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DEVELOPING:
ADDS: BANK-STOCKS, FOOD SAFETY AUDITS, CUBC-SALE
XGR–DEATH PENALTY
LINCOLN—Nebraska lawmakers look ready to approve lethal injection as the sole means of executing the state’s condemned killers after more than a year without legal means to carry out the state’s death-penalty law. The Legislature hadn’t given the lethal-injection measure (LB36) a first-round vote by late Monday afternoon. But after a few hours of debate, it appeared the bill had the needed support to replace the electric chair with a lethal, but undetermined, combination of drugs. By Nate Jenkins.
AP Photos by Nati Harnik
With:
— SEX LAWS—Nebraska lawmakers have approved a bill to prevent registered sex offenders from using social-networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook.
— XGR–DANGEROUS DOGS—Nebraska lawmakers have given final approval to stiffer penalties for owners of some dangerous dogs.
— XGR–SHORT SESSION—Nebraska lawmakers may stop making laws early this year.
— XGR–STATE FAIR—Nebraska lawmakers have signed off on a deal that could cut $1.5 million from Grand Island’s costs of moving the State Fair there from Lincoln.
HALLAM’S CHANGED
HALLAM—Drive through this southern Lancaster County town, and one thing dawns on you: Where are the big trees? The rows of tall saplings along Main Street look like they belong in a new suburb, not in a community whose history dates to 1892. A Nebraskaland Feature by Algis J. Laukaitis of the Lincoln Journal Star.
AP Photo NELIN101.
FACEBOOK-NAMES
NEW YORK—Alicia Istanbul woke up one recent Wednesday to find herself locked out of the Facebook account she opened in 2007, one Facebook suddenly deemed fake. The stay-at-home mom was cut off not only from her 330 friends, including many she had no other way of contacting, but also from the pages she had set up for the jewelry design business she runs from her Atlanta-area home. By Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay. Eds: Moved in advance on state and national lines for Tuesday use. Note Nebraska mention.
AP Photos GAJB206, GAJB205.
BUSINESS:
BANK-STOCKS
CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Bank stocks rallied Monday after Wall Street analysts issued upbeat reports about the industry. Raymond James analyst Anthony Polini called banks “fundamentally sound” and said the economy has likely reached a bottom. And Rochdale Securities analyst Richard Bove predicted “explosive earnings growth and unusually strong stock price performance” for banks as the economy recovers. By Business Writer Ieva M. Augstums.
FOOD SAFETY AUDITS
WASHINGTON—The Food and Drug Administration conducted only about half the state food safety audits it promised in the two years before the recent peanut salmonella outbreak, according to new documents the agency sent to Congress. The documents show the agency did not do any of the required audits of state-run food inspections in five states during those states’ budget years spanning 2007 and 2008. And the FDA was unable to say whether audits were conducted at all in 11 additional states during that time, including Georgia and Texas, where salmonella was found in two peanut plants during a wide-ranging peanut recall earlier this year. By Mary Clare Jalonick.
AP Graphic ACCOUNTABILITY LOGO.
PRODUCTION MOVING
GRAND ISLAND—Chief Automotive Technology will be closing its Grand Island plant and consolidating operations at an Indiana facility, a company spokesman said Monday. The closure will cost the jobs of 66 people in Nebraska.
SPORTS:
CUBS SALE
CHICAGO—Tom Ricketts, who heads his family’s nearly $900 million bid to buy the Chicago Cubs from Tribune Co., has turned to three banks for financing. The three banks that would finance $450 million are JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America, a person close to the family said Monday. The person spoke anonymously because a deal has not been announced. By Sports Writer Rick Gano.
ALSO GETTING ATTENTION:
— METH SENTENCE—An Omaha woman has been sentenced to more than nine years in federal prison for conspiring to distribute methamphetamine.
— MISSOURI RIVER-PULSE—The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has begun a “spring pulse” to increase water levels in the Missouri River to help the endangered pallid sturgeon.
— DEPUTY ARRESTED—The Nebraska State Patrol has arrested a Nuckolls County Sheriff’s deputy on suspicion of domestic assault following an investigation.
— COUNSELOR HONORED—A counselor at the state Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center at Geneva has won national recognition for her Mothers and Babies Program at the center.
The AP, Omaha.
