(AP) — The Douglas County Board wants to buy the former Greyhound bus station in downtown Omaha.

The board voted Tuesday to move ahead with plans to buy the building, though the purchase price is subject to negotiations with Greyhound.

County Administrator Patrick Bloomingdale says the site will probably be used for parking but could have other uses, such as space for a long-term expansion of the county jail.

The property is valued at $499,000.

Greyhound stopped its service to Omaha last summer.

(AP) — A 22-year-old man has been charged with murder and other charges in the slaying of a 16-year-old Omaha girl and wounding of her cousin.

Police say Tracy Parnell already was in custody awaiting trial on charges related to an incident that occurred before the shooting on Oct. 30. Parnell is accused of shooting Eriana Carr to death and shooting Nakia Johnson 11 times. Johnson, who was 20 at the time, survived her wounds.

Police say that on Oct. 28, Parnell threatened Johnson at gunpoint because she had invited a rival gang member to the apartment she shared with Parnell’s girlfriend.

Parnell remained in custody on Tuesday. His lawyer didn’t immediately return a call from The Associated Press.

(AP) — Members of Nebraska’s new tax modernization committee have started their work to identify any weaknesses in the state’s tax structure.

The 14-member legislative committee met for the first time on Monday to discuss how they will proceed.

Sen. Galen Hadley, the committee chairman, says members will travel to five or six different communities in Nebraska to hear public input. Members are planning to look at sales, income and property taxes, and what can be done to stimulate business and population growth.

Hadley says the committee will look at what areas of the tax structure, if any, have fallen out of sync with Nebraska’s economy. The last major tax overhaul took place in the 1960s, and some lawmakers question whether it still reflects an economy that now relies more on services.

(AP) — An early morning fire has prompted the closure of a South Sioux City oat processing plant.

Firefighters responded about 3 a.m. Monday to a fire on a manufacturing line at the Viterra grain processing plant.

Tracey Shelton, a spokeswoman for plant owner Richardson International, says the plant is closed while crews assess the damage.

Shelton says none of the 10 workers at the plant when the fire broke out were injured. The plant employs 60 people.

The cause of the fire wasn’t known Monday.

The plant was built in 1989 and processes oats used in cereal and other food.

(AP) — Volunteers in Omaha have removed hundreds of signs that were illegally placed along curbs, on utility poles and on public property.

42 patrol groups worked Sunday to remove about 600 signs as part of an annual effort by the Omaha Coalition of Citizen Patrols.

Coalition President Liz Davenport says the most common illegally placed signs are real estate placards that are left next to curbs rather than in yards. She says there are many others, too, from signs for roofing companies to yard sales.

People who want a sign returned can contact the Public Works Department and check its maintenance yards.

(AP) — It’s unclear what started a fire at a vacant Creighton University dorm that was quickly extinguished by firefighters.

Contractors renovating Deglman Hall alerted Creighton Public Safety about the fire Monday afternoon.

Firefighters saw smoke and flames coming from the fourth floor of the building when they arrived. Crews were able to control the fire within minutes.

Investigators were determining the cause of the fire Monday.

(AP) — A 46-year-old Missouri man has been given life in prison for the 1989 murder of a Nebraska woman.

Judge Karen Noakes sentenced John Oldson on Monday in St. Paul, Neb., telling Oldson that he was a dangerous man from whom the public needed protection.

A Howard County jury had found the 46-year-old Oldson, of Randolph, Mo., guilty of second-degree murder. He was charged with killing 31-year-old Catherine Beard, a waitress from Ord. She disappeared in 1989. Her remains were found outside Ord in 1992.

Oldson, who used to live in Ord, was interviewed in 1989 but not arrested. He was arrested a year ago in Missouri. Authorities say new evidence and witnesses led to his arrest.

Oldson’s attorney says Oldson likely will appeal.

(AP) — An Omaha-based ethanol company says it’s buying an idle ethanol plant in north-central Nebraska.

Green Plains Renewable Energy Inc. said Monday that it has signed an agreement with Choice Ethanol Holdings LLC to acquire the former Nedak Ethanol plant in Atkinson. The deal includes an ethanol storage and loading facility about 15 miles east of the plant. Terms were not disclosed.

The Norfolk Daily News has reported that Choice Ethanol, of Fargo, N.D., was a company formed by Nedak Ethanol’s lenders. Choice Ethanol had bought the plant at auction in January.

Green Plains CEO Todd Becker says Green Plains plans to staff and restart the plant within the next four weeks.

The plant can produce about 50 million gallons of ethanol a year.

(AP) — Grand Island has been struggling to get a dozen new police cruisers out on the streets.

Chief Steve Lamken said the new vehicles presented a problem with the changeover to mobile data terminals. He hopes to have them deployed by the end of June.

The new parts needed to adapt the new Ford Taurus-based cruisers to accommodate technological changes have arrived and the wiring and retrofitting have begun.

The new technology is expected to save time for officers.