OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police say a man raped a 22-year-old hostage he was holding inside a house south of downtown Omaha.

Police were called to the house around 7:15 p.m. Thursday for a report of a mentally ill man holding a woman hostage. Police say they were told the man suffers from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Police negotiators began trying to coax the 37-year-old man from the home. The victim was released around 11:15 p.m. Police say the man came out just after midnight, holding a knife. He soon followed commands to drop the knife and was arrested.

He was booked on suspicion of committing first-degree sexual assault, false imprisonment, assault and making terroristic threats. His case did not appear in online court records Saturday.

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say a woman’s leg was nearly severed when she was hit by a vehicle as she walked across a busy section of West Dodge Road in Omaha.

Police say the 43-year-old woman strolled into traffic Friday night near 180th and Dodge after getting out of a pickup truck on the side of the road.

Witnesses told police it appeared the woman was trying to be hit. Several vehicles swerved around the woman before she was hit by an SUV.

The woman was taken to a hospital in critical condition. The driver of the SUV was not injured, but was ticketed on suspicion of drunken driving.

Police believe the woman was upset following an altercation with someone in the truck. Police say the truck left before officers arrived.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln residents are complaining about the plain design of several fire stations slated to be built over the next two years.

Ground was broken Friday for the first station in a cornfield near Northwest 48th and Adams streets. It will have a metal roof and metal, concrete and brick exterior.

The other new fire stations will feature a similar design and will be in growth areas at the edges of the city.

Homeowners near the Adams Street site have complained, saying the stations need to be better looking to fit into the neighborhood.

But Assistant Fire Chief Pat Borer says construction costs for the first station have doubled since plans were first made, and the city can’t afford to worry with aesthetics.

RED CLOUD, Neb. (AP) — A 26-year-old man has been accused of stealing cattle in southern Nebraska.

Court records say Austin Petr, of Blue Hill, is charged with theft in Webster County and, in Clay County, with seven counts of prohibited sale of livestock. His attorney didn’t immediately return a call Thursday from The Associated Press.

Authorities say calves belonging to Alan Johnson, of Blue Hill, were reported missing Jan. 13. Authorities say that on the same day Petr sold 40 of his cattle and 30 unbranded animals at a sale barn in the Clay County community of Sutton.

Authorities say a subsequent investigation revealed that 27 of the unbranded calves were matched with animals in Johnson’s herd.

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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A new Lincoln YMCA has been forced to close its indoor lap pool. Apparently, it’s too shallow.

Some swimmers at the Copple Family YMCA had complained about hitting the pool floor with their strokes. Others said the shallow water hampered their flip turns.

The YMCA’s Barb Bettin told the Lincoln Journal Star (https://bit.ly/2r5cA7J) that, “Not everything is perfect when you finish up a project, and we’re going to make it right.”

The pool is 75 feet (23 meters) long, 3 feet (1 meter) deep at one end, nearly 5 feet (1.5 meters) at the other. Contractors will tear up about 30 feet (10 meters) toward the shallow end, dig it 6 inches (15 centimeters) deeper and pour a new floor. The work is expected to take most of the summer.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A former administrator at a University of Nebraska-Lincoln center has been sentenced for using university money to pay personal airplane travel expenses.

Court records say 30-year-old Laviania Thandayithabani (tehn’-daye-uhth-uh-PAH’-naye) pleaded no contest to misdemeanor theft after prosecutors lowered the charge from a felony. She was fined $1,000 last month and ordered to pay more than $11,300 in restitution.

She was assistant director of operations for the Nebraska Transportation Center, which aids collaboration by university, industry and government officials on transportation issues and research. University police say in court documents that they found 17 charges on the university travel portal system from April 2015 through December 2016 totaling more than $11,300. Officials say none of the trips was approved.

SIBLEY, Iowa (AP) — A former Sibley-Ocheyedan football coach and teacher fired after the superintendent found him sleeping in his classroom next to a 10-year-old has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault.

Iowa court records say 39-year-old Kyle Ewinger entered the written plea Wednesday in Osceola County District Court. His trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 17.

Ewinger, of West Burlington, was fired after he was found with the boy sleeping on an air mattress. A criminal complaint says the boy reported that Ewinger had performed a sex act on him.

Nebraska court records say Ewinger has pleaded not guilty a charge of sexually assaulting a child in Douglas County. No trial has yet been scheduled. A pretrial conference is set to resume June 21.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A hospital in Omaha will be closing its doors after 40 years and opening a new emergency room six blocks away.

Creighton University Medical Center will stop taking patients on Friday. When the hospital closes, a new emergency room will open six blocks east at Creighton University Medical Center University Campus.

The decades-old hospital’s Level I trauma center and role as a teaching facility for Creighton’s medical school will move to a third facility, the expanded Creighton University Medical Center-Bergan Mercy.

Chief medical officer at CUMC-Bergan Mercy, Dr. Devin Fox, said Wednesday that the closure of the hospital won’t leave northeast Omaha without medical services.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Law enforcement officials say a traffic stop has led to the seizure of $1.5 million worth of methamphetamine and the arrests of several people in Nebraska.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office says it conducted a traffic stop Wednesday morning on Interstate 80 at Lincoln. Deputies say the occupants of the vehicle gave deputies permission to search it, turning up 35 pounds of crystal meth in the rear cargo area.

Officials say an investigation revealed the meth was destined for Omaha. With the help of the Omaha Police Department and federal Homeland Security and Drug Enforcement Administration, several people in Omaha were arrested in connection with the case.

Officials say more than $112,000 in drug money also was seized.