LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln Electric System’s new service center could cost more than double what officials first estimated when the project was announced in May 2014.

Vice president of corporate operations Trish Owen said the original $25 million estimate was plugged in to hold a place in the long-range capital improvements program. She says the number was very preliminary because the utility hadn’t determined space requirements or other needs.

System CEO Kevin Wailes told the Lancaster County Board last week that the utility may raise rates slightly to help cover the cost of the project. The system says it needs the new center in order to keep up with the city growth and improve outage response times. The system plans to sell its downtown headquarters building.

ATLANTA (AP) — A judge has sentenced a Georgia woman to home confinement and probation after she admitted lying when she bought a gun that her boyfriend used to kill a Nebraska police officer.

A judge on Tuesday sentenced Jalita Johnson to a year’s probation, 180 days of home confinement and community service.

Federal prosecutors say Johnson in April bought a Glock semiautomatic gun, a 50-round drum magazine and ammunition from a pawnshop.

Johnson wrote on the purchase form that she was buying the gun for herself. She later admitted she was buying it on behalf of her boyfriend Marcus Wheeler, a convicted felon.

Police in Omaha say Wheeler killed Kerrie Orozco on May 20 when he opened fire on officers trying to arrest him. Wheeler was killed when another officer returned fire.

 

CRETE, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s Doane College has received a $2.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to help improve retention rates for male and minority students over the next five years.

The Title III grant is one of 40 awarded to colleges and universities to help serve low-income and underrepresented groups. The college will use the funds to hire staff members dedicated to improving the retention rates at the school by 5 percent from the first year to the second year, and reducing heavy alcohol consumption on campus by 10 percent.

Associate vice president for academic affairs Kate Marley says the school will incrementally pick up the costs of personnel salaries. The college has already committed more than $540,000 in funds to create staff positions.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The University of Nebraska Medical Center is unveiling its new initiative that will use driving and vehicle simulators and black box devices to study the neurological sciences by assessing behavioral health in a realistic environment.

The university and its clinical partner, Nebraska Medicine, announced the Mind and Brain Health Labs Monday as part of the Mind and Brain Health Initiative.

The lab focuses on the idea that driving skills gives researchers a look into behavioral health, movement disorders and neuromuscular diseases. It also includes a full-sized car, a smaller driving simulator, and a sensor-equipped vehicle that can be driven on the street.

Dr. Matthew Rizzo, chairman of the medical center’s department of neurological sciences, says the new lab is a more environment for research.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Another vandal has targeted the Islamic Center in Omaha.

A security camera caught an image of a masked man unsuccessfully trying to break the glass in a door around 3:15 a.m. on Thursday. Early on Aug. 23 a vandal heaved a 40-pound boulder through the glass in what mosque officials said was the first attack in 20 years. No arrests or injuries have been reported in either incident.

The center’s president, Mohammed Rasheed, said center officials believe these are hate crimes, because for someone to go to the center so early in the morning to “pick up a stone and throw it, they would have to plan and be motivated to do that.”

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a motorcycle driver has died after colliding with a car on the east side of Omaha.

The accident occurred about 8:30 p.m. Sunday on South 24th Street, near Woolworth. Police say a speeding southbound car went out of control and struck the motorcycle. The driver and car passenger fled the scene. The motorcyclist was taken to Creighton University Medical Center, where he died. Police identified him as 18-year-old Fredy Reyes-Garcia, of Omaha.

Later Sunday night the car passenger and driver were questioned by police after the pair sought treatment at another Omaha hospital. Police say charges against both are pending.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska health inspectors have cleared a physician of allegations that his Bellevue clinic violated state abortion laws.

A pair of inspectors from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services found no evidence to support complaints that the clinic was violating Nebraska’s ban on abortions after 20 weeks or that it was improperly handing and disposing of fetal tissue. They spent three days inspecting the Bellevue Health Clinic in early August.

Inspectors did find three lesser regulation violations. These offenses have since been corrected.

State records don’t show who filed the complaints against LeRoy Carhart’s clinic.

Spokesman Taylor Gage of the governor’s office says Gov. Pete Ricketts didn’t order the investigation of Carhart’s clinic. The governor had asked the department to inspect the state’s Planned Parenthood clinics last August.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 3-year-old boy may have fallen from a second-floor window in Council Bluffs, but managed to avoid major injury.

Council Bluffs police are investigating the incident that happened around 10:20 a.m. Sunday.

The boy was taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha for treatment after the fall.

Police say the initial tests and X-rays didn’t reveal any major injuries.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 33-year-old woman is recovering from a severe hand injury after police say she broke into the Henry Doorly Zoo to pet a tiger.

Police said officers were called to Creighton University Medical Center around 7:20 a.m. Sunday after the woman showed up with the hand injury

Officer James Shade says the woman acted aggressively and appeared to be intoxicated.

Police determined that the woman snuck into the zoo to try to pet a tiger. She was bitten when she reached into the animal’s cage.

The woman was ticketed on suspicion of trespassing while she was being treated at the hospital Sunday.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are developing an unmanned aircraft that can drop flaming balls to help firefighters safely set prescribed burns.

A prototype has been developed that can be programmed to fly over a certain area and drop balls that will ignite several seconds later.

Firefighters already used the balls that contain a powder that will ignite several seconds after being injected with liquid glycol, but they are dropped from manned aircraft that are often considered too costly or expensive to be used.

Indoor tests of the prototype have been encouraging, but researchers probably won’t get a chance to try their drone in the field until next spring.