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DEVELOPING: XGR–PRENATAL CARE, XGR–TEXTING WHILE DRIVING, CSI-BLOOD EVIDENCE
ADDS: LIBRARY FUNDING FIGHT
XGR–PRENATAL CARE
LINCOLN—A lack of votes to permanently provide prenatal care to illegal immigrants and some other women who don’t qualify for Medicaid has Nebraska lawmakers working on a short-term compromise. Under the new plan, only the 1,500 women who lost coverage early this month after federal officials said the state couldn’t allow unborn children to be eligible for Medicaid would continue to get state-funded prenatal care. The funding would cease at the end of this year. By Nate Jenkins.
XGR–TEXTING WHILE DRIVING
LINCOLN—A ban on texting while driving that would apply to all motorists has received first-round approval from the Nebraska Legislature. The proposed ban squeaked by the first round with just two votes to spare on Tuesday. If the bill were to get final legislative approval and be signed by Gov. Dave Heineman, Nebraska would join 20 other states and the District of Columbia with an all-out ban. By Nate Jenkins.
CSI-BLOOD EVIDENCE
PLATTSMOUTH—A DNA expert testified Tuesday in the trial of a crime scene investigator charged with evidence tampering in a 2006 double murder that there was so much DNA on a piece of filter paper submitted by the CSI chief that she had to dilute it to test it. By Jean Ortiz.
AP Photos NEOMA101, NEOMA102, NEOMA103, NEOMA104.
LIBRARY FUNDING FIGHT
GRAND ISLAND—A fight over money means households outside the city limits will likely pay a $40 annual fee to use to the Grand Island library. The library board on Monday approved the new fee, which will begin May 1 unless the Hall County Board of Supervisors starts payment of $67,320, payable in 12 monthly installments.
ALSO GETTING ATTENTION:
— DRUNKEN DUI—A 30-year-old Bellevue man who showed up too drunk last week for his drunken-driving sentencing has been given a year in prison.
— NORTH PLATTE ASSAULT—A North Platte man has been arrested, accused of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl.
— TEEN-ASSAULT CASE—A 34-year-old western Nebraska man faces up to 10 years in prison when he’s sentenced in May for sexually assaulting a teenage boy.
— NOT QUITE FOOTLOOSE—The City Council has voted to revisit a 1930s law that had kept minors from public dancing past 9 p.m.
— RIVER ISLAND RESCUE—Firefighters have rescued a woman from an island in the Platte River, and Lincoln County authorities are trying to find out how she got there.
— REPORTING FAILURE—A 24-year-old sex offender who faced up to five years in prison instead got 60 days in jail for failing to properly register information with Nebraska authorities.
— LINCOLN DERAILMENT—Officials have begun righting tankers and freight cars and repairing tracks after a derailment west of downtown Lincoln.
— THIEVING DAUGHTER IMPRISONED—A 60-year-old California woman who had stolen money from her elderly mother in Omaha has been sentenced to prison.
— STIMULUS-HEALTH INFORMATION—Nebraska has been awarded more than $6.8 million in federal stimulus funding for the state’s digital health information exchange.
— REPORTING TRIP—A University of Nebraska-Lincoln student has won a reporting trip to Africa.
The AP, Omaha.
