NORTH BEND, Neb. (AP) — A nonprofit organization is helping small northeast Nebraska towns deal with nuisance properties fairly.

North Bend and Scribner both participate in the program offered by the Northeast Nebraska Economic Development District.

The nonprofit surveys properties in the towns and identifies any issues such as tall weeds, inoperable vehicles or broken gutters. Then city officials approve any nuisance properties and owners are given time to fix the problem.

North Bend city clerk Theresa Busse says this system eliminates property owner concerns about being targeted, and it identifies problems systematically. Previously, the city was just responding to complaints.

The Norfolk-based nonprofit offers the program to offer communities in its 17-county area.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Authorities are investigating a rollover crash that killed a 15-year-old Grand Island teen and injured two others.

The one-vehicle crash happened in a rural area near Grand Island shortly before 11 p.m. Saturday.

The Hall County Sheriff’s Department says two of the three boys in the car were thrown out when it rolled onto its roof.

Nicholas J Galvan of Grand Island was killed in the crash.

The other two people in the car were taken to a Grand Island hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — A 21-year-old Columbus mother convicted of child abuse has been sentenced to 60 days in jail.

A Platte County judge sentenced Jodie Shelly on Friday.

Shelly pleaded no contest earlier this summer to two counts of misdemeanor negligent child abuse. Prosecutors had lowered the charges from felonies in exchange for her pleas.

Shelly’s boyfriend, 24-year-old Ryan Roberts, was sentenced in May to five years on two counts of child abuse. Roberts acknowledged backhanding Shelly’s 1-year-old son after the boy bit him in January.

A court document says Shelly acknowledged having an anger problem and that she had handled her 3-year-old daughter too roughly at times.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) — Yellowstone National Park is known for its wildlife, including bears and wolves. But for six weeks, one animal that roamed the park didn’t belong.

An Australian shepherd named Jade was found in the Canyon area by her owner Friday, 42 days after she went missing.

David Sowers of Denver says Jade ran off July 23 after an auto wreck on July 23 while he and his girlfriend were driving through the park with the dog.

Over the last several weeks, there were reports of Jade being seen roaming the park. Sowers and his girlfriend had returned to Yellowstone several times to look for the dog before finding her Friday.

Sowers says other than a small cut on her lip and being a bit thinner, Jade is OK.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police say a man who displayed bizarre, erratic behavior before his arrest is now in a hospital in critical condition.

Police say officers were called to a south Omaha address Friday afternoon by witnesses who reported an intoxicated man with self-inflicted injuries overturning patio furniture and possibly suffering from a medical condition.

Officers who arrived found 50-year-old Patrick Ennis standing over a stair railing, clinching his fists. Police say he first obeyed commands to put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed, but then resisted and struggled with officers.

Once handcuffed, officers said Ennis began having trouble breathing. Police say officers removed the handcuffs and began CPR until paramedics arrived.

Police say an internal police investigation is being conducted.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska officials are fighting the Ponca Tribe’s efforts to have property it owns in Lincoln removed from tax rolls.

The tribe has submitted a request to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs to have the property put into the federal trust. Federally recognized tribes have the ability to request land they own be designated federal land.

The property, currently used as the tribe’s economic development office, is assessed at $227,700.

In an Aug. 11 letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson and Gov. Pete Ricketts argued that the Ponca Restoration Act of 1990 prohibits the tribe from establishing a reservation and that the property should instead be designated as off-reservation land.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An online Nebraska T-shirt company is drawing criticism for a design some say promotes stereotypes about Native Americans.

The design features an image of a dream catcher with beer bottles hanging from it and bears the words “Indian Lot.” The words refer to the once-popular football tailgating lot behind the Lincoln Indian Center in Lincoln. The community center banned alcohol in the lot last year in the wake of a raucous Sept. 20 tailgate party at which several people were arrested.

Corner 3 Tees denied that the design intends to link Native Americans to alcohol. It says in a statement that it’s only meant to pay homage to the lot.

Indian Center Director Clyde Tyndall calls the design an example of racism.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man was arrested after a nearly 2-foot-long sword was found hidden in his cane as he tried to enter the Hall of Justice in Lincoln.

A security guard found the sword Thursday, and the man was booked into jail on an unrelated warrant and cited on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon.

Lancaster County authorities identified the man as 36-year-old Max Antoine. Online court records don’t list the name of an attorney who could be contacted to comment on Antoine’s behalf.

Visitors aren’t allowed to take weapons into the building, which also houses the headquarters for Lincoln police, the Sheriff’s Office and the Lancaster County attorney’s office.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is warning Chinese students about an Internet scam aimed at them and their parents.

The students are being contacted through an instant message site and are told to change their passwords and security information.

Then the scammers use the students’ accounts to communicate with the students’ parents, asking for money to be wired.

Vice chancellor for student affairs Juan Franco says the scam “makes us feel really bad that people are trying to take advantage of young people, young people who are trying to better themselves.”

The university’s International Student and Scholar Office is in contact with other Big Ten schools that have seen similar scams.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Two council members are proposing a special vehicle registration fee to help fix and maintain crumbling streets in Omaha.

Councilmen Franklin Thompson and Chris Jerram want the measure submitted to voters. If voters were to approve it, the fee would begin in 2017 and end in 2023.

Thompson and Jerram call the fee a special street resurfacing assessment. They say it would vary for vehicle types and would rise yearly. For a passenger vehicle, owners would pay $7 a year in 2017 and pay $24 by 2019.

Local experts have estimated that Omaha must spend about $20 million more a year to keep its streets in good shape.