HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska woman has been sentenced to life in prison for killing her boyfriend’s 68-year-old mother.

41-year-old Shelley Casterline, of Guide Rock, was sentenced Monday in Adams County District Court on one count of second-degree murder in the October 2013 slaying of Virginia Barone.

Investigators say the women had been arguing before the death. An autopsy shows Barone was stabbed twice in the back and 20 times in the chest and torso.

Casterline’s 24-year-old son, Andrew Casterline, was found guilty Thursday of first-degree murder and other crimes in connection to the death. Shelley Casterline testified during his trial that her son didn’t stab Barone and only helped her move the body.

Andrew Casterline will be sentenced in December.

ELK CREEK, Neb. (AP) — This summer’s drilling to explore a deposit of a rare heat-resistant element in southeast Nebraska prompted a Canadian mining firm to increase its estimate of the deposit’s size.

NioCorp Developments said Monday that the latest drilling results show that the niobium deposit near Elk Creek is even bigger than expected.

The company also said Monday that it plans to raise up to $16.5 million through private placement to support the Elk Creek project.

NioCorp previously estimated that more than 100 million tons of niobium rests several hundred feet below the ground. The company is trying to determine if it will be profitable to build a mine.

The U.S. currently imports nearly all the niobium that’s used in this country to harden steel and make it more heat-resistant for industrial uses.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska doctors treating an American aid worker battling Ebola have identified the experimental drug they used.

Dr. Phil Smith of the Nebraska Medical Center says Dr. Rick Sacra received a Tekmira Pharmaceuticals drug called TKM-Ebola for a week after he arrived in Omaha on Sept. 5.

Sacra continues to improve, and doctors said Monday that he may be well enough to leave the hospital’s isolation unit soon.

But Dr. Angela Hewlett said it’s not clear what role the experimental drug played in Sacra’s recovery because he also received a blood transfusion from an Ebola survivor and other treatments.

The 51-year-old Rick Sacra from Worcester, Massachusetts, contracted Ebola while working at a hospital in Liberia.

The Ebola virus is being blamed for more than 2,800 deaths in West Africa.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A commercial airplane traveling from Boston to Los Angeles has made an emergency landing in Nebraska.

The Federal Aviation Administration says the Virgin America flight made the unscheduled landing Monday morning at Omaha’s Eppley Airfield. The plane landed safely and no injuries were reported.

The agency says the flight crew requested a diversion following a medical emergency on board. A passenger, Paul Bernon, told KCAL-TV that a man had tried to open an emergency exit door. The man was later taken to the airport’s police office.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says a passenger was taken to the hospital for observation. Officials did not provide more details.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man is charged with locking his girlfriend’s five children in a bedroom for more than 24 hours without food or access to a bathroom, authorities said Monday.

Deputies who responded to a report of domestic disturbance at a home in Westgate on Friday at 9 a.m. saw several children crying and yelling through a window for help, the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office said.

The children, ranging in ages from 3 to 9, told investigators they had been locked inside a bedroom by their mother’s boyfriend, Joshua Steinbronn, 28, on several occasions — sometimes for longer than 24 hours.

The room locked from the outside, and the children reported they were unable to leave. One girl told investigators she injured her leg trying to escape.

“The children stated they had to urinate into cups, clothing and baby diapers due to not being allowed to leave the locked room,” deputy James Davis wrote in a complaint.

But the children’s mother, Jonya Smith, said those allegations were false. She also disputed authorities’ claim that the children had been removed by the Department of Human Services, saying they remained in her custody but are under state monitoring.

She said she and Steinbronn had locked the children in their rooms for disciplinary reasons and naps — but never for as long as 24 hours.

She said Steinbronn, who was released from jail Saturday, is not a bad person. She praised him for enforcing respect, calling her kids “uncontrollable.”

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Grand Island has been preparing to cut in half its discharge of chloride from the city wastewater treatment plant, anticipating a state regulation that will take effect next year.

The city will have 4½ years to comply with the tougher rule.

The state is following national water quality regulations, and there is concern that high chloride, or salt, levels kill water fleas and flathead minnows, which are food for many fish species.

The city can’t access enough water to dilute the salt level in its discharge, because there isn’t enough water flowing by in the Platte River all through the year. So the city is working with the JBS beef plant and other industrial customers to reduce the salt content of their wastewater.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 29-year-old woman has died after her car rammed into a power pole in southwest Omaha.

Witnesses told officers that the car had been moving erratically before the accident occurred around 6:15 p.m. Saturday.

Police say Ashley Carter, of La Vista, was pronounced dead later at an Omaha hospital.

The accident cause is being investigated.

ELMWOOD, Neb. (AP) — Two people were killed when a car rammed into the rear of another near Elmwood in southeast Nebraska.

The accident occurred a little before 7:30 p.m. Sunday on U.S. Highway 34, about a mile and a half southeast of Elmwood.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office says in a news release that a westbound car driven by 25-year-old Edward Koch, of Quincy, Illinois, struck the rear of the other car, which was driven by 23-year-old Matthew Kirchhoff, of Weeping Water.

The Sheriff’s Office says Kirchhoff and his passenger, 22-year-old Emily Widger, of Lincoln, were pronounced dead at the scene. Koch was taken to a Lincoln hospital.

The crash is being investigated.

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln man has been given up to seven years in prison for stabbing his brother in January.

Lancaster County District Judge Jodi Nelson called 28-year-old Steven E. Caldwell dangerous before sentencing him on Monday to three to seven years in prison. He was given credit for more than 240 days served.

Caldwell pleaded no contest to attempted second-degree assault and felony child abuse in connection to his brother’s stabbing on Jan. 17. His brother’s son was also present during the attack.

Court records say Caldwell told authorities he was drunk when he got into a physical fight with his brother and stabbed him in the stomach with a kitchen knife. His brother survived.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha organizers say they fell far short of setting a record for the world’s largest spaghetti feed.

Sunday’s event was organized by an Omaha nonprofit, We Are the Power of O.NE. Its goal was to serve 20,000 spaghetti dinners in four hours at the Omaha Public Schools’ seven high schools and several other spots in the area, including across the Missouri River at Lewis Central High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

The group said serving 17,000 would break a world record. But Sunday’s volunteers served only around 5,100 dinners. The group also took 1,400 dinners to homeless shelters.

Organizer Lin Leahy says the event was held to raise awareness of hunger in the Omaha area. The dinners were free, although donations for the Food Bank for the Heartland were encouraged.