OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have seized hundreds of rats and mice from what officials describe as a pet shop set up in a southwest Omaha home.

Mark Langan with the Nebraska Humane Society said Thursday that 60-year-old Kenneth Evans and 56-year-old Mary Evans have been cited for cruelty to animals, unsanitary conditions and failure to provide pet licenses, a pet store permit and proof of vaccinations.

Langan says about 500 rodents have been removed because of the high ammonia levels from animal waste inside the house.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Jurors have convicted a former football player for Northwest High of first-degree murder in a fatal Omaha shooting in July 2013.

After more than two hours of deliberation Thursday, the jury returned a guilty verdict in the trial of 19-year-old Mitchell Wynne. He was accused of shooting Darnell Haynes in his car in an Omaha parking lot.

Haynes died after being shot in the head. Marijuana was found inside the vehicle and strewn throughout the parking lot.

Prosecutors alleged Wynne intended to rob Haynes of marijuana when he shot and killed him. But a public defender for Wynne argued that prosecutors didn’t have evidence to support who was at the scene of the shooting.

Wynne is scheduled to be sentenced in June.

DENVER (AP) — Colorado has allowed medical marijuana use for 15 years — but not for people on probation or parole.

A bill facing its first test Thursday in the state House would change that policy. It would say that pot use doesn’t amount to a probation violation for people with medical clearance to use the drug.

The hearing comes two days after Arizona’s highest court ruled that marijuana patients in that state should be allowed to use the drug while on probation or parole. California, Rhode Island and the U.S. Virgin Islands also allow probationers to use medical marijuana.

Colorado’s Court of Appeals ruled in 2012 that people on probation should not be allowed to use medical marijuana.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Supporters of a teacher whose Omaha Catholic school contract will not be renewed because of his same-sex relationship say the school is discriminating against him based on his sexual orientation.

But experts say the school has not violated Omaha’s 3-year-old anti-bias ordinance protecting gay and transgender people, and a lawsuit would likely not succeed in an at-will employment state like Nebraska.

An online petition in support of Matt Eledge says Skutt Catholic High School rescinded its offer to renew his teaching contract next year after learning he planned to marry his same-sex partner, saying that would violate church tenet in breach of his contract. The school later said he could return to the school, but only if he ended his same-sex relationship.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 21-year-old man has been sentenced to 65 years in prison for his role in the shooting death of a 5-year-old Omaha girl.

Vincent Hicks was sentenced Thursday. He’d pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and use of a weapon to commit a felony. Prosecutors had lowered the charges in exchange for Hicks’ pleas.

Another of four people charged in the case also was sentenced. Twenty-year-old Jaylen Montgomery was given eight to 18 years in prison. He’d pleaded no contest to two weapons charges.

Authorities say that on Jan. 15, 2014, the four shot at someone they thought was a rival gang member. Their bullets struck three homes. One of the strays went through a wall of little Payton Benson’s home a block away, through her and out another wall.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The water in Broyhill Fountain on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s City Campus is being turned red in honor of all of the students who have died in the past year.

The ceremony, which is being called the Red Memorial, will take place Friday in the university’s Nebraska Union Plaza. The school’s dean of students said red lights will illuminate the fountain’s water to honor students who died during the 2014-15 school year.

The nondenominational service will include a reading of the students’ names, UNL choral group performance and a meditation by the Rev. Adam White of the UNL Lutheran Center.

This is the first Red Memorial that the school has held, and it will be open to all students and the public.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha woman says she received a citation after her 4-year-old son who has autism wandered away from their home last week.

Police say that 911 dispatchers received a call about an unaccompanied child standing on a street corner. Officers found the boy but weren’t able to determine where he lived or the names of his parents.

Meanwhile, dispatchers received a call about 15 minutes later from a woman who said her son was missing and couldn’t find him. She said that he had left the house without her knowledge after she went to answer the phone.

Police brought the boy to Watson but cited her on suspicion of child neglect.

NEBRASKA CITY, Neb. (AP) — Two former Nebraska City officials have sued the city and some council members, saying the council illegally ousted them.

Former city administrator Joe Johnson and former clerk-treasurer Arnold Ehlers jointly filed their lawsuit late last month in Otoe County District Court. The lawsuit says the council exceeded its authority in December when it considered the appointments of Johnson and Ehlers “to city employee positions they already held, and which were not vacant at the time.”

City Attorney David Partsch told the Journal Star that the lawsuit was expected and that the city has 30 days from the date of the filing to respond.

YORK, Neb. (AP) — A 32-year-old Utah man who’d been arrested along Interstate 80 in Nebraska has been sent to prison for conspiring to distribute marijuana.

Stephen Scanlon, of Lehi, Utah, on Wednesday was sentenced to 2½ years in a federal prison. He’d pleaded guilty. Scanlon also must serve four years of supervised release when he leaves custody.

Authorities say Scanlon was a passenger in a car pulled over for traffic violations on Oct. 19, 2013, in York County. State troopers say they smelled marijuana in the car, and a subsequent search turned up two empty suitcases with marijuana debris and nearly $91,000 in heat-sealed bags.

Scanlon forfeited the cash as part of the criminal case. Charges against the driver were dropped.