Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Sorted by date Results 160 - 184 of 200
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...
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than two months after Superstorm Sandy struck, the House on Friday overwhelmingly approved $9.7 billion to pay flood insurance claims for the many home and business owners flooded out by the storm. The 354-67 vote came days after Northeast Republicans erupted over House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to delay a vote earlier in the week; all of the no votes were cast by Republicans. The Senate was expected to pass the bill later in the day. “It’s the right step,” said Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., a member of the Ho...
BAGHDAD (AP) — A car bomb explosion tore through a crowd of Shiite pilgrims returning home Thursday from a religious commemoration, killing at least 20 and reinforcing fears of renewed sectarian violence, according to Iraqi officials. The blast erupted late in the afternoon in the town of Musayyib, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of the Iraqi capital. It targeted worshippers returning from the Shiite holy city of Karbala following the climax of the religious commemoration known as Arbaeen. Children were among the 20 people confirmed killed...
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Call her the girl with no name. A 15-year-old is suing the Icelandic state for the right to legally use the name given to her by her mother. The problem? Blaer, which means “light breeze” in Icelandic, is not on a list approved by the government. Like a handful of other countries, including Germany and Denmark, Iceland has official rules about what a baby can be named. In a country comfortable with a firm state role, most people don’t question the Personal Names Register, a list of 1,712 male names and 1,853 female...
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. consumer confidence tumbled in December, driven lower by fears of sharp tax increases and government spending cuts set to take effect next week. The Conference Board said Thursday that its consumer confidence index fell this month to 65.1, down from 71.5 in November. That’s the second straight decline and the lowest level since August. The survey showed consumers are slightly more optimistic about current business conditions and hiring. But their outlook for the next six months deteriorated to its lowest level since 201...
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Classroom teachers could stop school shootings by carrying concealed weapons, say gun-rights advocates who plan to offer the required training Thursday for 200 Utah teachers. The Utah Shooting Sports Council said it would waive its $50 fee for concealed-weapons training for the teachers. Instruction featuring plastic guns is set to begin at noon Thursday inside a conference room at Maverick Center, a hockey arena in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Valley. It’s an idea gaining traction in the aftermath of the Con...
HOUSTON (AP) – Former President George H.W. Bush is being treated in the intensive care unit at a Houston hospital after suffering “a series of setbacks,” including a stubborn fever, his spokesman said. In a brief email Wednesday, Jim McGrath, Bush’s spokesman in Houston, said the 88-year-old former leader had been admitted Sunday to the ICU at Methodist Hospital. McGrath said Bush, the oldest living former U.S. president, was alert and talking to medical staff. He said doctors are cautiously optimistic about Bush’s treatment and that the forme...
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A powerful winter storm brought snow to inland parts of the Northeast and driving rain and wind to areas along the coast Thursday, a day after it swept through the nation’s middle, dumping a record snowfall in Arkansas and wrecking post-holiday plans for thousands of travelers. The storm, which was blamed for 15 deaths, pushed through the Upper Ohio Valley and made its way into the Northeast Wednesday night. By Thursday morning, there was anywhere from a few inches of sno...
