(AP) — A Grand Island official arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence after a hit-and-run crash has been sentenced to six months of probation.

51-year-old Jaye Monter, of Cairo, pleaded no contest Wednesday to driving under the influence and failure to stop. Both counts are misdemeanors.

Monter is the finance director for Grand Island. In exchange for her pleas, prosecutors dropped misdemeanor charges of operating a vehicle to avoid arrest, refusal to submit to test and refusal to submit to a preliminary breath test.

Monter was also ordered to pay $1,800 in fines and court costs.

She was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving after a sheriff’s deputy witnessed her rear-end another vehicle June 7 on Highway 2, then drive off.

(AP) — A former worker at a Nebraska center for developmentally disabled adults is asking for a change of venue and for a new judge.

Matthew Pangborn’s attorney filed motions Wednesday seeking to move the abuse trial to another county and asking Gage County District Judge Paul Korslund to recuse himself.

Pangborn was convicted last year of nine counts related to the alleged abuse of residents and sentenced to 15 to 23 years in prison. But in July, the Nebraska Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Pangborn, saying prosecutor should not have been allowed to submit a chart of Pangborn’s alleged abuses for the jury to use during deliberations.

Gage County Attorney Roger Harris is opposing the motions.

(AP) — A 39-year-old Columbus man will stand trial on two counts of distributing child pornography.

Edward Johnson waived his right to a preliminary hearing and his case bound over Wednesday for trial. Johnson’s arraignment in Platte County District Court has been set for Sept. 27.

Police arrested Johnson earlier this month after received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that led to a five-month investigation.

Police say Internet records show that an online account belonging to Johnson was used to post photos of child pornography.

Johnson continues to be held at the Platte County jail on $150,000 bond.

(AP) — The price tag for the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s new arena has gone up nearly $12 million, and officials are blaming rising construction costs and design revisions.

The cost of the arena being built at 67th and Center Streets has jumped to $87.9 million. It had been $76.3 million.

Erin Owen, director of university communications, says UNO intends to pay for the $11.6 million in additional costs with $4 million more in bonds, $4 million more in private donations and $3.6 million in university funds.

UNO planned to ask the University of Nebraska Board of Regents to approve the revised cost and a financing plan that asks permission to issue up to $73 million in bonds.

(AP) — A woman who bragged on Facebook about cashing counterfeit checks around Lincoln has been sentenced to up to 12 years in prison.

23-year-old Aloni Jones was sentenced Tuesday to six to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to two forgery counts. In exchange for her plea, two other forgery counts were dropped.

Police say Jones cashed at least four counterfeit income tax refund checks, each made out for nearly $7,300, in March.

An arrest affidavit says Jones posted a picture of herself on Facebook flashing $100 bills, along with comments indicating that she had fraudulently gotten the money.

(AP) — A federal judge says lawsuits by two men falsely accused of murder can proceed against southeast Nebraska law enforcement officials.

Matthew Livers and Nicholas Sampson sued Douglas County and Cass County law enforcement officials in 2008 and 2007, saying officials violated their constitutional rights.

The two men were initially charged in the 2006 shotgun slayings of Wayne and Sharmon Stock in their farmhouse in southeastern Nebraska. The men spent months in prison before being cleared of murder charges.

A Wisconsin pair was eventually convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports (http://bit.ly/1eoTYSg) that U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Bataillon on Friday rejected a request by the defendants to dismiss the lawsuits. Trial in the case has been set to begin Oct. 21.

(AP) — The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office says a man believed to have helped commit one of four linked Omaha killings last month has been arrested.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s office says Warren J. Levering was arrested Wednesday on the Winnebago Indian Reservation in northeast Nebraska. Authorities had issued an arrest warrant for the 51-year-old Levering a day earlier.

Levering is accused of being an accessory to a felony in the Aug. 21 death of 33-year-old Andrea Kruger, who was shot and killed in an intersection northwest of Omaha as she was headed home from work.

Prosecutors have charged 26-year-old Nikko Jenkins, who is Levering’s nephew, with four counts of murder in connection with Kruger’s death and three other killings.

Levering is in the custody of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

(AP) — Union Pacific railroad is repairing flood-damaged tracks in Colorado, and working to protect its main line crossing Nebraska as the floodwaters flow east into the Plains.

Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis says flooding damaged about 20 miles of its line west over the mountains out of Denver and damaged another 19 miles of track between Denver and Cheyenne, Wyo.

Davis says the north-south track is expected to reopen Wednesday afternoon, but the line over the mountains will likely be closed for repairs until October 1.

UP is rerouting the 10 trains a day that normally use that line, and Amtrak is busing passengers over the mountains.

In Nebraska, UP raised seven miles of track near Ogallala 4 inches and piled rock along tracks between Julesburg, Colo., and Big Springs, Neb.

 

(AP) — A former Verdigre village clerk has been fined $6,000 by the Nebraska Accountability & Disclosure Commission for abusing her position as a public officer.

The Norfolk Daily News reports (http://bit.ly/1eoXkVk) that the commission found Alisha Bartling made a housing loan to herself and her husband. It also found she had made loans to her husband’s business and brother-in-law and failed to keep accurate records of the loans or enforced timely payments on them.

The commission voted unanimously Friday to impose the $6,000 fine. Bartling, who was named the 2011 Outstanding Clerk of the Year, agreed to the fine.

The commission’s finding and fine are separate from three criminal charges of theft that Bartling faces in Holt County.