PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — A 49-year-old suburban Omaha teacher is accused of serving alcohol to minors.

Online court records say Ann Urwiler is charged in Sarpy County with procuring alcohol for a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Both charges are misdemeanors.

School records say Urwiler is a first-grade teacher at Trumble Park Elementary School in the Papillion-La Vista district. Online court records don’t list the name of Urwiler’s attorney. A public phone listing for Urwiler couldn’t be found. She didn’t immediately respond to an email message on Friday.

A district spokeswoman declined to speak directly about Urwiler’s case.

Urwiler’s first court appearance is scheduled for later this month.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The U.S. Small Business Administration has approved federal disaster assistance for seven Nebraska counties struck by severe weather, including the tornado-ravaged town of Pilger.

SBA spokesman Rick Jenkins said Thursday that residents of those counties may be eligible for low-interest, fixed-rate federal loans to help them rebuild. The agency will have staff members on-site to work with residents.

The approved counties are Stanton, Colfax, Cuming, Madison, Pierce, Platte and Wayne.

Gov. Dave Heineman submitted the request after the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced this week that five Nebraska counties weren’t eligible for individual home and business assistance. The aid was denied in part because of the amount of privately insured property in the area.

The Pilger tornado was one of four that touched down in northeast Nebraska on June 16.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln developers plan to build a $20 million, eight-story senior housing project in the city’s West Haymarket district.

Mayor Chris Beutler announced Thursday that the project will include 100 senior housing units, 10,000 square feet of retail space and 8,000 feet of office space.

Beutler says the project will help meet the increasing demand for housing in the downtown area. Developers for the project include The Argent Group of Chicago and Speedway Properties of Lincoln.

City officials say construction is expected to being in spring 2015, and will take 12 to 14 months to complete.

City planners have said they would like to see parts of the Haymarket turned into a housing area for retiring baby boomers and young professionals.

WAHOO, Neb. (AP) — Residents of a southeastern Nebraska town say they are concerned that a new highway bypass could negatively impact businesses.

Gas stations and other mom-and-pop businesses benefit from about 9,000 vehicles that pass through Wahoo on U.S. Route 77 each day. Several residents say they are worried that those local businesses will lose customers. Although the bypass will likely increase the amount of traffic, they say it could prevent motorists from stopping on their way through the small town.

The Nebraska Department of Roads estimates daily traffic counts could reach 11,000 within 20 years.

Crews began pouring concrete Tuesday for the nearly 4-mile long bypass. The Department of Roads says it could be open by November.

DENVER (AP) — Recreational pot brownies in Colorado are about to get weaker. Or at least, easier to break up into manageable doses.

Colorado marijuana regulators have drafted an emergency rule aimed at making it easier for new marijuana users to tell how much pot they’re eating. A draft of the emergency rules, obtained by The Associated Press before its public release, requires makers of edible pot to physically demark their products so that consumers can “intuitively determine” how much constitutes a dose of marijuana’s intoxicating ingredient, THC.

Colorado’s rules already require edible pot to be sold in “servings” of 10 milligrams of THC. But many consumers have complained they can’t tell what a serving is.

Edible marijuana producers say they’ll comply with the rules by making milder products.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Fremont man is suing the state of Nebraska, saying his constitutional rights were violated when he was required to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, even though he objected to the organization’s religious foundation.

Marvin Sundquist, of Fremont, says his massage therapy license was placed on probationary status last year, and he was ordered to attend AA meetings as part of his probation. Sundquist says the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office moved to revoke his massage therapy license when he objected to mandatory attendance of AA. He says he asked to see an alcohol counselor who offers a non-religious program, but was denied that option by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

Sundquist is asking for $200,000, saying the state cost him a promising career as a massage therapist.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A child-welfare expert who was accused of exposing himself to some girls at a Lincoln hotel has made a deal with prosecutors.

Online court records say 68-year-old Steven Preister, of Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace and was fined $500. Prosecutors dropped a charge of public nudity in exchange for Preister’s plea late last month.

Preister was charged after an April 7 incident at the Cornhusker Marriott in Lincoln. He is accused of yelling at four teenage girls, following them to their room and trying to stop them from closing their door. The girls said Preister appeared intoxicated and was wearing only a T-shirt.

He was in Lincoln to provide technical help to the Nebraska Health and Human Services Department.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police say a 24-year-old man has been arrested as part of an investigation into the death of a 1-year-old boy.

Tyler Kennedy was arrested Wednesday on a count of felony child abuse resulting in death.

Police say officers were called to a north Omaha home on Saturday on a report of an unresponsive child. The boy, Orlando Were, was taken to an Omaha hospital. Police say the boy died on Monday after suffering injuries while in the care of Kennedy, his mother’s boyfriend.

Police say they’re still investigating.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A Grand Island man whose vehicle contained several dozen chicken carcasses and malnourished chickens when he was pulled over has been given 180 days behind bars.

Online court records say 36-year-old Luis Motola-Palacio was sentenced on Tuesday in Hall County District Court. He also was fined $1,000 and forbidden to drive for 15 years. He had pleaded no contest to charges of drunken driving, second offense, and to livestock neglect.

The sentences are to run at the same time as his prison sentence for an assault in 2013.

Authorities say a Grand Island police sergeant stopped Motola-Palacio early on Jan. 31 for driving without turning on his headlights. The officer soon discovered the chickens in a makeshift cage in the back of Motola-Palacio’s sport utility vehicle.

PIERCE, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a Nebraska resident has died after a semitrailer drove into the back of a pickup.

Pierce County Sheriff Rick Eberhardt said the wreck happened Wednesday afternoon on Nebraska Highway 13 just south of Pierce.

He says the northbound pickup was attempting to turn left when it was hit from behind by a semitrailer hauling more than 8,000 gallons of diesel fuel. The semitrailer went off the road into a ditch and rolled. Its tank leaked fuel that forced closure of the highway for several hours.

Eberhardt said in a news release Thursday that the semitrailer driver died later at a hospital. The driver was identified as 66-year-old Eldon Kassebaum, of West Point. The sheriff says the two people in the pickup weren’t injured.