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DEVELOPING: STIMULUS-FLIGHTY DELAY, STATE BUDGETS-SPECIAL SESSIONS,
ADDS: EVIDENCE TAMPERING, COLORADO-SALMONELLA RECALL
STIMULUS-FLIGHTY DELAY
LINCOLN—A rare bird is making the paperwork fly in McCook, delaying a road project even though the creature has never been spotted within 10 miles of town. Critics say it’s an example of how many county-road projects including those that could be funded with stimulus dollars, are being stalled at a time when they should be sped up to help give the economy a positive jolt. By Nate Jenkins
EVIDENCE TAMPERING
OMAHA—The Nebraska Supreme Court has ruled that prosecutors can’t charge someone with evidence tampering simply because illegal items were abandoned. In a ruling issued Friday, the high court rejected an objection from prosecutors in a Grand Island drug case who argued they should be able to charge a man with evidence tampering because he threw out a bag of marijuana. By Jean Ortiz.
STATE BUDGETS-SPECIAL SESSIONS
ATLANTA—States are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on special legislative sessions whose chief purpose, ironically, is to trim more funding from their eroding budgets. Analysts expect the number of special sessions, usually a rarity in many states, to soar as governors are left with little choice but to herd lawmakers back to statehouses to balance the books. By Greg Bluestein. Eds: Note Nebraska mention. Also moving on national lines.
COLORADO-SALMONELLA RECALL
DENVER—The Colorado health department says six people are recovering after being hospitalized for salmonella that might be linked to a ground beef recall. Officials said Thursday 14 cases have been reported in the state overall. Eight did not require hospitalization.
BUSINESS:
CIT GROUP-DEBT
NEW YORK—Small-business lender CIT Group Inc. said Friday it has sweetened some terms of a buyback offer for $1 billion of debt and repeated that it may have to seek bankruptcy protection if enough noteholders don’t agree to it. The New York-based financial company said in a regulatory filing that if the offer is successful it won’t file for bankruptcy and will pursue a restructuring through other unspecified ways. Eds: Note Nebraska mention. Also moving on national lines.
ALSO:
— COUNTRYWIDE SETTLEMENT—A settlement with Countrywide Financial Corp. will provide some cash to 156 Nebraskans who were affected by the mortgage lender’s practices.
SPORTS:
— NEBRASKA-SUH—Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong (en-DAHM-eh-ken) Suh (SOO) has been named the Big 12’s preseason defensive player of the year.
ALSO GETTING ATTENTION:
— FUGITIVE ARREST—Nebraska authorities have arrested a Florida man who is wanted there on several charges.
— VIOLENCE-PREVENTION GRANTS—One Columbus group and five from the Omaha-area have won anti-violence grants from the state of Nebraska.
— ASHLAND STABBING—An Ashland man who stabbed another man to death at an apartment complex has been given 40-to-80 years in prison.
— DOGFIGHTING RAIDS-NEBRASKA—A Nebraska man joined four others in pleading not guilty to federal charges resulting from a multistate dogfighting investigation.
— NEB WEAPONS ARREST—Authorities say a 40-year-old Scottsbluff man with a felony record was arrested after police found a rifle in his vehicle during a traffic stop.
— OMAHA HOUSING HELP—Omaha is losing part of its federal housing money this fall, so more than 400 households will lose their rent assistance entirely and around 3,500 families will be forced to pay a larger part of their rent.
— POT CONVICTION—A man who was riding in a minivan carrying 423 pounds of marijuana across Nebraska in 2002 but later disappeared has been sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison.
— HEARTLAND EXPRESSWAY—The future of the Heartland Expressway in western Nebraska will be the topic of a meeting in Gering next month.
— WEST NILE-NEBRASKA—The first case of West Nile virus in Nebraska this year has been reported in a woman in her 40s who lives in the south-central part of the state.
— FUGITIVE HARBORING—A 27-year-old Lincoln woman has been sentenced to six months in federal prison for harboring a fugitive.
— UNL-USDA GRANT—The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is among 22 universities sharing in $4.1 million in U.S. Agriculture Department grants to help farmers with disabilities through the AgrAbility program.
— OFFUTT EXERCISES—Smoke and sirens are part of the training exercises at Offutt Air Force Base south of Omaha.
The AP, Omaha.
