LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A group of former state lawmakers is seeking public money to pay for fountains at the Nebraska Capitol.

The group has renewed its effort to raise $2.5 million for bronze fountains at the Capitol’s four open-air courtyards.

The fountains are the last unfinished design feature of the Capitol, which was built in stages between 1922 and 1932.

The Nebraska Association of Former State Legislators hopes to have the fountains installed over the next three years, in time for the state’s 150th anniversary.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Dave Heineman, the chairman of the Capitol Commission, says the governor believes that private donors should finance the fountains.

The fundraising campaign began about five years ago, but fizzled after brining in less than $4,000.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police are investigating a shooting outside an Omaha nightclub that killed a woman and injured two men.

Authorities say 24-year-old Janee Hadan died on Sunday at an Omaha hospital. The other shooting victims, 30-year-old Gary Lockett and 23-year-old Brandon Patterson, were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

A police spokesman says officers were called to Omaha’s Roxbury Plaza shortly before 2 a.m. The shooting took place outside the Passion Lounge, a club on the city’s southwest side.

The nightclub’s owner says it appears Hadan was shot while sitting in a car in the parking lot. He says he doesn’t believe anyone involved in the shooting had been in the club.

Police say the Passion Lounge recently had its liquor license taken away, but it was reinstated a few days ago.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A husband and wife in the eastern Nebraska town of Gretna have come forward claiming to have a winning ticket for a $122 million Powerball jackpot.

David and Erica Harrig say they have presented a ticket to an Omaha attorney that bears the winning numbers in Wednesday’s Powerball drawing.

Nebraska Lottery spokesman Neil Watson said Saturday that he could not confirm that the Harrigs are jackpot winners, because they have not presented a winning ticket to lottery officials.

Another winning ticket was sold in Massachusetts, meaning the Harrigs would split the jackpot with the Massachusetts winner if the couple’s ticket is verified.

The Harrigs told the World-Herald that they plan to take the lump-sum payout of $34.18 million when they claim the jackpot.

 

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — A student who walked into his suburban Denver high school with a shotgun looking for a specific teacher was a skilled debater with strong political views who recently was kicked off the speech and debate team.

Eighteen-year-old Karl Pierson critically wounded one student before apparently killing himself Friday at Arapahoe High School as police moved in.

Steve Miles is an English teacher who taught Pierson as a freshman. He says the school librarian who ran the speech team cut Pierson from the team, but he didn’t know why.

Authorities haven’t identified Pierson’s target, but students say it was the librarian.

Fellow students describe Pierson as outspoken and smart — not a loner. They also say he held communist views.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lawyers for Gage County deputies being sued by six people wrongly convicted of the 1985 murder of a Beatrice woman are seeking to keep the jury from hearing that the six were innocent of the crime.

The attorneys filed a motion this week saying that the information the deputies had as they were conducting the investigation is the real issue, not the guilt or innocence of the six.

The deputies’ lawyers say that suggesting the six were innocent would unnecessarily confuse the jury.

The six — James Dean, Kathleen Gonzalez, Debra Shelden, Ada JoAnn Taylor, Joseph White and Thomas Winslow — spent years in prison for the death of 68-year-old Helen Wilson before being exonerated in 2008. DNA testing implicated another man.

It has been an extremely busy December for disaster responders across the Nebraska/SW Iowa Region of the American Red Cross.

Since December 1^st, 117 people have been forced out of their homes after a heartbreaking fire. In the past week, 65 well-trained disaster action teams have braved the bitter cold and answered the call for help 33 times.

Today, based on each family’s needs, the Red Cross is helping with food, clothing and/or shelter.

“Our committed volunteers are bringing comfort and care to the affected families,” said Tina Labellarte, Region CEO. “The Red Cross encourages the more than 2 million people who live in our Region to take the extra steps to reduce your risk of a home fire, not only in cold weather, but especially during the holidays.”

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are two of the top days for cooking fires, according to the National Fire Prevention Association. Nationally, the Red Cross responds to a disaster on average every eight minutes, and the vast majority of them are home fires.

Holiday Decorating

• Choose decorations that are flame resistant or flame retardant.
• Keep children, pets and decorations away from lit candles.
• Keep matches and lighters up high in a locked cabinet.

• Replace any string of lights with worn or broken cords or loose bulb connections. Connect no more than three strands of mini light sets and a maximum of 50 bulbs for screw-in bulbs. Read manufacturer’s instructions for the number of LED strands to connect. Some strings of lights are only for indoor or outdoor use, but not both.
• Use clips, not nails, to hang lights so the cords do not get damaged.
• Keep decorations away from windows and doors.

The Red Cross has some simple steps everyone can follow to prevent home fires around the holidays:

Holiday Entertaining

• Test your smoke alarms.
• Check food regularly while cooking and remain in the home while cooking. Use a timer as a reminder that the stove or oven is on.
• Enforce a “kid-free zone” in the cooking area and make children stay at least three feet away from the stove.
• Keep anything that can catch fire away from the stove, oven or any appliance in the kitchen that generates heat.
• Clean cooking surfaces on a regular basis to prevent grease buildup.
• Purchase a fire extinguisher to keep in the kitchen. Contact the local fire department to receive training on the proper use of extinguishers.

“In addition to recent fires related to alternate heating sources in cold weather, we want to remind families that cooking is the leading cause of home fires.  Amidst the baking, cooking, entertaining, and stringing of lights this holiday season, we encourage families to take safety measures to ensure that their homes and loved ones are safe from the threat of fire,” said Labellarte.

 

The American Red Cross offers the following general winter fire prevention tips:

 

• ·         All heaters need space.  Keep all things that can burn (paper, matches, bedding, furniture, clothing, carpets, and rugs) at least three feet away from heating equipment.
• ·         Never leave a fire in the fireplace unattended, and use a glass or metal fire screen to keep fire and embers in the fireplace.
• ·         Never use a cooking range or oven to heat your home.
• ·         Turn off portable space heaters every time you leave the room or go to sleep.
• ·         Have wood and coal stoves, fireplaces, and chimneys inspected annually by a professional, and cleaned if necessary.
• ·         If you must use a space heater, place it on a level, hard and nonflammable surface (such as ceramic tile floor), not on rugs, or carpets or near bedding or drapes. Plug power cords directly into outlets and never into an extension cord.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a Kansas man accused of planning to detonate a car bomb at the Wichita airport has been arrested.

U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said 58-year-old Terry Lee Loewen was arrested Friday morning at Mid-Continent regional airport.

Grissom said the man planned to drive a car that he believed was full of explosives into a terminal at the airport.

Loewen was charged with one count each of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to damage property and attempting to provide support to the terrorist group al-Qaida.

Investigators say Loewen is an avionics technician who lives in Wichita and works at the airport. He had been under investigation for about six months after he made statements about wanting to commit “violent jihad” against the U.S.

WAYNE, Neb. (AP) — A mattress pad company has decided not to rebuild its tornado-damaged plant in northeast Nebraska and instead will move production to North Carolina.

Pacific Coast Feather Co. told employees in Wayne on Thursday that the work will go to a plant in Gastonia, N.C. Nearly 150 jobs will be lost in Wayne.

Pacific Coast Feather is based in Seattle. Its plant was one of several businesses damaged or destroyed on Oct. 4 by the tornado, which registered EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, with wind speeds approaching 170 mph. More than a dozen people were injured, but no one was killed.

COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — A February trial has been scheduled for a rural Columbus man accused of sexually assaulting his daughters during weekend visits at his home.

The 38-year-old pleaded not guilty on Thursday to three counts of sexual assault of a child. The Associated Press is not using his name in order to protect the privacy of the girls, ages 7 and 9.

An investigator says in an arrest warrant affidavit that the man had sexually abused the girls while taking baths with them in October.

The man and the girls’ mother have been divorced for five years, and he has visitation rights for every other weekend.

The trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 3.