OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say two people have been injured in an Omaha house fire that spread to a neighboring structure.

The blaze was reported around 7 a.m. Tuesday in northwest Omaha. There were four adults and a child in the home at the time. Dispatchers say an elderly person who was injured was taken to a hospital, as was the other injured person.

Firefighters say the fire apparently began in a garage, spread to the house and then caused minor damage to a house next door.

The fire cause is being investigated.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Companies from Hebron and Omaha are the newest recipients of a Nebraska state grant program that connects young people to careers in manufacturing and technology.

Gov. Pete Ricketts announced Monday that state officials have selected MetalQuest of Hebron and Distefano Technology & Manufacturing of Omaha. The companies will participate in the Nebraska Developing Youth Talent Initiative, a program proposed by Ricketts last year to foster partnerships between private industry and public schools.

MetalQuest is working with the South Central Unified School District to offer a career pathway program for students with a focus on manufacturing.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say a man was seriously injured when he lit a firecracker and it exploded in his hands.

The man was hurt Monday morning after lighting the firecracker at a moving company and storage warehouse in southwest Omaha.

Matt Manhart, of the Omaha police bomb response team, says the man lit the commercial firework in his hand, then wasn’t able to toss it before the firework exploded.

The man, whose name wasn’t released, was taken to Nebraska Medical Center with serious but non-life-threatening injuries to both hands.

Manhart wouldn’t describe the injuries.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have released the names of a man fatally shot by Lincoln officers and the women police say he was suspected of shooting.

On Monday police identified the man as 22-year-old Germichael Kennedy, of Lincoln. Police say two officers confronted Kennedy on a Lincoln street around 9 a.m. Sunday and shot him when he pointed a handgun at them.

Police say investigators think he fatally shot 20-year-old Marlene Rashidi and wounded 23-year-old Dezarae Mann as the two were sitting in separate cars around 3 a.m. Sunday.

Rashidi was identified as a Lincoln High School graduate who was attending the University of Nebraska at Kearney and was on the track team.

Police don’t yet know whether Mann and Rashidi were acquainted but say Rashidi and Kennedy knew each other.

NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say two people have died in a head-on collision just north of Norfolk.

The collision occurred Sunday on U.S. Highway 81. The Madison County Sheriff’s Office says a car being driven north in the southbound lane struck an oncoming vehicle, killing its driver and a passenger.

Authorities say the car driver escaped before his car burst into flames. Information on his condition has not been released.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Repairs have begun on a cracked cross atop St. Mary’s Cathedral in Grand Island.

The Rev. Richard Piontkowski said workers repairing copper and slate on the cathedral roof this past spring noticed cracks on the back side of the cross. Weather damage is suspected.

The cathedral’s east entrance was roped off to keep people from being injured if the cross were to crash down to the sidewalk below. Iron rods in the cross will be replaced with steel, and then the cross will be returned to its site atop the roof.

Piontkowski hopes the work will be finished and the east entrance reopened by the second week of July.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Grand Island’s insurance carrier has settled a claim against the city over the drowning of a 5-year-old girl at the city’s Island Oasis Water Park last summer.

The claim for more than $1 million was filed in September by Dumale Bariyiga, of Lincoln, the mother of the girl, Nubari Koffree. Bariyiga alleged the lifeguards on duty July 18, 2015, were negligent. The Hall County coroner has said the drowning was an accident, and city officials say personnel followed proper procedures that day.

A memo from the city attorney to the City Council for its meeting Tuesday says the insurance carrier has agreed to pay $240,000 to settle the claim filed by Bariyiga. Council action is not required.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man has been arrested in connection with a car crash in Omaha that killed a teenage girl.

Authorities say 28-year-old Tyvinn Smith is charged with suspicion of felony motor vehicle homicide, willful reckless driving and operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license.

He is accused of causing a collision that killed 16-year-old Janis Brown around 10:45 p.m. Friday.

Authorities say minutes before the crash, Smith was involved in another collision and fled. They say he then rear-ended the car in which Janis was a passenger.

The driver and a 4-year-old boy were taken to the hospital for injuries that weren’t life-threatening.

Smith was treated for minor injuries before he was taken to jail Sunday. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge has found in favor of the city of Lincoln in a civil rights lawsuit filed by a man arrested and convicted of trespassing for handing out religious leaflets outside an arena on public land.

U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp on Thursday granted the city’s request for summary judgment, ending Larry Ball’s lawsuit.

The 78-year-old Ball was ticketed last year, found guilty of two misdemeanor trespassing counts and fined $100 plus court costs. Ball has maintained that the area in front of the arena entrance where he was handing out religious pamphlets is a public sidewalk and that the city violated his free speech rights.

But the city says the area is quasi-public because it’s contracted to private tenants.