The National Park Service is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the day Alcatraz Island closed as a federal penitentiary with a new photo exhibit and talks by former prison guards.

The event is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Thursday.

Alcatraz started as a fort before becoming an Army disciplinary barracks. The Bureau of Prisons took it over in 1934 and housed some of America’s most notorious inmates there, including Al Capone, before closing it down in March 1963.

It later was occupied by American Indians for 18 months. The island became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1973 and remains a popular tourist destination.

The state patrol and some other police agencies in Washington state are now training drug-sniffing dogs to ignore marijuana.

After voters in November legalized the possession of small amounts of the drug, the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys advised police agencies to change their standards.

Marijuana was removed from the police dog guidelines set by the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission.

The prosecuting attorneys’ association also told police that an “alert” from a drug-sniffing dog that had been trained to find marijuana is no longer enough evidence for a search warrant. Police will need other evidence, at least until the old dogs retire.

Lawmakers have given first-round approval to a bill that’s intended to reduce the number of incarcerated juveniles in Nebraska and shift the state’s focus to treatment.

The bill cleared its initial vote on Thursday, 39-0.

Sen. Brad Ashford introduced the measure as part of a broader overhaul of the state’s juvenile-justice system. The proposal would require that criminal charges against minors would first be filed in juvenile court. Prosecutors could then seek to transfer a case to adult court by filing a motion, and a hearing would be held in juvenile court.

A recent study by the Juvenile Justice Institute found that 45 percent of youths charged in Nebraska between 2010 and 2011 were prosecuted as adults. Advocate say the vast majority are charged with misdemeanors.

Lawmakers have begun to debate a bill that would pour new firefighting resources into central and western Nebraska, areas that experienced massive summer wildfires last year.

Sen. Al Davis of Hyannis presented his priority bill Thursday to the full Legislature. The measure would place aerial tankers in Valentine and Chadron during fire season, require the state to thin forests, and offer new training to emergency responders, among other steps.

Nebraska experienced 1,570 wildfires last year that burned a total of 786 square miles. Many of the fires are blamed on eastern red cedar trees, which are invasive and highly flammable.

Lawmakers did not get to vote on the bill Thursday. Discussion will continue when lawmakers return to the Capitol on Monday.

 

A child playing with a lighter has been blamed for a fire that damaged a duplex in Lincoln.

The fire was reported around 7:15 p.m. Wednesday.

Lincoln Fire and Rescue Department Battalion Chief Eric Jones says it took firefighters about 15 minutes to control the blaze and keep it from spreading from the room in which it started.

Residents safely fled the burning unit. The adjacent unit sustained smoke damage.

A Nebraska lawmaker is set to present his bill that would repeal state-funded prenatal care services for illegal immigrants.

Sen. Charlie Janssen of Fremont will pitch his bill Thursday to the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee. The bill seeks to undo a state law that was passed last year, after a bitter fight in the Legislature.

Janssen’s bill is unlikely to advance. More than half of the committee’s members voted last year to restore the services, arguing that it would protect the health of unborn children and help them avoid more expensive medical problems later in life. Opponents of the law argued at the time that the bill rewards illegal behavior at taxpayer expense.

Janssen, a Republican, is running for governor.

Colorado authorities are looking for a dark-colored “boxy” car seen near the house of the state’s head of Corrections Department who was shot when he answered the door.

The vehicle’s engine was running and a witness reported seeing one person driving away in the car.

Tom Clements was shot around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in Monument, north of Colorado Springs.

Authorities say investigators have not ruled anything out, but it could have been related to his job.

Gov. John Hickenlooper appointed Clements to the post in 2011 after he served for more than three decades in the Missouri Department of Corrections.

Hickenlooper was red-eyed and somber Wednesday morning at a news conference in which he said he doesn’t think the killing was part of any larger attack against his cabinet.

Authorities say a southeast Nebraska man shot his daughter’s boyfriend after the couple got into an argument.

Chief Deputy Jeff Bliemeister, of the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office, says the 50-year-old father was arrested in Bennet on Wednesday morning. He was arrested on suspicion of assault and using a weapon to commit a felony. He hasn’t been formally charged.

Bliemeister says the man used a .22-caliber rifle to shoot 21-year-old Jeffery Stotler Jr. in the chest and stomach.

Deputies found Stotler, of Lincoln, in the backyard of the man’s home in Bennet. Stotler was taken to a Lincoln hospital.

Bliemeister says Stotler and the man’s 18-year-old daughter had been arguing while in Lincoln and continued to argue when they got to Bennet.

 

A federal court has ordered a public defender to represent a man seeking to be released from prison for the shooting death of a Nebraska soccer player.

Lucky Iromuanya was convicted of second-degree murder for the 2004 shooting death of Jenna Cooper, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln soccer player. He was initially sentenced to life, but the Nebraska Supreme Court reduced his sentence in 2006 to 50 years, noting that Iromuanya had no criminal record.

Iromuanya’s subsequent appeals in Nebraska courts were rejected, and he filed for habeas corpus in Nebraska’s federal court last year. Habeas corpus is the right to seek relief from illegal detention.

In the federal complaint, Iromuanya asked that a public defender be appointed to represent him.

On Tuesday, a federal judge approved that request.