HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) – A Georgia company has moved its production of frozen beef patties to south-central Nebraska.

Flanders Provision Co. began operating Monday in the Hastings plant that’s been idle since Bubba Burger stopped operating there in 2013.

The City Council will be voting on Flanders’ request for $125,000 from Hastings Utilities’ economic development funds. Maggie Vaughan is interim director of the Hastings Economic Development Corp., and she says the company has committed in return to create at least 50 jobs and spend $3.75 million on plant upgrades. So far 32 people are employed.

Vaughan says Flanders is leaving its Waycross, Georgia, plant because it wanted to grow.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 26-year-old Bellevue man has been given 15 years for producing child pornography.

Federal prosecutors say Nicholas Alford was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Omaha. He must serve five years of supervised release after he leaves prison. He’d pleaded guilty in February.

Authorities say he persuaded a 13-year-old to send dozens of sexually explicit images to his instant messenger mobile app account.

RED CLOUD, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man died when the tractor he was driving plummeted off a bridge and landed upside down in south-central Nebraska.

The accident occurred around 7:15 p.m. Friday near Red Cloud. Webster County Sheriff Troy Schmitz says the man was driving north on U.S. Highway 281 when the planter he was pulling ran up a guardrail and got hooked. That caused the tractor to spin into the side and flip over the rail onto dry ground below, landing on its cab.

Schmitz identified the tractor driver as 61-year-old David Mohlman, who lived in Red Cloud.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a driver was fired after an 11-year-old Grand Island student was found on a school bus at the bus yard.

The girl’s mother, Jennifer Lonowski, told The Grand Island Independent that she called the bus service company last week when her daughter Jada hadn’t arrived home and the bus was already 25 minutes late. Lonowski says she went to the bus yard and found her daughter in the bus, still buckled up in her seat. The driver told her the girl had fallen asleep, but Lonowski says she doesn’t believe that.

Lonowski says Jada has Rett syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder. Her mom says Jada is completely nonverbal but understand everything.

A co-owner of the Holiday Express bus company, Mick Brown, confirmed Monday that the driver had been fired.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A company that tracks robocalls says Lincoln experienced the biggest one-month jump of the cities studied nationwide in April: nearly 155 percent.

YouMail Robocall Index says robocalling volumes set a record for the second straight month as Americans received 3.36 billion calls in April. That’s 6.5 percent higher than in March and 34.4 percent higher than April last year.

A distant second to Lincoln was Southfield, Michigan, where call volume increased 85.4 percent.

The YouMail Robocall Index tracks the calls to iPhones, Androids and landlines. Its statistics are cited by the Federal Communications Commission for national data trends.

The company says the most common reason for robocalls nationally in April was debt collection. Student loan collection was the most common reason in Nebraska.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Authorities say a 70-year-old man has died in an Omaha apartment fire.

Firefighters sent to the scene around 2:45 p.m. Saturday found that the fire had burned itself out because there wasn’t much oxygen in the apartment. The victim was found sitting upright. The fire appeared to have been started by smoking materials on a couch.

An autopsy was scheduled. The man’s name hasn’t been released.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – The Lincoln Homeless Coalition says the city’s homeless population has reduced by half since 2012.

Volunteers identified 451 homeless individuals in the coalition’s most recent point-in-time homelessness count. The number is down by 25 percent from last year.

The coalition also says 16 homeless individuals were veterans, which is a 70 percent decrease from 2017.

Lee Heflebower is the housing director at Region V Systems. She says the coalition is close to ending veteran homelessness as the result of a concerted effort with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Jeff Chambers is director of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Center on Children, Families, and the Law. He attributes this year’s decrease to Lincoln agencies knowing who is the most vulnerable, coupled with rapid re-housing programs.

STANTON, Neb. (AP) – Authorities say a 22-year-old passenger died after a vehicle crashed off a road in northeast Nebraska.

The crash occurred around 9:15 p.m. Saturday, about 6 miles east of Stanton. Authorities say 23-year-old Tucker Lanz was driving east when his vehicle crossed into a ditch on the north side of the road, hit a power pole and rolled onto its top.

Lanz and his passenger were ejected. Lanz was taken to a Norfolk hospital before being transferred to Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

His passenger was pronounced dead at the scene. He’s been identified as Hunter Hetzler, who lived in Stanton.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police and other law enforcement agencies have been filling their cruiser fleets with bigger, more comfortable sport utility vehicles instead of purchasing more four-door sedans.

Omaha City Council approved the purchase of 40 Ford Explorer police utility vehicles in February for about $1.1 million, the Omaha World-Herald reported. Another $1.3 million was approved to install lights, lockers, and other equipment.

The vehicles should be on the streets in the fall, said Omaha Police Capt. Edward Reyes. Officials hope to phase out the roughly 150 remaining Chevrolet Caprice patrol vehicles when they become too much to maintain and run.

Officers have a better vantage point in the SUVs and the cars have more room for equipment, said Sgt. Justin Smith.

“Getting in and out of an SUV, it’s a little bit higher up and better on your back than a low-sitting sedan,” Smith said.

Douglas and Sarpy County Sheriff’s Offices have fleets that are primarily utility vehicles.

Sarpy County began purchasing the utility vehicles in 2013, said Chief Deputy Greg London.

“Our deputies love them because they’re just more practical,” London said.

Despite the many advantages of the larger vehicles, departments across the U.S. took Explorers out of service last year after reports of dangerous levels of carbon monoxide building up in passenger compartments. The installation of police equipment may have left holes in the vehicle that weren’t properly sealed and caused the leaks, Ford said.

Ford recalled Explorers to replace exhaust tips and reseal interior panels. While Sarpy’s vehicles have been repaired, the department has installed carbon monoxide detectors in the vehicles as a precaution, said George Funderburk, Sarpy County fleet manager

Douglas County has also installed carbon monoxide monitors in their Explorers, but Omaha police have not.

Omaha’s vehicles are outfitted in a way that means no leakage will occur, Reyes said.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A judge has ruled competent for trial a man accused of abducting an 8-year-old Lincoln girl from her home and raping her in his garage.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that 22-year-old Cody Riddle has undergone more than two years of treatment at a state psychiatric hospital. Judge Darla Ideus ruled Thursday that Riddle now has the capacity to understand his case and help his lawyer defend him.

He’s charged with kidnapping, sexual assault of a child and burglary. Police say he went to the girl’s home early on Aug. 27, 2015, to steal items. Police say he entered through an open garage, found the girl, took her to his home, where he assaulted her and threatened her.

Prosecutors say he let her go and was arrested later that day.