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Meth bust in Iowa lands Omaha man in prison

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A Nebraska man is sentenced to six years in prison after he was caught with drugs during a traffic stop in western Iowa.

Fifty-two-year-old John Gundersen, Jr. of Omaha pleaded guilty in May to possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it and he was sentenced this week.

Gundersen was pulled over on June 2nd of last year near Missouri Valley, Iowa.

Officers arrested him on outstanding warrants, then conducted a search of his vehicle and found methamphetamine as well as more than a thousand dollars in cash.

 

NPPD asks for comments on its 2018 power plans

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The Nebraska Public Power District is seeking public comment as it plots a course for the year ahead.

Mark Becker, NPPD’s corporate media supervisor, says the plan evaluates a wide range of power options for how electricity is provided to customers.

“Internally, NPPD has developed what’s called a draft Integrated Resource Plan,” Becker says. “That is posted on our website. We encourage people to read through it. We will look at the comments and we will address those comments in the final IRP. It’ll come before the board likely in the spring of 2018.”

Becker says NPPD buys hydropower from the Western Area Power Administration, which requires an I-R-P every five years.

“The U.S. electric industry is changing rapidly,” he says. “The environmental and regulatory landscape with the government has changed quite a bit. The other thing, too, we’ve signed new wholesale power contracts with our customers and many of them are putting up their own renewable energy projects.”

See the draft and make comments at the website. The deadline to make comments is November 30th.

By Nick Stevenson, WJAG, Norfolk

 

Farming remains America’s deadliest profession

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This is National Farm Safety Week. It’s designed to remind Nebraskans about the dangers of farming, especially during the approaching harvest season.

Agricultural engineer and safety specialist Chuck Schwab says agriculture ranks as one of the most dangerous and deadliest occupations.

He says agriculture has roughly 2.2 deaths for every 100,000 workers, which is a highest rate in the U.S., surpassing mining, construction, manufacturing and transportation. He puts the issue in perspective.

“It really means that a lot of people leave for the day to go to work and got out there in the fields and do something, and don’t come home,” Schwab says.

Schwab says the most common accidents involving agriculture include: tractor roll-overs, ATV roll-overs, roadway collisions with farm equipment, grain suffocation, electrocution, and machine entanglement.

He says one reason for the high rate of agriculture injuries and deaths is the wide age demographic of the people involved with agriculture, from the young to the old.

“Agriculture doesn’t have that cap where you get to 65 and you stop farming,” Schwab says, “and so we see a lot of older farmers out there. And what happens with older farmers — you tend to have different reaction times, you have balance issues, hearing issues, sight, and so all these issues play a role in how you make good safe decisions.”

He says the same is true with the younger generation, those 18 and younger. He says they should be given more supervision until they gain experience. Schwab says farmers need to be in shape for the physical demands of the business, and he says the best thing you can do is to take a break from the action and have a moment of rest.

Schwab says it’s important to be in top condition, and taking the break allows you to get away from the operation and make sure your mind is thinking clearly. Schwab says it’s similar to athletes who keep themselves in shape, stay hydrated, and then rest when needed so they stay sharp and focused. Schwab says that helps prevent mistakes on the playing field and can do the same in the farm fields too.

 

Nebraska corn growers could see benefit from Chinese ethanol demands

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The head of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) is cautiously optimistic China’s ethanol goals will help producers in the U.S.

A Chinese government agency recently announced a plan to extend the use of biofuels throughout the country by 2020.

RFA president Bob Dinneen calls the move a step in the right direction, but says some important questions need to be answered.

“Right now, all they’ve really done is said that there’s a plan in place that would allow the use of higher level blends. But, they have not yet removed their barriers to U.S. ethanol that could help them meet such a lofty target,” Dinneen says.

He projects Chinese ethanol demand could exceed four-billion gallons a year. Dinneen says China – the world’s third-largest ethanol producer behind the U.S. and Brazil – can’t achieve that objective alone.

“Yet, they’ve got a huge tariff in place that really makes U.S. ethanol impossible to get into the country. So, we hope to work with them, and we certainly hope that they will work with us to open up free and fair trade on ethanol, as well as distillers feed,” Dinneen says.

Nebraska is the nation’s number-two ethanol producing state in the U.S., behind only Iowa. There are 24 ethanol plants in Nebraska that produce a total of more than two-billion gallons each year.

Thanks Mark Dorenkamp, Brownfield Ag News

 

NE Nebraska county sees big drop in property valuations, raises tax levy

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Cedar County leaders approved a $19.7 million budget last week, an increase of about 3% from last year.

A massive drop of $73 million in property valuations forced commissioners to raise the tax levy by 1.6 cents.

County commission chairman Terry Pinkelman says the valuation drop was surprising.

“We didn’t think it’d be quite that much, based on farmland values and that sort of stuff,” Pinkelman says, but he notes, the county only gets a small piece of the budget pie.

“Of the total budget, the county probably uses less than 20% of the amount that’s budgeted,” he says. “Schools take about 75% of it.”

Pinkelman says when he hears complaints about high property taxes, he points to the source, as he sees it.

“There isn’t much you can say about it,” Pinkelman says. “If you get two farmers arguing about it, you can tell them, ‘You’re the ones that caused the problem because you paid that kind of dollars for that piece of land that you wanted or you didn’t want to let your neighbor have it.'”

Pinkelman says the county is also seeing rapidly rising costs for road gravel.

By Jerry Oster, WNAX, Yankton

 

Eichorst: “Loss was frustrating, unacceptable, disappointing”

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Nebraska athletic director Shawn Eichorst speaks with the media following Nebraska’s 21-17 loss to Northern Illinois on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers (1-2) lost in stunning fashion to the Northern Illinois Huskies (2-1) 21-17 on Saturday in front of 89,664 fans at Memorial Stadium.

“This will sound like an understatement but we are just really, bitterly disappointed with losing the game,” Nebraska head football coach Mike Riley said following the defeat. “Obviously, we are not playing good enough on offense right now. We’re not consistent enough in any part of our offense – running, blocking, making plays, so we could never recover from giving them two touchdowns early on and winning the game at the end.”

“So, it’s really, really disappointing and that’s what we have to find in the next week to play a better game.”

Nebraska athletic director Shawn Eichorst made a surprise appearance in the hallway outside of Nebraska’s postgame press conference on Saturday to express his feelings on the loss and on the direction of the program.

“Frustration, angry, unacceptable, disappointment, you go through all of those emotions in tough times,” Eichorst said. “When you’re around these good people and good young men, certainly you think about that and how to lead. It’s easy to lead when things are going well, but when you have adversity, you have to stand up and think and do the right things all the time. I don’t there’s any question; it’s not acceptable.”

“I have a lot of trust and faith in (Riley’s) abilities. We’ve got to regroup and get our kids headed in the right direction. There is no excuses to be made, and they won’t make them.”

Eichorst had a message for any frustrated fans doubting the direction of the program

“Hang in there,” Eichort said. “We have a good group of young men in that locker room who are working really hard to represent us and win ballgames. I would say the same thing about our staff, but everyone has to take it up a notch and we got to get moving in the right direction. Hang in there.”

Recap

The Huskies got off to a hot start defensively when senior cornerback Shawun Lurry picked off Nebraska quarterback Tanner Lee on a bubble screen and took it back 87 yards for a pick six, giving Northern Illinois a 7-0 lead with 11:24 left in the first quarter.

“That was tough,” Lee said. “They just had a perfect defense, I took a gamble and they blitzed the corner who jumped that bubble throw and took it to the house. That was a tough way to start a game, but you’ve got to think that we are able to drive the ball and put it behind us.”

Lee finished the game 25-of-47 with 299 yards passing and three interceptions. He also had two rushing touchdowns.

“I think as an offense, we’ve got to play better, and I know we will,” Lee said. “I look forward to getting back to work on Monday.”

Lee threw a second pick six later on in the first quarter. Nebraska’s quarterback was hit from behind as he threw, and Huskies linebacker Jawuan Johnson picked off an angle route and took it 25 yards the other way for a score.

“We have to coach (Lee) and support him right now,” Riley said. “I don’t know him well enough in these kind of tough situations, but the time I’ve been around him I’ve been very impressed with him. I think he’ll come back to work and get ready for the next game in a great manner, and I’ve got a lot of confidence that will occur and that he will be anxious to do that.”

The Huskies led 14-0 at the end of the first quarter, despite only 32 yards of offense.

Northern Illinois began the second quarter with the ball and drove all the way to the Nebraska 22-yard-line. Senior placekicker and Omaha Westside native Christian Hagan missed a 39-yard field goal, giving Nebraska the ball back with 11:16 left in the first half.

The Huskers assembled a solid offensive drive in the final 3:26 of the second quarter, achieving a first down and goal at the 9, but a Tanner Lee sack pushed Nebraska back to the 17-yard line.

Lee was sacked three times in the game.

Senior placekicker Drew Brown came on to try a 37-yard field goal on the final play of the first half, but senior defensive tackle William Lee got a hand on the ball and the attempt fell well short of the uprights.

Northern Illinois got the ball to start the second half, but both teams went three-and-out twice to start the third quarter.

On Nebraska’s second three-and-out, sophomore punter Caleb Lightbourn came in for his sixth punt of the day and kicked the ball down to the NIU 24-yard line. Junior punt returner Jalen Embry muffed the punt, and after a long scramble, redshirt freshman safety Marquel Dismuke came out of the bottom of the pile with the football for the Huskers.

Lee scored two plays later on a four-yard run to put Nebraska on the board with 8:05 left in the third quarter.

Lee didn’t have a rushing touchdown in his college career before Saturday.

Nebraska’s defense stopped Northern Illinois on the ensuing drive in just four plays, giving the ball back to the Huskers with 6:35 to go in the third quarter.

Nebraska marched 71 yards on 15 plays, ending the drive with a 36-yard field goal from Brown.

The drive took 6:20 off the clock, narrowing the Huskies’ lead to 14-10 by the end of the third quarter.

After a three-and-out by the Huskies’ offense to start the fourth quarter, Nebraska’s offense came on the field ready to play. The Huskers pieced together a six-play, 63-yard drive that ended with a one-yard touchdown run by Lee on a quarterback sneak.

Nebraska had its first lead, 17-14, with 11:14 left in the game.

Northern Illinois’ offense woke up with a quick answer. On the first play of the Huskies’ ensuing drive, sophomore quarterback Daniel Santacaterina hit senior receiver Christian Blake on a 47-yard completion to fuel a six-play, 75-yard scoring drive which put the Huskies ahead for good with 8:46 left in the game.

“That was really their only long play of the game,” Riley said. “And that was probably about the only drive they really had. Besides that, defensively, there was a lot of good play and improvement probably.”

The drive was capped off with a two-yard rushing touchdown by senior running back Jordan Huff.

Huff finished the game with 16 carries for 145 yards and a touchdown.

Santacaterina, in his second career start, was quiet but efficient, completing 15 out of 22 throws for 128 yards.

Blake was his lead receiver with five catches for 77 yards.

Nebraska got the ball back twice after NIU’s last score. The first drive ended on a failed fourth down conversion attempt and the other ended with Lee’s third interception of the day.

“Our results offensively speak for themselves as a very disappointing effort, and we play as a unit,” Riley said. “It was evident on the pressure on the quarterback. It was also evident that we just didn’t really run the ball consistently, either.”

Junior running Mikale Wilbon made his first career start for Nebraska due to sophomore running back Tre Bryant being sidelined with a knee injury.

Wilbon finished with 24 carries for 90 yards.

“(I ran) average,” Wilbon said. “I can do better and I will do better.”

Defensively, Nebraska limited Northern Illinois to just 253 yards of offense. The Huskies also had four drives that ended in a three-and-out and eight drives that ended with a punt.

“We really found something to work with after that Oregon game and we knew we wanted to get going from the jump,” Nebraska linebacker Luke Gifford said. “I would say that it was more execution. We really just worked our tail off on the last couple of pressures. It was a good added dimension to our defense today. I think we were happy with that.”

Gifford led the Huskers in tackles with eight total.

Nebraska stays home next Saturday to face Rutgers in its annual Homecoming game. Kickoff from Memorial Stadium is set for 2:30 p.m.

By Tommy Rezac

Lee’s INTs lead to Huskie TDs

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By Tommy Rezac

The Nebraska Cornhuskers (1-1) trail the Northern Illinois Huskies (1-1) 14-0 at halftime.

This game marks the first time since Oct. 13, 2007 that Nebraska got shut out in the first half.

Oklahoma State led that game at halftime 38-0 and won 45-14.

The Huskies got off to a blazing hot start defensively, when senior cornerback Shawun Lurry picked off Nebraska quarterback Tanner Lee on a bubble screen and took it back 87 yards for a pick six, giving Northern Illinois a 7-0 lead with 11:24 to go in the first quarter.

Lee finished the first half 15-of-26 for 147 yards and two interceptions. Lee now has five touchdowns and six interceptions on the season.

Lee threw a second interception returned for a touchdown later on in the quarter. Nebraska’s quarterback was hit from behind as he threw, and Huskies linebacker Jawuan Johnson picked off an angle route and took it 25 yards the other way for a score.

The Huskies led 14-0 at the end of the first quarter, despite only 32 yards of offense.

Northern Illinois began the second quarter with the ball and drove all the way to the Nebraska 22-yard-line. Senior placekicker and Omaha Westside native Christian Hagan missed a 39-yard field goal, giving Nebraska the ball back with 11:16 left in the first half.

The Huskers assembled a decent drive after the missed field goal, getting all the way to the NIU 43-yard line. On a 3rd and 7 play, Lee got sacked and the ball came loose at the end of the play. It was initially ruled a fumble, but a video review ruled that Lee was down before the ball came out.

After the review, Nebraska was faced with a 4th down and 15 at the NIU 49, so Caleb Lightbourn punted the ball back to the Huskies.

A fumbled snap and a sack by Nebraska defensive lineman Khalil Davis killed the drive, forcing Northern Illinois into a 4th and 29. Nebraska got the ball back on its own 21 with 3:39 to go in the first half after a near-muffed punt by De’Mornay Pierson-El.

The Huskers assembled another solid drive, achieving a first down and goal at the 9, but a Tanner Lee sack pushed Nebraska back to the 17-yard line.

Senior placekicker Drew Brown came on to try a 37-yard field goal in the final play of the half, but William Lee got a hand on the ball and the attempt was well short of the uprights.

Brown was a perfect 4/4 inside 40 yards in 2016.

Junior running back Mikale Wilbon has been sound in his first career start, posting career highs in both carries in yards. Wilbon had 13 carries for 62 yards.

Pierson-El had seven catches for 83 yards.

Northern Illinois will get the ball to start the second half.

Lincoln storyteller’s performance depicts WWII resistance fighters

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Pippa White

An actress and storyteller from eastern Nebraska has created an unusual one-woman show called “Voices From The Resistance.”

In the performance, Pippa White of Lincoln portrays real people who were resistance fighters during World War Two in France, Germany, Norway and Hungary.

While she spotlights the underground movement to defeat Hitler, White says she made a careful decision not to depict the Holocaust.

“I wasn’t completely comfortable doing certain aspects of that piece of history because I’m not Jewish,” White says. “I felt that certain Jewish storytellers had more of a right to certain aspects of that tragedy.”

The resistance fighters of the late 1930s and early 1940s were people of many different faiths, and included a then-13-year-old Audrey Hepburn, long before she became a famous actress.

“I knew that she had suffered terribly during the war,” White says. “I knew that she and her family had been starving but it was only recently I learned that there were children who were in the resistence and they would meet the same fate as any adults if they got caught. That was tremendously brave.”

During the war, as members of the Resistance, ordinary people in many countries rescued Allied soldiers, blew up bridges and risked their lives every day to do what they could do to cripple the Third Reich.

White uses various dialects and accents to portray the people she thoroughly researched for her show. The dialects are something she picked up from her parents.

“My father was truly British and he sounded like this all his life,” White says, in accent. “My mother was Canadian but her mother was British. They did love the dialects, especially of the British Isles. I grew up hearing them doing Irish from time to time, that kind of thing.”

White is putting on the free show at 2 PM Sunday at the American Legion Building in Atlantic, Iowa. Music and slides are included during the 75-minute presentation.

 Thanks to Ric Hanson, KJAN, Atlantic

 

Expensive effort to clean up century-old mess in Beatrice nearing completion

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An environmental clean-up project along the Big Blue River in Beatrice is almost finished. The site of a coal gas plant in the early 1900s has been leveled but Beatrice city administrator Tobias Tempelmeyer says there’s still one big job remaining.

“Throughout the excavation, they found a group of cylinders that contain some type of chemical that are encased in concrete,” Tempelmeyer says. “We’re trying to discover what those cylinders contain, how do you dispose of them, how do you transport them, and it’s becoming quite an endeavor.”

One cylinder apparently contained the chemical that gives the odor to natural gas, but officials are uncertain what the others hold.

The city is responsible for 25% of the cleanup cost, with Centel Corporation paying the remaining 75%, based on past ownership of the property. Beatrice has spent about $1-million on the cleanup so far, with another $200,000 to be paid on the contract. The cost to remove the buried cylinders is expected to be around $250,000, of which the city will pay 25%.

The city has been dealing with the site since its discovery in 2004 and Tempelmeyer says officials ponder what projects might have been completed, had the cleanup not been required.

“As we’ve talked to our congressman and senators and local officials, trying to find ways to help relieve the financial burden on the city, we’ve made those arguments and every time we hear, ‘You’re the owner of it. You’re responsible for it’.” Tempelmeyer says. “It doesn’t matter that it happened 100 years ago, you’ve just got to get it cleaned up.”

When the project started, you could see the location on Google Maps satellite image, marked as a big circle near the river, where nothing would grow.

“That’s where the gas holder was at,” he says. “Basically, they dug a hole, threw all of the extra byproduct into that hole and everything else once they tore down the building. We found bricks and whatnot in there. They covered it up and that spot just didn’t have anything that grew.”

The contaminated soil will not be used as cover material. It is being disposed of at a waste site.

The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and the EPA previously said the site’s soil and groundwater was contaminated by cyanide, metals, petroleum hydrocarbons and gasoline additives, among other things.

Once the cleanup is finished, Tempelmeyer says the area will become a park or green space, providing an area where the public can access the river.

CORRECTON: An earlier version of this story contained the sentence, “Coincidentally, contaminated soil removed during the clean-up is not required to be taken to a hazardous waste site, but is allowed to be used as cover material at the Beatrice solid waste landfill,” which is incorrect and has been corrected.

By Doug Kennedy, KWBE, Beatrice

 

Riley: “As bad as it was, we had a shot”

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By Tommy Rezac

The Nebraska Cornhuskers (1-1) trailed by 28 points at halftime and outscored the Oregon Ducks (2-0) 21-0 in the final two quarters, but Oregon ultimately held on for a 42-35 victory on Saturday afternoon in front of a sellout crowd of 58,389 fans at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, OR.

The Ducks jumped out to a fast 14-0 start in the first 1:30 of the first quarter, thanks in part to an interception thrown by Nebraska junior quarterback Tanner Lee on the Huskers’ first play from scrimmage.

“I think in every game, there’s some throws you’d like to have back,” Lee said. “It was disappointing. I expect to make those throws all the time. I’ll just continue to work and get better.”

Lee threw four interceptions on the afternoon. The final one came with just 2:17 remaining in the game. Nebraska was trailing by only a touchdown when Lee’s arm was hit at the line of scrimmage on a first down play, causing the ball to wobble slowly up in the air, which gave junior Oregon cornerback Ugo Amadi to fall under the throw and seal Nebraska’s fate.

“I think (Lee) made some really good throws,” Nebraska head football coach Mike Riley said following the loss. “I think he missed some throws that were real close. Right in the fourth quarter, there had to be two or three make-able throws that were just missed. Any one of those, few inches different, catching the ball, changes the look of the game.”

Lee completed 19 out of 41 passes (46. percent) for 253 yards and three touchdowns, in addition to the four INTs.

With Lee coming from Tulane, it’s quite possible that playing Oregon in Eugene was the most daunting game of his  career. Riley sees it as a learning tool.

“I think every minute (Lee) is playing right now is awesome for him,” Riley said. “I think we all see his talent. We all see his poise. He took a lot of hits today. We have to do a better job of protecting. But, I think every minute that he gets to play, and every minute in this environment today is awesome. The noise was great as always here in Autzen, but I thought we handled it real well, and the quarterback is the leader of that.”

Besides the offensive struggles, Riley pointed to Oregon’s dominance in the first half as a big factor in the loss.

“It’s been a pretty common fact for the games that I’ve coached in that when you lose the turnover battle and you don’t rush for as many yards as the other guy, you lose the game,” Riley said. “A really, really disappointing start of the game. (Oregon) made some plays and we maybe had some opportunities to make some plays right off the bat and did not.”

“Just really, really let it get out of hand by the end of the first half. It was very, very disappointing.”

Nebraska trailed 42-14 at halftime. The Ducks also out-rushed the Huskers in yardage 201-109.

In the first half alone, Oregon rolled up 409 yards of offense, but just 157 in the second half.

The Ducks out-gained the Huskers in total yardage 566-361 by game’s end.

“In the second half, we started to make some plays defensively,” Riley said. “We started to get some stops. As disappointing as a lot of that was, we’ll have a hard time watching some of that film.”

Despite a number of mistakes on both sides of the ball, Riley admired the effort his players showed down the stretch.

I’ve told everyone from the beginning, I really like this team,” Riley said. “I’ve really enjoyed them. It’s really a team. Football was really inconsistent today, but the team kept playing. We had a shot. As bad as it was, we had a shot. That’s what my summary is.”

Nebraska is back home on Saturday to face the Northern Illinois Huskies (1-1) from the Mid American (MAC) Conference at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.

Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. central time. We’ll have full coverage online at NebraskaRadioNetwork.com.