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DEVELOPING: MUSLIM PRAYER COMPLAINT, HORSE RACING,
ADDS: HAGEL-PALIN, CONSTELLATION ENERGY-BUYOUT,
MUSLIM PRAYER COMPLAINT
GRAND ISLAND—Walkouts continue at a Nebraska packing plant as some workers protest schedule changes they say were made to mollify Muslim workers who had walked out because they weren’t allowed enough time to pray. An estimated 250 workers at the JBS Swift & Co. meatpacking plant left their posts early in the shift Thursday morning, but most returned later in the day. Another protest was expected later Thursday. By Jean Ortiz.
AP PHOTOS NEGRA101-104 of Sept. 18
HAGEL-PALIN
WASHINGTON—Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel said his party’s vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, lacks foreign policy experience and called it a “stretch” to say she’s qualified to be president. “She doesn’t have any foreign policy credentials,” Hagel said in an interview published Thursday by the Omaha World-Herald. “You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don’t know what you can say. You can’t say anything.”
AP Photo MICO109.
BUSINESS:
EARNS-CONAGRA
OMAHA—Packaged food company ConAgra Foods Inc. said Thursday its fiscal first-quarter profit more than doubled on the sale of its commodity trading unit, but rising costs hurt results and drove the company to lower its outlook for fiscal 2009. The maker of Healthy Choice, Hunts and other brands earned $442.2 million, or 94 cents per share, in the quarter ending Aug. 24. That’s up from $175.4 million, or 36 cents per share, a year ago. That includes a gain of 71 cents per share for selling its trading and merchandising operations. By Business Writer Josh Funk.
AP Photo NYBZ101.
CONSTELLATION ENERGY-BUYOUT
UNDATED—Constellation Energy Group Inc., the nation’s largest wholesale power seller whose stock has collapsed amid worries about liquidity and accounting issues, agreed on Thursday to be bought by a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. for $4.7 billion. Des Moines, Iowa-based MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. will pay $26.50 per share in cash for the Baltimore-based utility, well off its 52-week high of $107.97 reached Jan. 8. The shares had traded as high as $67.87 last week before hitting a low of $13 Tuesday. By Business Writer Mark Williams.
ALSO:
— GORDMANS SOLD—Gordmans, Inc. has been bought by an arm of the private investment firm Sun Capital Partners, Inc. Eds: Also moved on state news lines.
SPORTS:
HORSE RACING
LINCOLN—Plans to trot horse racing from State Fair Park in Lincoln to the east edge of town were expected to be unveiled before a group of state lawmakers on Thursday. The days have been numbered for the old track since the decision to bump the Nebraska State Fair from Lincoln to Grand Island, making way for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to turn the century-old fairgrounds into a research park. By Nate Jenkins
ALSO GETTING ATTENTION:
— PIT BULL ATTACK—The owner of a pit bull that attacked and partially scalped an 18-month-old Omaha girl this summer has pleaded no contest to several charges in the case.
— CAMPAIGN SIGNS—ACLU Nebraska is two for two in its fight against local ordinances that bar the public display of political signs more than 30 days before an election.
— SAFE HAVEN—Gov. Dave Heineman says recent decisions by parents to drop a teen and an 11-year-old off at hospitals should prompt changes in Nebraska’s new safe-haven law.
— DRUG BUST—Two men are in custody in a drug raid at a Burt County farm that authorities say netted 67 pounds of marijuana worth over $700,000 on the street.
— BRIDGE CLOSED—A bridge in downtown Lincoln has been closed to car traffic out of safety concerns.
— PHEASANT POPULATION—Pheasant hunters have reason to be hopeful as they look forward to Oct. 25, the opening day of the Nebraska hunting season.
— COURT CALENDAR—The U.S. District Court has launched a two-month pilot project to make its Nebraska court calendar accessible over the Internet free of charge.
— ENERGY ASSISTANCE—Nebraska will get more than $880,000 in emergency federal energy assistance.
— EDITORIAL RDP—Excerpts from recent Nebraska daily newspaper editorials on topics of statewide interest.
The AP, Omaha.
