(AP) — Lincoln has been sued over its new ordinance that would ban outdoor donation huts that primarily benefit for-profit companies rather than the charities whose names are on the huts.

The federal lawsuit was filed Monday in Lincoln for Linc-Drop Inc., which is based in the Omaha suburb of La Vista. It names the city and various officials, saying the ordinance scheduled to take effect Aug. 1 is unconstitutional.

Linc-Drop contracts with the local March of Dimes to collect clothing and gives the chapter 10 percent of the huts’ gross revenue.

Lincoln City Attorney Rod Confer declined to comment on the lawsuit.

(AP) — Police have identified the mother killed along with three young sons while crossing a Philadelphia highway that’s notorious for pedestrian deaths.

Police say 28-year-old Samara Selena Banks and her boys were killed by a speeding driver who may have been drag racing Tuesday night.

Banks and her 23-month-old son died at the scene, while her 4-year-old and 7-month-old sons died later at hospitals.

Authorities say her 5-year-old surviving child is in stable condition with bumps and bruises.

Police say the 22-year-old driver of the 2012 Audi was taken in for questioning. No arrests have been made, but police say charges are pending.

Roosevelt Boulevard divides several neighborhoods in north and northeast Philadelphia. The pedestrian deaths have prompted city officials to call for more crosswalks and speed patrols.

(AP) — A recording of a 911 call shows an 8-year-old Ohio girl witnessed her mother’s fatal stabbing just before the perpetrator killed himself.

The girl’s mom, 28-year-old Teresa Nelson, called 911 Tuesday when she saw her boyfriend banging at the door of the home in northwest Ohio.

About five minutes into the call, 22-year-old Justin Douglas Manns broke in.

The newspaper reports Nelson told her daughter to get away before telling the dispatcher she had been stabbed. The line then went dead, and when the dispatcher called back, the girl could be heard sobbing, begging for help and saying she thought her mother was dead.

Police stormed the home shortly afterward and found Nelson and Manns fatally stabbed.

Lincoln Police are asking for the public’s help in an investigation into the suspicious death of a 27-year-old Lincoln man.

David Mueller was found seriously injured on a Lincoln sidewalk on June 29.  Police say a passerby found Mueller and called 911.

Mueller told Police that he had gotten drunk and simply fell.  However, doctors who treated him felt that his injuries were more severe than those that would be caused by a fall.  Shortly after he was taken to the hospital, Mueller became unresponsive and his family made the decision to remove him from life support on July 7.

Police say Mueller’s wallet and cell phone were both missing when he was found.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact the Lincoln Police Department at (402) 441-6000.

(AP) — NASA still doesn’t know exactly how water gushed into the helmet and suit of a spacewalking astronaut.

Mission Control officials acknowledged Tuesday that Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano could have choked or even drowned from all the water that accumulated in his helmet.

His spacewalk was aborted soon after the problem cropped up, and he made it back safely inside with help from his spacewalking partner, American Christopher Cassidy.

NASA says between one and one-and-a-half liters leaked into Parmitano’s suit. Officials doubt his drinking water bag is to blame. The only other possibility is water from his garment cooling system.

The spacewalk lasted just 1½ hours and was one of the most harrowing in decades. Officials described Italy’s first spacewalker, as “grace under pressure.”

(AP) — The number of people reporting a food-borne intestinal illness believed to have come from a contaminated vegetable is now at 134 in Iowa and Nebraska as new cases continue to surface.

Iowa has reported 81 cases of cyclosporiasis (sy-kloh-spor-EYE’-uh-sis) spread across 25 counties. The Iowa Department of Public Health says at least five people have been hospitalized.

Linn County in eastern Iowa continues to lead the state with 31 cases. Polk County and Pottawattamie County each have five.

Nebraska has reported 53 cases mostly in the eastern part of the state. Three people were hospitalized but released.

Public health officials from both states say the illness, which causes prolonged diarrhea, is rare. It comes from eating food or drinking water contaminated with feces containing the cyclospora parasite.

(AP) — An Ohio National Guard major who has said he wanted to adopt a girl from Africa to protect her from rape has been indicted on charges he sexually abused three children, including two of his own.

A Union County grand jury indicted the Marysville man on charges of rape, sexual battery and gross sexual imposition between 2006 and 2012. The indictment says he’s the father of two of the children but doesn’t give his relationship with the third.

The North Platte Post is not naming the man to protect the children’s identities.

Records don’t list an attorney for the man. The Guard says he’s on duty in Kuwait.

The man spoke in a 2008 story in a military publication about his large family and wanting to adopt a girl to protect her from sexual assault.

(AP) — Documents show a doctor fired from his medical residency at Omaha’s Creighton University in 2001 is suspected of carrying out two attacks that left four people dead after being denied medical licenses in other states.

Illinois State Police arrested Dr. Anthony Garcia, of Terre Haute, Ind., during a traffic stop Monday in southern Illinois. He remains jailed there without bond.

He is suspected in the 2008 stabbing deaths of Creighton pathology professor William Hunter’s 11-year-old son and housekeeper. Garcia is also suspected in the May deaths of Creighton pathology professor Roger Brumback and his wife, Mary.

Documents provided Tuesday by Indiana officials show the 2008 killings occurred a month after Garcia was denied a Louisiana medical license. The May killings occurred within months of Garcia being denied an Indiana license.

 

(AP) — Microsoft has sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder calling on him to personally review a gag order that prevents the company and others from further discussing the secret national security requests for customer emails, Skype calls and documents stored on its servers.

The letter follows Microsoft’s motion in a secret court last month asking for permission to break out which requests were from law enforcement officials and which were from the National Security Agency. It hasn’t received a response.

A spokesman for the attorney general says the office is reviewing the letter, which was sent by Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday.