OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Five young toy inventors have been chosen as finalists in Fat Brain Toys’ annual contest.

The Omaha-based toy retailer will help the winner show off their idea at the 2018 American International Toy Fair in New York City. They will also receive a $2,500 scholarship.

The five finalists range in age from 9 to 13. They’ve come up with ideas like ping-pong without a table and a build-your-own pinball machine.

The winner will be chosen by a panel of toy industry veterans and an online vote. The top online vote-getter will receive an extra vote in the contest.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 58-year-old state prisoner awaiting sentencing has died in hospice care following an undisclosed illness.

The Douglas County Department of Corrections says in a news release that Charles McNeal was pronounced dead Friday afternoon while under hospice care. The release says McNeal had been hospitalized since Sept. 22 and was recently transferred to hospice care.

Nebraska law requires an investigation whenever someone dies in custody. Douglas County officials say that investigation has already begun.

McNeal had been convicted in early September of three counts of sexual assault of a child younger than 12. Court records say the assaults on the child took place between August 2012 and the end of 2014.

McNeal had been scheduled to be sentenced for those convictions on Nov. 17.

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — An 18-year-old man has been sentenced to probation and 60 days in jail for the death of a woman his pickup truck struck in a Kearney parking lot.

Court records say Tyler Olexo also was ordered at his sentencing hearing Thursday to pay a $500 fine, complete a driving course and write a letter of apology to the 88-year-old victim’s husband. The judge suspended half of the jail time. Olexo had pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vehicular homicide.

Prosecutors say Olexo, of Ravenna (ruh-VA’-nuh), struck Paula Newmyer and her shopping cart on March 30 as he was backing up in a Walmart parking lot. The Kearney resident’s head struck the pavement as she was knocked down. She died April 2.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — The executive director of the Nebraska State Fair says he’ll be retiring at the end of the year.

The fair board announced Wednesday that Joseph McDermott will serve as a board consultant next year.

McDermott joined the fair staff as a computer programmer in the late 1980s and moved up the ranks, becoming executive director in 2009. He directed the fair’s move from Lincoln to Grand Island.

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) — A judge has ordered a man who authorities say killed six members of a Nebraska family more than 40 years ago to remain in state care.

Lincoln County District Judge Donald Rowlands ruled Wednesday that 72-year-old Erwin Charles Simants is still mentally ill, based upon a diagnosis by experts at the state psychiatric hospital in Lincoln.

A report from experts at the Lincoln Regional Center says Simants hasn’t demonstrated “any agitation, anger, paranoia or delusional thinking and has been in remission for a long period of time.” He’s been diagnosed as schizophrenic.

Prosecutors say Simants shot and killed Henry and Audrey Kellie, their son David and three of their grandchildren in 1975 at the Kellies’ Sutherland home.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Organizers hope to build a memorial to law enforcement dogs and horses next to the Nebraska Law Enforcement Memorial in Grand Island.

Organizers said at an announcement ceremony Wednesday at Grand Island’s Law Enforcement Center that work is expected to begin in 18 to 24 months. Jarret Daugherty is chairman of the Nebraska Law Enforcement Memorial Committee, and he says the committee hopes to raise $25,000 to $30,000 for the project.

The addition would sit just northwest of the police memorial, which carries the names of 144 departed officers. A sidewalk would connect the two memorials.

The animal memorial would have a pillar on which images of a dog and horse would be etched. There also would be a concrete patio and two benches.