GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) – A legal action has been filed against the city of Grand Island because it’s lacking a fire chief.
Wednesday’s filing in Hall County District Court asks the court to order the city to appoint a fire chief “with all deliberate speed.”
Nebraska statutes say cities with 37,500 or more residents must have a full-time fire chief.
Chief Troy Hughes resigned in October 2011. Civil service rules limit the term of the interim chief’ to only four months in a fiscal year, so he stepped down Monday.
City Administrator Mary Lou Brown says the city is following state law because there is a fire chief position that’s just vacant.

MORRILL, Neb. (AP) – Authorities are investigating a western Nebraska fire that destroyed an outbuilding, including a vintage car and a variety of workshop tools.
The Nebraska State Fire Marshal is still investigating the Friday afternoon fire, which destroyed an outbuilding and workshop north of Morrill. Turner says the fire started in the workshop, but the cause has not been determined.
Turner says the building was locked when they arrived, and firefighters had to kick the door in to fight the blaze. He says a pickup inside the building was retrieved, but a renovated 1968 Chevy Chevelle worth about $20,000 was destroyed.
The total damage is estimated at $100,000.

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) – A 34-year-old Scottsbluff man has been convicted of first-degree sexual assault on a child and three counts of felony child abuse.
Eric Rocha was convicted Friday in Scotts Bluff County District Court.
Authorities alleged that Rocha sexually assaulted a 7-year-old child in a home and in a car. Rocha was also accused of striking three other children with a belt, and punching them in the ribs and nose.
The alleged abuse came to light after the children were interviewed by the state Department of Health and Human Services, and the Nebraska State Patrol. Rocha was in jail at the time on a domestic abuse charge.
Court documents show the four children are now in state care.

FREMONT, Neb. (AP) – Authorities say the suspect in a Fremont shooting has died.
Deputy Chief Jeff Elliott of the Fremont Police Department says officers were sent to a Fremont home a little before 9 p.m. Thursday.
Elliott says officers found a woman who had been shot in the face. She was taken to a hospital.
He says a male suspect was later found dead.
It’s believed the man and woman were romantically involved.
The names of those involved and other details have not been released.

STANTON, Neb. (AP) – Authorities say a suspect in the shooting of a woman in Norfolk has been taken into custody after a standoff at a mobile home in Stanton.
Authorities arrested 34-year-old Carlos Arevalo-Martinez Thursday evening. He’s wanted in the shooting of 33-year-old Edna Gutierrez.
She was shot in the head on Tuesday and is hospitalized in Omaha.
An arrest warrant was issued for Arevalo-Martinez for first-degree assault and a weapons charge.
Stanton County Sheriff Mike Unger says the mobile home was under surveillance for most of Thursday.
Several schools in Stanton were locked down and numerous residents of the trailer park were evacuated.
Stanton is 15 miles southeast of Norfolk.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – The Nebraska Attorney General’s office would lose its oversight of a state environmental fund, under two proposals slated for a legislative hearing.
The proposals were introduced following criticism of a $100,000 grant by Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, who approved the money for an industry-backed farm group. The Legislature’s Judiciary Committee will hear both bills Wednesday.
The money was awarded to We Support Agriculture, a group created to promote farming in the midst of what it perceives as threats to Nebraska’s agriculture industry. The fund is made up of money from state environmental fines and settlements.
The proposals were introduced by state Sens. Heath Mello of Omaha and Ken Haar of Malcolm. Both are Democrats in the officially nonpartisan Legislature. Bruning is a Republican running for U.S. Senate.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A group of 16 workers in the Omaha Roads Department has claimed a $1 million Powerball prize.
The Nebraska Lottery says they claimed the prize on Tuesday from the Feb. 8 drawing. They workers have pooling their money to buy Powerball tickets each week for nearly a decade. Each will receive a $62,500.
One of the tickets matched five numbers, but not the Powerball.
The lottery says it’s the first automatic $1 million winning ticket since Powerball was upgraded on Jan. 15. Previously, the amount for matching the first five numbers was $200,000.

NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) – Police want to talk to a 34-year-old man about the shooting of a woman in a Norfolk home.
Police Chief Bill Mizner said that Carlos Alfredo Arevalo-Martinez is wanted for questioning about Tuesday’s shooting. A police dispatcher said Wednesday that no one by that name was in custody.
The shooting occurred around 12:15 p.m. Tuesday. Mizner says officers found 33-year-old Edna Gutierrez lying in the kitchen with a gunshot wound to the head.
She was taken to a local hospital, then to The Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. A hospital spokeswoman said Wednesday she didn’t have any information on Gutierrez, who also is known as Edna Little Elk.
At least four nearby schools were locked down for about an hour after the shooting was reported.