(AP) — An April trial has been scheduled for a former Nebraska union official accused of embezzling nearly $103,000.

Ray Lineweber, of Lincoln, faces 29 counts on charges of embezzlement, mail fraud and falsifying union records.

Prosecutors say the Lineweber stole the money from the United Transportation Union between January 2008 and May 2012, when he was legislative director for the union’s Nebraska State Legislative Board 30. The federal indictment says Lineweber misled the union in expense reports requesting reimbursement for food, entertainment, travel and other expenses.

The 66-year-old Lineweber and his attorney have declined to comment.

The trial is scheduled to begin April 7.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A 26-year-old St. Paul man has been sent to prison for burglary and for using a hammer to kill his 6-month-old puppy.

Michael Berst had pleaded no contest to several charges in a deal with prosecutors. On Wednesday Berst was given 20 to 60 months for cruel mistreatment of animals and the same sentence for tampering with evidence. The sentences will be served at the same time. He was given 30 to 60 months for burglary. That prison time must be served after the two concurrent sentences.

A court document says Berst told a friend he’d first struck the dog on April 15 for relieving itself on a floor and later used the hammer to kill the dog, telling the friend he was putting the animal out of its misery.

A traffic stop for speeding on Interstate 80 near the Lincoln airport exit led to the seizure of nearly 39 pounds of marijuana and the arrest of a California resident.

Just before 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, a trooper stopped an eastbound 2013 Nissan Altima for speeding on I-80 near the Lincoln airport exit.  An NSP canine alerted to the odor of drugs coming from the vehicle. A search of the vehicle led to the seizure of 38.8 lbs. of marijuana.  The drugs, contained in 36 packages, were located in two duffel bags in the trunk of the vehicle.

The driver of the vehicle, Randall C. Cook, 63, of Klamath River, Calif., was lodged in the Lancaster County Jail on a charge of Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Deliver.

(AP) — University of Nebraska-Lincoln will have to cut about 1 percent of its budget next year to offset a $4.65 million shortfall.

Chancellor Harvey Perlman met Monday with deans, program directors, faculty representatives and other campus groups to discuss strategies for balancing the budget for the 2014-15 fiscal year.

UNL spokesman Steve Smith says factors contributing to the deficit include a $2.2 million shortfall carried over from the previous fiscal year and $570,000 in new building maintenance and operation costs. Perlman said in an email to university staff last week that UNL’s enrollment figures, which were flat this spring, did not alleviate the budget shortfall as planned.

(AP) — A 33-year-old Columbus man is accused of taking his 18-month-old son along for a drug deal in Colfax County.

Brian Blattner is charged with attempted possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and negligent child abuse without serious injury.

An arrest affidavit says Blattner had agreed to sell methamphetamine to a person who turned out to be a police informant on Sunday. The deal was to be done at a convenience store parking lot in Schuyler.

Schuyler Police Chief Leonard Hiltner says in the affidavit that officers found the little boy in a car seat in Blattner’s van. Hiltner says the boy was “absolutely filthy.”

Jail records say Blattner remained in custody on Thursday. Court records don’t list the name of his attorney.

(AP) — Given the ever-growing use of debit and credit cards for even casual purchases, some crime pays less than it used to in Lincoln.

Lincoln Public Safety Director Tom Casady said that crooks last year got about a quarter as much cash as they got a decade ago when robbing Lincoln retailers.

Casady, the city’s former police chief, says that because customers are whipping out cards instead of cash so often, businesses don’t have as much money on hand nowadays.

He says “cash has gone the way of cursive.”

(AP) — A Columbus man convicted of stealing gasoline from multiple cars last year has been given probation.

23-year-old Jeffrey Halvorsen was recently sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay nearly $30,000 in restitution to theft victims. He has spent more than 300 days in jail.

Halvorsen pleaded guilty in September to four felony charges of criminal mischief in connection with a three-month crime binge beginning in January 2013.

Prosecutors say Halvorsen drilled holes into cars’ gasoline tanks and drained the liquid into a bucket. He then allegedly used the gasoline for his personal vehicle.

Halvorsen was arrested in March, following a fire tied to one of the vehicles.

(AP) — The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska is establishing a new appellate court to hear cases in its 15-county service area.

The tribe will welcome three new judges at a swearing-in ceremony on Feb. 27. Chief Justice Mary Jo Hunter and judges Eldena Bear Don’t Walk and Richard McGee will take their oath at 9 a.m. at the Fred LeRoy Health and Wellness Center in Omaha.

The judges were selected by the Ponca Tribal Council. The tribe has previously relied on the Northern Plains Intertribal Court of Appeals for appeals from the Ponca Tribal Court.

The tribe’s service area includes Boyd, Burt, Douglas, Hall, Holt, Knox, Lancaster, Madison, Platte, Sarpy, Stanton and Wayne counties in Nebraska; Pottawattamie and Woodbury counties in Iowa; and Charles Mix County in South Dakota.

(AP) — The former executive director of the Lincoln YWCA has been sent to prison for stealing thousands of dollars while working there.

Online court records say 42-year-old Denise Serrett on Tuesday was given four to five years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of more than $27,800. She’d pleaded no contest to felony theft.

Serrett, who also is known as Denise Scholl-Serrett, had resigned in February last year, just days before she was sentenced to probation for stealing from a former employer.

YWCA officials audited the nonprofit’s books for December 2011 through February 2013 after learning that Serrett had stolen thousands of dollars from Omaha-based property management company DEI Communities, where she had been vice president of human resources.

Serrett has since moved to Brookings, S.D.