GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A Grand Island man arrested after a 90-minute standoff earlier this year has been

sentenced to prison for theft and fleeing police to avoid arrest.

Local media reports that 23-year-old Andrew Esquitin was sentenced Friday in Hall County District Court to up to five years in prison. He was also ordered not to drive for two years following his release.

Police say officers were attempting to serve Esquitin with an arrest warrant on those charges at his home in March when he fled to the basement, claiming to have a gun.

The neighborhood was cordoned off and SWAT officers were called in. Esquitin surrendered peacefully about an hour and a half later.

No charges were brought against Esquitin from the standoff.

CLATONIA, Neb. (AP) — A Beatrice man is dead following a one-vehicle crash five miles south of Clatonia in southeastern Nebraska.

Local media reports that 59-year-old Bruce Benash died in the early Saturday crash.

Gage County Sheriff Gus Gustafson says Benash was driving a pickup eastbound on a county road when he lost control, hit part of a bridge and rolled the truck. Benash was pronounced dead at the scene.

An autopsy has been ordered. Sheriff’s investigators say Benash was not wearing a seat belt.

FREMONT, Neb. (AP) — The city of Fremont has declared an auto radiator manufacturer in default on a $600,000 loan garnered through federal stimulus money.

Local media says that to get the loan, Hero Automotive agreed last year to create at least 15 full-time jobs paying at least $10 an hour and keep those jobs for three years. It also had to provide health insurance, covering at least 50 percent of that cost.

The company was granted a six-month extension last year to meet the minimum requirements, and in January told the newspaper it had 15 full-time employees.

But a worker reported to the city in February that the company was not meeting minimum requirements.

City Attorney Paul Payne says the company had only nine full-time workers on June 15.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has suspended the state law license of a Lincoln attorney who mishandled his clients’ money.

In a ruling issued Friday, the state’s high court said John Beltzer transferred $2,000 from a client’s trust account into his operations account in 2004 to pay his employees and other operating costs. Beltzer conceded to the state Counsel for Discipline that he improperly managed the trust account.

Although Beltzer quickly replaced his client’s funds, the high court said the misappropriation was “a very serious offense.”

Beltzer’s law license will be suspended for one year.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 29-year-old woman has been convicted in a conspiracy to sell methamphetamine in Nebraska.

Federal prosecutors say Violeta Hinojosa, recently of Fort Hood, Texas, is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 5.

Prosecutors say the Drug Enforcement Administration reported that Hinojosa delivered meth in Omaha on several occasions in 2009 and 2010.

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — A Kearney man has been given up to 10 years in prison for theft and leading officers on a chase through Kearney.

Local Media reports that 24-year-old Bret Shatters was sentenced earlier this week. His two felony sentences of 20 to 60 months are to be served consecutively; a misdemeanor sentence of three months will be served at the same time. Two other misdemeanor charges were dismissed in exchange for Shatters’ pleas.

Prosecutors say that on Nov. 26, Shatters led officers on a chase through town and north on Nebraska Highway 10. The speeds reached up to 110 mph on the highway.

The chase ended when the stolen car Shatters was driving spun into a ditch. He fled on foot but was soon captured.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln attorney Vince Powers has been selected as the next chairman of the Nebraska Democratic Party.

Powers will take over for current party chairman Vic Covalt, who is stepping down when his second term ends in November.

Powers has a long history with the state party, having served the party over the last eight years as a national committeeman. He was selected by party membership during last weekend’s Nebraska Democratic Party state convention over two other candidates — Joe Higgins, a former high school government teacher from Omaha, and Mike Meister, the Democrats’ 2010 gubernatorial candidate and a Scottsbluff attorney.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska woman with a felony record who used her son’s Social Security number to get a job has been given six months in jail.

Local media reports that Jeannette Johnson, of Ashland, also was sentenced on Thursday to three years of probation. The 38-year-old Johnson had pleaded no contest to criminal impersonation.

Johnson was working as a Medicaid biller for a child mental health center in Lincoln.

Police say that if she had used her own Social Security number on an application to get the job, a records check would have shown felony convictions for forgery and theft.

Authorities also say she checked “no” on the application where it asked whether the applicant had been convicted of a felony.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service has imposed tougher fire restrictions for the Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands because of extremely dry and hot conditions and the threat of wildfires.

The Forest Service says the entire area is under what the service calls Stage II Fire Restriction Orders. That includes no campfires, no explosives, no welding and no smoking, except within an enclosed vehicle or building.

The order covers the Nebraska and Samuel R. McKelvie National Forests and the Buffalo Gap, Fort Pierre and Oglala National Grasslands, which have been under lighter restrictions since late March.

The Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands are situated in central and western Nebraska and western South Dakota. The area is made up of two national forests, three national grasslands and a tree nursery.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska cattle producers need to watch for signs of heat stress in their animals during periods of extreme heat like the state has been enduring.

Terry Mader, an animal science professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, says ranchers and feedlot operators need to take steps to reduce heat stress during the summer.

Making sure cattle have enough water is crucial. Mader says cattle’s normal intake of 5 to 8 gallons of water a day can double or triple during extreme heat.

Mader says cattle can be sprayed down with water to cool them off, but if feedlot operators start that, they’ll have to continue spraying the cattle until the heat eases.

Mader says producers should also avoid handling cattle when it’s hot because that can add to the stress.