LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 43-year-old man has been accused of stealing more than $120,000 in scrap metal when he worked for a Lincoln-based construction company.

Jason Muhle has been charged with felony theft. His attorney didn’t immediately return a call Thursday from The Associated Press, seeking comments about the allegation.

A court affidavit from a Nebraska state trooper says Muhle had headed the bridge division of Commercial Construction Inc. from 2009 until January 2013 and sold more than $120,000 in scrap metal.

Muhle said in a lawsuit deposition that Commercial Construction’s owner, Gregory “Joe” Engler, gave him permission to sell scrap metal and share the money with his underlings because the company had cut vacation and insurance benefits. Engler told the state trooper that he never told Muhle he could do that

RED CLOUD, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have arrested a Nebraska man accused of holding a woman against her will in a Red Cloud home.

Nebraska State Patrol troopers and Webster County Sheriff deputies responded around 2 a.m. Thursday to a Red Cloud residence. Thirty-year-old Charles Folkman was arrested shortly before 5 a.m. after holding officers at bay for nearly three hours.

Authorities say a State Patrol crisis negotiator was able to arrange the release of an uninvolved 26-year-old man just before 3 a.m. The 46-year-old woman was released 15 minutes later and treated for minor injuries at a nearby hospital.

Folkman is charged with false imprisonment, terroristic threats and second-degree assault. Online court records don’t list the name of an attorney who could be contacted for comment about the charges.

The case remains under investigation.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A new study says completing a road expansion project between Omaha and Norfolk could save lives and churn out millions of dollars, but the project is more than a decade behind schedule.

Creighton economics professor Ernie Goss said Wednesday that expanding a 47-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 275 from two to four lanes would save the state more than $145 million per year and support more than 1,315 jobs.

Goss says expanding the road would increase safety, reduce commute times, and stimulate growth in the manufacturing, metals production and cattle operations along the corridor.

The project would cost $186 million in construction and is part of about 100 uncompleted miles of Nebraska’s 1988 planned expressway system.

The industry group 4 Lanes 4 Nebraska commissioned the study.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police have arrested several teens who are suspected of being involved with a string of car thefts in Lincoln.

The Lincoln Police Department says five teens were found in a stolen vehicle Tuesday afternoon in the parking lot of an apartment complex near Leighton Avenue and 86th Street. The car had been reported stolen Monday night.

Four teens in the vehicle were referred to juvenile court for possession of a stolen car. The driver was cited on charges of fleeing to avoid arrest and reckless driving. Two of the five also face additional charges on suspicion of stealing two other cars.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Douglas County prosecutor says an Omaha man accused of killing his older brother sliced his throat to make sure he was dead.

Prosecutor David Wear said Wednesday that 23-year-old Stephen Russell used a knife to saw his brother’s neck for a minute. The body of 27-year-old Jonathan Russell was found by his mother Saturday at the family home. He died of multiple stab wounds and from his throat being slit.

Stephen Russell was charged with first-degree murder and use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony after turning himself in to authorities.

A judge has ordered that Stephen Russell be held without bail. Online court records don’t list an attorney to request comment on his behalf.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A livestock feed company has agreed to pay $78,000 in penalties related to last year’s collapse of International Nutrition’s Omaha plant that killed two workers.

The Labor Department’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration announced the settlement Wednesday. Originally, regulators had sought nearly $121,000 in penalties.

As part of the agreement, International Nutrition agreed to hire a consultant to ensure the new plant it is building will comply with all OSHA standards. The company makes nutritional products that are added to livestock and poultry feed.

Federal safety investigators determined that overloaded storage bins on the roof of the plant caused the January 2014 collapse, killing 47-year-old David Ball and 53-year-old Keith Everett. Several other workers were injured, and four were trapped in the rubble and had to be rescued by firefighters.

WOOD RIVER, Neb. (AP) — The executive director of a program to enhance habitat for endangered waterfowl says that his organization’s Platte River island work did not cause flooding along a road in Wood River.

Jerry Kenny spoke to the Hall County board Tuesday, two weeks after the board heard testimony from landowners who live along Shoemaker Island Road. The landowners say nesting islands created by the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program is responsible for the ice jam flooding that damaged road, pastures and cropland in February.

Kenny said the program’s work, which has been testing whether certain waterfowl need nesting ground in the river as opposed to along it, was permitted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Some of the landowners who were at Kenny’s presentation and board members questioned the program’s choice of location for the nesting islands and its alteration of the river.