YORK, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say two men were arrested after officers found an estimated $600,000 worth of marijuana in their sport utility vehicle along Interstate 80 in eastern Nebraska.

The York News-Times reports that a deputy pulled over the SUV for a traffic violation Tuesday night in York County. Sheriff’s Lt. Josh Gillespie says the deputy grew suspicious and asked for consent to search the vehicle. None was given, so a drug K-9 was sent to the scene. It alerted officers to the presence of drugs.

Gillespie says deputies searched the SUV and found six suitcases that held a total of around 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of pot.

York County Court records don’t show the two men traveling in the SUV have been formally charged.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha man accused of killing his 2-month-old son has pleaded no contest.

Douglas County District Court records say 19-year-old Missael Valadez entered the plea last week. The charge: child abuse resulting in death. He’ll be sentenced in March.

Police say Valadez told police he’d shaken little Sebastian Valadez on Aug. 25, 2017, because he wouldn’t stop crying. The boy died at a hospital after he was taken off life support.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha officials and the Salvation Army have devised a new program that would pay homeless people $10 an hour to work with flowers and other plants that beautify the city.

The City Council will vote Tuesday on the program, which they’re calling “A Way to Work.”

The program is scheduled to launch next month and will employ six homeless people until the end of September. Participants will work two days a week in the city’s greenhouse and prep plants for city parks. The program also provides lunch and access to training and services, such as counseling.

Officials hope the additional services will help participants gain skills needed to find long-term employment, said Maj. Greg Thompson, commander of the Salvation Army’s Western Division.

A successful participant could get other employment opportunities with the city, said City Parks Director Brook Bench.

The program is modeled after one in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert said she believes “A Way to Work” will be more successful because it offers additional services.

“My ultimate goal would be to end homelessness in the city of Omaha,” Stothert said, noting that this program is just step toward fixing the complicated issue.

The first workers will be selected by the Siena-Francis House, a local homeless shelter. The Salvation Army will screen and employ workers.

The city and the Salvation Army are each providing $50,000 to fund the program. The funds will cover the cost of hiring a program manager, participant wages and other administrative costs.

AUBURN, Neb. (AP) — A southeastern Nebraska school superintendent has been placed on paid leave following an incident involving video of a fight among students.

Superintendent Kevin Reiman was placed on leave Wednesday night after the video posted on social media seemed to show him in his home viewing security footage of the fight in a school hallway. A voice believed to be Reiman’s on the online video narrates and laughs about the fight.

Some students, parents, and teachers turned out Wednesday night at the school board meeting in a show of support for Reiman.

Board President Ryan Jones said the board will not comment on the matter to the public or news organizations.

A phone message left Friday for Reiman with his secretary was not immediately returned.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska man is left scratching his head after thieves came onto his property and, instead of breaking into his home, stole the landscaping outside of it.

Lavern Smith of Omaha tells KETV that thieves stole hundreds of landscaping blocks that made up a retaining wall in his front and side yards.

A neighbor told Smith it happened in broad daylight last week when five men with a pickup truck pulled up, removed the blocks one-by-one and stacked them into the back of the truck before leaving. Smith says they even returned the next day with a blowtorch to remove those blocks frozen to the ground.

Smith is asking those who took the blocks to return them and rebuild the wall.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The police chief says overall and violent crime rates dropped last year in Lincoln.

Lincoln police data say that although Lincoln’s population rose by 4,000 to more than 284,000 residents, the number of serious crimes fell by 6 percent.

Chief Jeff Bliemeister (BLEYE’-meye-stur) said Thursday that the decline in the overall rate is largely due to a 7 percent drop in thefts. Officers suspect that drop came from a combination of efforts to arrest potential repeat offenders and education campaigns to remind people to lock up their possessions.

Rapes increased by 9 percent in 2018, which police attributed partly to more delayed reports prompted by the #MeToo movement. Robberies and aggravated assaults dropped.

HARTINGTON, Neb. (AP) – A 28-year-old caregiver has pleaded not guilty to stealing more than $14,000 from the northeast Nebraska man she’s been helping.

Cedar County District Court records say Kayla Hansen, of Coleridge, is charged with abuse of a vulnerable adult and two related crimes. She entered written pleas Wednesday.

The records say Hansen cleaned the man’s house and drove him to medical appointments. The documents say she had access to his bank account and debit card and used them to pay her own bills and those of relatives.

WAKEFIELD, Neb. (AP) — A northeast Nebraska couple are accused of locking their children in a bedroom of their home and letting them out only to use a bathroom.

Dixon County Court documents say 54-year-old Patrick Henderson and 42-year-old Angel Henderson are charged with two counts of intentional child abuse. The records don’t list the name of an attorney who could comment for them. The children have been removed from their custody.

The documents say their son was 14 last year when he told an investigator that he and his 9-year-old sister were fed only lunch each day and allowed something to drink only when they finished their food. He said his mother would choke, kick or hit them if they managed to escape the room.

He also said they didn’t get any food if they didn’t finish their schoolwork. They were being home-schooled.