Officials have seized six large snakes from a suburban Omaha home and ticketed their owner for harboring dangerous animals.

The Nebraska Humane Society confiscated three boa constrictors and three pythons from the home in Ralston.

The Humane Society’s Mark Langan says some of the snakes were already 8-feet-long, and an ordinance prohibits owning snakes that can grow to be longer than 8-feet when mature.

Langan says one of the pythons was very aggressive, and the cages holding these snakes were not secured very well.

The snakes’ owner, Adam Vordermark, was cited for two counts of harboring dangerous animals.

Earlier this year, officials seized about 25 venomous snakes from a west Omaha home in July and ticketed another individual.

A Grand Island man facing a murder charge has pleaded not guilty to a separate charge of assaulting a corrections officer.

The 35-year-old Arkanjelo Kot pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Hall County District Court to a count of second-degree assault. Police say Kot assaulted a jail guard on June 15. His trial has been set for January.

Kot is also charged with first-degree murder and a weapons count for the July 14, 2010, shooting death of 21-year-old Walid Omar-Aden at a Grand Island convenience store. Kot’s murder trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 29.

The wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is scheduled to attend a private fundraising reception in the Omaha area.

An invitation issued by the Nebraska Republican Party says that Ann Romney will be featured at a fundraising luncheon on Sept. 21 at the Embassy Suites in La Vista, just southwest of Omaha. A photo reception is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. before the 12:15 p.m. luncheon.

The cost for the reception is $250 per person. A photo with Romney will cost $2,500.

Also attending the event will be Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman and first lady Sally Ganem and U.S. Sen. Mike Johanns and his wife, Stephanie Johanns.

Proceeds from Monday’s event will go to Romney Victory Inc., which is made up of various Republican organizations.

Authorities say two men were injured after strong winds blew them off a building in Wahoo.

The men were working on the roof on Wednesday. The Saunders County sheriff’s office says the men were handling sheeting material, which was caught by the wind. They fell about 30 feet.

The men were taken to a hospital in Lincoln. Their names were not immediately released.

Police say an Omaha man shot during a home invasion has died of his injuries.

A news release from the Omaha Police Department says 29-year-old Gary Rice died on Wednesday, three days after he was shot.

Investigators say officers found Rice in his southeast Omaha home Sunday night with a gunshot wound after police were called to the house for a report of two intruders forcing their way into the home.

The department’s homicide unit is investigating. No arrests have been made.

A stretch of highway north of Omaha that’s been plagued by deadly crashes for years will be widened sooner than expected.

On Wednesday, Gov. Dave Heineman announced the expansion of a stretch of Nebraska Highway 133 — also known as Blair High Road — between Blair to Omaha.

The project will widen a section from two to four lanes from just north of Omaha to the Washington County line.

A news release from the governor’s office says the project will take two construction seasons and is estimated to cost $23 million. The Nebraska Department of Roads had been expected to take until 2016 to complete, but is now set to be completed a year early. The department says the speedup was made possible through additional federal funds received this year.

State Sen. Brenda Council has apologized for misusing more than $60,000 in campaign donations at casinos and filing false reports to conceal that.

Attorney General Jon Bruning on Wednesday says Council agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges of filing false campaign reports that omit the casino withdrawals and cash deposits.

In a statement, Council says she “made an error in judgment,” and that she takes “full responsibility.” She says she’s receiving professional treatment for a gambling addiction, and will not “give up or quit fighting for the issues.”

Her opponent, Ernie Chambers, a longtime opponent of casino gambling in Nebraska, says he hopes people will see that if the addiction can bring down somebody with education, intelligence and a successful political career, it can do it to anybody.