Authorities in Iowa are investigating allegations that high school students repeatedly hit one of their classmates in the head with footballs.

The teenager and his grandmother filed a lawsuit last week saying the attack in October at Bedford High School in southwest Iowa resulted in severe brain injuries and permanent disabilities.

Iowa Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Jessica Lown said Tuesday that the agency has launched a criminal investigation. An agent will turn over information to a prosecutor, who will decide whether to file charges.

The lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Des Moines alleges that school administrators didn’t do enough to protect the boy from repeated bullying.

Bedford Superintendent Joe Drake says student safety is a priority and the school investigates all reports of bullying or harassment.

Blacks in two of Nebraska’s largest metro areas continue to be stopped in disproportionate numbers relative to how many live in those areas, according to the state’s annual crime report.

The report found blacks accounted for nearly 22 percent of drivers stopped in Omaha, even though they represent a little more than 12 percent of the population.

Blacks accounted for nearly 9 percent of drivers stopped in Lincoln, but they represent a little more than 3 percent of the population.

The findings were similar in last year’s study.

Nebraska Crime Commission executive director Michael Behm cautions that the numbers by themselves may not indicate racial profiling. The commission compiles the data from local agencies but does not analyze what is causing the trend.

A Grand Island man who was acquitted of murder has pleaded no contest to assaulting a corrections officer.

36-year-old Arkanjelo Kot decided to change his plea on Monday. In exchange for the plea, another charge for failing to appear at a February hearing was dropped.

Prosecutors say Kot assaulted a jail guard last June when the guard tried to break up an argument Kot was having with another inmate.

Kot’s attorney, Jim Truell, said his client was frustrated and believed the guard was discriminating against him because the other inmate wasn’t punished.

Kot will be sentenced on May 28. He could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for second-degree assault.

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Separate grand juries have found no crimes were involved in the unrelated deaths of two inmates at the Nebraska women’s prison in York.

Both juries convened on Friday. County Attorney Candace Dick says that, based on their findings, no charges will be sought in either case.

One case involved 29-year-old Monique Lee, of Omaha, who died Jan. 19. Officials say she collapsed in the prison infirmary after complaining the night before that she didn’t feel well. She’d been convicted of murder.

The other case involved 57-year-old Angela Kabza, of Lincoln, who died four days after she arrived at the prison. Authorities say she was found unresponsive in her cell on Dec. 1. Kabza had been convicted of a drug charge.

Backers of an ordinance requiring gun ownership in a small north Georgia town acknowledge they were largely seeking to make a point about gun rights.

The ordinance in the city of Nelson, located 50 miles north of Atlanta, was approved by the city council Monday night and goes into effect in 10 days. However, it contains no penalties and exempts anyone who objects, convicted felons and those with certain mental and physical disabilities.

Councilman Duane Cronic, who sponsored the measure, says he knows the ordinance won’t be enforced but he still believes it will make the town safer.

The vote illustrates how the response to the Newtown, Conn., massacre varies widely in different parts of the country.

Nebraskans are invited to spend the night in Lancaster County’s new jail.

Anyone can tour the jail and spend a night in a cell on Thursday, Friday or Saturday.

County officials say they’re hosting the overnighters to make sure everything in the jail is functioning properly before inmates move in this summer.

Jail officials ask that each participant donates $30 to stay the night. The proceeds will go to Operation Santa Claus and the Child Advocacy Center, a nonprofit that works to prevent child abuse.

The event starts at 6 p.m. each night and ends at 7 a.m. the next morning. The jail is located on 3801 W. O St. Free tours will also be available April 4-19.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has signed legislation banning anyone under 17 from using a tanning bed and anyone under 14 from getting a spray tan a year after the state’s Tanning Mom became a tabloid sensation.

The legislation was developed after a northern Jersey woman accused of taking her 5-year-old daughter into a tanning booth was charged last year with child endangerment. The deeply tanned woman became known as the Tanning Mom, but a grand jury declined to indict her in February.

The measure signed Monday night allows 17-year-olds to use tanning salons provided a parent or guardian accompanies them to their first visit and consents.

Christie cites the “documented and well-understood” risks associated with the misuse of indoor tanning systems as a main reason for signing the legislation.

Jodi Arias’ defense lawyers are seeking a mistrial in her murder case due to juror misconduct.

In a court filing Sunday, her attorneys claim the misconduct was discovered during closed proceedings last week. They did not cite specifics but note that removing the juror would also be an option. That would leave five alternate jurors, in addition to the 12 who will decide the case.

Arias’ lawyers argued last week the prosecutor committed misconduct by signing autographs and posing for pictures outside court.

The judge questioned jurors individually in private, then a legal correspondent for Turner Broadcasting’s “In Session” was asked about what she saw.

Defense lawyers contend the prosecutor’s antics may have tainted the jury if anyone on the panel witnessed it.

Testimony in the case is set to resume Tuesday.

A clerical error allowed the man suspected of killing Colorado’s prisons chief to be released from custody about four years early.

Court administrators acknowledged the error in a statement Monday. They said that in 2008, Evan Spencer Ebel pleaded guilty to assaulting a prison guard. He was supposed to spend four additional years in prison.

A court clerk failed to note that the sentence was supposed to be served after the one Ebel was already serving. As a result, prison records showed it should run at the same time as the 8-year assault sentence Ebel was already serving. He was released Jan. 28.

Ebel was killed in a shootout in Texas on March 21. He used the same gun that was used to kill prisons chief Tom Clements days earlier.

Now that prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty against James Holmes, the trial of the man accused in last year’s movie theater attack in Colorado will be delayed — at least until February.

And the judge in the case acknowledged today that even that much of a delay might not allow enough time for all sides to prepare.

Holmes had been scheduled to go to trial in August in the attack that killed 12 people and injured 70 others.

There was no audible reaction from him today when the prosecutor announced the decision to pursue the death penalty. Holmes’ parents sat side by side in the gallery, clutching hands. They were also quiet, as were the victims and their loved ones who were in the courtroom when the decision was announced.

One man whose best friend was killed in the attack says he had a “huge adrenaline rush” when he heard that Holmes might face death. Bryan Beard said, “I hope I’m in the room when he dies.”

Last week, prosecutors said they had rejected an offer from Holmes’ attorney to have him plead guilty and serve life in prison.