LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A small Nebraska town again is caught in the crosshairs of a debate over alcohol sales and widespread alcoholism on a bordering South Dakota Native American reservation.
County officials voted 3-0 Tuesday to recommend the state renew liquor licenses for four beer stores in Whiteclay. Those stores sold the equivalent of 3.5 million cans of beer in 2015 despite Whiteclay’s dozen full-time residents.
The decision is a setback from activists who’ve targeted the city for decades in hopes of stopping sales.
Members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe blame Whiteclay for problems on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where alcohol is banned.
Whiteclay’s history dates to 1882, when it was part a buffer zone created to protect the tribe from whiskey peddlers. President Theodore Roosevelt eliminated the zone in 1904.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts is proposing an effort to eliminate a variety of job-licensing requirements.
Ricketts says he will call on lawmakers to pass a package of eight bills in his annual State of the State address on Thursday.
The proposals would ease requirements for aspiring cosmetologists, massage therapists, audiologists, potato shippers and school bus drivers, among others. Ricketts argues the regulations targeted are generally redundant or more stringent than those in other states, and he says eliminating them won’t affect public safety.
Jim Vokal of the Omaha-based Platte Institute says the proposals chosen are “low-hanging fruit” and eliminating them could make it easier to find a job or start a business. Ricketts worked with the group as well as various state agencies to come up with his list.
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) – A man accused of killing his wife on their farm in western Nebraska has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
The Nebraska Attorney General’s Office says 62-year-old Emerson Craig entered the plea Tuesday in North Platte’s federal court.
Craig called authorities to the farm near Maxwell in April 2014, saying his wife had been crushed under a large hay bale, which he said he had moved using a truck. His wife, 52-year-old Heidi Craig, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officials say autopsy results showed she had actually died of blunt force trauma to the head and manual strangulation.
Investigators say Craig had obtained a life insurance policy on his wife that would pay double if her death was the result of an accident.
Craig will be sentenced on Feb. 27.
YORK, Neb. (AP) – A man convicted last year for a second time in the death of his infant daughter has been sentenced to 35 to 40 years in prison.
Ryan Kozisek, formerly of Gresham, was sentenced Monday in York County District Court. He had pleaded no contest last month to attempted child abuse. Prosecutors had lowered the charge and dropped another.
He has been given credit for nearly four years already served behind bars.
In March, the Nebraska Court of Appeals granted Kozisek a new trial, saying his ex-wife should not have been allowed to testify in his original trial. The baby died Jan. 25, 2011, a day after Kozisek called 911 to report she wasn’t breathing.
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) – A former North Platte travel agent has been sentenced to prison after being convicted of stealing from at least 20 customers.
a judge sentenced 58-year-old Ella Mae Sculley on Monday to three to six years in prison following her conviction for theft by deception.
Sculley was arrested after investigators say several people complained that while she worked as a travel agent, Sculley took their money but didn’t follow through with ticket purchases and other services.
Attorney Russ Jones apologized to Sculley’s victims and said that after knee surgery, she fell behind on payments.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A former city of Omaha employee who filed a federal lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and other wrongdoing in the Omaha Public Works Department will receive a $175,000 settlement.
The Omaha World-Herald reports (http://bit.ly/2iZ7PoL ) that the Omaha City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to settle a lawsuit brought by Traci Shelby for $100,000, plus $75,000 in attorney’s fees.
The lawsuit said a co-worker repeatedly made sexually explicit comments toward Shelby, and a supervisor showed her a pornographic video. The lawsuit said that when she applied for a full-time job, other employees were given a copy of the civil service exam and answers ahead of the test.
City officials say the testing process has been changed to deter cheating and that employees involved in the allegations were disciplined and demoted.
