McCOOK, Neb. (AP) — Community Hospital in McCook has told nearly 4,200 former patients that their identity information was contained on a laptop computer that was stolen in December.

Hospital officials say the laptop belonged to an employee of the hospital’s auditing company, Seim (seyeme) Johnson, of Omaha, and that it was stolen in Nashville, Tennessee.

The hospital says Seim Johnson’s subsequent investigation couldn’t confirm that the laptop’s encryption software was functioning. The hospital’s health information manager, Rachel Berry, says the hospital is “not aware of any activity that would make us believe the information has actually been accessed or viewed.”

On Thursday Berry said all of the former patients notified are receiving a free year of identity monitoring.

A Seim Johnson representative didn’t immediately return a call from The Associated Press.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s Speaker of the Legislature is condemning a newspaper column by a state senator that likened his colleagues to monkeys.

Sen. Galen Hadley of Kearney said the article in the Plattsmouth Journal shows “complete disrespect” for the officially nonpartisan, one-house Legislature. His comments Thursday drew a rare standing ovation from most senators in the chamber.

The article by Sen. Bill Kintner of Papillion argued that senators are like monkeys who attack each other when one tries to disrupt the status quo.

Hadley says he’s tired of senators taking potshots at the Legislature. He says those who don’t think lawmakers are doing a good job should quit.

Kintner, a blunt-spoken conservative, has faced criticism before for railing against “homosexual bills” in the Legislature and joking that women don’t understand themselves.

SIDNEY, Neb. (AP) — An Iowa man has been hired to run the western Nebraska city of Sidney.

Officials announced Wednesday that Ed Sadler was chosen to become city manager from among three finalists. He’s the city manager of Webster City, Iowa, which has about 8,000 residents. Sidney has around 6,700 residents.

Sadler was assistant city manager for Aspen, Colorado, before taking the Webster City job. He’s held management jobs in state and local governments in Arizona, Missouri and Wyoming. Sadler earned a master’s degree in public administration and bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Wyoming.

Sadler says moving to Sidney will get him and his wife closer to children and grandchildren in Colorado and Texas.

He replaces Gary Person, who resigned in August.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The state corrections director says transforming Nebraska’s prisons must begin by expanding and improving lower-security facilities.

Nebraska Department of Correctional Services Director Scott Frakes talked to lawmakers Wednesday about his $26.1 million budget request to renovate a coed community corrections facility in Lincoln. The facility was built for 200 people, but currently houses nearly 400 male and female inmates.

Frakes called coed custody a “failed experiment” and said Nebraska’s female inmates, many of whom have experienced physical and emotional abuse, need spaces they can feel safe.

The facility wouldn’t be completed for three years. Some lawmakers worry the plan is too cautious and question whether such changes could be implemented quickly enough to avoid a possible federal lawsuit.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The newest attempt to expand health care coverage with Medicaid dollars has reopened an old divide in the Nebraska Legislature.

A coalition of doctors, hospitals, local governments and uninsured residents implored lawmakers Wednesday to advance the bill. Conservative groups and members of Gov. Pete Ricketts’ administration argued before the Health and Human Services Committee that the proposal is unsustainable.

The bill by Sen. John McCollister of Omaha would cover childless adults whose incomes are too high to qualify for regular Medicaid but too low to receive tax subsidies available through the federal health care exchange.

Attempts to expand Medicaid in Nebraska have stalled three times in as many years, and the newest bill is expected to face strong resistance once again.