OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Health officials in Omaha are notifying parents that some students at a city middle school may have been exposed to a rabid bat was found on school grounds.

The Douglas County Health Department said Wednesday that the bat was found on the ground at Morton Middle School on Friday afternoon. The bat was sent to a state lab and tested positive for the infectious disease.

A small group of students at the school were seen around the bat, and officials are urging anyone who had any physical contact with the bat to contact their doctor as soon as possible.

Rabies is a viral disease transmitted through the bite or scratch of an infected animal that affects people. It is almost always fatal if not treated before symptoms appear.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Prosecutors say a 39-year-old ex-convict accused of abducting and killing a 22-year-old woman told police he sexually assaulted the victim in his van before strangling her.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that Jeremiah Connelly was in court Wednesday when he was ordered held without bail on charges of first-degree murder and tampering with evidence in the killing of 22-year-old Jeanna Wilcoxen.

Deputy Douglas County Attorney Molly Keane said in court that Connelly told police that he spotted Wilcoxen in an Omaha park and forced her into his van because he was angry that she had cancelled an earlier meeting with him.

Wilcoxen’s death occurred about six weeks after Connelly had been released from prison, where he served a term for attempted kidnapping, robbery and other crimes.

PLATTSMOUTH, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have released the name of a woman killed in a fire at a senior living apartment complex in eastern Nebraska.

The Nebraska State Fire Marshal Agency identified the woman Monday as 63-year-old Paulla Redding-Weeks. Preliminary autopsy results show she died of smoke inhalation.

The fire was reported around 9 p.m. Saturday at the South Park Apartments in Plattsmouth. Authorities say Redding-Weeks was pronounced dead at the scene, and several other residents were treated for smoke inhalation.

Several of the occupants used walkers or wheelchairs as they fled to safety.

The agency says investigators have determined that smoking materials caused the fire.

COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — A 19-year-old driver has been charged with vehicular homicide in the crash death of a motorcyclist in Platte County.

Court records say Daisy Gonzalez, of Madison, is due in court Wednesday for arraignment. The records don’t list the name of an attorney who could comment for her.

Platte County Sheriff’s Lt. Kevin Schuller said in an arrest warrant affidavit that the accident occurred Aug. 2 at the intersection of Nebraska Highway 91 and 490th Street. Schuller says Gonzalez was eastbound on 490th when she stopped at the intersection. He says she saw the oncoming motorcyclist on the highway but misjudged the distance and pulled into the intersection. Her minivan collided with the motorcycle driven by 22-year-old Joshua Gasper.

He died days later of his injuries. He lived in Columbus.

The Nebraska State Patrol identified him Monday as 46-year-old Inocente Perez-Sanchez, who lived in Schuyler.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office says the driver of the vehicle that hit Perez-Sanchez called 911 around 2:30 a.m. Sunday to report what happened just east of the Greenwood interchange.

YORK, Neb. (AP) — A California couple who said the marijuana they were hauling through Nebraska was intended for Christmas gifts have been given probation and conditional jail time.

York County District Court records say 71-year-old Barbara and 80-year-old Patrick Jiron were sentenced Monday to three years’ probation. They’ll be supervised at their Clearlake Oaks, California, home by California authorities.

The judge also sentenced them to three 30-day jail stints that can be waived if they comply with probation terms.

When the Jirons were arrested Dec. 19, they said they didn’t know it was illegal to transport marijuana through Nebraska. They told authorities the 60 pounds (27 kilograms) of pot was intended as presents for family in Vermont and Massachusetts.

Each pleaded no contest to possession of more than a pound of marijuana.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 92-year-old woman has been buried in Nebraska with British military honors for a secret that she held for decades: her World War II service as a code breaker of German intelligence communications.

The Union Jack was draped over Jean Briggs Watters’ casket during her burial Monday, the Omaha World-Herald reported. Watters died Sept. 15.

The tribute honored Watters for her role decoding for a top-secret military program led by British mathematician Alan Turing, who was the subject of the 2014 Oscar-winning film “The Imitation Game .” Watters was among about 10,000 people, mostly women, who participated in the Allied effort to crack German communication codes throughout the war.

She operated an electro-mechanical machine , known as a “bombe,” to decipher signals the German armed forces sent out from its sophisticated Enigma encryption machines. The effort at Britain’s famed codebreaking center, Bletchley Park, saved lives and helped bring an end to the war. But it was kept classified until the 1970s.

“She never told anyone,” said Watters’ son, Robin Watters. “She was fully aware of the gravity of what she was doing. It was haunting to her, what might happen if she made a mistake.”

Jean Briggs Watters was 18 when she enlisted in the Women’s Royal Naval Service. She had attended an art school in Cambridge, England, before joining the Allied war cause.

She met her husband, a U.S. Army Air Corps pilot named John Watters, during the war and they married soon after. She and her husband retired to the U.S. in 1969.

Watters was placed Monday in a burial plot next to her husband, who died in June at age 101.

“She had a seriousness, and a sense of duty,” Robin Watters said. “She was a really special lady. But she was tough. She did the hard things.”

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha City Council has voted to reduce the number of days fireworks can be sold and used leading up to Independence Day each year.

On Tuesday, the council voted to shorten the window to sell and buy fireworks in the city from 10 to seven days leading up to July 4. The window to light off fireworks will be even shorter, now allowed only July 2-4.

The council also voted to increase the penalty for first-time violators from $200 to $300. Second offenses could bring a $400 fine, and a third would result in a $500 fine.

Mayor Jean Stothert had earlier proposed reining in the number of days to sell and use fireworks following a glut of complaints over the last two Independence Day celebrations.

MACY, Neb. (AP) — A northeast Nebraska woman has been arrested on charges that she locked her 10-year-old foster son in a basement storage room.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports federal prosecutors charged 34-year-old Krista Parker, of Macy, with felony child abuse and kidnapping.

According to an affidavit, officers with Omaha Nation Law Enforcement Services went to Parker’s home Sept. 15 after receiving a call about 2:20 a.m. about a boy locked in a storage room

Officers found the boy locked in a dark room with no windows or ventilation. Officers arrested Parker, who they found in an upstairs bedroom.

A criminal complaint was unsealed Friday.

PLATTSMOUTH, Neb. (AP) — One person has died after a fire at a senior living apartment complex in eastern Nebraska.

The fire was reported around 9 p.m. Saturday at the South Park Apartments in Plattsmouth. Authorities say one woman was pronounced dead at the scene, and several other residents were treated for smoke inhalation. The woman’s name hasn’t been released.

The flames were contained to just one apartment at the end of the complex. Several of the occupants used walkers or wheelchairs as they fled to safety.

The fire cause is being investigated.