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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LINCOLN (AP) — University of Nebraska students will pay more to live and eat on campus next school year if the Board of Regents approves a proposed increase Friday. Students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln would pay about $400 more under the proposal, the Lincoln Journal Star reported. The increase could add to another $600 in taxes if legislators were to approve Gov. Dave Heineman’s proposal to eliminate a sales tax exemption for college dorms as part of a state tax overhaul, Omaha Sen. Jeremy Nordquist said. The regents also will con...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lithium batteries that can leak corrosive fluid and start fires have emerged as the chief safety concern involving Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, a problem that apparently is far more serious than government or company officials acknowledged less than a week ago. The Federal Aviation Administration late Wednesday grounded Boeing’s newest and most technologically advanced jetliner until the risk of battery fires is resolved. The order applies only to the six Dreamliners operated by United Airlines, the lone U.S. carrier with 787s....
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. builders started work on homes in December at the fastest pace in 4 1⁄2 years and finished 2012 as their best year for residential construction since the early stages of the housing crisis. The Commerce Department said Thursday that builders broke ground on houses and apartments last month at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 954,000. That’s 12.1 percent higher than November’s annual rate. And it is nearly double the recession low reached in April 2009. Construction increased last month for both single-family homes a...
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s ombudsman for children’s rights sought on Thursday to reassure American would-be adoptive parents that they will be allowed to take their children back to the United States. But some Americans with court rulings in their favor say they’re still in legal limbo. A Russian law banning adoptions by U.S. citizens was rushed through parliament in December, and sped to President Vladimir Putin’s desk in less than 10 days in retaliation over a U.S. law calling for sanctions on Russians identified as human-rights violators. Tens o...
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Pennsylvania detective is trying to figure out how an apparent prankster was able to fill out a 2008 voter registration card signed “Barack H. Obama.” By the time Butler County elections officials processed the card, it went into the state’s computerized database with the last name “Obana” — that is, with an ‘n’ in place of the ‘m.’ But a detective tells The Associated Press that whoever did it was clearly trying to register using President Barack Obama’s name. The card was discovered last week when a jury commissioner in...
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Pauline Friedman Phillips, who under the name of Abigail Van Buren, wrote the long-running “Dear Abby” advice column that was followed by millions of newspaper readers throughout the world, has died. She was 94. Publicist Gene Willis of Universal Uclick said Phillips died Wednesday after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Phillips’ column competed for decades with the advice column of Ann Landers, written by her twin sister, Esther Friedman Lederer. Their relationship was stormy in their early adult years, but later they...
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — From Oregon to Mississippi, President Barack Obama’s proposed ban on new assault weapons and large-capacity magazines struck a nerve among rural lawmen and lawmakers, many of whom vowed to ignore any restrictions — and even try to stop federal officials from enforcing gun policy in their jurisdictions. “A lot of sheriffs are now standing up and saying, ‘Follow the Constitution,’” said Josephine County Sheriff Gil Gilbertson, whose territory covers the timbered mountains of southwestern Oregon. But their actual powers to...
OMAHA (AP) — The Federal Reserve says U.S. farm income could decline in 2013, but it depends upon whether the drought continues. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Mo., said Thursday that if drought conditions persist, prices of corn and other crops would remain volatile because of tight supply. But if normal weather conditions return, crop prices would decline and lead to lower farm incomes. The USDA predicted farm income in 2012 would reach $114 billion, which would be the third-highest total on record. Crop insurance and high crop p...
LINCOLN (AP) — A new state program is showing early success in helping Nebraska juvenile offenders complete their probation by allowing them to serve it in their communities instead of in custody, the state Supreme Court’s chief justice said Thursday. Chief Justice Michael Heavican said about 80 percent of the 600 juveniles who have enrolled since the program began in July 1 have completed their probation successfully. That’s higher than the state average, he said. The program offers community-based treatment and keeps juveniles out of deten...
NEW YORK (AP) — Conrad Bain, a veteran stage and film actor who became a star in middle age as the kindly white adoptive father of two young African-American brothers in the TV sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes,” has died. Bain died Monday of natural causes in his hometown of Livermore, Calif., according to his daughter, Jennifer Bain. He was 89. The show that made him famous debuted on NBC in 1978, an era when television comedies tackled relevant social issues. “Diff’rent Strokes” touched on serious themes but was known better as a family comedy...
SIDNEY (AP) — Cabela’s Inc. is planning to open two new stores to sell outdoor gear and sporting goods in South Carolina and Minnesota in 2014. The Sidney, Neb., company said Tuesday that the Greenville, S.C., store will be its first in that state. The Woodbury, Minn., store will be fourth Minnesota store. The Greenville store will have 100,000 square feet when it opens in spring 2014 near the intersection of Interstates 385 and 85. The Woodbury store will have 85,000 square feet and open in the fall of 2014 in the Tamarack Village sho...
WASHINGTON (AP) — An influential Senate Democrat says he will back President Barack Obama’s choice of Chuck Hagel for the top job at the Pentagon. New York Sen. Chuck Schumer said in a statement Tuesday that he met with Hagel for 90 minutes on Monday and the Republican reassured him on issues ranging from Israel to gay rights. Schumer said he found Hagel’s responses to be genuine and not stated to quiet his critics. The Democrat urged his Senate colleagues who also had concerns about Hagel’s nomination to support him. The meeting occurre...
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Flu season is hitting its stride and it may be shaping up to be a bad one in Tennessee. Based on data from the Tennessee Department of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are characterizing the flu as “widespread” in the state and list it among 24 states with high levels of influenza-like illnesses. Dr. Kelly Moore, the medical director of the Tennessee Immunization Program, said that it is still too early to draw final conclusions, but right now, this season seems similar to the last really bad one i...
LINCOLN (AP) — Every two weeks, the Park Middle School multipurpose room becomes a courtroom complete with judicial bench and judge, attorneys and defendants — and their parents. Alissa Harrison, an eighth-grader who loves photography but until recently did not love school, showed up like clockwork twice a month last semester — a defendant working to change her ways. She thinks she has, with the help of the mock courtroom and all those who took the time to make it happen: the judge and the a...
LONDON (AP) — The Duchess of Cambridge seems to like her first official portrait, which is lucky for the artist. Many critics don’t. Paul Emsley’s portrait of the former Kate Middleton shows the 31-year-old royal against a dark background, her lips pursed into a wry smile, with an ethereal light against her face and hair. Her pale complexion brings out the fine lines under the eyes, and the light adds a hint of silver to her rich brown hair. Shortly after the portrait was unveiled Friday at the National Portrait Gallery in London, criti...
An American woman coerced into the sex trade. An immigrant housekeeper compelled to work for less than minimum wage. A salon employee forced to work off the price of passage to the U.S. All are considered examples of human trafficking. New Jersey officials on Friday marked “Human Trafficking Awareness Day” with a rally and other events at the Statehouse amid efforts on several fronts to combat the problem. State Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa, who led one of the programs in Trenton, created a new unit this summer to focus on combatting hum...
DENVER (AP) — After the annual late-summer harvest on his farm in the eastern reaches of Colorado, Greg Brophy has a few friends over, breaks out the handguns and semi-automatic rifles and mows down some rotten watermelons. The Republican state senator’s melon shoot is a fixture on the political calendar in his rural district near the Nebraska border and a window into the culture of gun ownership in a state that cherishes its frontier heritage. One of the worst and most high-profile school massacres in American history — the 1999 Colum...
LINCOLN (AP) – The Nebraska Legislature chose a new speaker, elected new committee leaders and welcomed 10 new lawmakers Wednesday as it began a new session with looming battles over tax cuts and spending. Lawmakers returned to Lincoln with the state facing a projected $194 million budget shortfall, far less than the $1 billion hole they had to fill when they last wrote a budget in 2011. The 90-day session will see 10 new members and mark the return of Sen. Ernie Chambers, of Omaha. All were sworn into office Wednesday morning. Chambers, the l...
NEW YORK (AP) – A high-speed ferry loaded with hundreds of commuters from New Jersey crashed into a dock in lower Manhattan on Wednesday during the morning rush hour, injuring at least 50 people, two of them critically. Passengers aboard the Seastreak Wall Street said dozens of people who had been standing, waiting to disembark, were hurled to the deck by the impact. “We were pulling into the dock. The boat hit the dock. We just tumbled on top of each other. I got thrown into everybody else. ... People were hysterical, crying,” said Ellen Foran...
WASHINGTON (AP) – The nation’s tax law is so thick and complicated that businesses and individuals spend more than 6 billion hours a year complying with filing requirements. That’s the equivalent of 3 million people working full-time, year-round. As a result, about 90 percent of filers will either pay a tax preparer or use a computer software service to help with their federal tax returns this spring, according to a report Wednesday by an independent government watchdog. “The existing tax code makes compliance difficult, requiring taxpaye...
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Obama administration says it might leave no troops in Afghanistan after December 2014, an option that defies the Pentagon’s view that thousands of troops may be needed to contain al-Qaida and to strengthen Afghan forces. “We wouldn’t rule out any option,” including zero troops, Ben Rhodes, a White House deputy national security adviser, said Tuesday. “The U.S. does not have an inherent objective of ‘X’ number of troops in Afghanistan,” Rhodes said. “We have an objective of making sure there is no safe haven for al-Qaida in...
LINCOLN (AP) — The Nebraska Legislature began its 2013 session Wednesday with lawmakers expected to focus on the state budget, tax cuts and a proposal to expand Medicaid. Lawmakers returned to Lincoln with the state facing a projected $194 million budget shortfall, far less than the $1 billion hole they had to fill when they last wrote a budget in 2011. The 90-day session will see 10 new members and mark the return of Sen. Ernie Chambers, of Omaha. All were sworn into office Wednesday morning. Chambers, the longest-serving and best-known s...
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) – A hearing laying out the evidence against the accused gunman in the Colorado theater shooting ended Wednesday with the defense deciding not to call witnesses to attest to James Holmes’ mental health. The judge said he will rule by Friday on whether Holmes should stand trial. If the judge decides he should be tried, Holmes could enter a plea at a hearing scheduled that day. Cases rarely advance to this stage without a judge agreeing to set a trial. Prosecutors argued that they had shown that Holmes acted with del...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday heard personal stories of gun violence from representatives of victims groups and gun-safety organizations as he drafts the Obama administration’s response to the shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. He pledged that action would be taken. “I want to make it clear that we are not going to get caught up in the notion (that) unless we can do everything we’re going to do nothing,” Biden said. “It’s critically important (that) we act.” T...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sidelined for almost a month by a string of medical problems, is upbeat and planning to return to work next week, the State Department said Thursday. One day after being released from the New York hospital that was treating a blood clot in her head, Clinton was at home resting, but was far from idle. She spent the day engaging with senior staff, reviewing paperwork and calling in to a meeting of her foreign policy advisory board, said her spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland. “She’s looking forwa...
