OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Officials say two students have been arrested for allegedly bringing a loaded gun to an Omaha school.
Omaha Public Schools says the students were found in possession of the weapon at Benson High School Magnet on Thursday.
School principal Anita Harkins-Baldwin said in a letter to parents that a school resource officer confiscated the weapon and police were called. She said there were no threats, shots fired or injuries.
In October, a student gave a loaded gun to another student while at Benson. No shots were fired in that case and both students were arrested.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha woman has been convicted of a felony charge of animal neglect in connection with the death of her family dog last year.
A Douglas County District Court jury found 35-year-old Mashaunda Ball guilty Wednesday of causing a Boston terrier named Bubbles to die of starvation.
Ball adopted the dog from the Nebraska Humane Society in August 2012. Ball called the shelter several months later to dispose of a dead dog.
Bubbles was found alive in a kennel cage, but he was extremely thin and weak. The dog had lost several pounds and was covered in crusted urine and feces. Officials decided to euthanize him after his condition worsened.
Ball testified that Bubbles was a part of the family and he was regularly fed.
Eight hunters and a dog were rescued by helicopter from two boats stranded in the rapidly freezing Missouri River just east of Santee on Thursday. There were no injuries.
A Nebraska State Patrol (NSP) helicopter from its Aviation Support Division in Lincoln pulled the hunters from the boats two at a time by mid-afternoon. There were four hunters in each boat.
The boats had been blocked by ice in the river, and attempts by Nebraska Game and Parks Commission officers to reach them were prevented by the ice.
The rescued men were: Leigh Winterboer, Spencer, Iowa; Bill Lang, Huntington Beach, Calif.; Eric Scranton, Norfolk; Mitch Scranton, Norfolk; Brad Rasmussen, Spencer, Iowa; Colby Kerber, Broken Bow; Matthew Cronk, Scottsdale, Ariz.; and Ben Micek, Omaha.
South Dakota Game Fish and Parks had received a call for help at 11:30 a.m.Three Nebraska Game and Parks officers, NSP Troop B officers in Norfolk, the Santee Police Department and Bloomfield Fire and Rescue responded.
The hunters said no ice was on the river when they put their boats in at 5:30 or 6 a.m. Thursday. The 18-foot flat-bottom boats were left in the river following the rescue.
Tom Zimmer, Game and Parks law enforcement supervisor for northeast Nebraska, said sportsmen must take precautions outdoors in changing conditions.
“In cold weather conditions, be aware of your surroundings,” he said. “The river can ice up very quickly.”
BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — A Fremont man convicted of trying to meet a fictional 15-year-old girl for sex has been sentenced to probation and must register as a sex offender.
43-year-old Mark W. Avis was sentenced Wednesday in Gage County District Court to 36 months of probation. As part of a plea deal, several charges were dropped and Avis pleaded no contest to a felony charge of enticing a child by electronic means.
The Beatrice Police Department says Avis answered an online ad that an undercover officer posted on Craigslist. The officer told Avis he was a woman who was prostituting her 15-year-old daughter.
Avis was arrested in February when he showed up at an arranged location.
CHICAGO (AP) — New research on face transplants may help guide future operations for accident victims needing this kind of drastic surgery.
Medical imaging on the nation’s first full face transplant patient and two others shows that new blood vessel networks have formed joining their transplants with existing facial tissue.
That’s according to doctors who presented their data at a medical meeting Wednesday in Chicago.
The same thing typically happens with other transplants and it helps ensure their success. But doctors from Brigham and Women’s Hospital say this is the first time it has been shown with full face transplants.
The transplants all took place at the Boston hospital in 2011.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska utility that owns a nuclear power plant that has been idle since April 2011 says the troubled plant is now ready to restart, but federal regulators will make the final decision.
The Omaha Public Power District submitted a 139-page report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week making the case that the Fort Calhoun plant is ready.
An NRC spokeswoman says regulators are still reviewing the latest repairs.
Lou Cortopassi manages the nuclear plant 20 miles north of Omaha that sits across the Missouri River from Iowa. He says OPPD addressed Fort Calhoun’s problems, and it is ready to operate safely.
Fort Calhoun initially shut down for routine maintenance, but significant flooding in 2011, a small fire and a series of safety violations forced it to remain closed.
WABASH, Neb. (AP) — A 37-year-old Cass County man won’t be prosecuted for killing his father.
Cass County Attorney Nathan Cox says David Bouzek acted in self-defense on June 16 when he shot his father. Cox says Gary Bouzek was armed with a hammer when he came at his son.
Cox says that after the elder Bouzek’s release from prison, he was invited to visit his son. They began arguing as David Bouzek was driving to his Murdock home with his dad, and David Bouzek forced his dad to get out. Early on June 16, the younger Bouzek found his father hammering on the outside of his home. The son asked his father to stop. Cox said that when Gary Bouzek came at his son, David Bouzek fired.
DUNCAN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have released the name of a 55-year-old man who died while working on his truck at his home in eastern Nebraska.
