(AP) — Officials say two people have been injured in a grain elevator explosion in Nuckolls County.

Emergency Manager Tim Stutzman says the explosion happened Friday afternoon in the unincorporated community of Sedan, about five miles southeast of Edgar. Firefighters were still working to put out hotspots Friday night.

The elevator is owned by Aurora Co-Op. CEO George Hohwieler says an employee and a farmer were injured.

They were first taken to Fillmore County Hospital in Geneva before being flown to a Lincoln hospital. Stutzman says he does not know what their conditions are.

The cause of the blast hasn’t been determined. Stutzman says the state fire marshal is investigating.

(AP) — Ten days after a fatal crash involving an inmate-driven prison van, the director of the state’s prisons department has ended the program that allowed inmates to drive state-owned vans to ferry other inmates to and from work-release sites.

Nebraska Department of Correctional Services Director Robert Houston announced the demise of the program Friday at a news conference in Lincoln.

The program had already been suspended last Friday, three days after investigators say a prison van driven by 35-year-old inmate Jeremy Dobbe hit a minivan, killing its driver, 47-year-old Joyce Meeks.

Houston said Friday that inmates who are assigned to work detail jobs will be transported by department staff from now on.

(AP) — An Iowa man suspected of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl has been arrested in eastern Nebraska after a brief standoff with police.

Bellevue police say they received a call around 9:30 a.m. Friday reporting that 25-year-old Diego Campos, of West Des Moines, had sexually assaulted the girl at a Bellevue house. Police say Campos fled the home with a knife, and the search for him began.

Officials found him just before 2 p.m. hiding in a drainage culvert near a wooded area. Campos initially refused to come out, but surrendered less than an hour later. He was taken to a hospital for cuts and later arrested.

(AP) — Omaha police have identified two men who were victims of early-morning shootings, including one with life-threatening injuries.

Police say 19-year-old Timothy J. Howell of Omaha was in critical condition after the shooting, shortly before midnight on Friday. He was taken to Creighton University Medical Center.

Police say another man who was a witness to the first shooting walked into the hospital shortly before 3 a.m. Spencer Mason, 22, was being treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Omaha police say they’re still investigating. Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers, and may be eligible for a $1,000 reward.

(AP) — A 4-year-old passenger on an ATV has died in a crash with a pickup in northeast Nebraska.

The Nebraska State Patrol says Dylan Jacob Becker of Hartington was riding on the vehicle Thursday night when it collided with an eastbound pickup on a county road near the village of Winnetoon.

The driver of the ATV, 19-year-old Natalie Becker of Creighton, was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Sioux City, Iowa. The pickup driver, 16-year-old Austyn Larsen of Orchard, was not hospitalized.

It’s not known whether the ATV riders were wearing helmet.

(AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for a man convicted of fatally stabbing another at a 2010 party in Norfolk.

The state’s high court on Friday overturned the second-degree murder conviction of 23-year-old De’Aris Trice, who was sentenced to 40 years-to-life in prison for killing 27-year-old Timothy Warren.

The high court cited faulty instructions to Trice’s jury. The jury was instructed to convict Trice of second-degree murder if it found beyond a reasonable doubt that he had killed intentionally, but without premeditation. Only if prosecutors failed to prove one of those elements could it consider whether Trice had committed manslaughter, a lesser offense.

The jury should have been allowed to consider whether the killing was intentional but provoked by a sudden quarrel, therefore constituting manslaughter.

(AP) — Police are still investigating but they say it appears a fireworks accident in California happened when a platform holding the fireworks tipped over, sending them shooting into the crowd, injuring 28 people.

As many as 10,000 people were attending the annual 4th of July show in Simi Valley, northwest of Los Angeles. Officials say that instead of launching into the sky, a bright plume of red and white bursts spread across the ground.

Four people are hospitalized in serious condition, but their injuries are not life-threatening. Another 16 were taken to area hospitals with minor to moderate injuries. Others hurt were treated at the park.

Authorities estimate people were about 900 feet away from where the fireworks were being launched.

Officials say most people responded admirably and left in an orderly fashion.

(AP) — Omaha police have arrested a man accused of striking a Council Bluffs police officer with a stolen vehicle.

Authorities say 24-year-old Andrew M. Brown was wanted in Iowa on charges of attempted murder, assault on a police officer and theft. Brown was captured on Thursday after leading Omaha police on a chase.

Authorities say Brown deliberately pointed a stolen vehicle at Council Bluffs officers who were trying to stop him during another chase on June 25. Brown is accused of striking one of the officers, who was thrown into air and against a utility pole before landing in a ditch. The officer was taken to a hospital with minor injuries and released.

A female passenger who was in the vehicle with Brown on Thursday was also taken into custody.

(AP) — A youth shelter that closed last year on the Omaha Indian Reservation is expected to reopen in Lincoln.

The shelter is scheduled to have 10 beds available for girls who are 12 to 18 years old, starting in August. An expansion is planned later.

In 1992, the Omaha Tribe became one of 33 tribes across the country to receive federal funding to build and run an emergency youth shelter. The Mark of Honor Youth Lodge operated in Macy until last year, when the tribe evicted the shelter from its building.

Mark of Honor Youth Lodge director Jay Bazemore says the shelter is geared toward Native Americans but also serves non-native children.

The shelter will be a licensed state child care agency.

(AP) — Authorities say five people were sent to the hospital after two vehicles rolled over on Interstate 80 in eastern Nebraska.

Emergency crews responded to the crash near Ashland around 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

The Nebraska State Patrol says a 1996 Toyota SUV was driving east on the interstate when it blew a tire. The SUV crossed the median, into incoming traffic. A Jeep tried to swerve out of the way, causing both the Jeep and Toyota to roll into the ditch.

Emergency crews took four adults and one child to a Lincoln hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Their conditions were not immediately known.