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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WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican opposition is growing to a bipartisan Senate plan for expanding background checks for firearms buyers, enough to put the proposal’s fate in jeopardy. But the measure may change as both sides compete for support in one of the pivotal fights in the battle over curbing guns. The Senate continued debating a wide-ranging gun control bill Tuesday, with the focus on a background check compromise struck last week between Sens. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. Manchin said the vote on that amendment was lik...
OMAHA (AP) — Federal regulators are planning to meet next week with the utility that owns the troubled Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant in Nebraska, but some of the discussion will be private because security information will be discussed. Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said Monday that the April 22 meetings will focus on flood protection and security for the plant 20 miles north of Omaha. Part of the discussion will be public before the private meeting. Fort Calhoun has been shut down for more than two years. Initially, the plant w...
BOSTON (AP) — Neighbors and friends remembered 8-year-old Boston bombing victim Martin Richard on Tuesday as a vivacious boy who loved to run, climb, and play sports like soccer, basketball and baseball. Family friend Jack Cunningham spoke of how as a pint-sized preschooler, Martin had insisted on getting out of a stroller his mom was pushing during a 5K race in South Boston about five years ago. But once she let him out to run with the rest of the family, Martin had other plans for the rainy race course. “He was just having a ball, spl...
BOSTON — The bombs that ripped through the crowd at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and wounding more than 170, were fashioned out of pressure cookers and packed with shards of metal, nails and ball bearings to inflict maximum carnage, a person briefed on the investigation said Tuesday. The details on the apparently crude but deadly explosives emerged as investigators appealed to the public for amateur video and photos that might yield clues. The chief FBI agent in Boston vowed ... Full story
LINCOLN — Gov. Dave Heineman said Monday that a $2.2 million budget request to buy an airplane from the University of Nebraska Foundation is needed to reach rural parts of the state quickly. Heineman said the plane ensures he and other state officials are accessible to residents when needed. He argued that a state-owned plane is more cost-efficient than relying on a charter service. “This is about having access to the governor for every citizen of the state of Nebraska,” Heineman said during a news conference on an unrelated subject. “It’s...
(AP) – Every time Northwestern’s football players slip on their workout shirts, they see just how close they came to an undefeated season in 2012. Stamped on the back of each one is “5:03.” It stands for the total of 5 minutes, 3 seconds the Wildcats trailed at the end of their three losses. “I knew we were close,” defensive end Tyler Scott said Wednesday on the Big Ten Legends Division spring teleconference. “It just really brought it to top of your mind when it said 5:03 and how little time that was we had to execute a couple more times to...
GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado teen pleaded not guilty Friday to murder and kidnapping in the kidnap-slaying and dismemberment of a 10-year-old girl that panicked Denver-area residents last fall — despite police testimony that the suspect confessed to the crime. Austin Sigg, 18, stunned a courtroom by entering the not guilty pleas in the death of Jessica Ridgeway in the Denver suburb of Westminster. Sigg also pleaded not guilty to a May attack on a 22-year-old jogger at a lake in Jessica’s neighborhood. Sigg’s not guilty pleas came despite his...
DALLAS (AP) — The driver of the bus that swerved off a North Texas highway, leaving two passengers dead and dozens injured, was at the wheel in another fatal accident 15 years ago, records show. The Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed Friday that Loyd Rieve, 65, was driving the tour bus Thursday that veered across the highway in Irving and into the center median with 46 passengers aboard. The bus was operated by a Mansfield company, Cardinal Coach Line Inc. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the c...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s plan to raise Medicare premiums for upper-income seniors would create five new income brackets to squeeze more revenue for the government from the top tiers of retirees, the administration revealed Friday. First details of the plan emerged after Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified to Congress on the president’s budget. As released two days earlier, the budget included only a vague description of a controversial proposal that has grown more ambitious since Obama last floated...
From the World Trade Center and Times Square in New York to the White House and sports venues across the country, police patrolled in packs and deployed counterterrorism teams Monday as security was stepped up after explosions at the Boston Marathon. Worries also reverberated across the Atlantic, where an already robust security operation was being beefed up for Wednesday's ceremonial funeral for former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The event at St. Paul's Cathedral, to be attended by Queen Elizabeth II and other dignitaries, calls for a... Full story
BOSTON (AP) — Two bombs exploded in the crowded streets near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing at least three people and injuring more than 140 in a bloody scene of shattered glass and severed limbs that raised alarms that terrorists might have struck again in the U.S. A White House official speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still unfolding said the attack was being treated as an act of terrorism. President Barack Obama vowed that those responsible will "feel the full weight of justice." A... Full story
CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago police are investigating after a severed goat’s head in a box addressed to Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts was left outside Wrigley Field. Ricketts is currently in negotiations with city officials and neighborhood business people about a $300 million renovation of Wrigley Field. Cubs spokesman Julian Green says staff at Wrigley Field discovered the package Wednesday and immediately called police. Police Department spokesman Mike Sullivan says officers responded to a call around 2:30 p.m. indicating an “intimidating packa...
There’s no place like Nebraska. It’s a phrase you’ve probably heard thousands of times in Husker country. Usually, it’s the consecutive sellout streak, the way the fans applaud the opponent after the game – win or lose, the nation-leading Academic All-American list, the walk-ons, the blackshirts or the national championships that are cited as proof. On Saturday, it was Jack Hoffman. In front of 60,174 fans in their seats and countless others in front of their TVs, Jack stole the show at the Red-White Spring Game with his 69-yard touchdown... Full story
Police: Ga. gunman lured firefighters into home SUWANEE, Ga. (AP) — A gaping hole Thursday exposed wooden beams and insulation on one side of a suburban Atlanta house where a financially strapped gunman held four firefighters hostage for hours, demanding that his utilities be restored, before being shot dead by a SWAT officer. Lauren Brown, 55, was heavily armed with a half-dozen guns, police said. He told the firefighters that he had planned the hostage-taking for weeks and targeted them during Wednesday’s ordeal in suburban Atlanta so tha...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell sharply last week to a seasonally adjusted 346,000, signaling that the job market might be stronger than March’s weak month of hiring suggested. Applications for unemployment aid dropped 42,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. The decline nearly reversed an increase over the previous three weeks. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose 3,000 to 358,000. The number of unemployment applications has been volatile in the past two weeks lar...
WASHINGTON — With teary-eyed relatives of the Newtown school massacre watching, gun control supporters in the Senate won the first showdown over how to respond to the December shootings in Connecticut, defeating an effort by conservatives to derail firearms restrictions before debate could even start. The 68-31 roll call gave an early burst of momentum to efforts by President Barack Obama and lawmakers to push fresh gun curbs through Congress. The National Rifle Association, along with many Republicans and some moderate Democrats, say the p...
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Senior U.S. District Judge Anita Brody has a billion-dollar problem on her hands. Brody, of Philadelphia, heard arguments Tuesday on whether lawsuits that accuse the NFL of glorifying violence and hiding known concussion risks belong in court or in arbitration. Brody could side with the 4,200 players and let them pursue lawsuits, or she could rule for the league and find that head injuries are covered under health provisions of the collective bargaining agreement. Or she could issue a split decision, letting some of the f...
LINCOLN (AP) — Jack Hoffman just might go down as the biggest star of the Nebraska spring game. And he’s only 7 years old. Hoffman, of Atkinson, Neb., has won the hearts of fans and everyone in the football program for his courageous bout with brain cancer. Star running back Rex Burkhead befriended Jack last year and is the captain of the support network known as “Team Jack.” Wearing a miniature Burkhead uniform complete with a No. 22 jersey, Jack ran onto the field late in Saturday’s scrimmage... Full story
BEIJING (AP) — A 4-year-old boy has recovered from a new strain of bird flu that has killed nine people in China, a doctor said Wednesday, as the country’s premier said the outbreak was under control. The child from Shanghai is among 33 people confirmed to have been infected with the H7N9 virus. The official Xinhua News Agency said he was the first to completely recover and be discharged from a hospital. A doctor at the Infectious Disease Department of the Pediatric Hospital affiliated with Shanghai’s Fudan University confirmed the boy had reco...
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Rutgers University is pledging to get to the bottom of how a basketball coach who kicked and shoved players and used gay slurs as he yelled at them was allowed to stay on the job — and to make sure the same thing isn’t happening in other sports. The university said Monday that the school’s Board of Governors would meet Thursday to discuss hiring an adviser to report on what went wrong with Mike Rice. University President Robert Barchi said that employees are going through video of practice sessions from other sports to see i...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Fans poured into the streets to celebrate the Cardinals’ NCAA championship win over Michigan, throwing all-night parties that at one point became so raucous police in riot gear used pepper spray to break them up. Gatherings were mostly peaceful Monday night following Louisville’s 82-76 victory — the school’s third title, and first title since 1986. Louisville police said most of the 23 arrests were due to drunken or disorderly conduct. Hundreds streamed onto Cardinal Boulevard after Louisville’s win, screaming,...
ATLANTA (AP) — Rick Pitino held court in a tunnel beneath the Georgia Dome, going on and on about the grittiest bunch of guys he’s ever coached. One of them sat in the corner of the locker room, a net around his neck, grinning away. The Louisville Cardinals vowed to finish the job for Kevin Ware. Boy, did they ever. With their injured teammate cheering them on from the bench, Louisville capped its run through the NCAA tournament, coming back again from a 12-point deficit to beat Michigan 82-... Full story
LONDON (AP) — Love her or loathe her, one thing’s beyond dispute: Margaret Thatcher transformed Britain. The Iron Lady, who ruled for 11 remarkable years, imposed her will on a fractious, rundown nation — breaking the unions, triumphing in a far-off war, and selling off state industries at a record pace. She left behind a leaner government and more prosperous nation by the time a political mutiny ousted her from No. 10 Downing Street. Thatcher’s spokesman, Tim Bell, said the former prime minister died from a stroke Monday morning at the Rit...
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A large spring snowstorm delivering everything from heavy snow and high winds to freezing rain and possible tornadoes was causing travel problems from Wyoming to Chicago on Tuesday. In Wyoming, a 100-mile stretch of Interstate 25 between Cheyenne and Douglas was closed as well as a 125-mile section of I-80 between Laramie and Rawlins. Many smaller highways in a majority of the state also were closed, slick or had no travel advisories. More than a foot of snow had fallen as of m...
LINCOLN (AP) — Nebraska coach Bo Pelini calls the spring game a show for the fans. Thing is, Pelini doesn’t plan to show them much Saturday in the Red-White scrimmage. Quarterback Taylor Martinez probably will play only a couple series and other starters won’t play at all. With BTN televising the event, the Cornhuskers will show next to nothing on offense and defense so this fall’s opponents gain no scouting advantage. Young players will benefit most. For many it will be their first opportu... Full story
