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DEVELOPING:
ADDS: GRADUATION RATES
WATER WOES
LINCOLN—Kansas officials say Nebraska owes their state about $9 million for overusing Republican River water in 2005 and 2006. Nebraska officials submitted documents to an arbitrator in Denver on Wednesday with a much lower estimate of damages—$615,000 to $1.23 million. By Nate Jenkins and Timberly Ross.
MISSING CARS
OMAHA—Some of the scores of new cars that vanished from a western Nebraska car dealership have turned up in other states, and one of the three executives on the lam has told police he plans to turn himself in Thursday. The 81 Fords and Toyotas taken from Legacy Auto Sales in Scottsbluff were valued at about $2.5 million. By Eric Olson.
AP Photo NESCO101.
GRADUATION RATES
ALBANY, N.Y.—The national high school graduation rate remained flat at about 75 percent between 2002 and 2006, while a dozen states made substantial gains, according to a new report by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. The report, released Thursday by the Baltimore university’s Everyone Graduates Center, found the largest gain was in Tennessee, where the rate rose from 61 percent to 72 percent. New York’s rate increased from 64 percent to 67 percent. By Jessica M. Pasko.
XGR–NU AUDIT
LINCOLN—A government watchdog group is concerned that the University of Nebraska might use a practice normally used to reveal government flaws to hide them instead. Common Cause Nebraska says it opposes a bill in the Legislature that the group says would let the university hide documents from the public when performing audits. By Nate Jenkins
ALSO:
— CONCEALED CARRY—Nebraska gun owners made a show of force when asking lawmakers to force cities to abide by a concealed-carry law.
— XGR–GANG LAWS—Nebraska lawmakers have given first-round approval to more than a dozen changes to Nebraska’s laws, including stiffer penalties for violent and gun-related crimes.
CELL PHONE ONLY
UNDATED—Trendy California isn’t a trendsetter when it comes to relying on cell phones. And while the 1987 movie “Wall Street” helped introduce the then-brick-sized mobile phone to popular culture, New York and other Northeast states lag in dropping landlines. Surprisingly, Oklahoma and Utah lead in going wireless, according to federal estimates released Wednesday. At least 26 percent of households are now cell-only in Oklahoma and Utah, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated. That rate was at least 20 percent in nine other states, including Nebraska. By Mike Mokrzycki. Eds: Moved on state and national news and financial lines.
AP Graphic WIRELESS STATES.
With:
— BC-CELL PHONE ONLY-STATES
BUSINESS:
UNEMPLOYMENT
LINCOLN—Nebraska officials say the state’s unemployment rate has risen 1.3 percentage points over the last year to hit 4.3 percent in January—still far short of the national rate of 7.6 percent. Nebraska’s January figure is four-tenths of a point higher than the revised 3.9 percent December figure. The state Department of Labor report in late January gave a preliminary December figure of 4 percent, compared with the revised November figure of 3.7 percent.
AP Photos
ALSO:
— BEAN OVERSUPPLY—Nebraska is asking federal authorities for help in handling a bloated market for its dry beans.
SPORTS:
B12-BAYLOR-NEBRASKA
OKLAHOMA CITY—Rebounding, Nebraska coach Doc Sadler says, has been the Cornhuskers’ Achilles heel in the latter stages of this basketball season. Baylor took advantage of that in a big way on Wednesday. Led by a career-high 20 rebounds from Kevin Rogers, the Bears posted a 43-18 advantage on the boards en route to a 65-49 win over Nebraska in the opening game of the Big 12 tournament. By Murray Evans.
AP Photos.
ALSO:
— NORTH PLATTE-CLASS A—North Platte High School will continue to compete in Class A in all sports next school year.
ALSO GETTING ATTENTION:
— STORE SHOOTING—Police have identified the victims of a shooting at a north Omaha convenience store that left one man dead and another in critical condition.
— OMAHA MURDER—An arrest warrant has been issued in a late December murder at a southwest Omaha apartment complex.
— FREMONT-ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION—Fremont officials want a judge to rule the city lacks the authority to enact a proposal to curb illegal immigration and delay a special election on the subject, according to court documents filed Wednesday.
— WOMAN PINNED—An Omaha man has been sentenced to a year in jail for pinning a woman between two cars, crushing her leg.
— CHAMBER’S VIEW—Term limits took away his title as state senator, but it hasn’t taken Ernie Chambers out of the Nebraska Capitol.
— PETITION DRIVES—A legislative committee has been told that rules are needed to control out-of-state groups that have hijacked Nebraska’s petition process.
— WAYNE SUPERINTENDENT—The Wayne school district has a new superintendent.
— BB GUN BAN—It’s now illegal to carry a loaded BB gun, pellet gun or paintball gun in a car in Grand Island.
— SEX ASSAULT SENTENCE—A rural Bayard man has been sentenced to 60 to 120 years in prison for repeatedly raping a young girl over several years and taking sexually explicit pictures of her.
— ANIMAL SHELTER FINANCING—A low-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture is helping York Adopt-A-Pet erect another building for its dogs and cats.
The AP, Omaha.
