LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An automated shuttle is expected to arrive soon to carry people around Lincoln’s Haymarket area.

The Navya shuttle — a loaner — will be in the city through early August, part of a study on using the technology downtown in the future.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that the general public will be able to take rides in the Haymarket after initial testing at Nebraska Innovation Campus.

Lincoln is able to test the shuttle because of a $100,000 grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Lincoln was chosen earlier this year as one of 35 Champion Cities by

Bloomberg as finalists in the 2018 Mayors Challenge. The nationwide competition encourages city leaders to develop bold ideas in meeting challenges.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say Douglas County Sheriff’s deputies have seized more than 18 pounds of fentanyl and nearly three pounds of heroin near Omaha.

Officials say the seizure happened Friday after making contact with a person that morning. Officials say a 44-year-old Los Angeles man was arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to deliver, criminal conspiracy and failure to have a drug tax stamp.

Officials declined to release details on the specific location and nature of the contact and arrest, citing “the sensitive nature of the on-going investigation.”

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is set to be in Omaha later this week to appear with law enforcement officials for an announcement about plans to combat the opioid crisis.

Sessions is scheduled to appear at a press conference Thursday in Omaha with Robert Patterson, acting director of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The fight against opioids has made recent ripples in Nebraska, with the seizure of 120 pounds of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl.

Sessions is dealing with more than the opioid problem. The nation’s top prosecutor has endured blistering criticism from the man who appointed him, President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, Trump blamed Sessions for allowing a special counsel’s Russia probe to continue, tweeting that he would have “picked someone else” for the top job at the Justice Department had he known Sessions would recuse himself from the probe.

FREMONT, Neb. (AP) — A Fremont man charged in connection with several fires set in Dodge County has taken a plea deal.

Zachary Wanamaker pleaded no contest Monday to four counts after prosecutors dropped others. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on July 25.

Dodge County Attorney Oliver Glass told a Dodge County district judge at the hearing that the plea deal doesn’t include an agreement on a sentencing recommendation so far.

A co-defendant, 18-year-old Connor Miller, of Hooper, is scheduled for a hearing Tuesday.

PLATTSMOUTH, Neb. (AP) — A 42-year-old Nebraska man will serve four years of probation and 25 days in jail for helping his online girlfriend kill herself last summer.

Matthew Stubbendieck was sentenced Monday in Cass County to probation instead of the maximum penalty of two years in prison.

He will serve five days in jail every August during probation over the anniversary of the death of Alicia Wilemon-Sullivan of Orange City, Florida.
Stubbendieck was convicted in April. Prosecutors say he did nothing to stop 38-year-old Wilemon-Sullivan from slashing her wrists in a wooded area about 25 miles southwest of Omaha.

Stubbendieck reported Wilemon-Sullivan had killed herself and led authorities to her body Aug. 5.

Stubbendieck told investigators he believed Wilemon-Sullivan had stage-four cancer, but an autopsy found no cancerous masses or tumors.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha Police say the 20-year-old woman who died in a weekend shooting was an innocent bystander caught between two rival gangs that opened fire.

Six other people were also wounded in the shooting late Saturday that killed Jasmine Harris in downtown Omaha’s Old Market area. No arrests had been made as of Monday afternoon.

Police Chief Todd Schmaderer says the shooting is part of a recent surge in gun violence his department is battling.

Schmaderer says 21 shootings were reported in May in Omaha. That followed four shootings in April and 3 in March.

Additional officers have been added to the police department’s gang unit and more officers will be stationed downtown throughout the upcoming College World Series.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska prison inmate that DNA tests linked to four Omaha rapes more than a decade ago has been sentenced to 160 to 200 years in prison.

A judge sentenced 42-year-old Brandon Weathers Monday for four sexual assaults that he was linked to after being forced to submit a DNA sample that he had resisted for years in prison.

Weathers is already serving 100 to 160 years for raping a 13-year-old child.

Prosecutor Brenda Beadle says Weathers’ savage crimes clearly warranted the maximum sentence.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have recovered the body of a man who went under the water while tubing at Pawnee Lake west of Lincoln.

Officials say the body of 31-year-old Travis Wilkins was taken to shore just after sundown on Saturday.

Wilkins was being pulled Friday on an inner tube by a jet ski when the tube capsized. Another man and a 4-year-old were also riding on the tube. They were able to safely reach the shore.

Only the 4-year-old was wearing a life jacket.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man suspected in an Omaha slaying has died in a motorcycle crash along Interstate 80 just west of the Platte River in Cass County.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office says 47-year-old Denberth Chavarria died Sunday after driving his speeding motorcycle into the rear of an eastbound semitrailer.

Omaha police say an arrest warrant listing a charge of first-degree murder charge had been issued for Chavarria. He’s suspected of killing 33-year-old Joselyn Serrano-Albayero. Her body was found late Saturday morning. Children ages 2 and 9 also were found at the residence, but they were unhurt.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha’s low unemployment rate of 2.9 percent presents what could be costly challenges to the area’s employers.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that Omaha is among the 10 cities of the country’s 50 largest with unemployment rates less than 3 percent. The national rate is 3.8 percent.

Some Omaha employers have to pay higher salaries in order to attract workers to a new position or offer raises to ensure employees stay.

Todd Dawson is a managing partner at WorldBridge Partners, a recruiting company for the finance, legal and medical fields. Dawson says some Omaha businesses are offering extra paid vacation days, paid daycare, car allowances, bonuses and other company-paid benefits.

He says it’s a turnaround from a few years ago when some employers were cutting back on benefits.