NELSON, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man reported that he swerved to avoid a deer and then crashed a minivan he was driving in southern Nebraska, killing his grandmother.

A passer-by called 911 about 8 p.m. Saturday, telling authorities about seeing the minivan in a creek and then a man walking a couple miles east of the crash site near Nelson. Deputies and medics found the body of 61-year-old Vickie Boykin in the wreckage. She lived in Oak.

A deputy found her grandson, 23-year-old Paul Boykin, who later said he was driving with his grandmother west into the sunset when he suddenly saw the deer and swerved to miss it. The Nuckolls County Sheriff’s Office says the minivan went out of control and ran off the road into Elk Creek.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 21-year-old woman accused of robbing a Lincoln bank branch has been given a year in jail.

Court records say Nicole Biehl was sentenced Tuesday in Lancaster County District Court. She’d been accused of using a knife to threaten a clerk when robbing a Pinnacle Bank branch Sept. 6. No one was injured.

The records say Biehl pleaded guilty to terroristic threats and a weapons count after prosecutors dropped a robbery charge.

The judge credited Biehl for 194 days already served and sentenced her to three years of probation for the weapons crime.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have charged a woman in Grand Island with fraudulently obtaining food stamp benefits and other counts.

43-year-old Juana Saquiche-Garcia pleaded not guilty Tuesday to fraudulently obtaining Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, five counts of criminal impersonation, and two counts of identity theft.

Prosecutors say the crimes took place between Jan. 1, 2012, and Dec. 21, 2016.

Saquiche-Garcia remains free after posting 10 percent of $10,000 bail.

BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha billionaire is developing an independent high school in Bellevue that would be among the nation’s first to use “Next Generation Learning” curriculum.

NGL Academy will begin accepting applications Thursday for its first freshmen class. The school will operate on Bellevue University’s campus beginning August, and is aimed primarily at low-income students.

TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts began nonprofit Opportunity Education in 2005. School official Raymond Ravaglia says NGL Academy is being developed by Opportunity Education, which has helped open schools in 11 countries and in California.

Ricketts says the school is designed to teach students how to learn, and to “teach them not just specific skills but more generally how to acquire skills.”

Ravaglia says the focus won’t be on testing, but helping students become self-educators.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Students from Grand Island Public Schools and area conservation group members are planning to create a four-acre monarch butterfly research habitat.

Central Platte Natural Resources District official Marcia Lee says more than 30 students will help with the initial planting of the habitat beginning Thursday. The habitat is to be located on an easement of the Wood River Flood Control Project.

Lee says the monarch butterfly population is decreasing at a rapid pace due to loss of natural habitat, herbicide use and destruction of milkweed plants.

To address the loss of natural habitat, a coalition formed to provide monarchs with food, water and shelter.

Grand Island Public Schools official Ken DeFrank says the project involves students as part of a hands-on outdoor learning program.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Police have arrested a man in connection with the deaths of two teenagers whose bodies were found on the shoulder of a rural Colorado road.

19-year-old Gustavo Marquez is being held on charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping, aggravated robbery and child abuse resulting in death.

The bodies of 15-year-old Derek Benjamin Greer and 16-year-old Natalie Partida, both students at Coronado High School, were found March 12 by a passing driver on Old Pueblo Road just northeast of Pikes Peak International Raceway.

Authorities have not said how the teens were killed or what led investigators to Marquez.

Booking documents do not indicate if Marquez has hired an attorney.

WALTHILL, Neb. (AP) — Two women have been killed in a northeast Nebraska car crash.

The crash occurred Saturday morning, just east of Walthill on Nebraska Highway 64 in Thurston County. The Nebraska State Patrol says the car ran off the roadway, and when the driver overcorrected the car ran off the other side of the highway and rolled.

The two women were pronounced dead at the scene. The patrol identified them as Hayla Morris and Donnette Blackbird. Their ages and hometowns weren’t immediately available. A third person in the car was not injured.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The company building the Dakota Access pipeline says the project remains on track to start moving oil this week despite recent “coordinated physical attacks” along the line.

The brief court filing late Monday from Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners didn’t detail the attacks, but said they “pose threats to life, physical safety and the environment.”

The filing cited those threats for redacting most of the 2½-page report. A spokeswoman and an attorney for the company didn’t immediately respond to emailed questions from The Associated Press.

Two American Indian tribes have battled the $3.8 billion pipeline in court for months, arguing it’s a threat to water. The company has said the pipeline will be safe.

When complete, the pipeline will move oil from North Dakota to a shipping point in Illinois.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha’s parking division is working on upgrades that will let drivers use smartphones to pay for parking in garages and even stake out spots for major events.

The city’s parking manager, Ken Smith, says the division is planning for $3.5 million in projects and technology upgrades for next year. The upgrades will include restoration and maintenance of parking facilities.

New technology will allow drivers to find and pay for parking on their phones. The division is also working to add the option of reserving parking for events on the Park Omaha app.

Private parking providers will also have the opportunity to use the new parking features.

Smith says division staff will begin the process of replacing controlling parking garage payments this month.