s constitutional rights were violated.
Mendoza was jailed in March 2010 after he was pulled over by a sheriff’s deputy for a traffic infraction.
Mendoza is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Mexico, but was held for days on suspicion of being in the country illegally.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A mistrial has been declared in an Omaha slaying case that sparked a courthouse brawl.
A judge made the ruling on Friday morning in the trial of Charles Trotter, who’s charged with murder in the shooting deaths of Dexter Joseph and Marcel Lovejoy in an apartment on Jan. 3, 2015. A new trial is scheduled to begin June 13.
The fight Wednesday involved family and friends of Trotter, Joseph and Lovejoy. The judge subsequently sequestered the jury, and security was increased.
On Thursday a witness who’d been in the apartment when Joseph and Lovejoy were shot replied “I don’t remember” to several questions about what happened. He gave the same reply when a prosecutor asked whether he’d been threatened not to testify completely.
