OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha mayor wants to shorten the hours and days that fireworks can be set off in Nebraska’s largest city.

Mayor Jean Stothert has proposed an ordinance that would allow only five days of fireworks around the Fourth of July instead of 10. They couldn’t be used until noon each day from June 30 through July 3 but could be used starting at 8 a.m. on July 4.

The proposal also would bar fireworks from being set off until noon each day from Dec. 28 through Dec. 31. The current daytime start is 8 a.m. The season would run from noon Dec. 28 through 1 a.m. on Jan. 1.

Vendors still couldn’t sell fireworks during the New Year’s season.

The proposal goes before the City Council next month and so wouldn’t affect next week’s Independence Day celebrations.

PLATTSMOUTH, Neb. (AP) — Eastern Nebraska authorities say a man has died after power arced from an overhead line into a truck boom.

Medics were sent to the Omaha Fish & Wildlife Club around 4:50 p.m. Thursday. The Cass County Sheriff’s Office says the man was operating the truck with the raised boom when the accident occurred. The sheriff’s office says witnesses reported that the boom didn’t touch the line, but electricity arced into it and down through the truck into the worker. He was pronounced dead later at an Omaha hospital.

He was identified as 31-year-old Justin Mason, who lived in Bellevue.

The club sits on the south side of the Platte River on the north end of Cass County.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The group that operates the city-owned convention center and arena in Omaha is refusing to disclose what companies bid for the naming rights that were won by CHI Health.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that the Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority has told the newspaper that the authority isn’t subject to Nebraska public records laws.

The authority also says the information sought by the World-Herald’s public records request would fall under exemptions covering trade secrets even if the authority were required to follow the records laws.

CHI Health acquired the naming rights in a 20-year deal will cost CHI Health almost $24 million. The facility opened in 2003 as the Qwest Center and was renamed CenturyLink Center in 2011 after CenturyLink acquired Qwest.

The facility will be called CHI Health Center Omaha starting Sept. 1.

 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a police officer was injured in a crash involving a drunken driver in northern Omaha.

The crash occurred around 3 a.m. Thursday. A police union tweet says the officer was treated and then released to recover at home.

It’s unclear whether the other driver was injured. The other driver’s and the officer’s names and other details haven’t been released.

The officer was in a sport utility vehicle cruiser.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s first problem-solving court for military veterans has graduated its first four participants to complete the program.

The Douglas County Veterans Treatment Court held a ceremony Wednesday honoring the graduates and dismissing their felony charges. The graduates were facing prison sentences before entering the diversion program.

The court requires participants to adhere to a strict regimen of keeping a job, treating addiction, paying restitution and frequently meeting with the judge. It’s the first of its kind to be funded by Nebraska lawmakers.

Larry Hart is one of the graduates. He says his program included addiction recovery and treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

District Judge Mark Ashford oversees the court. He says he’s glad Nebraska funded the court because PTSD and substance abuse are pervasive among veterans.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska judge has declined a request to play jurors a video on implicit bias at an upcoming Lincoln trial for a black man accused of sexually assaulting a white woman.

Lancaster County District Judge Robert Otte rejected a motion to show an 11-minute video for jurors to consider hidden biases they might bring into the courtroom.

Public Defender John Jorgensen had asked the court in May to consider playing the video. He says the jury-selection process can identify explicit bias but that implicit bias is more subtle.

Social scientists define implicit bias as unconscious personal attitudes people hold about race, gender, nationality and other characteristics.

Otte says jury instructions already warn jurors not to indulge speculation or allow sympathy or prejudice to influence them.

SCHUYLER, Neb. (AP) – Neighbors who don’t want a chicken feeding operation in their eastern Nebraska community have sued the Colfax County Board of Commissioners for approving a permit.

The lawsuit was filed June 19 against the board, commissioners and the two men who sought the permit, Thomas and Josh Faltys (FAHL’-tiss).

The nine plaintiffs seek no damages but do want a judge to overturn the commissioners’ May 22 permit approval for a maximum 380,000-chicken feeding operation. The plaintiffs say among their allegations that the operation “will cause great and irreparable harm because it will severely diminish their property rights.”

The operation would be erected southeast of Clarkson. Josh Faltys and his brother, Clint, want to contract with the planned Costco poultry plant in Fremont.

The county attorney and Josh Faltys didn’t immediately return calls Thursday from The Associated Press.

BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) — Police in an Omaha suburb have released the name of a man whose death is being investigated as a homicide.

Officers were dispatched around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday to a home on the north end of Bellevue to check a report about an unresponsive man. The officers found the man’s body inside his home.

Bellevue police said Wednesday the body’s been identified as that of 38-year-old Brent Quigley.

No arrests have been reported. Police have not said how he was killed.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An FBI agent said she felt demeaned by her Omaha boss after he allegedly ordered her to wear high heels and smile more often.

Georgia Scott filed a federal lawsuit Monday against Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department and the FBI, the Omaha World-Herald reported. She’s seeking unspecified damages for wages lost from what she calls a discriminatory demotion and transfer to the FBI’s San Antonio, Texas, division.

Huston Pullen, a spokesman for the Omaha FBI, declined to comment, saying it’s a personnel issue.

Scott has been working for the FBI since 1998. She was promoted in 2009 to a supervisory investigative specialist role in Omaha. She was the office’s only black female supervisor at the time, according to the lawsuit.

Scott received a new supervisor in 2011 who she alleges began undermining her authority, such as overriding her personnel decisions on scheduling and promotions.

Scott said she confronted her boss and other management officers in 2012 about feeling treated as a stereotypical “angry black female.”

After doing so, Scott alleges her boss ordered her to “pay more attention to her appearance,” including wearing more skirts, dresses and high heels. Her boss also created a “developmental plan” that required Scott to “smile occasionally,” moderate her volume and avoid cursing.

YORK, Neb. (AP) — A California couple have pleaded no contest to reduced charges for hauling marijuana through Nebraska that they said was intended for Christmas gifts.

80-year-old Patrick Jiron and his wife, 70-year-old Barbara Jiron, of Clearlake Oaks, California, each pleaded no contest Tuesday to a single count of possession of more than a pound of marijuana.

In exchange, prosecutors dropped other counts, including those for drug-dealing and tax stamp violation. The Jirons each face up to two years in prison when they’re sentenced in August.

When the Jirons were arrested Dec. 19, they said they didn’t know it was illegal to transport marijuana through Nebraska. They told authorities the 60 pounds of pot was intended as presents for family in Vermont and Massachusetts.