Nebraska is putting unclaimed property left in safe deposit boxes up for auction on eBay.

State Treasurer Don Stenberg says there are 272 lots, including coins, jewelry and collectible sports cards. The auction begins Monday and will last a week.

Stenberg says state law allows the auction. Banks hold onto the items for five years before turning them over to the state, which then keeps them for another five years before holding an auction.

He says the property is put on the auction block only after various efforts to find the original owners have failed. He says they don’t have the storage space to keep the items forever.

Proceeds from the sale are recorded in the original owner’s name and are held indefinitely, or until it’s claimed.

A Douglas County jury has convicted a man of killing an Omaha man during a botched robbery.

The jury on Thursday found 20-year-old Ryan Elseman guilty of first-degree murder and use of a weapon to commit a felony. He was charged in the shooting death of 25-year-old Kristopher Winters in July 2011.

Elseman faces a sentence of life in prison plus 50 years when he’s sentenced in November.

Elseman was one of five people charged in Winters’ death.

The trial of Marqus Patton ended in a hung jury in July. He’s to go on trial again in October. Cases against the other three defendants are pending

Omaha police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a man found dead found inside a burning garage at an abandoned house last month.

Firefighters discovered the body on Aug. 30 after the fire was out. The body was burned beyond recognition.

Police on Thursday say the man was about 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed about 140 pounds. He had three gold inlays and a gold crown on his teeth and appeared to have facial hair.

Homicide detectives joined arson investigators in the case.

Gov. Dave Heineman wants to know why the University of Nebraska is asking local governments in Omaha to help pay for a $323 million cancer research center.

Heineman told The Associated Press Thursday that he signed a funding bill for the project with the understanding that the university would first raise $60 million in private money. Meeting that goal would trigger $50 million in state aid this fiscal year.

His remarks came as the Omaha City Council considers a 35-cent-per-pack cigarette tax to help pay for the center. University officials have also approached Douglas County.

Heineman says he supports the Omaha-based project. But he says the university “owes us an explanation,” and that their push for local tax funding will make him more skeptical about future requests for state aid.

More than 40 new U.S. citizens will have the opportunity to take their oath of citizenship in a special ceremony on Monday.

The ceremony will be held on Constitution Day at the Homestead National Monument near Beatrice.

Historian Blake Bell will teach about the immigration and homesteading in a program at 1 p.m. Monday. Then the citizenship ceremony will follow at 2 p.m.

Officials have seized six large snakes from a suburban Omaha home and ticketed their owner for harboring dangerous animals.

The Nebraska Humane Society confiscated three boa constrictors and three pythons from the home in Ralston.

The Humane Society’s Mark Langan says some of the snakes were already 8-feet-long, and an ordinance prohibits owning snakes that can grow to be longer than 8-feet when mature.

Langan says one of the pythons was very aggressive, and the cages holding these snakes were not secured very well.

The snakes’ owner, Adam Vordermark, was cited for two counts of harboring dangerous animals.

Earlier this year, officials seized about 25 venomous snakes from a west Omaha home in July and ticketed another individual.

A Grand Island man facing a murder charge has pleaded not guilty to a separate charge of assaulting a corrections officer.

The 35-year-old Arkanjelo Kot pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Hall County District Court to a count of second-degree assault. Police say Kot assaulted a jail guard on June 15. His trial has been set for January.

Kot is also charged with first-degree murder and a weapons count for the July 14, 2010, shooting death of 21-year-old Walid Omar-Aden at a Grand Island convenience store. Kot’s murder trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 29.

The wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is scheduled to attend a private fundraising reception in the Omaha area.

An invitation issued by the Nebraska Republican Party says that Ann Romney will be featured at a fundraising luncheon on Sept. 21 at the Embassy Suites in La Vista, just southwest of Omaha. A photo reception is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. before the 12:15 p.m. luncheon.

The cost for the reception is $250 per person. A photo with Romney will cost $2,500.

Also attending the event will be Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman and first lady Sally Ganem and U.S. Sen. Mike Johanns and his wife, Stephanie Johanns.

Proceeds from Monday’s event will go to Romney Victory Inc., which is made up of various Republican organizations.

Authorities say two men were injured after strong winds blew them off a building in Wahoo.

The men were working on the roof on Wednesday. The Saunders County sheriff’s office says the men were handling sheeting material, which was caught by the wind. They fell about 30 feet.

The men were taken to a hospital in Lincoln. Their names were not immediately released.

Police say an Omaha man shot during a home invasion has died of his injuries.

A news release from the Omaha Police Department says 29-year-old Gary Rice died on Wednesday, three days after he was shot.

Investigators say officers found Rice in his southeast Omaha home Sunday night with a gunshot wound after police were called to the house for a report of two intruders forcing their way into the home.

The department’s homicide unit is investigating. No arrests have been made.