GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A Grand Island man whose vehicle contained several dozen chicken carcasses and malnourished chickens when he was pulled over has been given 180 days behind bars.

Online court records say 36-year-old Luis Motola-Palacio was sentenced on Tuesday in Hall County District Court. He also was fined $1,000 and forbidden to drive for 15 years. He had pleaded no contest to charges of drunken driving, second offense, and to livestock neglect.

The sentences are to run at the same time as his prison sentence for an assault in 2013.

Authorities say a Grand Island police sergeant stopped Motola-Palacio early on Jan. 31 for driving without turning on his headlights. The officer soon discovered the chickens in a makeshift cage in the back of Motola-Palacio’s sport utility vehicle.

PIERCE, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a Nebraska resident has died after a semitrailer drove into the back of a pickup.

Pierce County Sheriff Rick Eberhardt said the wreck happened Wednesday afternoon on Nebraska Highway 13 just south of Pierce.

He says the northbound pickup was attempting to turn left when it was hit from behind by a semitrailer hauling more than 8,000 gallons of diesel fuel. The semitrailer went off the road into a ditch and rolled. Its tank leaked fuel that forced closure of the highway for several hours.

Eberhardt said in a news release Thursday that the semitrailer driver died later at a hospital. The driver was identified as 66-year-old Eldon Kassebaum, of West Point. The sheriff says the two people in the pickup weren’t injured.

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — Bees are the subject for Saturday’s campfire program at the Homestead National Monument of America in southeast Nebraska.

People are invited to gather at 7 p.m. at the Education Center to hear a University of Nebraska-Lincoln assistant professor of entomology, Douglas Golick, talk about the lives and importance of bees.

For additional information, call 402-223-3514 or go online at http://www.nps.gov/home/index.htm.

The Homestead National Monument of America sits four miles west of Beatrice, along Nebraska Highway 4.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 30-year-old New Hampshire man caught hauling marijuana through Nebraska has been given two to four years in prison.

Online court records say Ryan Quirion, of Nashua, New Hampshire, was sentenced on Tuesday in Lancaster County District Court in Lincoln. He’d pleaded guilty to possession for sale.

Records say a Nebraska state trooper stopped Quirion on Dec. 12, 2013, for a traffic violation on Interstate 80 near the Lincoln Airport exit. The trooper noticed Quirion driving erratically as he left the scene, so the trooper notified Lancaster County authorities.

A deputy who found Quirion parked at a grocery store had a drug dog taken to the scene, and the dog alerted to the presence of drugs in Quirion’s vehicle. Nearly 65 pounds of pot was found in a hidden compartment.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to life in prison for the shooting death of another man outside a west Omaha nightclub.

A Douglas County District judge sentenced 25-year-old Avery Tyler on Wednesday to life for first-degree murder. Tyler — a former Bellevue University basketball standout — was also sentenced to 20 to 30 years for a gun charge.

The sentence comes after Tyler’s first trial ended in mistrial in January, when a juror made inappropriate comments about the case. Tyler was convicted on retrial.

Investigators say Tyler retrieved a gun and shot Delayno Wright outside the Halo Ultra Lounge on Sept. 3, 2012, as the two men argued.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln dentist has pleaded not guilty to stealing nearly $17,000 worth of precious metals from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Omaha.

Randall Toothaker appeared in federal court Wednesday and entered his plea.

Prosecutors say a lab technician reported seeing the 57-year-old dentist open a locked cabinet where precious metals used in dental procedures, including gold, were kept.

While VA officials investigated the missing metals, prosecutors say Toothaker tried to leave the property. Officers pulled him over and found the missing metals in a bag in his vehicle.

Toothaker told officers he didn’t know how the metals got into his bag.

Toothaker declined to comment after Wednesday’s court hearing.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A pastor at an Omaha church says while he was distracted by hearing a man’s confession, another person stole about $4,000 from the church’s morning collection.

The Rev. Jony Espinal said that after finishing Mass on Sunday morning at St. Agnes Church, he was approached by a man seeking money to buy food. Espinal gave him $5, but the man followed him into the church and sought more.

Another man then entered the church, saying he needed to confess his sins.

When Espinal returned from the confession, he found about $4,000 donated that morning was missing.

A thief had managed to open a locked cabinet and take three bags of cash.

The money was supposed to go toward salaries for pastors and upkeep of the church.

COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — A Columbus woman had died after being stabbed, and police have arrested her grandson in connection with the killing.

Columbus police say 58-year-old Deanna Micklevitz called for help Wednesday afternoon, saying she had been stabbed.

She was taken to Columbus Community Hospital and then was flown to Bryan Health Medical Center in Lincoln, where she was pronounced dead upon her arrival.

A suspect ran from the stabbing. Columbus police, Platte County sheriff’s deputies and state patrol officers searched the area and arrested 19-year-old Chase Micklevitz.

Chase Micklevitz was held at the Platte County Jail, and police say he will be charged with 2nd degree murder.

Details about whether he had an attorney weren’t available Wednesday night.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Federal regulators say Archer Daniels Midland Co. has agreed to settle allegations that it violated Clean Water Act rules at oil storage facilities in Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska.

The Environmental Protection Agency says Decatur, Illinois-based Archer Daniels will pay a civil penalty of $430,000.

An Archer Daniels spokeswoman said Wednesday that she couldn’t immediately comment.

The EPA says the company violations involved large oil storage facilities situated in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, Iowa; Deerfield and Mexico, Missouri; and Columbus, Nebraska. The EPA says violations included a lack of EPA-required spill response plans and violations of industrial stormwater requirements for Clean Water Act operating permits.

 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A livestock feed company says it will contest citations and proposed penalties issued for the collapse of an Omaha plant that killed two employees.

International Nutrition has notified the Occupational Health and Safety Administration of the company’s intentions. The case now will go to an administrative law judge for a hearing and to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. Their decisions may be appealed to a federal appeals court.

Federal safety investigators say overloaded storage bins on the roof of the Omaha plant caused the building collapse on Jan. 20. OSHA cited International Nutrition for 13 violations of safety and health rules and proposed nearly $121,000 in penalties.