GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Eight people have applied to fill the Hall County District judgeship left vacant by the Oct. 1 retirement of Judge James Livingston.

Those applying include John Jorgensen, of Lincoln; Thomas Klein, of Wahoo; Kevin Knake, of Hastings; and Charles Maser, James Truell and Mark Young, all of Grand Island. John Marsh and Stacy Nonhof, both of Kearney, have also submitted applications for appointment.

The bench is in the 9th Judicial District consisting of Buffalo and Hall counties.

The Judicial Nominating Commission will hold a public hearing at the Hall County Courthouse on Dec. 10, when it will review all the applicants.

RALSTON, Neb. (AP) — Ralston police responding to a complaint about loud music say they discovered a mushroom grow operation.

Officers were sent to the apartment around 2 a.m. Friday.

Once there, officers said they smelled a strong odor of burnt marijuana coming from the apartment and also observed psychedelic mushrooms and paraphernalia in plain view.

Police say the residents were detained, and a search warrant was obtained for the apartment.

Police say they found about 18 jars of mushrooms in various grow stages in the search, as well as numerous plastic containers, a humidifier, grow light, growing material and literature on how to grow mushrooms.

A man and a woman, both 29, were arrested on suspicion of felony drug counts.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — City workers have increased patrols of Lincoln’s parking garages following the suicides of two people who jumped to their deaths this week.

City parking manager Wayne Mixdorf said he didn’t think it was necessary to modify the buildings, such as by erecting fencing.

But Mixdorf says maintenance workers and managers have begun patrolling the garages more frequently.

The move follows the death Thursday of an 18-year-old high school student and the Monday death of a 28-year-old.

They were the fourth people to jump to their deaths in Lincoln since 2008. During that period, Lincoln police say there were 197 suicides in the city.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln man has been sentenced to prison for selling drugs to an undercover officer and leading police on a car chase.

25-year-old Aaron King was sentenced Thursday to nearly nine years to 15 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to two counts of delivery of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance. He pleaded no contest to operating a motor vehicle to avoid arrest.

King sold marijuana to the undercover officer five times in summer 2013. He led officers on a chase through Lincoln that reached speeds of up to 110 mph in December 2013.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 50-year-old Ralston man has been indicted in federal court on four counts related to what prosecutors say was his unlawful making of homemade fireworks.

Federal and local law enforcement raided Jeffery Belmont’s home in July before the July Fourth fireworks show he put on annually for his neighborhood

In a federal indictment unveiled Thursday, Belmont is charged with two counts of unlawfully manufacturing explosive materials without a license. He is also charged with two counts of being an unlawful user of a controlled substance in possession of explosives.

If convicted of all four counts, he faces up to 40 years in prison.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — When the Nebraska Medical Center began treating patients with the deadly Ebola virus this fall, experts had to figure out how to safely conduct lab tests and handle samples.

A paper outlining some of the lessons learned in the lab has been published, so other hospitals can learn from the experience here in Omaha.

Pete Iwen, director of the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory, led the team of University of Nebraska Medical Center experts who wrote the paper.

Iwen says that when the first Ebola patient arrived in September, some of the tests doctors wanted couldn’t be performed safely with existing equipment, so the lab developed alternatives.

Iwen says the American Journal of Clinical Pathology fast-tracked the approval of the paper, so other labs would have the advice available.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln school officials have identified a high school student who fell to his death from a downtown city parking garage.

18-year-old Tony Kirkpatrick was a senior at Lincoln East High School. Police are still investigating whether Kirkpatrick jumped or fell of the side of the Que Place Garage just before 4 p.m. on Thursday.

Police say the teen died at the scene, and his immediate family has been notified. A team of counselors was expected at the school all day Friday to help grieving students.

On Monday, 28-year-old Monica Martinez, of Lincoln, also fell from the top of a parking garage in the downtown area. Investigators think she jumped on purpose.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK, Colo. (AP) — Searchers have recovered the body of a Colorado man who was reported missing after he told friends he planned to climb the highest peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Park officials say 25-year-old Peter Jeffris’ body was spotted by a helicopter search crew Thursday about 200 feet below a popular route up Longs Peak.

Authorities believe the Broomfield man set out for the top of the 14,259-foot mountain Sunday. His car was found at the Longs Peak trailhead after he didn’t show up for work Monday.

Ground teams had been searching more than 20 square miles around the peak, but high winds and cold weather hampered the effort.

Thousands of hikers reach the summit of Longs Peak every year, but some routes require technical climbing skills, especially in wintry weather.

COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — A 66-year-old Columbus man is facing a criminal charge after police say he molested his granddaughter over a four-year period.

The man has been scheduled for arraignment on Tuesday in Platte County District Court on a felony charge of third-degree sexual assault of a child.

The newspaper isn’t identifying the man in order to protect the privacy of the victim.

Columbus Police Sgt. Bret Strecker says the assaults began when the girl was 8 years old and continued for four years. He says the girl was living with the man and his wife and that the attacks would take place after the woman left for work.

The girl, who is now a teenager, tells police the attacks ended when she asked her grandfather if the behavior was wrong.