Authorities say five people have been hospitalized after a fire erupted at a house in northeast Omaha.

Omaha Fire Department Capt. Tim McCaw says six people were in the house when the fire was reported just after 9:10 a.m. Tuesday. The blaze has been extinguished.

Two men were found unconscious in the basement, and another man was found on a porch. Authorities say the three were in critical condition when taken to Nebraska Medical Center.

Two other people escaped from the house and were in serious condition when taken to Creighton University Medical Center.

Another man was treated by firefighters.

McCaw says the fire cause is being investigated.

A federal appeals court says the lawsuits of five people wrongly convicted in the 1985 killing of a Beatrice woman can continue.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued opinions Monday in the cases of Joseph White, Thomas Winslow, Ada JoAnn Taylor, James Dean and Kathleen Gonzalez. They were convicted in the 1985 murder of Helen Wilson and served time in prison. They were exonerated in 2008 after DNA testing implicated another man.

They sued Gage County officials in federal court. Last year, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit brought by Winslow, Taylor, Dean and Gonzalez. A different judge allowed the lawsuit by White to proceed.

On Monday, the 8th Circuit allowed all of the cases to proceed, saying Gage County officials manufactured evidence and recklessly investigated the five.

Nebraska’s corn and soybean harvests are still ahead of schedule, but winter wheat growth has fallen behind.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in its weekly crop report Monday that the statewide corn harvest is 80 percent complete, one month ahead of average. The soybean harvest was nearly 86 percent complete, about three weeks ahead of average.

The report says winter wheat seeding is nearly 95 percent done, but less than half of the winter wheat crop has emerged. That puts it two weeks behind the average schedule.

A man who’d been convicted in a Nebraska court of attempting to receive child pornography has been sentenced in federal court for producing child porn.

Federal prosecutors say 41-year-old Allen Hudson, formerly of Plattsmouth, was given 25 years and three months for producing pornography. Hudson will be on supervised release for life after he leaves prison.

Prosecutors say Hudson pleaded guilty in state court in February 2011. But Nebraska State Patrol technical experts soon discovered more pornographic images on Hudson’s computer, including images of Hudson with an 11-year-old boy. Investigators eventually learned Hudson frequently had young boys stay overnight as guests at his home.

The patrol then referred the new evidence to federal prosecutors.

The Nebraska State Patrol says a Las Vegas man has been arrested after a search of his vehicle turned up 44 pounds of marijuana.

The patrol says a state trooper pulled over the car around 12:30 p.m. Friday on the Utica Spur just north of Interstate 80 in southeast Nebraska

The patrol says one of its drug dogs alerted troopers to the odor of drugs, and troopers soon found the pot in four pieces of luggage in the car trunk.

The driver and lone occupant, 36-year-old Manothin Siriaphone, was arrested on suspicion of possession of marijuana for sale.

A Seward County jailer said Siriaphone remained in custody on Monday, pending $25,000 bail. Online court records don’t list the case yet.

Officials say 981 people were listed homeless in Lancaster County during an annual count in January, including 125 living on the street or in places deemed unfit for human habitation.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that the number was the highest since the count began in 2006.

A little more than half of the 981 people were in transitional housing and about 35 percent were living in local shelters.

The homeless count report from the Center on Children, Families and the Law at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln says the number had been rising until 2011, when money from the federal stimulus program was available to help put homeless people into apartments.

Those federally funded programs were being phased out when the 2012 homeless count was taken.

A large swath of Nebraska’s National Forests and Grasslands is reopening.

The U.S. Forest Service says it is rescinding its closure order for most of the 25,000 acres that were shuttered due to massive, late-summer wildfires. Forest Supervisor Jane Darnell says the closure will remain in effect for a much smaller area where the risk of falling trees and erosion remains high.

Darnell warns that trees may still be at risk to fall even in reopened areas.

Pine Ridge District Ranger John Griesinger says visitors should continue to exercise caution in the forests and grasslands. He says recent snow in western Nebraska helped with the fire risk, but the drought is still extreme and fire restrictions will remain in place.

This year’s Nebraska State Fair has won high marks as a family-friendly event that delivered a positive experience.

The Grand Island Independent reports that nearly 93 percent of fair-goers rated the venue as family-friendly, and more than 92 percent said their time at the fair was good or excellent. The reviews were part of a survey presented Friday to the Nebraska State Fair’s board.

Attendance at the fair reached nearly 337,000 this year, an increase of more than 1 percent from the previous year.

The survey found that nearly 65 percent of visitors who attended the 2011 fair believed this year’s event was much better. This year’s fair in late August and early September marked the third year it has been held in Grand Island.

Nebraska U.S. Senate hopefuls Bob Kerrey and Deb Fischer are differing sharply over how to reduce the soaring national debt.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that Kerrey, a Democrat, supports a combination of sharp federal spending cuts and some tax increases on the wealthiest Americans.

Fischer, a Republican, rules out tax increases but says she wants deep spending cuts combined with a tax structure that would grow the economy, thus providing additional revenue without raising taxes. She also supports a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget each year.

Kerrey says a balanced-budget amendment would have devastating consequences for the economy.

The federal debt stands at $16 trillion, including a $1.1 trillion deficit in fiscal 2012.

A 9-year-old Nebraska boy is dead following an all-terrain vehicle crash on private property near Grand Island.

The Hall County Sheriff’s office says Jack Tanner Thompson was driving the ATV Friday evening about a mile northwest of the Central Nebraska Regional Airport in Grand Island when the crash happened.

Investigators say the boy lost control of the ATV. It crashed against a parked vehicle and came to rest on top of the boy.

He was taken by ambulance to a Grand Island hospital, where he was pronounced dead.