Four people have been injured in a two-vehicle collision near the eastern Nebraska village of Waterloo, and officials say slick road conditions may have contributed to the crash.

Douglas County Chief Deputy Sheriff Marty Bilek says the crash happened around 5 p.m. Wednesday on a bridge near West Maple Road and Highway 275. He says sleet was falling at the time and icy conditions had been reported.

One person is critically injured and three others are seriously injured. An infant in one of the cars was not hurt.

Bilek says a northbound vehicle crossed the center line and hit the other car. Southbound lanes of Highway 275 were closed following the crash.

A fire chief who lost his job after being accused of theft has been jailed in southeast Nebraska.

John Porter surrendered to Lincoln police on Wednesday morning. A Lancaster County jailer says the 46-year-old Porter is still in custody, awaiting court action on the theft allegation. Online court records don’t list the case yet.

The board of the Southeast Fire & Rescue Department in Lincoln dismissed Porter on Feb. 1. Turner has denied the board’s allegations that he stole thousands from the department by manipulating accounts.

 

(AP) — A 19-year-old Lincoln man was sentenced to 11 to 22 years in prison after being convicted of dragging two Lincoln police officers who clung to his car as they tried to arrest him.

Shahbaz Mohammad was sentenced Wednesday. He had pleaded no contest in March to second-degree assault on an officer and operating a motor vehicle to avoid arrest.

The incident with police occurred Oct. 14 during a traffic stop. Mohammad gave another man’s name to police, and when officers asked him to get out of the car he drove off.

He dragged two officers, one for about 130 feet and the other for 10 blocks.

The car ran over one officer’s knee, and he couldn’t resume full duty for a month.

UPDATE:

Three college friends of the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect are accused of removing a backpack from his dorm room — a backpack containing fireworks that had been emptied of gunpowder. According to charges filed today, they did so three days after the attack.

Two of the men are charged with conspiring to obstruct justice. A third is charged with making false statements. The affidavit says the two facing the obstruction of justice charges agreed to get rid of the backpack after concluding from news reports that their friend, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was one of the bombers.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Boston police say three more suspects have been taken into custody in the marathon bombings.

In a tweet Wednesday morning, the police department says only that three more suspects are in custody and more details will follow. Police spokeswoman Cheryl Fiandaca confirmed the tweet but referred all other questions to the FBI.

Three people were killed and more than 260 injured on April 15 when two bombs exploded near the finish line.

Suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev died after a gunfight with police several days later. His brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was captured and lies in a hospital prison.

Both are Russian natives who lived for several years in the U.S. They are accused of using a weapon of mass destruction.

A 28-year-old Omaha man has been given 45 years in prison for the slaying of another Omaha man.

Court records say Horace Amerson was sentenced on Tuesday in Douglas County District Court. He’d pleaded guilty after prosecutors reduced a murder charge to manslaughter and dropped one of two weapons charges.

Police say Amerson fired a dozen shots on March 8, 2011, into the parking lot of a Family Dollar Store. One of the bullets struck and killed 36-year-old Jarrod Maxwell.

Amerson said he’d been seeking revenge for the shooting of his brother, Jonas Amerson. But prosecutors said Maxwell had nothing to do with that slaying.

A Somali national has been sentenced to life in prison for killing the mother of his child and three other people in North Dakota two years ago.

28-year-old Omar Mohamed Kalmio declined to comment following Tuesday’s sentencing, which lasted about 30 minutes.

Judge Douglas Mattson sentenced Kalmio to four consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

He was convicted of fatally shooting 19-year-old Sabrina Zephier at her home in Minot then killing her mother, her brother and her mother’s boyfriend at a nearby mobile home on Jan. 28, 2011.

Kalmio, who had a history of violent crime, was working in North Dakota’s oil patch at the time and said he was in the U.S. under political asylum.

(AP) — A judge has given a former Lincoln police officer more prison time.

Cassandra Briggs was sentenced Tuesday to one to two years. She’d pleaded no contest to a felony charge of forgery. She already is serving two to five years for stealing thousands of dollars from the police union’s Santa Cop program.

Briggs had falsely claimed that her ATM card had been stolen while she was in prison. Police say Briggs initially denied knowing anyone in Florida where the two withdrawals were made. She later admitted her mother lives there.

Briggs’ mother told investigators that Briggs had given her the ATM card to help pay for her son’s care while she’s incarcerated.

(AP) — A Salt Lake City man who was serving as a referee in a recreational soccer game in Taylorsville is in critical condition after being punched by a teenager.

Unified Police Lt. Justin Hoyal says the attack happened over the weekend during a game held at Eisenhower Junior High School.

Hoyal says the 46-year-old referee apparently made a call against the suspect, who lashed out with a single punch to the man’s face.

Hoyal says the victim was taken to the hospital with what appeared to be minor injuries, but doctors found the injury was much more severe.

Officials say the teenager from Salt Lake City was booked into the Salt Lake Valley Juvenile Detention Center on suspicion of aggravated assault. His name isn’t being released because he’s a minor.