WATERBURY, Neb. (AP) — Fire officials say a grass fire in rural Nebraska has destroyed several sheds in the area.

The Allen Fire Department responded to the fire about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday in Waterbury, Nebraska. Chief Rod Stevens says firefighters arrived to find the flames had spread to an abandoned car and trailer home after already damaging several nearby sheds.

No injuries were reported in the blaze. Firefighters extinguished the flames within 45 minutes.

Waterbury is about 22 miles west of Sioux City.

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln police say a 23-year-old woman has been arrested and charged with threatening to blow up a local cable company after getting stood up for an appointment.

Police say Mikka Phillips of Lincoln waited hours for a technician to arrive and install cable service on Tuesday, but didn’t know Time Warner Cable had tried to reschedule.

Authorities say Phillips threatened to blow up the company’s building after speaking with a representative who told her the appointment had been canceled and that they’d have to reschedule it.

The company’s building was evacuated and Lincoln authorities searched for a bomb but didn’t find one. The company said in a statement that it takes every threat seriously.

Phillips has been charged with false reporting.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Phillips has an attorney.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lancaster County commissioner charged with theft in nearby York County says he’s occasionally forgetful but is no thief.

71-year-old Larry Hudkins is accused of stealing a tractor part from York Equipment Inc. last month.

Hudkins said he took the part on Feb. 18 and had even left his business card atop the tractor he took the part from. Hudkins says he had an arrangement with the previous owner of the business that he’s patronized for nearly 50 years. Hudkins says the previous owner let Hudkins take items from the store and pay for them later. But this time, Hudkins says, he forgot to go back and pay for it.

Hudkins says he’s paid York Equipment.

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar says two officers were shot around midnight at a Ferguson, Missouri, protest.

He said a 32-year-old officer from Webster Groves was shot in the face and a 41-year-old officer from St. Louis County was shot in the shoulder.

He says both are conscious.

Belmar says he did not know who shot the officers.

The shots were fired as protesters had gathered following the resignation of Ferguson’s embattled Police Chief Thomas Jackson on Wednesday.

Jackson was the sixth employee to resign or be fired after a Justice Department report cleared a white former Ferguson police officer, Darren Wilson, of civil rights charges in the shooting of black 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson last summer. Wilson has since resigned.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 22-year-old man has been acquitted of first-degree murder in the shooting death of an Omaha teen.

Jurors deliberated about eight hours before finding Dennis Brewer Jr. not guilty Wednesday in the fatal shooting of 18-year old Tielor (TYE’-lur) Williams, who died in April 2014 as Brewer robbed someone else.

Brewer was not accused of being the shooter, but prosecutors charged him under a Nebraska law that holds accomplices accountable if someone dies while a felony is committed. Another man, Adrian Lester, is accused of firing the shots.

Brewer’s attorney says Brewer and Lester were acting separately that night, and Brewer therefore wasn’t an accomplice in Williams’ slaying.

Brown says he understands that the Williams family wants justice, that that he didn’t commit the crime.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln officials have pared down a proposal for putting knitted artwork in Union Plaza in celebration of World Wide Knit in Public Day.

A local group of knitters proposed “yarn bombing” the park to celebrate the day in mid-June.

Yarn bombing is done in defiance of city rules. But this this group wanted to receive permission before it placed a stocking cap on the sculpture of a large head. The knitters also had plans to colorfully cover tree trunks.

Not much of the proposal was left after city officials scrutinized the group’s plans, ruling that yarn bombing cannot embellish any outdoor sculpture and may only be applied to nonliving objects.

Parks and Recreation Director Lynn Johnson says he’s willing to discuss the matter.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A grand jury has found no criminal wrongdoing by four Omaha police officers who were involved in the fatal shootings of three people.

Grand jurors returned no charges Wednesday against Officer Alvin Lugod, who fired the shots that killed 39-year-old Danny Elrod. Authorities later determined Elrod was unarmed.

The grand jury also cleared the three officers who killed a robbery suspect and a crewman of the long-running TV show ‘Cops’ at a fast-food restaurant in August.

State law requires grand juries to investigate whenever someone dies in custody or while being arrested.

Lugod and other officers confronted Elrod on Feb. 23, and police say Elrod wouldn’t comply with their commands. Elrod was shot when he turned and reached for a fence behind him.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The United Way will provide extra training for employees who work with students in Omaha after-school programs.

Employees in 31 Omaha after-school programs will receive training from the new United Way Women’s Leadership Council initiative. The council is partnering with the Collective for Youth, a nonprofit group that runs after-school centers in Omaha Public Schools. Participating programs serve about 4,500 students across the metropolitan area.

The training will touch on academics, but will mainly focus on helping kids learn proper behavior and social interaction.

The initiative will begin July 1 with the help of a $150,000 grant from the council to the collective. According to Annie Bird, the community impact chairwoman for the United Way council, the group has committed to providing $450,000 to the nonprofit for the program’s first three years.