LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The city of Lincoln has banned bump stocks and other items that can raise the firing rate of semi-automatic weapons.

The City Council voted unanimously Monday to adopt an ordinance barring the sale or possession of the gun accessories. Lincoln joins a handful of states and cities to ban the devices in the wake of several mass shootings in recent years.

Councilwoman Leirion Gaylor Baird said the ban will take effect May 1 to give residents one month to dispose of any multi-burst trigger activators. She said the ordinance ends a loophole that allowed residents to modify semi-automatic guns into machine gun-like weapons, making them even deadlier.

“I am glad we in Lincoln are moving forward to protect our neighbors and our children,” Gaylor Baird said. “Because people are tired of waiting for the federal government to get this done.”

President Donald Trump has called for the Department of Justice to ban bump stocks. The agency will soon begin a 90-day public comment period on the proposal.

City Attorney Jeff Kirkpatrick said the crime will be considered a misdemeanor in Lincoln, with possible punishment of up to a $500 fine along with or instead of six months in jail.

City officials don’t know of any crimes committed with bump stocks or trigger cranks in Lincoln or Nebraska, said Councilwoman Cyndi Lamm, who voted for the legislation. She said most law enforcement officers hadn’t heard of bump stocks until the October mass shooting at a Las Vegas music festival that left 58 dead and hundreds wounded.

“In passing this symbolic legislation, we’re really only making ourselves feel better,” Lamm said. “Because we are not addressing the real problems that leave our children and our elderly feeling depressed, isolated and angry.”

Councilman Carl Eskridge agreed that the legislation is limited in scope, but he said it’s a step in the right direction.

“It’s not the last thing we should do,” Eskridge said. “We still have a need to make our schools safer. Safer in other parts of our community. But it’s one thing we can do.”

PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — A former youth pastor accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl has made a plea deal with Sarpy County prosecutors.

Court records say 34-year-old Klint Bitter pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempted sexual assault. Prosecutors lowered the charge in exchange for Bitter’s plea. He’s scheduled to be sentenced May 23 in Sarpy County District Court in Papillion (puh’-PIHL’-yuhn).

Authorities say he’d found the girl in an online classified ad for an 18-year-old girl and had sex with her in February. Bitter has said he had asked the girl whether she was underage.

Officials say Bitter was youth pastor at Christ Community Church in Omaha but was fired after he was charged.

YORK, Neb. (AP) — A York man has been given a year in jail for leaving the scene of a fatal accident.

56-year-old Douglas Sandall was sentenced Monday in York County District Court. He’d pleaded no contest in January.

Deputies found the body of 41-year-old Chad Chapman in a roadside ditch on Aug. 19, about 3 miles (5 kilometers) west of York. York County Attorney Christopher Johnson says Sandall was driving on Road 11 when he passed a truck parked in the road with a door open. Sandall reported that he thought he hit a gravel embankment, so he stopped to check the damage and saw the body in the ditch.

Johnson says Sandall went home. He and his wife soon returned to the scene, and she called 911.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln Police found a 62-year-old man dead after a standoff that forced the closure of nearby roads for several hours.

Police said officers were sent to the home near Nebraska Highway 2 and 40th Street Saturday evening because the man reportedly threatened other people in the home with a gun and knife.

Streets in the area were closed for nearly four hours while police negotiated with the man.

Multiple gunshots were heard from inside the home before police entered and found the man with multiple gunshot wounds. He died later at a hospital.

Police are trying to determine what led to the standoff.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s 18th annual Weatherfest and Central Plains Severe Weather Symposium is scheduled for April 7 at the Nebraska Innovation Campus Convention Center.

The free public event is part of the Weather Ready Nation Ambassador program organized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The program prepares communities for weather, water, and climate extremes.

Participants will be able to interact with emergency managers and government agencies.

More information on Weatherfest is available online .

SCHUYLER, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say one driver was killed and three other people were injured in an eastern Nebraska collision.

Officers and medics were dispatched a little before 8 p.m. Friday to the scene on U.S. Highway 30, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) east of Schuyler in Colfax County. An eastbound car crossed the center line and rammed into a westbound minivan.

Authorities say the car driver died at the scene. He was identified as 65-year-old Mark Connealy, who lived in Rogers. All three people in the minivan were injured, including the driver, 61-year-old Steven Marshall, of Octavia.

An autopsy was ordered on Connealy’s body.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Some Lincoln bicycle owners are changing their riding and parking habits and taking other steps to protect their bikes from thieves.

Lincoln police have investigated at least 35 bike thefts so far this year, compared with 39 thefts this time last year. About a third of the bikes stolen so far this year were reportedly locked, compared with a fourth of the bikes stolen this time last year.

Police have investigated the thefts to look for patterns but haven’t found anything to link the reports.

Cyclists in the area are being more vigilant when it comes to protecting their bikes. Many are being more careful with sharing ride route information so thieves can’t track them. Cyclists are also sharing information online about stolen bikes.

“What scares us is they’re becoming increasingly sophisticated with the way they’re stealing bikes,” said cyclist Sarah Knight.

Knight found eight bikes missing from her apartment’s communal garage in December, including two of her own. The thieves also stole valuable components from her and altogether she lost about $6,000, she said.

The thieves were able to break into the garage while avoiding security cameras, had the tools to cut the cables securing the bikes to the wall and had the transportation to take all the bikes away.

“The thing was, when that happened to me, it almost seemed inevitable,” Knight said. “I’ve had so many friends who also had bikes stolen.”

Knight knows eight cyclists who’ve lost higher-end bikes since 2016.

The Lincoln Police Department plans to meet with cycling groups to give tips about keeping bikes safe and to listen to their concerns, said Officer Angela Sands.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Several thousand people braved freezing wind chills and light snow Saturday to participate in the “March for Our Lives” rally near downtown Omaha.

Marian High School freshman Callie Cavanaugh says she’s tired of school gun violence across the country, noting that she has cousins who live close to Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14.

Also among the crowd was 14-year-old Melina Piperis, an eighth-grader at St. Vincent de Paul in Omaha, who said she wants to use her First Amendment right to call for gun control measures.

Westside Middle School student Aden Newmyer says “students have a voice, too,” and wants Congress to see that people are angry about lax gun laws.

Omaha’s was one of hundreds of marches planned Saturday in cities across the globe to protest gun violence and mass shootings.

PLAINVIEW, Neb. (AP) — Northeast Nebraska authorities say a man involved in a dispute at work ended up with rusty pliers lodged in his skull.

The assault occurred Wednesday afternoon at a business near Plainview. The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office says a deputy learned at Plainview Hospital that one handle of the pliers had penetrated the victim’s skull and poked into his brain. The man was flown to Omaha for surgery. His name hasn’t been released.

Nebraska State troopers arrested a 34-year-old suspect. Troopers say the suspect admitted that he and the other man had quarreled earlier in the day. The suspect says he threw the pliers at the other man.

Online court records don’t show that he’s been charged.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man has been charged in the crash death of an 8-year-old boy in Lincoln.

Court records show 22-year-old Brandon Valentine was charged Thursday with manslaughter. The records don’t list the name an attorney who could comment for him.

The boy was a passenger in his father’s car on March 16. Lincoln police say the car pulled into an intersection after stopping and was hit by a large pickup truck. Jesse King was thrown from his car, while his son, Camden King, was trapped inside the wreckage. Both were taken to a Lincoln hospital, where Camden was pronounced dead.

A court document says investigators reported that the pickup’s air bag module indicated Valentine’s truck was going 67 mph when it struck King’s car. Valentine has said he was going 45 mph.