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DEVELOPING: CSI-BLOOD EVIDENCE, DETASSELING DAYS,
CSI-BLOOD EVIDENCE
OMAHA—An Omaha-based investigator accused of mishandling blood evidence that resulted in two men being wrongly accused in a double murder is challenging the federal case against him. Investigator David Kofoed’s lawyer, Steve Lefler, filed several motions in federal court challenging the evidence against Kofoed and questioning the way federal officials handled the case. By Josh Funk.
AP File Photo.
DETASSELING DAYS
OMAHA—Abi Swanson is a self-described girly girl who’s doing hard labor. The 13-year-old from Lincoln needs to make money for ballet lessons, so she’s slogging through eastern Nebraska farm fields detasseling corn. Modern technology has revolutionized agriculture over the years, but the summer ritual of teens manually pulling the tops off stalks remains necessary for seed companies to create superior breeds of corn. By Eric Olson.
AP Photos by Nati Harnik
BUSINESS:
— MEATPACKER FURLOUGHS—Voice-mail recordings at Premium Protein’s plants in Hastings and Lincoln are telling employees that their work furloughs are being extended again. Eds: Also moved on state news and national lines.
ALSO GETTING ATTENTION:
— DISAPPEARING-INK FORGERY—A 21-year-old man who had been using a pen with disappearing ink in altering checks is scheduled to be sentenced in September.
— HORSE DRAGGED—An August hearing has been set in Dawson County Court for a 21-year-old Kearney man accused of dragging a horse behind a trailer. The horse was later found dead.
— SERIAL DUI—Police say a 30-year-old Lincoln woman has been arrested for the eighth time on suspicion of drunken driving.
— COCAINE CHARGE—The teenage son of a Hall County sheriff’s captain is due back in court next month for his preliminary hearing on cocaine charges.
— NEB MOTORCYCLE FATAL—Seward police say a Lincoln man died and his girlfriend was injured when their motorcycle collided with a boat on a trailer.
— MIA FOUND—The family of Don Grella finally knows what happened to him in the Vietnam War because U.S. military officials were able to identify his remains.
— NEB PLANE CRASH—Government investigators say a plane that crashed in northeast Nebraska earlier this month lost power before the crash.
— BOND ELECTION-OGALLALA—A proposed $30.6 million school bond issue would help pay for a new high school in Ogallala and renovate several other district buildings.
— NEB STIMULUS-WIND GRANT—Loup City Public Schools in rural Nebraska has been selected to receive $8,800 from the federal-stimulus package to install a wind turbine.
— CREIGHTON GRANT—Creighton University is receiving a $1.4 million grant to continue its study of one of the factors believed to be involved in a disease killing wild and captive deer and elk.
— NUTRITION HEARING—Nebraska 1st District Rep. Jeff Fortenberry will be hosting a field hearing of the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Nutrition in Lincoln next month.
— POWER PILOT PROGRAM—The state’s largest power utility is offering residents in three Nebraska communities a chance to participate in a pilot program that could save them money.
The AP, Omaha.
