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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PINE RIDGE, S.D. (AP) — A Nebraska man has claimed a $1 million jackpot at Pine Ridge’s Prairie Wind Casino, where he’d spent part of Valentine’s Day with his wife of 60 years. Gordon “Bud” Thompson, a retired railroad conductor from Alliance, Neb., said his wife Donna was the one playing at the casino. He decided to try a few spins on a nearby Freedom Rings machine as he waited for her to finish. He put about $9 worth of quarters into the three-reel machine and hit a jackpot worth about $1,037,000. “I didn’t even realize what had happened ri...
LEXINGTON (AP) — A western Nebraska man has pleaded guilty to child abuse for shaking an infant hard enough to cause brain damage. The Kearney Hub reports that Cameron Hovey’s decision to change his plea was part of an agreement with prosecutors. The 23-year-old Hovey is accused of shaking a 41/2-month-old child vigorously last summer. Hovey told police that he shook the child last July because he panicked when it appeared the baby had stopped breathing. Hovey faces up to 20 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 6....
OMAHA (AP) – A powerful winter storm system is heading for Nebraska and Iowa, promising a foot or more of snow and high winds. The National Weather Service says in a winter storm watch that snow will begin falling in western Nebraska on Wednesday evening and then hamper morning traffic in Omaha and other cities as the system heads east. Accumulations of more than a foot are possible east of a line from Hayes Center in southwest Nebraska north through Valentine in the north. In Iowa, up to a foot is expected in some spots west of Interstate 3...
SULLIVAN, Ind. (AP) — A quiet Indiana community known for its parks and corn festival has become the latest setting for the debate over gay rights and bullying after several area residents, including some high schoolers, proposed holding a non-school sanctioned “traditional” prom that would ban gay students. School officials and many residents of Sullivan, a city of about 4,200 near the Illinois border, have scrambled to distance themselves from the controversy caused by the group’s plans and some strong, anti-gay remarks made by one of its...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. was charged Friday with scheming to spend $750,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses. His wife was charged with filing false income tax forms. Federal prosecutors filed a charge of conspiracy against the former congressman and charged his wife, Sandra, with one count of filing false joint federal income tax returns for the years 2006 through 2011. Both agreed to plead guilty in plea deals with federal prosecutors. The charges represent a dramatic fall from political prominence for the c...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The weeklong Senate recess gives outside interest groups opposed to Chuck Hagel’s nomination to become defense secretary more time to sharpen their attack against President Barack Obama’s choice. And they’re not wasting any of it, promising to redouble their efforts to scour Hagel’s record and to pressure senators to vote against him. While Senate Republicans have succeeded in delaying a confirmation vote on Hagel’s nomination, they signaled that they would eventually...
LINCOLN (AP) — Gov. Dave Heineman says he plans to fill an open seat on the University of Nebraska Board of Regents based on the person’s views on agriculture, college affordability and the university’s role in spurring economic growth. The new board opening has drawn the attention of abortion opponents, who want Heineman to fill the seat with a candidate who opposes embryonic stem cell research. Heineman said Friday that the stem-cell issue is important to him as well, but he plans to focus on a broader set of factors when making his decis...
COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — It’s about the little victories, right? Traci Wickham’s small win was being able to make it up the short flight of stairs leading to Scotus Central Catholic’s gymnasium where her daughter was playing in a basketball tournament recently. The Columbus Telegram reports (http://bit.ly/VmBWIJ ) that making it up the steps is actually a pretty huge step for Wickham, whose van was T-boned by a semitrailer at the junction of highways 81 and 30 the morning of Dec. 11. Wickham had just dropped off her children when her vehicle...
HASTINGS — Reported mountain lion sightings in Nebraska are far more common than actual sightings. Much like UFOs, a good percentage of the sightings are simply a case of mistaken identity. A mangy coyote, stray dog, or even a bobcat can look uncannily like a big cat from a passing car. But spotting one isn’t out of the question. The Hastings Tribune reports that just last week, a landowner in Pine Ridge in northern Sheridan County shot and killed an 88-pound female mountain lion after he and his family unsuccessfully tried to scare it awa...
DENVER (AP) — A Democratic gun control package began its lengthy and emotional route through Colorado’s Legislature on Friday, with the House approving limits on the size of ammunition magazines after hours of fiery debate on gun violence and how to stop it. The Democratic chamber was poised to stay late into the night giving preliminary approval to other parts of the Democrats’ gun agenda, including expanded background checks for gun purchasers and a new ban on concealed weapons on college camp...
LINCOLN — Lincoln police can now search for bad guys using the state’s face recognition technology. The state has used the technology for years to prevent people from getting multiple driver’s licenses under different names, said Tom Casady, the city’s public safety director. The Lincoln Journal Star reports (http://bit.ly/XKmK6n ) that now local police trained by the state can use the same database, Casady told the Lincoln City Council last week. Police can compare video images from a crime — someone passing a bad check or using someone e...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is wrapping up his post-State of the Union tour by talking about how government can build “ladders of opportunity” into the middle class. During remarks Friday at Hyde Park Academy in Chicago, his hometown, Obama takes up proposals to raise the federal minimum wage and pair businesses with recession-battered communities to help them rebuild and provide job training. He also was to talk about creating jobs for young people from poor families, and encouraging fatherhood and low-income couples to marry...
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A 150-foot asteroid hurtled toward Earth’s backyard, destined Friday to make the closest known flyby for a rock of its size. In a chilling coincidence, a meteor exploded above Russia’s Ural Mountains just hours before the asteroid was due to zoom past the planet. Scientists the world over, along with NASA, insisted the meteor had nothing to do with the incoming asteroid since they appeared to traveling in opposite directions. The asteroid is much more immense object that was expected to miss Earth by 17,150 miles, av...
MITCHELL — A big second-quarter run by Sioux County proved to be the turning point in Thursday night’s Mitchell D2-12 Subdistrict title game, ending in a 49-41 victory against Leyton High School’s girls basketball team. Leyton (10-12) trailed 8-6 at the end of the first quarter, then scored the first two baskets of the second period to take a brief 10-8 lead. Sioux County (16-6) then ran off the next 11 points en route to a 22-16 halftime advantage. In a battle of Warriors mascots, Rol Rushman’s team would make a late run after falling behind...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The family of a student expelled from a Salem high school for having a pocketknife has filed notice that it will sue the district. The Salem Statesman Journal reports the family of Robert Mann challenges the district’s right to expel a student for having a pocketknife when it’s legal to carry one outside the school. Mann was expelled from Sprague High School for the rest of the school year, but he can attend an alternative program. His mother waived the right to a closed hearing, so the expulsion hearing was conducted in pu...
NEW YORK (AP) — Billionaire Warren Buffett, the most closely watched investor in America, is putting his money in ketchup, agreeing Thursday to buy H.J. Heinz Co. for $23.3 billion in the richest deal ever in the food industry. For his money, the Oracle of Omaha gets one of the nation’s oldest and most familiar brands, one that’s in refrigerators and kitchen cupboards all over the U.S. The deal is intended to help Heinz accelerate its expansion from a dominant American name into a presence on grocery shelves worldwide. The Pitts...
MOSCOW – A meteor streaked across the sky and exploded over Russia’s Ural Mountains with the power of an atomic bomb Friday, its sonic blasts shattering countless windows and injuring nearly 1,000 people. The spectacle deeply frightened many Russians, with some elderly women declaring that the world was coming to an end. Many of the injured were cut by flying glass as they flocked to windows to see what the reason was for such an intense flash of light. The meteor – estimated to be about 10 to...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The fight in Congress over confirming Leon Panetta’s successor as defense secretary is getting on his nerves. After two formal Pentagon farewell ceremonies and weeks of preparing Chuck Hagel to take over, Panetta let fly Thursday with a few choice words for the partisan struggle on Capitol Hill over a Hagel confirmation vote. Panetta, who will retire to his home in California to resume running a public policy institute with his wife, Sylvia, told a Pentagon award ceremony for former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Cli...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate’s top Democrat attacked Republican senators Thursday for blocking Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be President Barack Obama’s next secretary of defense, saying it was “shocking” and “tragic” that the GOP would attempt such a move at a time when the U.S. military is engaged in so many places around the world. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Republicans are filibustering Hagel’s confirmation and that such a move is unprecedented. “Not a single nominee for secretary of defense ever in the history of our coun...
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Paralympic superstar Oscar Pistorius was charged Thursday with the murder of his girlfriend who was shot inside his home in South Africa, a stunning development in the life of a national hero known as the Blade Runner for his high-tech artificial legs. Reeva Steenkamp, a model who spoke out on Twitter against rape and abuse of women, was shot four times in the predawn hours in the house, in a gated community in the capital, Pretoria, police said. Hours later a...
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama says raising the minimum wage to $9 an hour and tying future increases to inflation will boost the incomes of millions living in poverty and spur job growth by pouring more money into the economy. But business groups are not so sure. They complain that increasing the federal rate from $7.25 an hour would discourage employers from hiring new workers, hurting the very people Obama aims to help. Obama pointed out in his State of the Union address Tuesday that 19 states and the District of Columbia a...
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, fellow citizens: Fifty-one years ago, John F. Kennedy declared to this chamber that “the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress. ... It is my task,” he said, “to report the state of the Union - to improve it is the task of us all.” Tonight, thanks to the grit and determination of the American people, there is much progress to report. After a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming... Full story
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fighting the problem of fake drugs will require putting medications through a chain of custody like U.S. courts require for evidence in a trial, the Institute of Medicine reported Wednesday. The call for a national drug tracking system comes a week after the Food and Drug Administration warned doctors, for the third time in about a year, that it discovered a counterfeit batch of the cancer drug Avastin that lacked the real tumor-killing ingredient. Fake and substandard drugs have become an increasing concern as U.S. p...
WASHINGTON — Republicans charged Wednesday that President Barack Obama delivered a State of the Union address studded with tired liberal notions and campaign-style hostility and said the speech did little to ease partisan tensions over issues like gigantic budget deficits. “An opportunity to bring together the country instead became another retread of lip service and liberalism,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the chamber floor, arguing that Obama offered little more than “gimmicks and tax hikes.” “Last night’s spe...
LINCOLN — Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman tapped former state Sen. Lavon Heidemann of Elk Creek Wednesday as his new lieutenant governor. Heidemann, a University of Nebraska regent, took the oath of office during a public ceremony at the Capitol. The 54-year-old Republican served as chairman of the Legislature's Appropriations Committee during his eight years in the Legislature. He left because of term limits. Heidemann replaces former Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy. Sheehy resigned earlier this month following news that he had made thousands of calls to w...
