(AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has issued a public reprimand for a Douglas County District judge for intervening in a friend’s drunken driving case.

The high court found that Judge Gregory Schatz improperly intervened in the DUI case involving a friend, Omaha attorney Michael Davlin.

The judicial complaint said that in August 2012, Schatz was contacted by Davlin’s girlfriend — a Douglas County Court official — who tearfully relayed that Davlin was in an Omaha jail after driving drunk and hitting a tree.

The complaint says Schatz contacted the jail and used his judicial authority to have Davlin released without paying a bond.

In response to the complaint, Schatz said he understood what he did was wrong and that he has since taken a judicial ethics course.

(AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has reversed a lower court’s ruling that found Lancaster County partly liable for a 2009 school bus crash.

Jeff Hall sued Lancaster County District Court and Norris School District in 2010, saying he had incurred more than $350,000 in medical expenses for his injuries from the Aug. 24, 2009 crash. Hall was driving a pickup that collided with the bus at a rural intersection where a stop sign was missing.

Lancaster County District Judge Steven Burns found the school district 50 percent liable, the county 20 percent liable and Hall 30 percent liable. Hall was awarded $770,000.

But on Friday, the state’s high court said Burns was wrong to conclude that the county’s failure to have a road sign inspection policy helped cause the accident.

(AP) — Hastings police are investigating the shooting death of a 4-year-old boy.

Police Chief Pete Kortum (KOR’-tuhm) says the shooting was reported a little after 8:15 a.m. Friday at a home on North Saunders Avenue. Kortum says the boy was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Investigators say the shooting looks like an accident. Authorities aren’t releasing the boy’s name and other details yet.

(AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a death row inmate seeking to be released from prison.

Michael Ryan was sentenced to death for the 1985 cult-related killing of James Thimm in the southeast Nebraska town of Rulo.

Ryan filed a request with Richardson County District Court for post-conviction relief in 2012, challenging how Nebraska obtained one of three drugs that would be used to execute him. Inmates typically file post-conviction relief motions after they have exhausted all other appeals.

The lower court denied Ryan’s request without holding a hearing, and Ryan appealed.

On Friday, the state’s high court upheld the rejection of Ryan’s request, saying courts can only enter relief when a prisoner shows that a denial or infringement of his constitutional rights would nullify his conviction.

(AP) — A central Nebraska ranching family has won a statewide award for its land stewardship efforts.

The 2014 Nebraska Leopold Conservation Award was given to the Pelster family, owners of the Pelster Angus Ranch in Ericson. Gov. Dave Heineman announced the winners on Friday.

Duane and Nancy Pelster are third-generation owners of the ranch. Their practices include rest-rotational grazing, which has been shown to enhance wildlife. The family also has planted nearly 80,000 coniferous trees to provide shelterbelts and windbreaks, and decommissioned 27 wells to improve water quality.

The award is named in honor of world-renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold, and includes $10,000 and a crystal. The award is presented annually by the Sand County Foundation, the Nebraska Cattlemen and Cargill.

(AP) — A driver has died, burned beyond recognition, after his vehicle rammed into a semitrailer in northern Nebraska.

The collision occurred about 10 a.m. Wednesday around six miles west of O’Neill. Holt County Attorney Thomas Herzog says the man’s westbound vehicle crossed the center line of U.S. Highway 20 and struck the eastbound big rig.

The subsequent fire also melted the vehicle’s identification numbers.

Herzog says the semitrailer driver was hospitalized.

The accident is being investigated.

(AP) — A man has been arrested after climbing a billboard in southern Omaha with what looked like a rifle.

A security officer spotted the man walking through a parking lot around 7:30 p.m. Thursday. The officer called police as the man scaled a couple of fences before ascending the billboard.

Officers soon arrived, blocked off the street and began talking to the man. He soon descended and was taken into custody without incident.

He was carrying an airsoft model that resembled an AR-15 assault-style weapon.

(AP) — Daredevil Nik Wallenda is in Chicago scouting possible locations for a tightrope walk between two Windy City skyscrapers in the fall.

The high-wire walker said that he first would check out Willis Tower, which was formerly known as the Sears Tower and was the nation’s tallest building.

Wallenda says he hasn’t ruled out Willis Tower, but that it would be problematic because there isn’t a nearby building tall enough to connect his rig to. He says, though, that he shouldn’t have trouble selecting a site.

Wallenda has walked across the Niagara Falls and Grand Canyon in the past two years. He’s part of a family of acrobats that has been thrilling audiences for decades as The Flying Wallendas.