(AP) — An 82-year-old woman will face a misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide charge in connection to a crash that killed an Omaha cyclist.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine says Ruth A. Jeffers, of La Vista, will be charged Tuesday. If convicted, she faces up to one year in jail or up to two years of probation.

Authorities say Jeffers swerved across a traffic lane last month and struck 56-year-old Jim Johnston. He later died at a hospital.

Kleine says Jeffers swerved her vehicle to avoid a stopped car in front of her. Court records do not list an attorney for her.

(AP) — A bill intended to encourage Nebraska public power districts to consider more renewable energy is dead for the year.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Ken Haar of Malcolm, withdrew his proposal from consideration on Tuesday. Haar says he didn’t have the votes to advance the bill.

Current law states that public power districts should provide low-cost electricity. The measure would have required public power districts to consider economic development when building their energy portfolios.

Haar says the measure would get rid of an excuse that districts use not to consider wind and other forms of alternative energy. Opponents argued that the bill would impose a mandate on public power districts and increase costs for families and businesses.

(AP) — Six months after a Nebraska giant auction, buyers of some of the cars and trucks have begun restoration projects, enjoying the nostalgia surrounding their classic or beloved models.

More than 10,000 bidders registered for the September sale in Pierce of nearly 500 vehicles collected by Ray Lambrecht, who ran Pierce’s Chevrolet dealership for 50 years.

Jared Anderson and his father, Steve, found a 1954 Ford F-100 pickup in the field of Chevys. It was one of the few vehicles in their price range.

The once blue, now rusted hulk squats on the dirt-covered floor of a barn in rural Crete, awaiting the thousands of dollars in restoration work. It’s work the men know how to do, work that they’ll share, father and son.

(AP) — Discredited former Douglas County crime scene investigator David Kofoed has been ordered to pay a total of nearly $6.6 million to two men he’s accused of framing for murder.

U.S. Judge Joseph Bataillon issued the orders late Monday, entering judgment of $1.66 million to compensate Matthew Livers, as well as another $1.65 million in punitive damages. The judge also ordered Kofoed to pay nearly $1 million in Livers’ attorneys’ fees.

A separate order awarded $1.1 million to compensate Nicholas Sampson and another $965,000 in punitive damages. Kofoed was ordered to pay nearly $200,000 in Sampson’s attorneys’ fees.

Livers and Sampson initially were charged in the 2006 shotgun slayings of Wayne and Sharmon Stock and spent months in jail before being cleared. Kofoed spent two years in prison for evidence-tampering.

(AP) — Nebraska lawmakers have voted to override Gov. Dave Heineman’s vetoes of state budget items, including funding for courtyard fountains and a new heating system at the Capitol.

The 37-11 vote on Tuesday comes days after Heineman announced that he had trimmed $65 million from the Legislature’s budget package. Heineman singled out the fountains as a less important priority than state-funded property tax relief.

Supporters of the override motion argued that the fountains are the last major, unfinished design feature of the Capitol. The fountain project was halted because of the Depression.

Construction is now expected to end just before Nebraska celebrates its 150th anniversary as a state.

Opponents say the project should sit near the very bottom of Nebraska’s priority list.

Thirty votes were needed for a successful override.

(AP) — A man accused of beheading a Topeka resident with a guitar string has pleaded not guilty to premeditated first-degree murder.

Police say 29-year-old James Paul Harris practiced voodoo and kept the head of 49-year-old James Gerety to talk to after the March or April 2011 killing.

Gerety’s partial remains were found a year later in Carbondale, 18 miles south of Topeka.

Harris’ former girlfriend testified in March that he told her he used a guitar string to sever Gerety’s head. She said he disposed of the body but kept the head. A Topeka police officer said the ex-girlfriend told him Harris practiced voodoo and that he liked to talk to the head.

A judge on Monday set Harris’ trial for June 23.

(AP) — Nebraska’s longest-serving lawmaker delivered an April Fool’s shocker to his colleagues when he announced that he was resigning.

Sen. Ernie Chambers looked somber Tuesday as he took the microphone during legislative floor debate. The Omaha senator told his fellow lawmakers that he had decided to step down, and he planned to submit his resignation to the governor and the speaker.

Lawmakers fell silent as the 76-year-old spoke. Chambers then grinned and said, “April Fools,” and the room erupted with laughter.

Chambers says the joke was intended to lighten the mood during a heated budget debate.

Chambers was first elected to the Legislature in 1970 and held office until January 2009, when he briefly was forced out by term limits. He was re-elected to another four-year term in 2012.

(AP) — “The Role of Water and Food Security in Early Childhood Survival and Development: A Global Perspective” is the title of an upcoming Heuermann (HYU’-ur-man) Lecture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

This lecture is a panel presentation with Dr. Chris Elias, president of the Global Development Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Dr. Joan Lombardi, former deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Dr. Nurper Ulkuer, former head of the Early Childhood Development Unit and senior adviser for early childhood development at UNICEF.

The lecture is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. on April 22 in the Great Plains Room of the Nebraska East Union on university’s East Campus.

(AP) — A monthly economic index for nine Midwestern and Plains states has risen slightly, suggesting economic growth over the next three to six months.

A report issued late Monday says the overall Mid-America Business Conditions Index inched up to 58.2 in March from 57.4 in February.

Looking six months ahead, the business confidence portion of the overall index declined to a still strong 59.0 from 59.7 in February.

The survey results from supply managers are compiled into a collection of indexes ranging from zero to 100. Survey organizers say any score above 50 suggests growth, while a score below that suggests decline.

The survey covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.