LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers are still at a stalemate over how to draw new congressional and legislative maps despite a looming deadline that could force them to postpone the decision until next year and delay the May primary election. Lawmakers have until Saturday to advance both measures, or else Speaker of the Legislature Mike Hilgers has promised to end their special session, forcing them to resume the debate during their next regular session in January. Delaying the new maps until next year would force state officials to reschedule the primary. At issue with the maps are accusations that Republicans and Democrats are trying to draw political boundaries in ways that benefit their party.
LINCOLN WOMAN KILLED
Man condemned for killing Tinder date seeks to be own lawyer
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man sentenced to death for the killing and dismemberment of a Lincoln woman he met on the dating app Tinder is seeking to fire his team of attorneys and represent himself in his appeal. The Omaha World-Herald reports that 55-year-old Aubrey Trail filed the request last week with the Nebraska Supreme Court. In the filing, Trail said his court-appointed attorneys have refused to support his request to sell some $25,000 in antiques and rare coins and give the money to a memorial fund set up for his victim, 24-year-old Sydney Loofe. Trail was convicted in 2019 of first-degree murder and criminal conspiracy to commit murder in the 2017 murder of Loofe, whose body was cut into 14 pieces and dumped in ditches along Nebraska country roads.
WEST NILE DEATH
Douglas County man dies from West Nile, gives state 3 deaths
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A third person in eastern Nebraska has died from the West Nile virus this year. The Douglas County Health Department said a man in his 80s who was hospitalized after developing symptoms of the West Nile virus in August has died. The man had several other health conditions, but officials didn’t provide details of them. Last week, the state Department of Health and Human Services said two people in Dodge, Saunders or Washington counties had died after contracting the West Nile virus. The virus, which is transmitted by mosquito bites after a mosquito fed on an infected bird, has been found in the state every year since 2002.
TWO KILLED
Couple from Nebraska killed in South Dakota highway crash
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Authorities say two victims who died recently in a highway crash in southeastern South Dakota were from Nebraska. The state Department of Public Safety says 75-year-old Albert Wingate and 74-year-old Marilyn Wingate, of Norfolk, died a week or more following the Sept. 11 crash in Hutchinson County. Safety officials say the driver of a pickup truck pulling an empty horse trailer tried to pass a semi on Highway 81 near Freeman, but collided head-on with the Wingates’ Chevy Corvette. The couple was airlifted to a Sioux Falls hospital. Marilyn Wingate died Monday. Albert Wingate died Sept. 18. The 28-year-old pickup driver was taken to a Freeman hospital for treatment of his injuries.
NEBRASKA WILDFIRES
Nebraska Panhandle wildfires now largely under control
CRAWFORD, Neb. (AP) — Authorities in western Nebraska’s Panhandle say two wildfires that had neared Scottsbluff and Crawford have largely been brought under control. The Omaha World-Herald reports that a fire southwest of Scottsbluff that has burned about 3,600 acres was 100% contained by Monday afternoon, while the fire south of Crawford that has burned 5,400 acres was halfway contained. The two fires were first reported last week and are about 70 miles apart in a region that in the grip of severe drought. On Friday, Gov. Pete Ricketts declared the fires an emergency, freeing up additional state resources.
PRIEST-THEFT INVESTIGATION
Ex-Omaha Archdiocese chancellor accused of stealing $275K
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former chancellor for the Roman Catholic Church’s Archdiocese of Omaha is under criminal investigation after being accused of stealing a total of $275,000 from a former priest accused of sexual abuse and from a Springfield parish. The Omaha World-Herald reports that the Rev. Michael Gutgsell is accused of stealing $179,000 from the saving of the late Rev. Theodore Richling Jr. and $96,000 from St. Joseph Catholic Church in Springfield. The archdiocese announced the 72-year-old Gutgsell’s resignation last month, saying a routine audit had uncovered the theft. Deacon Tim McNeill, the current chancellor of the archdiocese, says Gutgsell wrote unauthorized loans to himself during his time at St. Joseph.
Comments