(AP) — Omaha police have identified a man found dead after a fire in a vacant building in March.
Police say the man is 39-year-old Michael Leslie.
His body was found inside an elevator car on March 14 after firefighters extinguished an early-morning fire in a building near 18th and Dodge streets.
Authorities say Leslie died from smoke inhalation. Foul play is not suspected in his death.
(AP) — Authorities are investigating a two-vehicle crash that killed a Nebraska woman near York this weekend.
The York County Sheriff’s office says the accident happened shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday on Highway 34 about 2 miles west of York.
Authorities say 31-year-old Lauren Akerson of Aurora was killed in the accident. She was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Michael Krejci of Aurora.
That vehicle collided with a van Otis Newcomb of York was driving.
Krejci, Newcomb and two passengers were treated for injuries at a York hospital and released.
(AP) — State officials are going to study the workforce in northeast Nebraska, northwest Iowa and southeast South Dakota to learn more about what it will take to attract new businesses to the area.
The Nebraska Departments of Labor and Economic Development will conduct the study in late October and early November. The effort will identify the skills of local workers and other key economic factors.
The study will focus on Columbus, Fremont, Norfolk, South Sioux City, Wayne, and West Point, as well as northwestern Iowa and southern South Dakota.
The findings of the study will be released next spring.
(AP) — A Nebraska man suspected in a bank robbery who shot himself while fleeing from police has died.
Creighton University Medical Center officials said Sunday that 30-year-old Eric Dickerson died from injuries he sustained Saturday.
Police chased Dickerson for about 30 minutes before apprehending him.
Authorities say Dickerson shot himself while driving across a cornfield between Papillion and Bellevue. He was suspected of trying to rob a First National Bank branch at a Papillion mall Saturday afternoon.
A grand jury will review the death because Dickerson was being chased by officers when he shot himself with a .22-caliber rifle.
(AP) — A 19-year-old Omaha woman has been convicted by a federal jury of lying to federal agents looking for her boyfriend wanted on a federal warrant.
A jury in Lincoln convicted Brooke Anderson Thursday of lying to U.S. marshals in May when they came to her home seeking her boyfriend. The agents had an arrest warrant for the man.
U.S. Attorney Deborah Gilg says in a statement Anderson had twice been warned that it was a crime to conceal a fugitive or lie to federal agents.
Anderson told the officers her boyfriend was not in the residence but when they searched the home they found the man in the basement.
Her attorney, Donald Schense, of Bellevue says the jury acquitted her on a more serious charge of harboring a fugitive.
(AP) — A 40-year-old Nebraska truck driver has died in a single-vehicle accident in northwest Missouri.
Eric Gouin, of Norfolk, was driving south on Interstate 29 when the truck he was driving went off the road and struck a tree. The accident occurred Friday morning near Dearborn.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol says Gouin was pronounced dead at the scene.
Patrol Sgt. Collin Stosberg says a shifting load inside the trailer may have contributed to the accident.
(AP) — Authorities from several law enforcement agencies say they chased a man who tried to rob a Papillion bank into a cornfield where he shot himself.
The 33-year-old man from Sarpy County hasn’t yet been identified.
He was taken by medical helicopter to an Omaha area hospital. His condition hasn’t been released.
Officers from Papillion, Bellevue, the Sarpy County Sheriff’s office, and the FBI responded when the suspect of an attempted robbery at the First National Bank at Shadow Lake Towne Center in Papillion was spotted just after noon Saturday.
After a high-speed car chase the man left the car and ran into a cornfield between Papillion and Bellevue. Officers on the scene reported hearing a gunshot. The man was located and airlifted from the scene.
(AP) — Authorities in eastern Nebraska have seized 230 pounds of marijuana found inside a semitrailer.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office says its K-9 unit conducted a traffic stop Friday on Interstate 80.
A deputy detected the odor of marijuana and discovered numerous packages of the drug inside the vehicle. Authorities say the street value of the marijuana is more than $1 million.
The driver of the semitrailer, 52-year-old Pick Ing, told officials he was driving to Minnesota. He and the passenger, 41-year-old Narath Khath, were arrested and face charges of possession of a controlled substance with the intent to deliver and no tax stamp. Court records do not list attorneys for them.
(AP) — Authorities say a suspect is in custody after opening fire at the Los Angeles International Airport and injuring multiple people.
Los Angeles police Officer Norma Eisenman says officers responded to the incident Friday which occurred at 9:30 a.m. in terminal 3.
She says the suspect exchanged fire with airport police and was taken into custody. The airport is being swept for precautionary measures and the bomb unit is on scene.
Reports say one TSA agent was killed and several others were wounded.
Airport staff evacuated travelers and flights were disrupted nationwide.
(AP) — What do Siberian tigers and post-menopausal women have in common?
And what about penguins and people?
Physicians and veterinarians will team up Saturday to explore those questions and others on treating diseases humans and animals share.
The Zoobiquity conference in New York will bring together about 30 medical experts, including the chief medical officer at New York’s Animal Medical Center, Dr. Richard Goldstein.
The conference involves top medical hubs like UCLA, New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and The Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo.
They’ll spend half the day in Manhattan comparing animal and human cases, before heading to the Bronx Zoo to examine animals, including a male gorilla with a seizure disorder; tumors in domestic ferrets; and an eating disorder in a California sea lion.
