LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Four people who used credit and debit card data stolen from some Lancaster County gas pumps have been sentenced in Lincoln.

The four were accused of making dozens of purchases, using the information obtained from the skimmer devices placed on the pumps.

Court records say 30-year-old Carlos Alvarez, of Miami, pleaded guilty and was sentenced earlier this month to six years in prison. Thirty-seven-year-old Elvis Tavieso, of Hialeah, Florida, pleaded no contest and was given two years in prison.

The records also say 34-year-old Lisandro Almaguer, who lives in DeWitt in southeast Nebraska, was given 18 months in prison after pleading no contest and that 25-year-old Yunior Roldan, a transient, was sentenced to 500 days after pleading no contest.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha elementary teacher has been arrested on suspicion of selling methamphetamine.

37-year-old Jesse Stull was arrested Friday on suspicion of delivery of a controlled substance. Stull was the focus of a meth trafficking investigation that began in January.

Sarpy County investigators arrested Stull at his home and say a couple of grams of meth was in the front seat of his vehicle.

Stull is a physical education teacher and boys’ basketball coach at Highland Elementary.

Omaha Public Schools spokeswoman Monique Farmer says Stull has been placed on administrative leave.

Stull is currently being held in Cass County Jail on a $100,000 bond. An after-hours call Wednesday to the Sarpy County Public Defender’s Office, which is representing him, was not immediately returned.

 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man shot outside an Omaha convenience store has died.

The Omaha Police Department said in a news release Wednesday that 25-year-old Laron Rogers died of injuries suffered March 6 and that the case is being investigated as a homicide. No arrests have been reported.

The shooting occurred in the parking of Ames Avenue Convenience Store.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A volunteer program is providing free eye examinations and glasses to students at eight Omaha Public Schools.

The operation by Child Vision Collaborative is expected to serve about 650 students from the schools this week. The collaborative, led by Building Healthy Futures, is made up of 18 local community organizations, nonprofits and others.

Building Healthy Futures is an independent nonprofit that aims to improve the health of underserved children in the community. It already oversees eight schools’ health centers and facilitates oral health services in 32 schools.

Volunteers in the program conduct initial screenings at the schools, and students who are identified as having vision difficulties are referred for exams.

Central Park Elementary Principal Scott Sturgeon says vision problems are more difficult to spot than academic and social needs for students.

NELSON, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man reported that he swerved to avoid a deer and then crashed a minivan he was driving in southern Nebraska, killing his grandmother.

A passer-by called 911 about 8 p.m. Saturday, telling authorities about seeing the minivan in a creek and then a man walking a couple miles east of the crash site near Nelson. Deputies and medics found the body of 61-year-old Vickie Boykin in the wreckage. She lived in Oak.

A deputy found her grandson, 23-year-old Paul Boykin, who later said he was driving with his grandmother west into the sunset when he suddenly saw the deer and swerved to miss it. The Nuckolls County Sheriff’s Office says the minivan went out of control and ran off the road into Elk Creek.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 21-year-old woman accused of robbing a Lincoln bank branch has been given a year in jail.

Court records say Nicole Biehl was sentenced Tuesday in Lancaster County District Court. She’d been accused of using a knife to threaten a clerk when robbing a Pinnacle Bank branch Sept. 6. No one was injured.

The records say Biehl pleaded guilty to terroristic threats and a weapons count after prosecutors dropped a robbery charge.

The judge credited Biehl for 194 days already served and sentenced her to three years of probation for the weapons crime.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have charged a woman in Grand Island with fraudulently obtaining food stamp benefits and other counts.

43-year-old Juana Saquiche-Garcia pleaded not guilty Tuesday to fraudulently obtaining Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, five counts of criminal impersonation, and two counts of identity theft.

Prosecutors say the crimes took place between Jan. 1, 2012, and Dec. 21, 2016.

Saquiche-Garcia remains free after posting 10 percent of $10,000 bail.

BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha billionaire is developing an independent high school in Bellevue that would be among the nation’s first to use “Next Generation Learning” curriculum.

NGL Academy will begin accepting applications Thursday for its first freshmen class. The school will operate on Bellevue University’s campus beginning August, and is aimed primarily at low-income students.

TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts began nonprofit Opportunity Education in 2005. School official Raymond Ravaglia says NGL Academy is being developed by Opportunity Education, which has helped open schools in 11 countries and in California.

Ricketts says the school is designed to teach students how to learn, and to “teach them not just specific skills but more generally how to acquire skills.”

Ravaglia says the focus won’t be on testing, but helping students become self-educators.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Students from Grand Island Public Schools and area conservation group members are planning to create a four-acre monarch butterfly research habitat.

Central Platte Natural Resources District official Marcia Lee says more than 30 students will help with the initial planting of the habitat beginning Thursday. The habitat is to be located on an easement of the Wood River Flood Control Project.

Lee says the monarch butterfly population is decreasing at a rapid pace due to loss of natural habitat, herbicide use and destruction of milkweed plants.

To address the loss of natural habitat, a coalition formed to provide monarchs with food, water and shelter.

Grand Island Public Schools official Ken DeFrank says the project involves students as part of a hands-on outdoor learning program.