OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson says he feels vindicated by the Supreme Court’s opinion on the federal health care law— mostly by its rejection of a provision to force states to expand Medicaid coverage.

Nelson, Nebraska’s only congressional Democrat, was lambasted by conservatives for providing the final voted in 2009 to advance the health care bill. He was accused of trading his vote for a deal to give Nebraska federal funding for Medicaid expansion, an agreement opponents dubbed the “Cornhusker Kickback.”

Nelson says he was trying to get federal funding for all states, because he disagreed with the measure’s threat to withhold states’ entire Medicaid allotment if they failed to expand Medicaid.

The high court disagreed with that provision, too, Nelson said, adding that “Sometimes, the irony of all ironies occurs.”

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — A Beatrice man has been sentenced to six months in jail for his role in stabbing a woman so she could get out of going to a probation appointment.

Local media says Jerry Duke II was sentenced for obstruction of government operations on Thursday in Gage County District Court. He pleaded no contest.

Prosecutors say Jessalyn Stierwalt asked Duke and Scott Roberson-Turman to stab her in the abdomen and shoulder last July so she could avoid going to a probation meeting the next morning because she needed time to “sober up.”

During Thursday’s sentencing, Judge Daniel Bryan Jr. said he couldn’t believe “anybody can be that stupid.”

Stierwalt and Roberson-Turman, who also pleaded no contest to an obstruction charge, were sentenced in May to a year in prison.

ALLIANCE, Neb. (AP) — A hearing is delayed for a woman suspected of helping hide the body of a Denver man in western Nebraska.

Joshua Bullock is believed to have died at the hands of a gunman who was killed in a standoff in Alliance earlier this month.

Rose Siefke  is charged with being an accessory. Local media in Chadron says a preliminary hearing, set for Friday, has been reset for July 17.

Investigators believe Siefke helped Andres Gonzalez hide Bullock’s body. Bullock’s burned pickup was found near Chadron in December. Human remains were found near Chadron last week.

Gonzalez wounded three officers and his pharmacist hostage before dying in a shootout with police on June 12. Earlier in the day, officers found Gonzalez’s father dead at his Alliance home.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Salvation Army will keep its doors around Omaha open for people in need of a break from extreme heat that has reached triple digits this week.

Four Salvation Army locations across the Omaha area are designated as community cooling stations: the Kroc Center in southeast Omaha, North Corps in north Omaha, the Lied Renaissance Center in central Omaha and the Council Bluffs Corps in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The stations will be open through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. On Saturday and Sunday, the locations will open at 8 a.m. and close at 5 p.m.

Cold drinks will be provided, and the organization is seeking donations of bottled water.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities are checking whether the death of an Iowa man after an Omaha accident was related to the extreme heat.

Omaha police say officers were dispatched to a field in east-central Omaha about 3:45 p.m. on Wednesday. They found a man who had collapsed about a half-mile east of a vehicle that had crashed into a dirt mound in a construction zone.

Police say he was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. Medical officials say his core body temperature had reached 110 degrees. The National Weather Service says the temperature was 101 about the time of the accident.

The man was identified as 48-year-old Paul Tamayo, of Council Bluffs, Iowa.

An autopsy has been scheduled.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An 18-year-old has been found guilty of second-degree murder in Omaha.

Online court records say Daion Williams also was convicted on Tuesday of a weapons charge.

Williams was tried as an adult for a fatal shooting that occurred on Nov. 29 last year, when Williams was 17. Police say he fatally shot 20-year-old Bryant Morgan as a result of a love triangle involving Williams, Morgan and a teenage girl.

OGALLALA, Neb. (AP) — The Dundy County attorney has been convicted of one theft charge and acquitted of two more in Keith County.

Local media reports that Blake Edwards is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 15 in Keith County District Court.

Authorities said that when Edwards was Keith County attorney, about $18,000 in county money was taken between 2007 and 2009. Edwards said he used the money to buy office equipment for a diversion program, reimbursements for other official purchases and for donations to a nonprofit organization.

Edwards lost his re-election bid in 2010 and then became county attorney for Dundy County.

Related charges filed against Edwards’ wife, Shirley, were dropped. She’d worked in the Keith County prosecutor’s office.

Blake Edwards didn’t return a call Thursday from The Associated Press.