OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha City Council has broadened the mayor’s power to pardon people.

The measure approved Tuesday lets the mayor pardon people convicted of just about any criminal offense prosecuted under city code, including failing to restrain a dog or keeping a dirty yard. The power had been limited to offenses such as trespassing, prostitution and disorderly conduct.

The expansion doesn’t permit the major to pardon someone convicted of breaking a federal or Nebraska law.

Mayor Jean Stothert (STAH’-thurt) had sought the increase, saying she wanted to give residents another opportunity when they’re seeking employment.

One person was killed and more than a dozen others injured in a multi-vehicle crash that occurred Sunday, April 29 on Interstate 80.

The crash claimed the life of Franklin Owens, 81, of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Owens had been traveling with his wife, Betty Owens, in a 2014 Toyota SUV. He was life-flighted to Bryan Health West in Lincoln where he was pronounced deceased. Betty Owens, 68, also suffered serious injuries and has been transported to Bryan Health West. 

The crash happened at approximately 5:15 p.m. Sunday, April 29, as high winds kicked up dust from nearby fields and caused zero-visibility conditions. Nearly 30 vehicles were involved. All other injuries are believed to be non-life-threatening.

I-80 was closed for more than two hours in both directions. Deputies from the Hall, Hamilton, and York County Sheriff’s Offices, as well as multiple rescue crews assisted in the response and traffic control.

The investigation into the crash is ongoing.

ST. HELEN, Neb. (AP) — Several felony charges have been filed in connection with a fatal all-terrain vehicle crash that happened last summer in northeast Nebraska.

Prosecutors charged a 26-year-old man from Yankton, South Dakota, with motor vehicle homicide, tampering with evidence and drunken driving in connection with the crash that happened last June in Cedar County, Nebraska.

21-year-old Jessi Anderson, of Yankton, South Dakota, was riding on the back of an ATV that failed to negotiate a t-intersection in a rural area, just west of St. Helen and southeast of Yankton.

Cedar County Attorney Ed Matney says the ATV driver provided false information to investigators, and his father tried to conceal evidence of the crash. The father was charged with being an accessory to a felony.

MINDEN, Neb. (AP) — A trial has been scheduled for a former Hastings police officer accused of hitting and kicking his wife and slapping and kicking his mother.

Court records say 27-year-old Cody Bland has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor domestic assault, assault, and interfering with a public service device. Bland’s trial is set to begin July 12.

The records say Bland’s wife told officers that Bland kicked, shoved and tackled her at their Hastings home Oct. 30. She managed to summon some of her husband’s relatives for help after he took her cellphone. His mother says he slapped and kicked her after she arrived.

The trial has been moved to Kearney County Court in Minden.

Bland had been on the Hastings force for four years. He resigned in November.

YORK, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say one person has died after a dust storm triggered a 29-vehicle accident along an interstate in eastern Nebraska.

The Nebraska State Patrol says visibility was reduced to nearly zero Sunday as dust blew in from farm fields along Interstate 80 near York.

The patrol says the conditions caused a chain-reaction crash that injured 15 people, including one person who was flown to a Lincoln hospital.

Patrol spokesman Cody Thomas said Monday that one of the injured had died. Thomas says he couldn’t release further details.

Others injured were taken to hospitals in Aurora and York.

Winds gusts of 60 mph (97 kph) were reported in the area. The patrol says the crash closed a 2-mile (3-kilometer) stretch of the interstate for nearly three hours.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A judge has imprisoned an Omaha man whose 7-week-old daughter suffered massive brain injuries at his hands.

23-year-old Jacob Ford was sentenced Tuesday to 10 to 20 years. Judge James Gleason had found Ford guilty after a nonjury trial on a charge of intentional child abuse resulting in serious injury.

Ford says he dropped little Skyler Ford on Aug. 3. Prosecutors say he shook and otherwise injured her on purpose.

A doctor testified that Skyler suffered several spots of bleeding on her brain, as well as bleeding behind her eyes.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and Knox County have sued more than two dozen drug manufacturers and distributors of opioid painkillers.

Their attorney, Dave Domina, told the Lincoln Journal Star the companies misled medical professionals and misrepresented the dangers and addictive risks of their drugs.

He says the costs associated with addictions have dramatically increased the costs of government operations for the Ponca Tribe and Knox County and says their budgetary and other resources can’t handle the rapidly growing problem.

More than 400 cities and counties across the country have sued drugmakers and distributors for costs associated with the addiction crisis. And last month a U.S. Senate committee was told that Native Americans and Alaska Natives saw a fivefold increase in overdose deaths between 1999 and 2015.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say two workers were shocked when the boom lift they were working on touched an overhead power line in southwest Lincoln.

The accident occurred Thursday evening near a car dealership. Lincoln Police Officer Angela Sands says the two were checking for a hydraulic leak when the wind knocked the lift into the line. Sands says the electrical discharge knocked 38-year-old Scott Ruda unconscious, burned him and 51-year-old Thomas Pluhacek and ignited a fire in nearby bushes.

The two were taken to a hospital and are expected to recover.

The boom was being used to replace a street light.

CENTRAL CITY, Neb. (AP) — A Columbus woman accused of embezzling more than $84,000 from her employer has been sentenced.

Merrick County District Court records say 25-year-old Chelsea Aldrich was given 90 days in jail and five years of probation at her sentencing hearing earlier this month. She’d pleaded no contest to felony theft. Prosecutors dropped a forgery charge in exchange for her plea.

Prosecutors say Aldrich wrote bogus checks on the Agroservice Inc. account while working as a secretary for the company in Silver Creek from Aug. 1, 2016, to Jan. 31, 2017.

Aldrich was ordered to pay restitution to Agroservice’s owners.

BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) — Iowa authorities have charged two people suspected of firing at officers during a pursuit in southwest Iowa and at officers in a suburb of Omaha.

Authorities say 37-year-old Jacqueline Streich and 28-year-old William Stanfill were charged in Fremont County, Iowa, with attempted murder of a police officer. Court records don’t list the names of attorneys for the two Bellevue, Nebraska, residents.

The two are suspected of shooting at a man Tuesday afternoon in Bellevue, shooting at another man Tuesday night just south of Bellevue and of shooting at officers looking for their car early Wednesday morning.

Authorities suspect the two fired at a sheriff’s deputy in Tabor, Iowa, later and at pursuing officers in Hamburg, Iowa. A state trooper was injured when his cruiser crashed.

Streich and Stanfill were arrested after their car crashed into the Nishnabotna River just south of Hamburg.