MONROE, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a 36-year-old driver died after his car struck a bridge railing and rolled in Platte County.

The crash occurred around 2 p.m. Wednesday, about a half mile (1 kilometer) north of Monroe. The Platte County Sheriff’s Office says the car drifted off the roadway into the railing.

The driver was pronounced dead at the scene. The Sheriff’s Office identified him as Robert Clifford, who lived in Cedar Rapids.

The crash is being investigated.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln man has taken a plea deal in the slaying of his roommate.

Online court records say 45-year-old Trenton Reiner pleaded no contest Tuesday to second-degree murder after prosecutors lowered the charge. His sentencing is scheduled for July 17.

Police say Reiner killed 35-year-old Robert Leazer sometime after May 7 last year in the mobile home they shared. An autopsy showed Leazer died of blunt force trauma to the head.

Police were called to the Contempo Lincoln Mobile Home Park on May 26 to check on reports that Reiner was breaking the windows of his car. Officers found Leazer’s decomposing body inside the home.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say an Omaha man was injured after hopping on a van for joyride, then jumping off onto a busy street.

The 30-year-old man jumped on the back of the delivery van Wednesday afternoon while it was stopped for a red light in northeast Omaha.

Police say he stayed on the back of the van for about three blocks before he decided it was going too fast and jumped off. Officers say he suffered a gash on the back of his head, a cut to his left elbow and extensive road rash on his back. He was taken to a hospital for treatment and released.

The man told police he had been smoking methamphetamine before he went for the joyride.

RED CLOUD, Neb. (AP) — A south-central Nebraska man accused of cattle rustling has pleaded not guilty.

Court records say 26-year-old Austin Petr entered the plea last week in Webster County, where’s he’s charged with theft. His next court hearing is scheduled for Aug. 7. Authorities say the rural Blue Hill resident sold calves Jan. 13 at a Clay County sale barn that had been stolen earlier that day from a property in Webster County.

Petr’s charged in Clay County with seven counts of prohibited sale of livestock. His preliminary hearing in that case is scheduled for Aug. 1.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — With a heat index creeping into the triple digits, the Salvation Army in Omaha is opening cooling stations in Omaha and neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa.

The cooling centers will offer an air-conditioned reprieve from the heat Wednesday and Thursday, as well as bottled water to help people hydrate.

The centers are located at the Burrows Center in eastern Omaha, the Kroc Center in southeastern Omaha, North Corps in northeastern Omaha and Council Bluffs Corps across the Missouri River in western Iowa. Most of the centers are open from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. on weekdays. The Kroc Center is open from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.

The temperature in Omaha by mid-afternoon Wednesday was around 95 degrees (35 Celsius), but the heat index was over 100 degrees (37.78 Celsius).

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha woman already serving time in federal prison for selling millions of dollars in worthless travel vouchers has been sentenced again, this time for state charges in the case.

Patricia Urbanovsky was sentenced Wednesday in Douglas County District Court to seven to 11 years in state prison. She had pleaded no contest to writing bad checks to her employees to repay them for thousands of dollars she borrowed from them to keep her business afloat.

Urbanovsky was sentenced earlier this year to more than five years in federal prison for money laundering and wire fraud. Her state sentence will run at the same time as her federal sentence.

Authorities say Urbanovsky ran a scheme through her business to sell discounted airline travel vouchers, which turned out to be worthless. Hundreds of customers discovered their vouchers wouldn’t be honored.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A former Texas nurse who prosecutors say may be responsible for the deaths of up to 60 young children has been indicted on a murder charge for the second time in recent weeks.

Prosecutors in San Antonio said in a statement that 66-year-old Genene Jones was indicted Wednesday in the 1981 death of 2-year-old Rosemary Vega.

She was charged with a separate count of murder last month in the death of an 11-month-old boy.

Jones is serving a lengthy prison sentence for the 1982 killing of another toddler. But she was scheduled to be released in March under a mandatory release law in place when she was convicted.

Authorities have linked her to many more deaths of children who died under unusual circumstances during or shortly after her shifts.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Officials are preparing disaster aid requests in the wake of bad weather that struck both ends of Nebraska last week.

Nebraska Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Jodie Fawl said the agency is gathering information from emergency managers about damage in more than 30 counties.

The National Weather Service has reported that three tornadoes touched down in the Nebraska Panhandle last week and four tornadoes hit eastern Nebraska on Friday, spawned by a storm that carried howling straight-line winds and blinding rain as well.

Bellevue, Papillion and Sarpy County have requested state disaster aid, and Plattsmouth City Administrator Erv Portis says his city needs help as well. He estimates that most of Plattsmouth’s 2,200 homes sustained some damage.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A former employee has been accused of embezzling thousands of dollars from a church day care program in Lincoln.

Online court records say Amanda Haumont is charged with felony theft. A home phone listing for her isn’t available. Her attorney didn’t immediately return a call Tuesday from The Associated Press. The records say Haumont’s next court hearing is scheduled for July 6.

Authorities say Haumont was paid overtime after she lied about the hours she worked as director of Little Lambs Child Development Center at Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church and also didn’t deposit some cash paid by a woman whose daughter attended the day care. The theft was estimated at more than $21,000.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say one man has died and another has been critically injured in a southeast Omaha shooting.

Police say officers who were sent around 9:30 p.m. Monday to check a residential disturbance call found a wounded man at a street corner nearby. Police say he was taken to Nebraska Medical Center, where he later died. Police identified him as 44-year-old Jason Davis.

Another man believed to have been wounded in the same shooting showed up at a fire station and was taken in critical condition to the same hospital. He’s been identified as 30-year-old Justin Huskey.

Police say they’re looking for two suspects. No arrests have been reported.