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DEVELOPING: EXONERATED INMATES,
ADDS: XGR–SCHOOL SPENDING, NEIGHBORLY LESSONS
XGR–SCHOOL SPENDING
LINCOLN—Schools across Nebraska will probably be in limbo for months as they wait for news on how much money they will receive from the state. And the news isn’t expected to be all good. “We’re putting school boards and administrations through tremendous apprehension…and record property taxes will result,” state Sen. Norm Wallman of Cortland said during legislative debate on Friday. By Nate Jenkins.
EXONERATED INMATES
OMAHA—The time could be ripe for a proposal from Sen. Kent Rogert of Tekamah to give money to those wrongfully convicted of a crime. The state pardons board on Monday will consider whether to absolve five people wrongly convicted of the 1985 rape and murder of a Beatrice woman. And the state Legislature will consider this session whether those people—and others who are innocent of the crimes they’re convicted of—should be paid for their lost time. By Anna Jo Bratton
NEIGHBORLY LESSONS
LINCOLN—Can you spell neighborly? Nadzeya Zakharchenia can’t. But every Tuesday morning she comes to this neighborly woman’s house on the southwest edge of town to learn English. A Nebraskaland Feature by Cindy Lange-Kubick.
AP Photo pursuing.
BUSINESS:
— BERKSHIRE-CONSTELLATION—A unit of Warren Buffett’s company has sold 2.7 million of the roughly 20 million shares of Constellation Energy Group Inc. it received when Constellation rejected a takeover bid last month. By Business Writer Josh Funk. Eds: Also moving on national lines.
— RAILROAD CUTBACKS—Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. is furloughing nearly 170 of its workers in Nebraska.
— RAILROAD STIMULUS—The uncertain economy is hurting the nation’s major freight railroads because shipping demand has fallen. Eds: Moved on state news and financial lines.
— DATA BREACH—Platte Valley Companies and First State Bank have canceled bank cards for nearly 600 customers after learning the records of a third-party credit card processor were compromised. Eds: Moved on state news and financial lines.
— TOP COMPLAINTS—Inaccurate billing by credit or other financial services is atop a list of consumer complaints received by the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office last year. Eds: Moved on state news and financial lines.
SPORTS:
— NEBRASKA ATHLETICS-BUDGET—Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne says the economic downturn should not force his 23-program department into making cuts.
ALSO GETTING ATTENTION:
— PONCA GAMBLING—A federal judge has refused to reconsider a ruling that bars the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska from building a casino in Carter Lake, Iowa.
— TRAIN COLLISION—Authorities say a Lincoln man is dead after he drove his car around another car that was stopped at a railroad crossing for a freight train and hit the train.
— OBIT-LAMP—Marjorie M. Lamp, mother-in-law of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has died at the age of 91.
— MACARONI ATTACK—A North Platte man who was placed on probation for assaulting his girlfriend over a macaroni dinner is back in jail—after he allegedly assaulted her again.
— TREE VANDALISM—City leaders in La Vista are offering a $500 reward in a case of tree vandalism.
— CONTRACTOR FINED—Anderson Construction of Papillion faces more than $100,000 in federal penalties after being cited for safety violations. Eds: Moved on state news and financial lines.
— STATE PATROL RAISES—Nebraska State Patrol troopers will receive average raises of 4.9 percent in the next fiscal year and average raises of 5 percent the following year.
— PORK ROAST NEEDLE—A York woman is suing a grocer alleging she was injured after biting into a pork roast that she says contained part of a hypodermic needle.
— SEXUAL PHOTOS—Authorities in Missouri are seeking to extradite a Lincoln man who allegedly transmitted sexual photos to an investigator posing as 13-year-old girl.
The AP, Omaha.
