LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln police say a man has been accused of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in an alley.

Police say 29-year-old James McWilliams faces a charge of first-degree sexual assault. Court records do not list an attorney.

Omaha television station KETV says (https://bit.ly/1j3uhnD ) witnesses reported seeing a man sexually assaulting an unconscious woman Sunday night in the Haymarket area.

The 21-year-old woman told investigators she was drinking at a bar with friends, and doesn’t remember leaving the bar. She says she didn’t consent to sex.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP)€” State officials have reduced the amount that Nebraska owes the federal government for child welfare services that weren’t properly documented, but could still end up paying $15 million.

A Department of Health and Human Services spokesman said Monday that the agency has successfully documented $7 million of the $22 million in federal aid that was distributed for foster care and other child welfare services.

Federal officials called for reimbursement in January after noting that Nebraska didn’t require its child-welfare contractors to give a breakdown of how much money was going to foster parents versus other services for children.

DHHS spokesman Russ Reno says the agency has proposed a payment schedule to the federal government, but likely won’t begin the reimbursement until later this summer.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Authorities in San Diego say a married couple in their 80s were killed when he backed a pickup truck over her, then was hit by the truck himself as he scrambled to help her.

The San Diego County Medical Examiner says in a statement Monday that 80-year-old Setsuko Yada was hit by her 87-year-old husband as he was trying to park their pickup truck on Sunday night.

The man was hit when he got out in what appears to have been an attempt to help his wife.

Paramedics declared the woman dead at the scene.

The man, whose name has not been released, was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead soon after.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The small Nebraska city of Fremont has made its first arrest related to an ordinance requiring anyone who wants to rent there to obtain a license and swear they have legal permission to live in the country.

A Washington state man was arrested on suspicion of trespassing after protesting the rules aimed at restricting illegal immigration, but otherwise local officials say the process has been going smoothly.

Fremont Police Chief Jeff Elliott says more than 200 rental licenses have been issued to people who applied and paid the $5 fee since the city started the process on April 10.

Only applicants who say they aren’t U.S. citizens are investigated. Elliott says fewer than 10 of the applications warranted that follow up by checking with a federal database.

NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — Blacks Hills Energy has been meeting with landowners along the likely route for a new natural gas pipeline to serve Norfolk.

The 50-mile line will run from the Northern Natural Gas interstate pipeline at Bancroft and allow the area to receive gas from multiple pipelines and ease the capacity bottleneck at Norfolk.

The Norfolk Daily News says (https://bit.ly/1jZi20r ) the line will supply natural gas to Houston-based Tejas Tubular Products among other customers. Tejas Tubular plans to build a plant next year near Nucor Steel.

Most of the underground line will be north of and parallel to Nebraska Highway 51 and U.S. Highway 275.

Black Hills Energy company says the pipeline cost hasn’t been determined yet.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An entrepreneurial Nebraska couple hope customers will grow comfortable buying from a remotely controlled retail store that sells pots and flowers.

Clark Plihal told the Lincoln Journal Star (https://bit.ly/ROL9Z3 ) that he and his wife, Kelli, have had difficulty finding seasonal help to sell their Bump Up Pots. They are flowers already planted in a removable-bottom pot so the flowers can be transferred to a larger pot or planted in the ground.

So the Plihals set up a test store on a vacant lot in downtown Crete. At the front of the store is a wooden console with a large computer screen. Their goal is to run the store remotely from their headquarters store in Shelton. Two Skype accounts let staffers in Shelton interact with customers in the Crete store.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Rhode Island man has told police he was leaving a bar when he noticed he’d been shot.

Police tell the Providence Journal (https://bit.ly/1lAWSlQ ) that 22-year-old Hector Aguayofuentes, of Providence, was shot in the leg early Saturday.

He tells police he was leaving the bar with a friend shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday when they both noticed he was bleeding.

They went to Hernandez’s house but were unable to stop the bleeding. He was eventually taken to a hospital, and police were notified.

Police say Aguayofuentes hasn’t provided any other details or explained how he might have been shot.

WAVERLY, Neb. (AP) — A 49-year-old woman has been charged with assault and abuse of a vulnerable adult, following accusations that she mistreated patients at a southeast Nebraska nursing home.

Barbara Fallon, of Lincoln, is accused of slapping three elderly patients when she worked at Waverly Care Center. Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner says Fallon on May 10 slapped the arms of women ages 79 and 89 to make them let go of a railing and also roughly moved them around. Wagner says Fallon also is accused of slapping a 73-year-old woman about a month ago.

The center says it has terminated Fallon.

A public phone listing for Fallon couldn’t be found. Online court records don’t list the name of her attorney.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — For the second time this month, Nebraska’s two biggest utilities will meet with regulators to discuss flooding hazards at their two nuclear power plants.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission already met with representatives of the Nebraska and Omaha Public Power Districts earlier this month about flood concerns. Now a follow-up meeting has been scheduled for May 22.

The utilities are re-evaluating flood risks at Cooper and Fort Calhoun nuclear power plants as part of the industry’s response to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

Both nuclear power plants in Nebraska sit on the banks of the Missouri River.

The utilities have asked for an extended deadline on their report about flood risks because they didn’t receive key flood data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers until earlier this year.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A University of Nebraska-Lincoln researcher has discovered a way to help crops grow in stressful conditions.

The findings by university plant scientist Sally Mackenzie could improve the yields of farmers in Africa and other developing countries. The research is paid for with a nearly $3 million grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Mackenzie discovered a way to produce plants with strong growth, even in a harsh environment. In a variety of crops, the genetic enhancements translated into yields that were up to 35 percent higher than usual.

The traits that strengthened those plants remained stable in subsequent generations.