LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has settled a dispute between Omaha and the city’s police union over contract negotiating deadlines.

The Supreme Court said in a ruling issued Thursday that it wouldn’t reopen negotiations of the police contract for 2014.

The High Court refused to overturn an earlier ruling that determined the city had failed to provide written notice by April 1, 2013, that it wanted to negotiate the contract.

Without written notice, the contract automatically renewed for another year.

The court said city officials didn’t prove the union had agreed to negotiate without receiving formal notice.

EDISON, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a woman and six children have escaped flames that damaged their home across a street from a fire hall in southern Nebraska.

The fire was reported a little after 9 a.m. Wednesday in Edison. Firefighters from Arapahoe, Beaver City and Holbrook joined the Edison volunteers in battling the blaze. No injuries have been reported.

Investigators say a child playing with a lighter started the fire.

Edison is a village of about 130 residents in Furnas County.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s minimum wage has increased by $1 to $9 an hour in 2016.

The increase for non-tipped workers started Friday. It’s up from $8 an hour in 2015 and $7.25 before that.

The increase is the final phase of a two-step minimum wage hike approved by voters in 2014. Nebraska’s last minimum wage increase before that was in 2009.

Kathy Siefken, executive director of the Nebraska Grocery Industry Association, says she’s worried what the increase to $9 will mean for rural grocery stores.

Grocers backed a bill in the state Legislature this year to keep the minimum wage at $8 for most student workers 18 and younger. But it failed to get support from two-thirds of state legislators, which is required to modify a law enacted by public vote.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A new deputy will oversee Nebraska’s prison-based manufacturing program.

Corrections director Scott Frakes announced Thursday that Jeremy Elder has been chosen as deputy director of Cornhusker State Industries. Elder will replace John McGovern, who retired earlier this month.

Elder has worked with the program for the past 12 years in a variety of positions.

Elder holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the university. He will begin his new role on Jan. 11.

GERING, Neb. (AP) — A Scottsbluff man has been sentenced to prison for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.

Thirty-year-old Kyle McDonald was sentenced Thursday to 20 to 30 years in prison. He’d pleaded no contest and was convicted on two counts of sexual assault of a child.

A court document says McDonald had contacted the girl through Facebook and later bought her a cellphone. She told investigators she sent nude pictures of herself to McDonald and had sex with him at least three times.

The affidavit says her mother called police after she found the phone and the photos.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s new rules for unemployment benefits are generally earning praise, but some people have been tripped up by one of the requirements.

Last fall, Nebraska increased the number of job contacts people must make each week to qualify for unemployment benefits to five from two. But some applicants are missing a requirement that one of those contacts must be made through the state’s jobs site.

Maddy Hager says she was surprised to receive a warning letter from the Labor Department saying she hadn’t met the requirements even though she contacted five employers.

The unemployment rules require applicants to make at least one job contact through the NEworks.Nebraska.gov website. That requirement is explained in the middle of a 34-page handbook and in a letter applicants receive.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An animal rights group is criticizing a Nebraska sheriff in online videos after authorities stopped members of the group near a USDA research lab in Clay County.

The group from Geneva, Illinois that calls itself SHARK has posted three videos on YouTube criticizing Clay County Sheriff Jeff Franklin. The group’s name stands for Showing Animals Respect & Kindness.

The group’s president Steve Hindi says Franklin and his deputies stopped members of the group who were trying to take video of the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center.

The federal research lab has been under scrutiny since last year when a New York Times story raised questions about how animals are cared for.

Franklin denies any wrongdoing and says the online videos are a smear campaign.

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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The governor has named a Ceresco man and reappointed an Omaha man to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

The commission says Gov. Pete Ricketts named Dan Kreitman, of Ceresco, to replace Mark Pinkerton as the representative for southeastern Nebraska’s District 1. The governor reappointed Dick Bell to represent District 2, which covers Douglas County. Bell was first appointed in December 2013.

Both men are to serve four-year terms, starting Jan. 16.

• Steven Richard Henninger, 53, Gibbon NE and Jennah Marie Raffaeli, 40, Grand Island NE

 

• Craig Alan Malsbury, 56, North Platte and Melissa Ann Wagner, 40, North Platte

 

• Monte Daniel Jeffres, 32, Dickinson ND and Shelly Faith Talks Different, 44, Frazer MT

 

• Darin Douglas Stearley, 33, North Platte and Cassandra Kay Kubes, 32, North Platte

 

• Mark Steven Kechely, 53, Lincoln NE and Sali Sue Lindenberger, 47, North Platte

 

• Jerry Ray Peterson, 68, Gothenburg NE and Sherryl Lynn Lehman, 68, North Platte

 

• Steven Andrew Stone, 22, Stapleton NE and Tiffany Nicole Lupton, Stapleton NE

 

• Larry John Rivera, 67, North Platte and Ginger Dianne Foust, 55, North Platte

Janssen Auto Group of McCook, North Platte and Holdrege have announced they will be offering free rides home again this New Years Eve to anyone needing a safe ride home.

“This is our sixth  year of offering this service and are pleased to be able to offer it again this year,” said Dave Janssen of Janssen Auto group.  “While we don’t want to encourage anyone to over indulge this New Year’s Eve we do want to make sure that everyone makes it home safely” continued Janssen.

Janssen Auto Group will be running their shuttle service within a five-mile radius of McCook, North Platte and Holdrege, and will be running from 8:00 PM to 1:30 AM on New Years Eve.

Anyone seeking to take advantage of this service in McCook can call Joe Slaby at 308-520-1774  or in Holdrege call Rod Waldrip at 308-991-1685 or in North Platte call Rocky Wiezorek at 308-520-5841 or Pat Wiezorek at 970-692-7479