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DEVELOPING: CHILLY WEATHER
ADDS: DEPORTATIONS-UPPER MIDWEST, IMMIGRATION, BIG 12 PREVIEW, NEBRASKA PREVIEW
SAFE HAVEN
LINCOLN—An 8-year-old Indiana boy was left Thursday at an Omaha hospital, bringing to 28 the number of children left under Nebraska’s unique safe-haven law. Todd Landry with the Department of Health and Human Services Division of Children and Family Services said the boy from Wabash County was left by his mother late Thursday morning at Bergan Mercy Hospital.
CHILLY WEATHER
OMAHA—Western Nebraska’s brush with winter will likely be short-lived but the few inches of snow that combined with strong winds in the Panhandle created power outages and hazardous driving conditions. The National Weather Service received reports that 8 inches of snow had fallen in Rushville and 6 inches in Hemingford by early afternoon Friday. And drifts of snow reached 2 to 3 feet deep in that northwest corner of the state. By Josh Funk.
DEPORTATIONS-UPPER MIDWEST
OMAHA—Federal officials deported and arrested record numbers of illegal immigrants over the past year in a five-state region that includes Nebraska, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data released Thursday. The Bloomington, Minn., ICE field office that oversees Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota deported more than 4,900 illegal immigrants in fiscal year 2008. The figures for Oct. 1, 2007 to Sept. 30 are up nearly 20 percent from 4,100 the previous year. By Jean Ortiz.
With:
— BC-IMMIGRATION MOVING ON NATIONAL LINES.
IMMIGRATION
WASHINGTON—The U.S. government arrested and deported record numbers of illegal immigrants—nearly 350,000—in the past year, authorities say. It has also naturalized a record number of new Americans during the same time period, more than 1 million. Bush administration officials consider these to be great accomplishments within a system that President-elect Obama calls “broken and overwhelmed” on his transition Web site. By Eileen Sullivan.
PRISON POPULATION
LINCOLN—After years of steady gains, Nebraska’s prison population has leveled off and is showing signs of dropping. It’s a hopeful sign to prison officials and taxpayers. Three years ago, some officials feared a new prison would have to be built to hold the growing number of inmates. By Nate Jenkins.
TUSSING-LAST HURRAH
BILLINGS, Mont.—Billings Mayor Ron Tussing said his unsuccessful bid for a seat on the Montana Public Service Commission will be his last venture in electoral politics. “I’m not going to let myself get talked into running for office again, that’s for sure,” he said Wednesday. Tussing is a former sheriff of Lancaster County, Neb.
CRAIGSLIST PROSTITUTION
HARTFORD, Conn.—Forty states have reached an agreement with the Web site Craigslist to crack down on ads for prostitution, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Thursday. Under the deal, anyone who posts an “erotic services” ad on Craigslist will be required to provide a working phone number and pay a fee with a valid credit card. The Web site will provide that information to law enforcement if subpoenaed to do so. Nebraska is one of the states.
BUSINESS:
EARNS-CONSTELLATION ENERGY
NEW YORK—Constellation Energy Group Inc., which is being bought by MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. for about $4.7 billion, said Thursday it swung to a third-quarter loss because of volatile commodity prices and a frozen credit market. For the period ended Sept. 30, the nation’s largest power wholesaler posted a net loss of $225.7 million, or $1.27 per share, compared with net income of $251.4 million, or $1.38 per share, in the year-ago period. By Energy Writer Ernest Scheyder. Eds: NOTE Nebraska mention.
SPORTS:
NEBRASKA-BOWL HOPES
LINCOLN—Nebraska coach Bo Pelini says getting a bowl bid this season would help lay the foundation for the 2009 season and beyond. The Cornhuskers (5-4, 2-3 Big 12) need to win one of their final three regular-season games to become eligible for a postseason game and the extra month of practice that would come with it. By Sports Writer Eric Olson.
AP Photo usac/eolson.
BIG 12 PREVIEW
OKLAHOMA CITY—Kevin Durant’s time at Texas was an amazing array of highlights, huge numbers and basketball like the Big 12 had never seen it before. Then Michael Beasley came to Kansas State and brought a second wave of unbelievable feats that made everyone marvel. By Sports Writer Jeff Latzke.
NEBRASKA PREVIEW
LINCOLN—Bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better, or at least Nebraska coach Doc Sadler hopes. The Cornhuskers are going to have perhaps the smallest lineup in the Big 12 this season, but Sadler thinks he can make it work. By Sports Writer Eric Olson.
With:
— BC-BKC–NEBRASKA GLANCE
ALSO:
— NEBRASKA TRAINER—The Nebraska football team continued preparing for Saturday’s game against Kansas, which could be the Cornhuskers’ first cold-weather game of the year.
— NEBRASKA-KANSAS STATE KICKOFF—The Nov. 15 game between Nebraska and Kansas State in Manhattan, Kan., will begin at 2:35 p.m.
ALSO GETTING ATTENTION:
— OBAMA-POTENTIAL APPOINTEES President-elect Obama is weighing an array of Washington insiders and outsiders, including some Republicans, for top administration posts, according to Democratic officials.
— CASINO LAWSUIT—Federal officials have asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit in which the states of Iowa and Nebraska oppose the Ponca Tribe’s plans to build a casino in Carter Lake.
— SUING GOD—A lawsuit against the highest power could be considered by Nebraska’s highest court.
— HISTORICAL SOCIETY-THEFT—The former deputy director of the Nebraska State Historical Society has been sentenced to one to two years in prison for stealing more than $72,000 from the organization.
— SCHOOL FIRE—Three boys who allegedly started a fire in the bathroom of an elementary school in Lincoln face legal trouble.
— MOUNTAIN LION—Officials are keeping an eye out for a mountain lion around Blair after a railroad worker reports seeing a cougar in Washington County, north of Omaha.
— DIESEL SPILL—Officials say a fuel spill in downtown Lincoln that flowed into the city’s storm sewer system came from a tank on the roof of the Federal Building.
— EDITORIAL RDP—Excerpts from recent Nebraska daily newspaper editorials on topics of statewide interest.
The AP, Omaha.
