LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Custom-designed outdoor climbing structures are among plans for improvements at the Children’s Museum in downtown Lincoln.

A science center also was included in the plans shared with the Nebraska Capitol Environs Commission earlier this week. The museum sits in the shadow of the Capitol, near Centennial Mall, so officials for the museum and its architectural firm sought the commission’s blessing.

“There’s a number of ways we can accomplish what the museum would like to do, as well as be a very sensitive neighbor to Centennial Mall,” DLR Group architect John Badami said.

The commission unanimously voted its endorsement of the plans, the Lincoln Journal Star reported .

The climbing structures could rise 35 feet (10.7 meters) into the air and would light up at night. They’d be made of bent plywood or rotationally molded plastic climbing pads suspended on cables from steel pipes and would be located in a former parking area east of the museum.

The designer, Luckey Climbers, says it offers adventures while challenging kids to solve problems and think spatially.

Museum executive director Tara Knuth and DLR’s Badami architect told the commission the climbing structures would comprise a unique draw for the Children’s Museum. In addition, there would be outdoor space in the play area for camps, fundraisers and other activities in and around the climbing structures, Badami said.

Depending on fundraising, the science center for kids ages 8 to 12 would be built in a former storage area in a lower museum level.

Museum officials intend to begin a fundraising campaign for the project by midsummer.

HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — A woman is accused of embezzling nearly $250,000 from her employer in Hastings.

Adams County Court records say 34-year-old Crystal Maser is charged with felony theft. Her attorney didn’t immediately return a call Friday from The Associated Press.

The records say Maser used a Dutton-Lainson Co. credit card to buy items for herself and pay her bills. The items included clothing, jewelry and furniture.

Her next court hearing is scheduled for Nov. 30. She lives in Hastings.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha landlord accused of bribing an Omaha Housing Authority inspector has been fined $20,000 after making a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that Lafi Jafari also was ordered at his sentencing Thursday in U.S. District Court to serve a year of probation. Prosecutors dropped the bribery charge in exchange for Jafari pleading guilty to lying to a federal investigator.

He’d acknowledged in his plea agreement that he gave the inspector $2,100 in cash from 2012 to 2014. Over roughly the same period Jafari received federal rent payments of about $2.1 million as part of Jafari’s participation in a federal housing subsidy program.

Prosecutors have said Jafari offered the cash so housing authority employees would steer prospective tenants his way.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has rejected the latest appeal of a man serving life in prison for the 1995 killing of an Omaha police officer.

Kevin Allen appealed after a lower court rejected his motion for post-conviction relief without an evidentiary hearing. In the motion, Allen argued, among other things, that former crime scene investigator David Kofoed (KO’-fode) — who was convicted of planting blood evidence in another case in 2006 — might have also tampered with evidence in his case.

On Friday, the state’s high court ruled that testimony showed Kofoed did not play a major role in gathering evidence in Allen’s case.

Allen was convicted of first-degree murder in the Aug. 20, 1995, murder of 24-year-old Officer Jimmy Wilson Jr. Wilson was fatally shot as he checked the license plate on a van he had stopped.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Douglas County authorities in eastern Nebraska say one person has died in a crash involving a dump truck and a car near the Elkhorn River.

The crash happened Friday afternoon near 245th and Q streets. Officials say the truck and the car were traveling in opposite directions when they collided, killing a woman.

The victim’s name had not been released by late Friday afternoon.

Officials say the dump truck driver did not suffer any serious injuries.

Investigation into the crash continues.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has rejected the latest appeal by a man convicted of killing a University of Nebraska at Omaha student whose body has never been found.

The high court Friday upheld a lower court’s denial of Christopher Edwards’ second motion for post-conviction relief. The court found that Edwards’ appeal saying the lower court should have held an evidentiary hearing on his claim that his attorney was ineffective was filed too late.

Edwards was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2006 disappearance of 19-year-old Jessica O’Grady, whose body was never found. Edwards was sentenced to 100 years to life.

The high court rejected Edwards’ first post-conviction relief motion in 2012. In that motion, Edwards argued that a corrupt Douglas County crime scene investigator planted blood evidence to frame him.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Authorities say officers helped evacuate audience members after a small fire broke out at a downtown Lincoln concert venue.

Someone knocked over a container of kerosene while performing with fire around 10 p.m. Thursday at the Bourbon Theatre. The flames set off a fire sprinkler, which doused the blaze.

Lincoln Fire & Rescue Department spokeswoman Nancy Crist says police helped evacuate the large crowd that had gathered for the headline act, K Camp. No injuries have been reported. K Camp’s concert was soon canceled.

Crist says the performer using fire didn’t have the authorization to perform with it at the theater.

Damage was estimated at $1,000.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Southwest Airlines has announced two new nonstop flights from Omaha.

The airline will begin offering daily nonstop flights to and from San Diego in June. Also starting in June, it will offer once-a-week nonstop flights to and from Nashville.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that Alaska Airlines is the only other airline to run a daily nonstop flight between Eppley Airfield in Omaha and San Diego. No other airline flies nonstop from Nashville to Omaha.

The flights are available for booking immediately. Both routes will be flown on Boeing 737 aircraft that seat between 143 and 175 passengers.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police say a Lincoln man has been arrested after he threatened his roommates with an ax in a dispute over the home’s thermostat setting.

The 46-year-old man was arrested Wednesday after an early-morning fight that began when the man wanted the heat turned up.

Police say the man’s two roommates were in their bedroom when the man entered with a rusted, red-handled ax.

One roommate, a 48-year-old man, jumped out of the bed and wrestled the ax-wielding man to the ground, holding him there until police arrived. Police say the ax-holding man was drunk.

No one was injured.

He’s been charged with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor.

DEWITT, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man died after his vehicle crashed in western Gage County.

The crash was reported around 1 a.m. Thursday. Gage County Sheriff Millard Gustafson says the vehicle ran off a roadway and rolled, ejecting the driver and rolling over him. Investigators suspect the man had been drinking.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities identified him as 44-year-old Paul Baehr, who lived in DeWitt.