(AP) — It’s now hard to miss the Central Nebraska Humane Society shelter in Grand Island.

Local businessman Fred Schritt donated a sign that was installed Tuesday. It features a small blue convertible driven by Snoopy with Garfield beside him.

The car sits atop a pole in front of the shelter.

Humane Society Executive Director Laurie Dethloff calls it “a sheer, expensive, wonderful gesture.”

Schritt has other cars mounted outside his auto-body shop. He says he hopes it will attract people to the Humane Society, where they will adopt a pet.

(AP) — At least three people have been shot on the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge that connects Omaha with Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Omaha police say the shootings were reported a little after 1:15 a.m. Wednesday. The bridge closes at 11 p.m.

Police say there had been a disturbance at the bridge before the shots rang out. Witnesses told officers that they heard gunshots and then saw a crowd of people scatter.

One of the wounded people was taken in critical condition to an Omaha hospital. Two other people also were hospitalized.

The names of those involved have not been released.

Police didn’t report any arrests.

(AP) — A 36-year-old Grand Island man who was acquitted of murder last year has been given prison time for assaulting a jail guard.

Arkanjelo Kot was sentenced Tuesday to two to four years in prison.

In April a judge denied Kot’s request to withdraw his no-contest plea to assaulting the guard. The incident occurred while Kot was being held in jail awaiting the murder trial.

Prosecutors say Kot punched the guard last June when the guard tried to break up an argument Kot was having with another inmate.

In November Kot was found not guilty of murder in the July 2010 slaying of 17-year-old Walid Omar-Aden. Kot testified that he fired his gun in self-defense.

(AP) — A former federal police officer in Grand Island has been given 300 days in jail for misdemeanor sexual assault.

Justin Maltagliati had pleaded no contest after prosecutors lowered his original felony charge. The 41-year-old was sentenced on Tuesday.

Maltagliati was employed at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center when the incident occurred on July 20 last year.

A woman told police that she’d filed documents for a protection order against Maltagliati three days earlier. She says she awoke at 3 a.m. that day to find him touching her. She says he sexually assaulted her despite her telling him to stop and trying to push him away.

He will get credit for the 56 days he has already served in jail.

(AP) — A 49-year-old Lincoln woman has been found guilty of stealing nearly $40,000 from a clinic for recovering addicts.

Lancaster County District Judge Jodi Nelson on Tuesday found Becky Nannen guilty of theft by unlawful taking.

Prosecutors had accused her of stealing $39,925 from 2008 to 2011 when she worked as an accountant at First Step Recovery in Lincoln. The embezzlement was discovered by a staff audit.

First Step Recovery helps people addicted to drugs, alcohol and gambling as well as those with eating disorders.

Nannen will be sentenced Aug. 1. Her prison sentence could range from one to 20 years.

(AP) — Three Catholic schools in southeast Omaha have closed as part of a realignment of schools.

Thursday marked the end of classes at Assumption-Guadalupe Catholic School and Holy Ghost School. On Friday, St. Stanislaus School closed.

The move was especially difficult at Assumption-Guadalupe because it had helped so many Latino families in recent years.

School principal Rob Laird says about 95 percent of the school’s students come from families that speak Spanish at home.

School officials are encouraging parents to send children to Sts. Peter and Paul School, where the Archdiocese of Omaha has been working to meet the needs of Spanish-speaking families.

Laird says about 56 percent of families with returning students will attend Sts. Peter and Paul and he expects that number to rise.

 

(AP) — A York man who prosecutors say placed his baby daughter in the care of her drunken mother faces sentencing on July 1.

James Collingham made a deal with prosecutors, who lowered the child abuse charge to a misdemeanor.

County Attorney Candace Dick says the baby was born in December. Police and firefighters were sent to the woman’s apartment in March after neighbors reported smelling smoke. Dick says officers found the baby’s mother passed out, the baby in a stroller and a pan of food burning on the stove.

Dick says Collingham told officers that he and the woman had been drinking but he didn’t know she was drunk when he left her with the baby.

(AP) — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has pleaded guilty to charges the companydumped hazardous waste in California.

A company spokeswoman says Wal-Mart entered the plea Tuesday in San Francisco federal court to misdemeanor counts of negligently dumping pollutants from Walmart stores into sanitation drains across California.

As part of the plea, the company will pay $81 million, which will also cover charges in Missouri.

In 2010, the company agreed to pay $27.6 million to settle similar allegations made by California authorities that led to changes in the retailer’s practices nationwide. Wal-Mart was accused of improperly disposing pesticide, fertilizer and paint.

(AP) — Coroner’s officials say five people killed in a fiery California crash that split a car in half were teenage high school students, including two sisters.

Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said Tuesday the teens were students in the Irvine Unified School District.

The names of the three girls and two boys were released a day after they were killed in the single-car accident in Newport Beach.

The driver was identified as 17-year-old Abdulrahman Alyahyan, a senior at University High School.

The passengers included 17-year-old Robin Cabrera, a senior at Irvine High School, and her 16-year-old sister Aurora, a sophomore at the same school. Also killed were Cecilia Zamora and Nozad Al Hamawendi, both 17-year-old juniors at Irvine High School.

Police say speed was a factor.

(AP) — A 7-year-old cancer patient who had a trading card issued in his honor after he ran roughshod over the Nebraska Cornhuskers has found new buyers for cards set aside for his charity.

Among those stepping up: actor James Denton, who was on “Desperate Housewives.”

Video of Jack Hoffman’s run during Nebraska’s spring football game was an Internet hit. The Upper Deck Co. issued a card for Jack, with signed blow-ups for his foundation to auction off.

The winning bidder for the first card declined to pay, saying he hadn’t authorized the $6,100 bid. Jack’s father, Andy Hoffman, says news coverage prompted three buyers to offer $10,000 each for a signed card.

Denton lives in suburban Minneapolis, and the Hoffmans traveled there to meet him Tuesday. They are from Atkinson, Neb.