NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — The Madison County coroner’s office says a man whose body was found in the North Fork of the Elkhorn River drowned.
The coroner’s office said in a news release issued Thursday that 52-year-old Jeffrey Planer, of Norfolk, died of asphyxia by drowning.
The circumstances surrounding Planer’s death are still being investigated. The coroner’s office says toxicology test results won’t be available for a few weeks.
The body was found and recovered on June 20.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 40-year-old Lincoln man has been given nine years in federal prison for receiving child pornography.
Prosecutors say David Romanski was sentenced on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Lincoln. He must also serve five years of supervised release after he leaves custody, and he must register as a sex offender.
Prosecutors say he’d received pornography from about October 2008 until sometime in May last year.
Investigators say they found on Romanski’s computer and other devices more than 1,300 videos depicting sexually explicit conduct of children under the age of 18, including a number of videos that were shared on a peer-to-peer network.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The June tornadoes and thunderstorms that pummeled Nebraska caused an estimated $13.2 million in damage to roads, bridges, utilities and other public property.
A spokeswoman for the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency said Thursday that the state will apply for federal assistance to cover the damage in 12 counties. The town of Pilger, devastated by a tornado, accounted for $2.6 million of the public property damage.
The state’s public damage estimate doesn’t count private property, so the total cost is likely far greater. NEMA spokeswoman Jodie Fawl says officials are still tallying that number.
The counties with damage were Cedar, Cuming, Dakota, Dixon, Franklin, Furnas, Harlan, Kearney, Phelps, Stanton, Thurston and Wayne.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A former Grand Island firefighter has been given seven years in federal prison for receiving and distributing child pornography.
Prosecutors say 51-year-old Mark Fhuere was sentenced on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Lincoln. He had pleaded guilty. Fhuere must register as a sex offender and serve five years of supervised release after he leaves custody.
The crime was committed between May 2, 2011 and May 29, 2013.
Fhuere resigned his position as a firefighter-paramedic with the Grand Island Fire Department on May 31 last year. He’d worked for the department since 1996.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 64-year-old Omaha man has been given five years of probation for health care fraud.
James Holt was sentenced on Wednesday. He’d pleaded guilty nine federal misdemeanors.
James Holt and his company, UMOJA, provided mental health services. Authorities say Holt and his company stole money by billing Nebraska Medicaid for services that weren’t actually provided. Investigators say 231 false claims were submitted for payment.
Holt and the company must make total restitution of more than $15,500.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A police officer has been credited with alerting residents about a fire at a Lincoln apartment building.
Police say Sgt. Tom Ward spotted the nine-unit apartment building on fire early Wednesday. He radioed for help and banged on the doors of three garden-level units.
Ward was unable to reach the second and third floors so he threw rocks at windows to alert sleeping residents.
Responding firefighters used truck ladders to reach trapped residents. Officer Katie Flood says four people were injured in the fire.
Investigator Ken Hilger says a microwave inside one of the units started the fire. He estimated the fire caused $150,000 to $175,000 in damages.
PILGER, Neb. (AP) — The middle school in Pilger that was heavily damaged by a tornado last month will be torn down on Friday.
The school and most of the town of 350 people was severely damaged by a tornado on June 16. Two people were killed in the storm.
The Wisner-Pilger school board decided the middle school building in Pilger couldn’t be salvaged.
The district plans to put up three portable classrooms for the middle school’s 75 students near the district’s elementary school in Wisner.
Residents and alumni will be able to keep a brick from the school as a keepsake if they request one.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha man accused of raping multiple women over several years has been sentenced to up to 140 years in prison.
A judge sentenced Anthony Vaughn on Wednesday to 110 to 140 years in prison. The 42-year-old won’t be eligible for parole until he’s at least 96 years old.
In April, Vaughn made a last-minute deal with prosecutors and pleaded no contest to two counts of first-degree sexual assault and other charges. Several charges were dropped in return.
Vaughn was accused of a series of rapes between 1999 and 2009. A DNA sample taken in 2011 after a burglary conviction linked him to the crimes.
One victim said she was relieved by the sentence.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The mother of a Texas 18-year-old who fell from a sixth-floor hotel window in Lincoln expects to take her daughter home this week.
Lynn Hamilton said her daughter, Brittany Turner, is “doing much, much better.”
On June 28 Turner fell from the broken window on the Embassy Suites sixth floor onto the second-story roof and was critically injured. Turner was in Lincoln with other Houston high school students for the International Thespian Festival.
On Tuesday Hamilton said Turner isn’t ready to talk about what happened before her fall.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The city of Lincoln has evicted a Little Free Library from a spot near a church in the Indian Village neighborhood.
A city official told the church, New Visions Community-Southminster site, that the little library can’t sit in a public right of way.
George Finley lives across the street from the little library, and he says he’s seen children go to it, grab a book and sit down on nearby grass to start reading.
Public Works Director Miki Esposito says she and neighborhood association president Barbara Arendt have talked about moving the library to private property, but that probably won’t be done until after Thursday’s deadline. She’s also working with Arendt to delay the possible city fine of up to $500.
