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XGR–HORSE GAMBLING
LINCOLN—Nebraska lawmakers, unmoved by arguments that horse racing could die without their help, decided Thursday that residents shouldn’t vote on whether to allow more betting on simulcast horse races. The vote by the Legislature not to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot signaled how recent statewide elections where expanded-gambling plans were nixed have made lawmakers wary of gambling-related measures. Also, a similar measure was rejected by Nebraskans in 1996. By Nate Jenkins.
ICE DUSTING
ASHLAND—Worries over spring flooding along the Platte River in eastern Nebraska have persuaded officials to take action. Pilots hired by the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency have begun spreading 77 tons of coal ash over nine sites along the Platte. The ice-dusting operation began Thursday and was to continue Friday.
AP Photos NEDW101-NEDW104.
INMATE DEATH LAWSUIT
NORTH PLATTE—The family of a man who committed suicide while in Lincoln County custody says officials at the jail and hospital ignored signs the man was suicidal, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday. The family of 27-year-old Phillip Hatcher filed the federal lawsuit against the city of North Platte, Lincoln County and Great Plains Regional Medical Center.
BUSINESS:
KLAMATH DAMS
SALEM, Ore.—A century-old fight over water from Oregon’s Klamath Basin ended Thursday with signed agreements that assure farmers water and power to keep their crops green, and lay out the removal of dams that have blocked salmon from hundreds of miles of spawning grounds. For decades, American Indian tribes, farmers, salmon fishermen and conservation groups have fought in courts and centers of power over who gets the scarce water in the basin—the farms and ranches through irrigation or the salmon and suckers in rivers and lakes. By Environmental Writer Jeff Barnard. Eds: Note Nebraska mention. Also moving on national lines.
AP Photos.
ALSO:
— KALAMA EXPANSION—A company that exports wheat and soybeans to Asia is expanding operations at the Port of Kalama on the Columbia River.
SPORTS:
— TRAINER SUSPENDED—An attorney for a horse trainer suspended for three years for allegedly injecting horses with banned painkillers is asking the Nebraska State Racing Commission to reconsider the punishment.
ALSO GETTING ATTENTION:
— EX-MAYOR LOBBYIST—One of Lincoln’s former mayors will go to work pleading the city’s cases to state lawmakers.
— BROKEN BOW SHOOTING—Authorities say one man fatally shot himself outside a Broken Bow restaurant as a police officer approached to investigate an alleged kidnapping.
— GUN LAWS REPORT-NEBRASKA—An organization that advocates for the prevention of gun violence says Nebraska’s gun laws rank among the weakest in the nation.
— KENESAW CHILD PORN—A 19-year-old Kenesaw man has been ordered to stand trial in April after pleading not guilty to more than two dozen felony counts in a child pornography case.
— COLLEGE CUTBACKS—Midland Lutheran College is cutting back administrative staff, planning to save the Fremont school $500,000.
— CHILD SEX ABUSE—A 38-year-old Omaha man is accused of sexually abusing a young girl over the past four years.
The AP, Omaha.
