Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
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Bass Pro Shops' chief executive said he will match donations by former Cabela's executives and owners to a severance fund for some Cabela's workers who are losing their jobs after Bass Pro bought the rival outdoor retailer. Bass Pro Shops has said some employees in Sidney, Nebraska, where Cabela's was headquartered, will likely lose their jobs as a result of the $5 billion deal that closed in September. Bass has said it will keep its headquarters in Springfield, Missouri. Cabela's has been...
SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) — A 29-year-old man remained in a Scottsbluff hospital Wednesday after being shot by a police officer during a standoff, the Nebraska State Patrol said. Matthew Schwab was listed in stable condition at Regional West Medical Center, the patrol said. Schwab was shot by a Scottsbluff police officer around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday after holding officers at bay for nearly three hours, the patrol said. Officers were sent around 7:45 p.m. Tuesday to check a report about an armed man who was yelling while standing in a street on the s... Full story
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — At least nine people have been hospitalized and others could be trapped after an explosion and partial building collapse at an Omaha animal feed processing plant. Interim Omaha Fire Chief Bernie Kanger said Monday that nine workers have been sent to hospitals. He says firefighters are searching the building for anyone who may have been trapped by the blast or the falling debris. He declined to comment on possible fatalities. Family members who have gathered outside the International Nutrition plant say they've received c...
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - A touchdown run by a 7-year-old boy with cancer has been voted by Associated Press newspaper and broadcaster members as the top Nebraska news story for 2013. The 69-yard scamper by little Jack Hoffman occurred during the spring intrasquad game. Jack's pluck and the players' aid captured the hearts of Nebraska football fans and people who saw a YouTube video that's received nearly 8.4 million viewings. The video was played over and over on national television and it won an...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ready to ring in the new year, Americans look ahead with optimism, according to a new AP-Times Square New Year's Eve poll. Their ratings of the year gone by? Less than glowing. What the public thought of 2013: GOOD YEAR OR GOOD RIDDANCE? On the whole, Americans rate their own experience in 2013 more positively than negatively, but when asked to assess the year for the United States or the world at large, things turn sour. —All told, 32 percent say 2013 was a better year for them than 2012, while 20 percent say it was wor...
OSHKOSH, Neb. (AP) — A Wyoming man is facing charges after a car accident in western Nebraska that killed one woman and injured another. The Nebraska State Patrol says 45-year-old Edward Hood of Sheridan, Wyo., was arrested after the Saturday afternoon crash. Authorities say Hood's vehicle crossed the center line of U.S. Highway 26 and struck another vehicle about five miles west of Oshkosh. The driver of the other vehicle, 62-year-old Terry Hofer of Ogallala, died. Her passenger, 62-year-old Claudia Weinbender of Dix, was hospitalized in S...
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A wintry storm pushing through the Rockies and Midwest is bringing bitterly cold temperatures and treacherous driving conditions blamed in at least six deaths as it threatens crops as far south as California. The wind chill could drop to 30 degrees below zero in parts of Montana Wednesday while wind chills of minus 20 have already been recorded in the Nebraska Panhandle. Low temperatures in the Denver area were expected to drop below zero over the next several days. The jet stream is much farther south than normal, a... Full story
Bishops elect Louisville archbishop new president BALTIMORE (AP) — The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops have elected Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Kentucky to be their new president as they grapple with changing priorities under Pope Francis. Kurtz, who leads the Archdiocese of Louisville, won just over half the votes in a field of 10 candidates during a Baltimore meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He succeeds New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who is ending his three-year term. The new vice president is Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of...
NEW YORK (AP) — The partial government shutdown that began Tuesday threw into turmoil the household finances of some federal workers, with many facing unpaid furloughs or delays in paychecks. Park ranger and father-to-be Darquez Smith said he already lives paycheck to paycheck while putting himself through college and worried how he'll fare if the checks stop coming. "I've got a lot on my plate right now — tuition, my daughter, bills," said Smith, 23, a ranger at Dayton Aviation Heritage Nat... Full story
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The U.S. wants to keep nine bases in Afghanistan after U.S. combat troops withdraw in 2014 which is fine as long as America makes “security and economic guarantees” in exchange, President Hamid Karzai said Thursday in his first public overture in what have been private talks on a future pact between the uneasy allies. The United States has not formally announced how many American troops might remain in Afghanistan after the end of 2014 when the international military coalition ends its combat mission. U.S. offic...
ST. LOUIS (AP) — John Reifsteck looks out at his muddy 1,800-acre central Illinois farm and wonders when he’ll get to plant. Like so many other Midwest growers who were praying for rain during the recent drought, he’s now pining for enough sunshine and heat to dry out his soggy fields as the deadline approaches for deciding what he can even plant this year. It’s a troubling scenario playing out across America’s breadbasket, where the U.S. Department of Agriculture says just 12 percent of the nation’s cornfields have been planted. That’s abou...
OMAHA (AP) — The Nebraska State Board of Education on Tuesday suspended the certificates of two teachers who tried to hide how a student with a peanut allergy tasted a peanut butter sandwich. Board spokeswoman Betty Van Deventer said the board suspended the certificates of Keri Watkins and Ann Gigstad for a year. The suspensions were dated back to late April last year, when the two resigned from the Millard school district. Thus, Van Deventer said, the teachers’ suspensions have been completed. The incident occurred earlier that April at the...
PHOENIX — Jurors were given final instructions Friday in the trial of Jodi Arias, who is charged in the stabbing and shooting death of her one-time boyfriend in Arizona. They got the case after hearing closing arguments from both sides, with Arias’ lawyer imploring them to take an impartial view of his client and prosecutors describing Arias as a manipulative liar who meticulously planned the attack. Defense lawyer Kirk Nurmi on Friday asked the jury to take an unbiased look at the case and his client — even if they don’t like her — as the mu...
PHOENIX (AP) — A lawyer for Jodi Arias began his closing argument Friday by imploring jurors to take an impartial view of the case and his client — even if they don’t like her. Arias smiled broadly when defense lawyer Kirk Nurmi told the jury: “It’s not about whether or not you like Jodi Arias. Nine days out of 10, I don’t like Jodi Arias. ... But that doesn’t matter.” Arias said she killed Travis Alexander in self-defense, but prosecutors say it was an act of first-degree murder that cou...
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Von Miller has a couple of new pass-rushing partners. What he really needs with Elvis Dumervil bolting to Baltimore is a new nickname. Upon joining the Denver Broncos in 2011, Miller proclaimed that Dumervil was “Batman,” and that made him “Robin.” But with Miller piling up 30 sacks over the last two seasons to Dumervil’s 201⁄2, “Doom & Gloom” became a more fitting moniker. Dumervil signed with the Ravens as a free agent in March after a fax fiasco in Denver during a contract renegotiation, so Miller finds himself lea...
BOSTON — A mortuary familiar with Muslim services will handle funeral arrangements for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died in a gunbattle with police after an intense manhunt, a funeral director said Friday. Peter Stefan, owner of Graham Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors in Worcester, confirmed his facility will handle Tsarnaev’s arrangements, but he could not say whether he has possession of the body. Stefan said everybody deserves a dignified burial service no matter the circumstances of their death and he is pre...
NEW YORK (AP) — A study finds that American adults rank steroid use among adolescents as less of a problem than alcohol, bullying, marijuana and sexually transmitted diseases. The study was co-commissioned by baseball’s Hall of Fame and released Thursday. Those polled ranked cocaine and eating disorders as bigger problems. While 97 percent of the respondents believe steroids cause negative health effects, just 19 percent think steroid use is a big problem among high school students. Hall President Jeff Idelson says the study shows that steroids...
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — It’s unanimous: Damian Lillard is the NBA’s Rookie of the Year. No, it never was in question. Lillard, the sixth overall pick in last June’s draft out of Weber State, led all rookies with a 19-point scoring average. He also averaged 6.1 assists and 3.1 rebounds, playing in all 82 games this season. He broke Stephen Curry’s rookie record for 3-pointers in a season, finishing with 185, and became just the third NBA rookie with at least 1,500 points and 500 assists, following Oscar Robertson and Alan Iverson. And he swept...
(AP) – The 7-year-old cancer patient who became an Internet sensation for his touchdown run in Nebraska’s spring football game has yet another fan — President Barack Obama. Jack Hoffman, his family and former Cornhuskers running back Rex Burkhead visited Obama for 15 minutes in the Oval Office on Monday. Obama presented Jack with a new football and told him he was proud of him. “I thought it was awesome,” Jack said. Burkhead, who was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday, befriende...
OMAHA (AP) — Billionaire Warren Buffett is optimistic about America’s economic future because the nation has begun to unleash the potential of women. Buffett’s views on the role of women appeared online Thursday in an editorial he wrote for Fortune magazine (http://cnnmon.ie/ZBFiri ). He says that most of America’s prosperity was created using only about 50 percent of its talent — the men. So he’s confident the country will prosper as more women excel in the workforce. “For most of our history, women — whatever their abilities — have been releg...
NEW YORK (AP) – Violence, gore and gunplay were staples on prime-time television even in the most sensitive period directly following the Newtown school shooting. A study of 392 prime-time scripted programs on broadcast networks shown during the month following Vice President Joe Biden’s January meeting with entertainment industry executives on the topic revealed that 193 had some incident of violence, according to the Parents Television Council. Some are cartoonish – quite literally, with...
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Since Florida’s mortgage crisis began about six years ago, banks have agreed to pay millions of dollars to settle allegations that they wrongfully foreclosed on thousands of homeowners. Prosecutors have charged loan servicers with filing fraudulent documents on behalf of banks. But the law firms and lawyers that homeowners and judges contend took part in those same practices? Some critics are accusing Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Florida Bar of not going after them hard enough. More than two years after wrongdoing by...
ALBION, Neb. (AP) — A woman believed to have been Nebraska’s oldest resident has died at the age of 112. Alice Packard with Levander Funeral Home in Albion said Thursday that Mabel Steiner Ragan died Tuesday at Wolf Memorial Good Samaritan Center in Albion. “She was a grand lady,” her nephew, Russ Nore, told The Grand Island Independent. Ragan worked into her 80s at the city library, then volunteered. She often would sit on the library floor and read to children. “She did it because she liked it, not because it was a part of her job,” Nor...
NORTH PLATTE (AP) – North Platte has just experienced its driest 365-day period in recorded history, according to National Weather Service records. The service said 7.23 inches of rain fell between April 28, 2012, and Saturday. The office recorded 1.22 inches on April 27 last year and less than an inch on any rainy day since. Weather service meteorologist Bill Taylor told The North Platte Telegraph that North Platte hasn’t been this dry since the Dust Bowl years. “The last time that happened was from June 10, 1931, to June 9, 1932, when they...
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The National Rifle Association has spent much of the past year under siege, ardently defending gun rights following mass shootings in Colorado and Connecticut and fighting back against mounting pressure for stricter laws in Washington and state capitols across the country. Now, after winning a major victory over President Barack Obama with the defeat of a gun control bill in the U.S. Senate, the powerful gun-rights lobby will gather in Houston this weekend for its annual convention. Organizers anticipate a rollicking, T...
