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This Hour: Latest Nebraska news, sports, business and entertainment

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NEBRASKA HEALTH BOARDS

Members sought for 5 Nebraska state health boards

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - The Nebraska State Board of Health is recruiting members to serve on 5 of its professional boards.

New professional members are required to be Nebraska residents who are actively engaged in practice, with a license in good standing. Residents who represent a consumer perspective may be eligible for the public member seats, if they are not licensed in the particular area that the board regulates.

The openings are on the boards of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, Hearing Instrument Specialists, Massage Therapy, Medicine and Surgery and Physical Therapy.

The appointments are partial terms, due to resignations. Members are eligible to serve up to two full, 5-year terms after they complete the partial term.

OMAHA HOMICIDE

Omaha homicide police investigate death

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Police have identified a man whose death in a north Omaha home is being treated as a homicide.

Police say 34-year-old Levi Brown was found just before 10 p.m. Monday by family members who were checking on his well-being. He was found unconscious, and medics who arrived were unable to revive him. Brown was declared dead at the scene.

Police have not yet released details of Brown's death.

BOY STABBED

Toddler stabbed in Rochester last year has died

ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) - The young boy critically injured in a stabbing attack in Rochester last year has died at a hospital in Nebraska.

3-year-old Xavier Njemanze (neh-MAHN'-zee) had been undergoing therapy at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln, Neb., for injuries he suffered when he was stabbed at his mother's home last winter. Hospital spokeswoman Molly Nance tells Post-Bulletin the cause of the boy's death is unclear.

Xavier was just days away from his second birthday when Antonio Roebuck broke into the family's Rochester apartment and stabbed the child repeatedly, damaging his liver, lung and intestines. Xavier spent nearly two weeks in the intensive care unit at Saint Marys Hospital and another month in the pediatric unit. He had five surgeries before he and his family moved to Nebraska to be closer to relatives.

CHILD ENTICEMENT

Arizona man convicted in Nebraska enticement case

FREMONT, Neb. (AP) - An Arizona man has been convicted of 5 felony counts for exchanging sexually explicit text messages with a 14-year-old Fremont girl.

The Fremont Tribune reports that 30-year-old Christopher Vick, of Glendale, Ariz., pleaded no contest Monday to five counts of enticement by electronic communication device. In exchange, 1 of those counts was reduced from sexual assault.

Vick faces up to 25 years in prison when he's sentenced July 8.

Fremont police received a report last September of a man in Arizona exchanging sexually explicit messages with the girl and tracked the messages to Vick, who was arrested in Arizona and extradited to Nebraska.

SEX ASSAULT-SEX OFFENDER

Nebraska man sentenced for child sex assault

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) - A 70-year-old registered sex offender from North Platte who pleaded no contest to a new charge of child sexual assault is going to prison.

Donald Warfield was sentenced in Lincoln County District Court Monday to five years in prison.

Prosecutors say a teenage girl reported that Warfield began giving her presents and touching her inappropriately when she was about 7 years old. She said the sexual assaults became worse and continued for three or four years.

Warfield was convicted in 2002 of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old.

Court records also show Warfield was arrested last year for failing to properly register as a sex offender. He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count and was sentenced to 30 days in jail.

POLICE DEPARTMENT BURGLARY

Nebraska police department target of burglary

FRIEND, Neb. (AP) - Burglars made a bold move in southeast Nebraska, targeting a small-town police department.

Beatrice radio station KWBE reports that department in Friend - about 30 miles southwest of Lincoln - was burglarized last week.

Police have arrested a 20-year-old Strang man and two juveniles in the case.

Investigators say several pieces of equipment were stolen, including badges, ballistic vests, night-vision goggles, a police radio and boxes of ammunition.

Investigators found many of the stolen items within a day of the burglary.

NEBRASKA CRASH-CHARGE

Nebraska man pleads not guilty to crash charges

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) - A 24-year-old Hershey man has pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide and driving while intoxicated in a crash that killed a woman.

North Platte television station KNOP-TV reports that Micah Koch entered the plea Monday in Lincoln County District Court.

Authorities say Koch was drunk when he crashed a pickup in January near the western Nebraska city of Sutherland. The crash killed a passenger, 24-year-old Korey Huebner. Koch and another passenger, 28-year-old Jay Shotkoski, of Hershey, were injured.

Koch was ordered Monday to wear an electronic monitor on his ankle. His next court appearance is July 15th.

HEART ATTACK-MISTRIAL

Neb. attorney's heart attack leads to mistrial

HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) - A public defender in central Nebraska has suffered a heart attack, leading a judge to declare a mistrial in an assault case.

The Hastings Tribune reports that Adams County Public Defender Art Toogood had a heart attack over the weekend. He is now a hospital in Lincoln. His family as asked hospital staff not to release information about his condition.

Toogood's absence in Adams County District Court on Monday morning forced Judge Stephen Illingworth to declare a mistrial in the case against 30-year-old John Espino, which began Thursday and was expected to conclude Monday.

Espino has been accused of hitting his pregnant girlfriend in the stomach with a board in August 2011.

Prosecutors can still try the case later.

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