(AP) — A cemetery where residents of a Nebraska home for the mentally ill were buried anonymously is being renovated as part of a Lincoln teen’s Eagle Scout project.

15-year-old Ethan Cecava organized Saturday’s excavations at the Calvert Street Cemetery to uncover forgotten grave markers.

Cecava also put together a map and built a kiosk to help family members find where loved ones were buried from 1872 to 1927.

Cecava picked the Calvert Street Cemetery after reading news stories about how 467 people had been buried there anonymously.

It wasn’t until a 2009 Nebraska Supreme Court ruling that the state’s mental hospitals were allowed to release the names of people buried in their cemeteries.

(AP) — Police are trying to determine how a man who was found outside in the eastern Nebraska city of Hastings died.

Police Sgt. Jim Baldwin said someone reported seeing the man’s body in the 800 block of West H Street around 5:30 a.m. Sunday.

The man has not been identified, and police aren’t yet sure how he died.

Baldwin says investigators will look at whether the death was suspicious or natural.

An autopsy will be conducted sometime this week.

(AP) — A Nebraska man is getting another chance to challenge ATM fees that two banks charged without providing proper notice.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that Jarek Charvat’s lawsuits against First National Bank of Wahoo and Mutual First Federal Credit Union should be reinstated.

Charvat says both banks violated the law because they didn’t have notices about the fees their charge displayed on their ATMs even though they did warm about the fees on screen. The law requires both notices.

The banks denied any wrongdoing in court filings.

The appeals court ruled that a lower court was wrong to throw out Charvat’s lawsuits, which were filed in January.

 

(AP) — Firefighters say 11 people, including nine children, escaped an Omaha house fire unharmed.

The fire was reported Friday afternoon.

Officials say the house in north Omaha sustained heavy smoke and water damage. The American Red Cross is assisting the family until they can get back into their home.

Officials have not said how the fire started.

(AP) — Authorities are searching for a man who did not return to jail from a work release facility in Council Bluffs.

The U.S. Marshal’s Office and Iowa State Patrol say 52-year-old Michael Hannum was last seen at a work release facility around 5:40 a.m. Saturday. Authorities say they discovered he was missing during an inmate count at 7 a.m. Saturday.

Hannum is believed to be driving a silver car with the Iowa license plate number SIS-613. Authorities believe he may be across the Missouri River in Omaha, Neb.

(AP) — A new Omaha public middle school opening later this month will bear the name a Tuskegee Airman who died during World War II.

Omaha Public Schools formally dedicated Alfonza W. Davis Middle School in northwest Omaha on Friday night. Classes start Aug. 14.

Davis was born in Pensacola, Fla., in August 1919 before his family moved to Omaha when he was a baby. He attended Omaha public schools and graduated valedictorian from the now-closed Omaha Technical High School in March 1937.

Davis later attended Omaha University, now the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and Creighton University.

He was 25 when his plane disappeared over Italy on Oct. 29, 1944. He received the Purple Heart, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Distinguished Unit Citation.

(AP) — The city of Grand Island has filed a lawsuit to try to force a man to remove profane, anti-government signs on his property in the central Nebraska city.

The city filed complaints Friday against entities registered to Larry Tourangeau (tor-AN-go) in Hall County District Court.

The signs criticize government officials because they refused to indict a former Tourangeau employee whom Tourangeau accused of embezzling money. The signs went up in 2011, and Tourangeau has resisted city efforts to take them down since.

City officials say the signs were erected without a permit and violate the city’s litter and offensive substances code.

The city is asking the court to order the signs removed.

(AP) — The family of a railroad worker who died in 2010 when floodwaters brought down a bridge has settled a lawsuit against his employer and two other railroads.

Suzanne Scholl, of Norfolk, said in her lawsuit that Union Pacific Railroad, Nebraska Central Railroad and Rio Grande Pacific Corporation failed to ensure the railroad bridge was properly designed, maintained and safe.

Her husband, Jeff Scholl, was among three Nebraska Central Railroad workers checking on the bridge when it collapsed over the swollen Elkhorn River, dumping them into the fast-moving current. Two of the workers were pulled out of the river alive. Scholl’s body was found several days later.

The case was settled two weeks ago under undisclosed terms, and the lawsuit dismissed.

(AP) — The former village clerk of Verdigre who was honored as Nebraska’s clerk of the year in 2011 will be in court next week to face three felony counts of theft.

Alisha Bartling will appear in Knox County Court on Thursday.

Court records say the theft charges are related to three loans Bartling handled from the northeast Nebraska village’s housing rehabilitation program in 2010 and 2011. Each loan involved more than $1,500.

The 36-year-old Bartling, who was named the 2011 Outstanding Clerk of the Year by the Nebraska Municipal Clerks Association, is married to Verdigre Village Board member Tim Bartling.

Alisha Bartling declined to comment when reached at her home Saturday. Her attorney did not immediately return a message left at his office.

(AP) — Wichita police say they have arrested a man and two women in a hit-and-run accident that killed a man on a horse.

Police on Thursday arrested a 26-year-old man for leaving the scene of a fatal accident and felony obstruction of justice. Two women, ages 19 and 28, also were arrested on obstruction of justice charges.

Police say the man was driving and the 19-year-old woman was a passenger when the car hit a horse carrying 49-year-old Lloyd Ferguson and 6-year-old Eddie Caddell on July 5.

Ferguson died and the boy is recovering in a rehabilitation hospital in Lincoln, Neb. Ferguson’s horse had to be euthanized.

Police say a tip to Crime Stoppers this week led them to the vehicle involved in the accident.