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Firetruck used to rescue skydiver who landed in tree

WEEPING WATER, Neb. (AP) — Firefighters have rescued a skydiver who landed in a tree in eastern Nebraska after her first solo jump from a plane.

Firefighters and Cass County sheriff’s deputies were called to help around 4 p.m. Saturday. Twenty-nine-year Abbey Lacy was stuck around 60 feet (18 meters) up, hanging from parachute cords attached to her harness. Members of her parachute club gathered below and reassured her while she awaited rescue near Weeping Water.

Power was cut in nearby overhead lines, and two men using an aerial ladder freed her from her predicament.

She was treated for bumps, bruises and cuts at an Omaha hospital, and doctors say some nerve damage in one of her legs likely will heal.

The Omaha resident says she’ll go back up for another jump as soon as her leg allows.

Man dies when car runs off road, rolls in northeast Nebraska

BLOOMFIELD, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man died after his car ran off a county road and rolled in northeast Nebraska.

The accident occurred just before 11 p.m. Saturday, less than 2 miles (3 kilometers) north of Bloomfield. The Nebraska State Patrol says 44-year-old Roy Kalb was driving south when his car drifted to the right and he overcorrected. His car rolled several times before landing in a roadside ditch.

Authorities say Kalb had another accident on the same road on Aug. 10. He was charged with two misdemeanors, including leaving the scene of an accident without providing required information.

He lived in Bloomfield.

3 people sentenced for roles in Nebraska reservation slaying

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Three people have been imprisoned for their roles in the slaying of a man on an American Indian reservation in northeast Nebraska.

Federal court records say the three Winnebago residents were sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Omaha. Twenty-year-old Jeremiah Wolfe was given 15 years for second-degree murder. His mother, 39-year-old Natasha Wolfe, was given 14 years for conspiracy to commit second-degree murder. And 22-year-old Lawrencia Merrick, also was given 15 years for second-degree murder. They’d pleaded guilty.

The three were charged in the April 2017 strangulation and beating of 32-year-old William Redhorn Jr. on the Winnebago Reservation.

2 women killed in York County highway collision

BENEDICT, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say two women died after their vehicles collided in York County.

The collision occurred Friday on U.S. Highway 81, about 2 miles (3 kilometers) north of Benedict.

The York County Sheriff’s Department says Brenda McCain was driving her car south when it collided with a northbound minivan driven by Jodi Miller. They were pronounced dead at the scene.

Both women lived in Strombsburg.

The crash is being investigated.

Body of missing elderly Fremont man found in Elkhorn River

Charles Folson

FREMONT, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say the body of a missing 90-year-old Fremont man has been found in the Elkhorn River.

The body of Charles Folsom was found around 6 p.m. Friday about a mile from where some of his personal items were found near a creek that flows into the river.

Authorities had been searching for Folsom since Tuesday. Investigators believe Folsom had driven to the area and went into the creek sometime Tuesday.

Fremont Police Lt. Shane Wimer says investigators believe Folsom used his belt to try to get out of the creek. His family members believe he then floated to the river in an attempt to find a better spot to get out. Searchers believe he attempted to get up the bank further down the river.

Omaha district creates policy for honoring deceased students

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A new Westside Community Schools policy outlines how the Omaha district’s schools, students and families can channel grief over a student’s death without inadvertently glorifying death or damaging kids who are mourning.

The policy calls for no empty chairs at graduation and no school events dedicated to a dead classmate, the Omaha World-Herald reported. The policy also bans funeral or memorial services being held on school grounds.

Memorial plaques should be avoided, and charitable donations should be considered instead, the policy said.

Schools have been contemplating how to balance honor students who’ve died and drawing attention to tragedy, particularly in cases of suicide.

“School officials must balance the desire to honor and remember a cherished individual with awareness and concern for the emotional well-being of all students,” Westside’s policy reads.

Officials consulted staff members who had experience handling student grief in an age-appropriate way, said Board President Dana Blakely.

“As these situations arise, it’s also very helpful for us to have looked ahead to receive some guidance and some input from the people who know best how to work with our students in a positive and healthy way,” she said.

Westside’s grief response group is led by two guidance counselors who provide “emotional and psychological support for students following the loss of a classmate, parent or staff member.” The group recommends memorial activities, such as creating a scholarship fund or organizing a park cleanup, instead of fixed memorials like plaques or benches.

The policy allows for alternative arrangements to be discussed with school principals and counselors.

Railcar cleaning company owners charged in explosion deaths

By MARGERY A. BECK ,  Associated Press
Eds: Updates throughout with more detail, quotes and background; adds attempts to reach company. Adds byline.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department announced nearly two dozen criminal charges Thursday against the owners of an Omaha railcar cleaning company stemming from a 2015 explosion that killed two workers.

Nebraska Railcar Cleaning Services’ president, Stephen Michael Braithwaite, and vice president, Adam Thomas Braithwaite, are both named in the 22-count indictment. The charges include conspiracy, violating worker safety standards resulting in worker deaths, violating federal law that governs hazardous waste management and submitting false documents to a federal agency.

The company and owners failed to implement worker safety standards and then tried to cover that up during an inspection by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, prosecutors said.

“Protecting the health and safety of American workers at hazardous job sites is of paramount importance,” Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Wood said in a written statement. “The defendants in this case failed to live up to that responsibility, even falsifying documents to evade worker safety requirements. Tragically, employees at the defendants’ facility lost their lives while working in these unsafe conditions.”

No attorneys are listed for the company or its owners in online federal court documents. A person who answered the phone Thursday at Nebraska Railcar Cleaning Services referred questions to Stephen Braithwaite, who did not immediately return a message left for him.

Two of the company’s workers, 40-year-old Dallas Foulk and 44-year-old Adrian LaPour, were killed in the April 14, 2015, explosion. A third employee was hurt.

Later that year, OSHA cited the company for 33 violations in the case, saying it blatantly ignored warning signs that there was a serious risk of explosion in the moments before the workers were killed.

The indictment alleges that after a 2013 inspection, Stephen Braithwaite agreed to have the company test railcars for benzene, a flammable liquid widely used to make everything from plastics to detergent. But after OSHA returned in March 2015 to conduct a follow-up inspection, prosecutors say, inspectors were turned away by Steve Braithwaite.

The indictment says the Braithwaites then created documents they submitted to OSHA falsifying that the company had purchased equipment to test the contents of railcars for benzene and had taken other required safety precautions.

The indictment says that despite warnings in 2013 and 2014, the company also failed to test waste to see if it was hazardous and instead simply sent all its waste to a landfill not permitted to receive hazardous waste.

Woman charged in crash that killed 3 after football win

SABETHA, Kan. (AP) — A Nebraska woman has been arrested in a head-on crash that killed the mother, sister and uncle of two Kansas high school football players as the family returned home from watching the boys’ team win a state football championship.

The Jackson County, Kansas, Sheriff’s Office says Maria Perez-Marquez is awaiting extradition to Kansas. She was arrested Thursday in Omaha, Nebraska, on an involuntary manslaughter warrant in the November 2017 deaths of 42-year-old Carmen Ukele, 11-year-old Marlee Ukele and 62-year-old Stephen Ukele.

Coach Garrett Michael says brothers Tanner and Carson Ukele were pulled off the Sabetha High School football team bus after a celebratory dinner. A trooper later told them their father had been hurt and the others had died. Perez-Marquez was passing another vehicle before the crash.

Residents: Union Pacific trains block Nebraska neighborhood

NORTH BEND, Neb. (AP) — Residents of a lakeside community in eastern Nebraska say they’re worried and frustrated about stopped freight trains that can block access to their homes for hours.

Residents near Legge Lake tell the Omaha World-Herald that Union Pacific Railroad trains have frequently blocked two Dodge County roads and limited access to their homes over the years. But the problem has recently escalated, with trains blocking both roads for hours at a time several times a week.

“We wonder what would happen if there were an emergency,” resident Suzy Crabb said. “One of our neighbors is elderly with a heart condition, and he’s very concerned.”

A crew is working to replace concrete railroad ties in the area near North Bend, according to Union Pacific spokeswoman Kristen South. Weather issues also contribute to congestion, she said.

“We are doing everything possible to prevent extended blockages and leave at least one access point available to Legge Lake residents,” South said.

She encouraged residents to call the railroad’s Response Management Communications Center if there’s an emergency.

“Emergency protocols exist, and a train can be broken, if necessary,” South said.

Nebraska Public Service Commission regulations require stopped trains to move within 10 minutes after a vehicle or pedestrian comes to a crossing. If a train can’t be moved, crews are supposed to separate enough train cars to open access to the crossing.

Dodge County Attorney Oliver Glass said he was informed of the issue Thursday and has contacted the local sheriff’s office.

“State law appears to show we could cite the railroad for a misdemeanor offense punishable by a $500 fine, but I am hoping that the situation can be resolved through open communication with the residents and the railroad,” he said.

Ex-Omaha gymnastics coach gets prison for secret recordings

James Bryce Fogg

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 28-year-old former Omaha gymnastics coach accused of secretly recording females undressing at an Omaha gym has been sentenced to nine years in prison.

James Fogg was sentenced Thursday in Douglas County District Court. He pleaded no contest earlier this year to attempted visual depiction of sexually explicit content and unlawful intrusion by electronic recording.

Police testified that Fogg last year recorded a 14-year-old girl he had coached and a 21-year-old woman who worked for him in an Omaha gym.

Police say Fogg’s face was caught on the video setting up the hidden camera before the girl and woman were secretly recorded.

Fogg had left the Omaha gym by the time the charges were brought. He was arrested last year in Emporia, Kansas, where he’d moved for another coaching job.

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