LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska-based bank has increased security at all its branches in the wake of several Lincoln bank robberies.

Pinnacle Bank branches in Lincoln have been the targets of bank robbers five times in the past year. Lincoln police say there have also been nine other bank robberies in the city in the past two years.

A spokeswoman for the bank says Pinnacle is adding controlled access at all 12 of its Lincoln branches and is using armed guards at some locations until it can complete the process. Bank doors will be locked and staff will have to physically let in customers.

The FBI reports the surge in Nebraska bank heists comes as bank robberies rose nationally by about 5 percent between 2015 and 2016.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — In a split decision, a federal appeals panel has sided with the city of Lincoln in a civil rights lawsuit by a man who was arrested and convicted of trespassing for handing out religious leaflets outside an arena on public land.

Larry Ball appealed last year after a federal court in Lincoln granted the city’s request for summary judgment, ending Ball’s lawsuit.

The 80-year-old Ball sued after being found guilty in 2015 of two misdemeanor trespassing counts and fined $100. Ball maintains the area in front of the Pinnacle Bank Arena entrance is for public use and that the city violated his free-speech rights.

But two of a panel of three 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges on Tuesday agreed that the city’s policy restricting use of the plaza is reasonable.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A woman has been sent to federal prison for health care fraud in Nebraska.

Chandra Wrightsell, who ran Evol Consulting, was sentenced Tuesday in Lincoln to 18 months behind bars and was told to pay nearly $106,000 in restitution.

Court records say that between December 2011 and July 2014, the 47-year-old Wrightsell submitted nearly 1,200 false claims to Nebraska Medicaid for her mental health and substance abuse treatment company.

It’s her second federal sentence in 10 years. In 2007 Wrightsell was sentenced to 15 months for embezzling more than $101,000 while working as vice president of marketing for First National Bank of Omaha.

GRETNA, Neb. (AP) — An eastern Nebraska woman says lessons her son learned in Cub Scouts saved her life.

Rebecca Campbell says she and her three children had just begun to eat supper last Wednesday at their Gretna home when a piece of chicken lodged in her throat. She got up but then collapsed, unable to talk or catch a breath.

Soon her 8-year-old son, Caden, was at her side while his younger sister, Lilly, pulled away the family dog and his older brother, Colton, stood ready with a tissue to grab the chicken. Caden then employed the Heimlich maneuver, thrusting his fists upward on her abdomen several times until the meat loosened and his mom could cough and breathe.

She says she told Caden, “‘Do you know you just saved my life?'”

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha teen has been sentenced to 70 to 120 years in prison for the 2015 shooting deaths of two other teens.

Courvoisier Sims was sentenced Tuesday in Douglas County District Court after pleading guilty in July of two counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors say he was 15 when he killed 17-year-old Brandon Phelps and 19-year-old James Star in December 2015 in northeast Omaha shooting.

Prosecutors say Sims was a gang member who was trying to buy a gun when the shooting happened.

But a defense attorney says Sims panicked and shot the teens because he thought he was being robbed.