GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A local group of 60 doctors has retained two firms to help advance its plans for a new hospital in Grand Island.

The firms are helping the doctors determine which operational, technological and environmental platforms would be needed for the new hospital. Preliminary plans call for the facility to open with 40 to 50 beds.

The group announced last June that it wanted to open a second hospital in the south-central Nebraska community and that the project would take at least two years to finish. Representatives said they wanted a hospital that would be controlled locally rather than answer to a central authority or ownership elsewhere.

St. Francis hospital in Grand Island is part of the CHI Health system.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A former Lincoln Correctional Center inmate who was brutally beaten by another inmate has lost his lawsuit against the state of Nebraska.

59-year-old Rudy Rosales had sought $2.75 million from the state, plus $500,000 in medical bills, for negligence because a guard had let the attacker into his cell in November 2011.

Judge Darla Ideus ruled Monday that Rosales had failed to prove that the state had been negligent.

Ideus found that the state didn’t know about the risk the other inmate posed, and therefore didn’t fail in its duty to protect Rosales. Ideus also rejected Rosales’ claim that the prison nurse who saw him hadn’t given him proper medical care.

Rosales was treated in the hospital for five months with bleeding in his brain after the assault.

YORK, Neb. (AP) — A York man accused of using a sandal to spank a 4-year-old girl has been given two years of probation.

Online court records say 23-year-old Luis Rodriguez-Olvera was sentenced Monday. He’d pleaded no contest to misdemeanor negligent child abuse after prosecutors lowered the charge from a felony.

Investigators say Rodriguez-Olvera was taking care of his fiancee’s daughter on Aug. 8 last year while her mother was at work.

Court documents say Rodriguez-Olvera acknowledged spanking the girl, striking her six or seven times with the sandal, because she was “acting up or misbehaving.”

NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — A Norfolk woman has been charged with child abuse, accused of throwing and injuring her 4-year-old daughter.

Officers were called Sunday to a Norfolk hospital, where doctors said the girl had suffered a skull fracture and other injuries. She was flown to an Omaha hospital for treatment.

Madison County Jail records say the girl’s mother, 21-year-old Carla Montoya, was in custody Wednesday. Online court records don’t list the name of an attorney who could speak on Montoya’s behalf.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An agreement between neighborhood residents and Omaha officials apparently has cleared the way for an outdoor shooting range at the city’s Public Safety Training Center.

The City Council voted Tuesday to change an ordinance that had barred outdoor shooting at the center. Officials say the range is needed so officers can train with rifles in an outdoor environment that simulates job conditions.

Several neighbors had objected to the proposal, citing among other things their concerns about noise and safety. A city delegation had several meetings with residents and their attorney and reached an agreement that includes several provisions to address neighborhood concerns.

The issue now goes to the Omaha Planning Board.

A speeding, reckless driver is in jail after his vehicle is clocked traveling 140 mph on I-680 in Omaha.

On Tuesday morning, March 15, Nebraska State Patrol Troop A- Omaha was conducting traffic enforcement in the Omaha metro when an NSP aircraft clocked a blue Pontiac GTO traveling northbound at 140 mph on I-680. A trooper attempted a traffic stop near the Irvington Exit. The driver of the car stopped briefly before driving through the median and heading southbound on I-680.

The Nebraska State Patrol airplane continued to follow the car for approximately 15 minutes from the air before the driver stopped at a residence at 5808 S. 48th Avenue. Troopers then contacted the driver at the residence and took him into custody.

“This individual had complete disregard for the safety of others on the road around him,” said Captain Brenda Konfrst, Commander Troop A-Omaha. “We are fortunate his reckless actions didn’t cause an accident and take someone’s life.”

The driver of the vehicle, Jared B. Gooden, 21, Omaha, was lodged in the Douglas County Corrections on charges to include, speeding, willful reckless driving, driving under suspension, flight to avoid arrest, no registration and no insurance.