FREMONT, Neb. (AP) – Fremont police have cited a 9-year-old boy, accusing him of breaking into a vehicle and stealing a video game. The Fremont Tribune reports that the crimes occurred Tuesday. Deputy Police Chief Jeff Elliott says the boy used a fence post to break a window on a vehicle in the parking lot at Big Red Keno. Elliott says the boy stole a video game inside the vehicle and damaged a door. The damage total was estimated at a little more than $1,000. The boy was cited for criminal mischief and theft. He was released to his parents.

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) – Another cougar sighting has been reported in Kearney. According to the Kearney Hub, the Police Department says a woman reported that a cougar ran across her driveway as she was backing out of her garage in southeast Kearney on Wednesday. No confirmation has been reported.  Another cougar sighting was reported Saturday by a man who said he saw a cougar near the clubhouse at Meadowlark Golf Course. The report also hasn’t been confirmed. There have been several reports in recent weeks of cougar sightings in nearby York and Hall counties. Cougars, which also are called mountain lions or pumas, have turned up as far east in Nebraska as Omaha.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Activists from California, Texas and Nebraska have converged in Lincoln to present their case against a proposed tar sands oil pipeline.  Approximately 40 people gathered Wednesday for a discussion of the Keystone XL pipeline, which is designed to carry oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries. Several activists were on their way to an ongoing White House protest against the pipeline, or had just come from it after being arrested. Environmental groups have raised concerns that the pipeline could foul underground and surface water supplies, increase air pollution around refineries and harm wildlife. Pipeline supporters say it is safe and will create much-needed jobs. David Daniel, an east Texas landowner, says he was repeatedly pressured into signing a portion of his property away with legal threats.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Former Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, the self- proclaimed “defender of the downtrodden,” wants to come back to the Legislature. Chambers confirmed Wednesday that he will run again for the north Omaha district he represented for 38 years. The 74-year-old left office in 2008 because of new term limits, but is eligible to run again in the 2012 election. Chambers says lobbyists, the governor and the attorney general have “run roughshod” over the Legislature with a right-wing agenda. Chambers, who was legendary for his procedural knowledge and ability to delay bills, says too much legislation is passing without serious debate.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A federal appeals panel has rejected Nebraska death-row inmate John Lotter’s attempt to appeal his conviction in the triple murder that inspired the 1999 film “Boys Don’t Cry.” In a judgment released Tuesday, two members of a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the appeal. The third, U.S. Judge Kermit Bye, disagreed, saying he would have allowed the appeal based on five claims by Lotter. Lotter was convicted in the 1993 slayings of Teena Brandon and two others in a farmhouse near Humboldt. Lotter has maintained he is innocent. He claims that, among other things, the state used a threat of torture to coerce accomplice Thomas Nissen into lying about the killings. Earlier this year, a federal judge denied Lotter’s appeal.