LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – The dozens of protesters who’ve camped out at Centennial Mall in Lincoln for almost six months are packing up.
The members of Occupy Lincoln have a Tuesday deadline to leave the grounds around the State Capitol. A construction crew needs the space for a renovation project.
The Occupy movement began last year in New York, decrying what protesters see as corporate greed and the growing gap between rich and poor.
The Lincoln offshoot took up residence on Oct. 15. Almost six months later, about two dozen tents remain with about 15 campers.
The protesters say Tuesday’s deadline doesn’t mean their work is over. A new camp has appeared nearby, and some members have vowed to remain at the current site despite the deadline.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Lincoln police say a young man suspected of trying to kidnap a 3-year-old and her baby sister from a sport utility vehicle may have been trying only to steal the SUV or something from it.
Nineteen-year-old Dalton Gilsdorf was arrested Thursday on suspicion of unlawful entry into a motor vehicle, trespassing and disturbing the peace.
The girls’ father says he fought with a man he’d found in the SUV where the girls had been strapped into car seats on Wednesday afternoon. The man rode away on a bicycle.
Police spokeswoman Katie Flood says a relative called police Thursday to say Gilsdorf had come home with a bicycle that wasn’t his.
A Lancaster County jailer said Gilsdorf remained in custody on Friday. Online court records don’t list the case yet.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) – Beef producer JBS suspended production at its Grand Island plant this week to clean up the facility after E. coli bacteria was found in some of the meat.
Production was expected to resume at the plant Friday, two days after the bacteria was found.
JBS SA spokesman Chandler Keys says the E. coli was found in a routine test of beef trimmings. The company had not shipped any of the meat from that batch because it waits for the test results, so no beef is being recalled.
Keys says workers cleaned the plant and retreated or cooked all the meat processed within half a day of the positive test.

HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) – The body of a missing 78-year-old man has been found on the campus of Central Community College in Hastings in south-central Nebraska.
Thomas Zulkoski was reported missing Thursday. Police say he’d taken a relative to the college but didn’t show up later in the day to pick up the person.
Officers searched the campus for nearly two hours and found Zulkoski’s body in a restroom. Officials say he appears to have died of natural causes.

CRETE, Neb. (AP) – Authorities say a Doane College football player has died after falling out of a pickup truck near campus in southeast Nebraska.
Police say 20-year-old Cody Fanning was riding in the back of the truck around 3 a.m. Wednesday when the driver turned. Fanning fell out, striking his head on the street. He died at a hospital.
Crete Police Chief Steve Henzel says the driver, 21-year-old Cody Barnes, was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and released on bond. Prosecutors will determine whether to file charges.
The school listed Fanning and Barnes as football players. In a message on its website, the college said it was grieving Fanning’s death and confirmed accident details.
Five other people also were in the truck.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Lincoln police say the father of a 3-year-old and 8-month-old reported fighting off a man who was trying to kidnap them.
The man told police he had put the children in their car seats about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday while his sport utility sat in his driveway.
He says he went back inside to get a stroller.
Capt. Jim Davidsaver says that when the man went back outside, he heard the 3-year-old screaming and saw a man inside the SUV.
Davidsaver says the father struggled with the man and punched him in the face. Then the man got on a bicycle and raced away.
No arrest has been reported.