(AP) — Homestead National Monument of America will conduct a prescribed burn on more than 60 acres of its restored tallgrass prairie in southeast Nebraska.

Officials say the burn will occur the first day in which favorable and safe conditions exist. Representatives from the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and local firefighters will aid in setting and controlling the flames.

Homestead Superintendent Mark Engler says fire is used to control woody plants, invasive species and reduce thatch. He says fire “is a natural occurrence that holds many benefits for the native prairie grasses.”

The monument’s 2.5 miles of trails will be closed during the burn.

Homestead National Monument of America sits four miles west of Beatrice, along Nebraska Highway 4.

(AP) — Authorities in Lincoln say a toddler was not hurt after getting stuck inside a claw crane machine at a bowling alley.

Lincoln police say a woman called Monday afternoon to report her 3-year-old son missing from her apartment.

Authorities later discovered the boy had ended up inside a claw crane machine at a bowling alley across the street. Patrons at the bowling alley spotted the boy playing with stuffed animals inside the machine.

The machine’s vendor was contacted to let the boy out. He was reunited with his mother a short time later.

Police say the mother was not cited because she immediately contacted police about the missing child.

(AP) — A former Hall County prosecutor has been named to fill an open district court judgeship in eastern Nebraska’s 5th Judicial District.

The office of Gov. Dave Heineman says he’s selected 43-year-old Rachel Daugherty, of Grand Island. She’s been in private practice in Grand Island since 2000. She holds a law degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln law school.

The opening was created by the retirement of Judge Michael Owens, who was appointed to the post in 1996.

The 5th Judicial District covers Boone, Butler, Colfax, Hamilton, Merrick, Nance, Platte, Polk, Saunders, Seward and York counties.

(AP) — A Nebraska civil liberties group is now representing a Lincoln man arrested by police last month for handing out religious pamphlets outside Lincoln’s Pinnacle Bank Arena.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska says Larry Ball was exercising his First Amendment rights. The ACLU filed a motion Monday in Ball’s casing requesting that the charges against him be dismissed.

The 76-year-old Ball was arrested March 15 after refusing police orders to stop handing out the fliers as the Nebraska Boys State Basketball Tournament was being played inside the arena.

Ball and the ACLU say Ball was on a public sidewalk and was therefore free to hand out fliers. Police and city prosecutors dispute that Ball was on public property.

A hearing in the case has been set for Wednesday.

(AP) — A 31-year-old Nebraska man has been convicted of murder in the knifing death of a Columbus man.

The office of Attorney General Jon Bruning said in a news release that 31-year-old Eric Henry was found guilty Tuesday by a Platte County District Court jury in Columbus.

Henry was one of three people prosecuted for the May 2013 slaying of 51-year-old Steven Jorgensen during a botched robbery.

Last month 32-year-old Kimberly Henderson, of Columbus, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Twenty-seven-year-old Quentin Critser, of Lincoln, pleaded guilty in December to second-degree murder and agreed to testify against his co-defendants. Henderson and Critser are awaiting sentencing.

(AP) — Seven-year-old Max Vertin has a disease that is weakening his muscles, but not his imagination.

Make-A-Wish Colorado says Max, who loves to pretend to fly like a superhero, soared Tuesday at an indoor skydiving facility near Denver called SkyVenture Colorado. The Hastings, Nebraska boy donned a yellow-and-red Iron Man costume and red helmet and broad smile for his wind tunnel adventure.

Max and his two brothers have Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder that primarily affects boys, often manifesting itself when patients are very young and causing their muscles to slowly deteriorate.

Until recently, according to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, patients did not survive much beyond their teens, when the disease begins to affect the heart and respiratory muscles. Life expectancy has been increasing because of advances in cardiac and respiratory care.