(AP) — An Omaha elementary school was briefly placed on lockdown as authorities investigated a nearby shooting.

Omaha police say they found a man with a gunshot wound Thursday morning near Wakonda Elementary School in the city’s north side. He was transferred to a nearby hospital in critical condition, though officials say his injuries do not appear to be life-threatening.

Authorities say they placed the school on lockdown as a precaution.

Additional information about the man’s condition has not been released.

(AP) — A former Bellevue teacher faces two misdemeanor charges connected to a sex talk case involving a juvenile.

Bellevue police say allegations were made against Joseph Blackstad in September, when he was teaching at Bellevue East High School. An examination of Blackstad’s cellphone found what were called “sexually explicit communications” between Blackstad and a juvenile.

Blackstad is charged with child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a child. He is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 4.

Online court records don’t list his attorney’s name. A public phone listing for Blackstad couldn’t be found.

(AP) — A December sentencing has been scheduled for a woman who posed naked on a Lincoln Catholic high school campus.

Online court records say 19-year-old Valerie Dodds was found guilty of trespassing and public nudity after a nonjury trial before Judge Thomas Fox. He set her sentencing for Dec. 20.

Prosecutors say Dodds made various poses on the football field at Lincoln Pius X in May and then posted the photos on her adult website.

Dodds said on her site that the photo shoot was revenge against students and teachers who gave Dodds grief when she shared her plans for a career in porn.

(AP) — A Lincoln man who sped away from an arresting officer, dragging the policeman, has been sentenced to time served and released.

33-year-old Jermaine Dabney was sentenced Tuesday to a year in jail. Because he had spent the last year in jail awaiting trial, he was released.

Prosecutor say Lincoln Police Officer Luke Bonkiewicz stopped Dabney’s vehicle last November and learned that Dabney was wanted on a warrant. When the officer ordered Dabney out of his vehicle, Dabney refused, rolled up his window on the officer’s arms and sped off, dragging Bonkiewicz nearly 300 feet.

A Lancaster County jury found Dabney guilty in August of operating a motor vehicle to avoid arrest, but not guilty of assaulting an officer.

(AP) — Traveling over the Missouri River at Decatur, Neb., should soon be cheaper and a little quicker.

Motorists will no longer have to pay a toll to use the bridge, which links Nebraska and Iowa about half way between Omaha and Sioux City.

The change comes as the Burt County Bridge Commission turns over ownership of the bridge to Iowa and Nebraska.

Bridge manager Clark Beck says it’s good news for Decatur residents who will no longer have to pay the $1 toll to drive a car or pickup truck over the span. But he notes it also means the loss of more than a dozen part-time toll-taking jobs.

Iowa and Nebraska still must give final approval to the ownership change, but that’s expected soon.

(AP) — American National Bank in midtown Omaha will again be the site of The Salvation Army’s Tree of Lights.

The public is invited to the lighting ceremony of the giant Christmas tree on Friday evening. A special 125th anniversary illuminated display will also be unveiled.

Friday is also the day The Salvation Army’s red kettles and bell ringers begin appearing outside businesses in the Omaha area.

The campaign continues through Dec. 24.

The money collected during the six-week campaign supports Salvation Army programs and services throughout the year, including food pantries, housing, utility assistance, behavioral health services and education. All money raised through the Red Kettle Drive stays in the community where the funds are collected.

(AP) — A 24-year-old man has denied sexually assaulting a child in the south-central Nebraska town of Hardy.

James Wheeler Jr. pleaded not guilty on Tuesday in a Nuckolls County courtroom.

Authorities say a baby sitter discovered Aug. 19 that the girl was assaulted.

Wheeler’s next court hearing is scheduled for Jan. 7.

(AP) — A proposed groundwater allocation plan is worrying several southeast Nebraska farmers.

More than 100 people attended a Tuesday hearing about the proposal at the Upper Big Blue Natural Resources District office in York.

The district oversees groundwater and other natural resources in Adams, Butler, Clay, Fillmore, Hamilton, Polk, Saline, Seward and York counties.

The district in 1990 set a groundwater trigger level for imposing limits. The current allocation proposal is 45 inches over five years, which would be imposed in 2015 if spring 2014 tests show the trigger level has been reached.

Farmers fear that such restrictions and other proposed regulations would cause crop profits to dry up.

The district board has no deadline for a decision and didn’t make one Tuesday.

(AP) — Hall County supervisors have decided to split a few hairs but leave a grooming issue to the corrections boss.

The board on Tuesday considered a request to let corrections officers grow facial hair as part of a Christmas fundraiser for children at the Hope Harbor homeless shelter.

Board chairwoman Pam Lancaster described the proposal as “so on the edge.”

Corrections Director Fred Ruiz is on the shelter’s board of directors. He told supervisors he doesn’t like facial hair on the officers, preferring they maintain a professional look. But he said the cause is a good one.

The board asked Ruiz to shorten the proposed growing period to 100 days from 150 days and to ensure the beards, sideburns or mustaches are well-groomed.

(AP) — A federal judge says the three members of the Nebraska Board of Pardons will not have to give depositions explaining the pardons of six people wrongfully convicted of a 1985 Beatrice murder.

U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf’s order Monday granted the request of the Pardons Board members — Gov. Dave Heineman, Secretary of State John Gale and Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning — to quash plans to question them.

The order came in the lawsuits filed by James Dean, Kathleen Gonzalez, Debra Shelden, Ada JoAnn Taylor, Joseph White and Thomas Winslow. They were convicted in the 1985 murder of Helen Wilson and spent a combined 87 years in prison before they were exonerated in 2008 after DNA testing implicated another man.

They say Gage County officials fabricated and coerced evidence.