Police say man beaten, robbed
■ An empty wallet was
taken from a man sleeping
outside, police say.
By Jake Bleed
Senior staff writer
A 28-year-old man sleeping under
an overpass outside Lincoln was
attacked, beaten and robbed of an empty
wallet by two men early Thursday
morning, officer Katherine Finnell said.
James Dunn was asleep near the
intersection of Highway 77 and West O
Street when three men pinned him to the
ground, Finnell said. A fourth then hit
Dunn seven to nine times on his head
and demanded the 28-year-old’s wallet
she said. Dunn gave up the wallet,
which contained no cash, she said.
The four attackers left, and Dunn
walked to a nearby phone and called
police, Finnell said.
Dunn told police he’d recognized
the voice of one of his attackers as that
of a young man he’d talked to earlier in
the day, Finnell said.
A police dog was used to track the
attackers to the edge of a mobile home
park in the 2300 block of West O Street,
Finnell said.
Earlier in the same night, Lincoln
police officer John Walsh had stopped
four suspicious-looking young men
walking along West O Street and, after a
brief conversation, wrote down the
men’s names and addresses.
Three of the men lived in the same
mobile home park the police dog led the
officers to, Finnell said.
Police visited two mobile homes
and were able to recover Dunn’s wallet
in one, Finnell said.
Police arrested two men in the
attack: Alan McCready, 17, and Isaias
Ventura, 21, on suspicion of robbery.
The pair lived in separate mobile homes
inside the same park. Two other men,
ages 24 and 25, who were apparently
not directly involved in the attack, were
not arrested.
Police did not know the motive for
the attack. Dunn’s alleged interaction
with the men earlier in the day did not
apparently inspire the robbery, Finnell
said.
Paramedics took Dunn to
BryanLGH West, where emergency
room staff used seven staples to bind
Dunn’s injuries, Finnell said.
A BryanLGH representative said
Dunn was treated and released early
Thursday morning.
State leaders say teachers
need an increase in wages
TEACH from page 1
tains or ski resorts near Omaha,” she
said. “That hasn’t changed.”
What had changed, Garnett said,
was that other states, especially
Southern states, had begun to offer
higher wages than Omaha could offer.
Although members of the educa
tion committee, other senators and
Gov. Mike Johanns agree state teacher
salaries need a boost, no specific plan
has emerged to address the issue.
Johanns emphasized the problem
during a Wednesday press confer
ence.
He said the state had already com
mitted to cover losses sustained by
local school districts when a property
tax reform takes effect. The added
cost to the state will be between $40
million and $60 million, he said
Johanns said if the state were to
give all teachers a raise of even $1,000
per year, the additional education
money from state coffers would be
about $83 million.
For James Griess, executive direc
tor of NSEA, the $1,000 increase is
not nearly enough.
“I’d like to see (Nebraska teacher
salaries) go to fifth in the nation,”
Griess said in testimony Thursday. He
said Nebraska teachers had demon
strated they deserved the raise.
He said Nebraska should at least
raise salaries to the national average.
“We don’t have to do this all in
one year, but we need to start in that
direction,” he said
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