A 53-year-old southeast Nebraska man is dead after losing control of his pickup truck on a gravel road.

KWBE radio reports that Danny Thieman died Friday evening in western Jefferson County. Thieman lived in neighboring Thayer County.

Authorities say Thieman lost control of his truck after he overcorrected on the gravel road. The truck went into the south ditch and flipped over when it hit the side of the ditch.

The roof of the truck was crushed, and Thieman died at the scene.

Authorities say alcohol may have been a factor in the crash. Thieman was not wearing his seat belt.

Nebraska State Patrol investigators have arrested a 22-year old Waverly man on a charge of sexual assault by use of an electronic communication device.

David D. Hansen, 22, Waverly, was taken into custody just before 12:30 p.m., Friday, October 19, at a Lincoln fast food restaurant. His arrest follows a two-day investigation in which he engaged in electronic communication of a sexual nature with an investigator posing as a juvenile female. During the electronic communication Hansen arranged a meeting for the purpose of having sex. He was taken into custody without incident.

Hansen was lodged in the Lancaster County Jail.

The number of cattle in Nebraska feedlots grew 5 percent in October to set another new monthly record.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the 2.33 million cattle in Nebraska feedlots on Oct. 1 was the highest figure since the count began in 1994.

Nationwide, the number of cattle and calves on feed was 11.0 million. That’s 3 percent below last October.

The figures are from feedlots with capacities of greater than 1,000 cattle.

A former finance director of the Westside Community Schools in Omaha has been charged with stealing more than $160,000 when he worked for the district.

In a four-count federal indictment, 49-year-old Jim Clark, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, is accused of taking the money between 2006 and 2010 and spending it on himself, relatives and friends.

His attorney, Steve Achelpohl, says Clark denies the allegation. They say the school district has destroyed some records that would help prove Clark is innocent. The district declined to comment.

Clark says he was fired in May 2010 when allegations about financial irregularities first surfaced.

Prosecutors say Clark cut extra checks to himself and misused a credit card he issued to himself through the district, using district money to pay the bills.

The Nebraska Supreme Court has reversed a lower appeals court’s opinion that a Lincoln man convicted of two counts of attempted sexual assault should get a new trial.

In January, the Nebraska Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for 24-year-old Lincoln Mohammed Nadeem. The appeals court said a Lancaster County District Court judge abused his discretion by giving jurors numbers rather than using their names for identification. The Court of Appeals said that amounted to empaneling an anonymous jury, which might be interpreted by jurors to mean Nadeem was dangerous, prejudicing them against him.

On Friday, the Nebraska Supreme Court reversed that decision, saying Nadeem did not object to the use of an anonymous jury during his trial, and therefore waived his claim of error.

Texas A&M University officials say they have received a campus-wide bomb threat and are evacuating all students, faculty and staff.

The evacuation order was posted on the university’s website Friday as a “Code Maroon” warning. It directs those on campus to evacuate by foot immediately and to not use a vehicle.

Texas A&M spokesman Lane Stephenson says the the school received a call about the bomb threat at about 11:30 a.m. He didn’t immediately have any other information about the threat.

The school says all classes were canceled and the evacuation will remain in effect until further notice.

Authorities say two men have been sentenced to federal prison for conspiring to sell methamphetamine and weapons in the Omaha area.

Federal prosecutors said in a news release Thursday that 40-year-old Francisco Sanchez-Gastelum was given 14 years in prison and 37-year-old Manuel Menchaca was given 12½ years.

Prosecutors say that between Oct. 7 last year and Feb. 28 this year, Menchaca and another man, Jorge Montejano, sold guns and drugs to an undercover officer. Investigators say they found almost 4 pounds of meth at Sanchez-Gastelum’s residence.

Montejano, who was on supervised release after a drug conviction in Iowa, has already been sentenced to 170 months in prison.

Some parts of Nebraska’s sex offender laws have been struck down in U.S. District Court.

The Associated Press reports one of the sections rejected had made it illegal for sex offenders of children to use social networking sites. Another section required sex offenders to report what they’d postings on Internet sites or blogs. The third subjected sex offenders to searches and monitoring of their computers and cellphones.

The laws amended the state’s Sex Offender Registration Act. The changes were passed in 2009 but put on hold as a result of the lawsuit against them in federal court.

Spokeswoman Shannon Kingery for Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning said Thursday that the office is reviewing the ruling and assessing the state’s options.

An index of economic conditions in 10 Midwest and Western states jumped this month after three months of drought-induced doldrums.

The Rural Mainstreet survey of rural bankers rose to 56.6 for October from 48.3 in September. It was the first time since June that the index rose above growth neutral 50.

Survey organizers say any score above 50 on the 100-point scale suggests the economy will grow in the months ahead.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the survey, and he says the effects of the drought are being more than offset by high incomes from high agriculture and energy prices.

The survey covers Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.

Nebraska Sen. Jeremy Nordquist wants to shut the governor and other officials out of the state employee health plan.

Nordquist says he will introduce a bill next year that would treat elected state office-holders the same as their constituents. He says the bill would force lawmakers, the governor and other officials to buy their own insurance through the private market or in the exchanges required under the federal health care law.

Republican Gov. Dave Heineman submitted a proposal for a high-deductible health savings plan to the federal government this month. He deemed it the “Nebraska option.”

Nordquist, a Democrat, says many families can’t afford the plan’s $8,000 out-of-pocket deductible. He says he wants to send a message: What’s good for constituents should be good for elected officials.