STANTON, Neb. (AP) — Two occupants have been treated for smoke inhalation after a fire at their home in Stanton.

Stanton County Sheriff Mike Unger says a deputy spotted smoke coming from the house around 6:15 p.m. Sunday. Unger says the deputy helped the two people out of the house, and they were taken to a Norfolk hospital.

Unger says the house suffered extensive smoke damage. Investigators suspect the smoke was coming from a wood stove.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A county judge based in Grand Island is set to retire at the end of the month.

Nebraska court administrators say 9th Judicial District Judge Philip “Mac” Martin Jr. is retiring on Jan. 31 after 25 years on the bench, which serves Hall and Buffalo counties.

Martin is a former president of the Nebraska County Judges Association and has served on numerous judicial committees throughout his career. He mentored new judges from across the state through the County Judges Education Committee for several years, training many of the judges who are on the bench today.

The first step in replacing Martin will be for the Judicial Resources Commission to call a meeting to determine whether, based on judicial workload statistics, his retirement creates a judicial vacancy.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha firefighter accused of slapping, shoving and threatening to kill a woman on Christmas morning will be allowed to visit his young son.

A judge allowed the visits during a hearing Friday for 45-year-old Sean Brenner. Brenner waived his right to a preliminary hearing on felony child abuse and terroristic threats charges. Trial on the charges will be set later. His preliminary hearing on a misdemeanor domestic violence count has been set for Feb. 10.

The woman reported that during an argument, Brenner slapped her several times, punched her and shoved her into a countertop. She also says he put a kitchen knife to her throat and threatened to kill her, her son and himself.

Brenner has been placed on leave.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man charged in the shooting death of a 25-year-old Lincoln man has been convicted of first-degree murder.

A jury found 34-year-old Anthony Wells guilty Friday of murder and several weapons counts for the death last year of Joshua Hartwig.

Police say they found Hartwig dead outside of an apartment building north of downtown Lincoln in January 2016. Prosecutors say that following an argument with a woman, Wells fired 13 rounds into a crowd outside the apartment building, hitting Hartwig in the neck.

Wells faces life in prison when he’s sentenced on March 28.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man convicted in the murder case that inspired the 1999 movie “Boys Don’t Cry” is challenging Nebraska’s three-judge method for determining death sentences.

Attorneys for John Lotter argue that he had a right to have jurors, not judges, weigh his fate when he was sentenced in 1996 to death. The attorneys cite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that struck down Florida’s death penalty process, saying it gave too much power to judges to make the ultimate decision.

Lotter was condemned for his role in the 1993 slaying of Teena Brandon, a 21-year-old woman who lived briefly as a man, and two witnesses, Lisa Lambert and Philip DeVine, at a rural Humboldt farmhouse.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities in southeast Nebraska say an Iowa woman has died after being hit by a vehicle.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office says 19-year-old Merzedes Hart, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, was walking Friday night near Waverly when she was hit by a vehicle. Hart was pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities say the vehicle left the scene after hitting Hart, but it and the driver were soon found. No arrest or charges had been announced by Saturday morning.

The sheriff’s office says an autopsy has been ordered.

Hart was a member of the University of Nebraska-Omaha track and field team.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has upheld the more than 100-year sentence of a man convicted in a string of shootings that killed two and injured another.

Juan Castaneda was 15 when he and two other teens carried out a spate of street robberies the night of Nov. 12, 2008. They shot three people in separate attacks in the span of 30 minutes, killing Tari Glinsmann and Luis Fernando Silva and injuring another man.

Castaneda was convicted of first-degree murder and other counts in 2010 and sentenced to life in prison. But a resentencing was ordered following a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision that found it’s unconstitutional sentence juveniles to life without parole. He was resentenced last year to 105 to 125 years.

On Friday, the Nebraska Supreme Court rejected Castaneda’s claim that his new sentence is excessive.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A group of Omaha’s civic leaders has drawn up plans for an estimated $125 million mixed-use development in the heart of north downtown.

The development will be on an 8-acre lot across from the CenturyLink Center. A committee has spent nearly a year studying the site, which will be transformed into restaurants, stores, apartments, open space and possibly a hotel.

A final report on the project was sent this week to the city and the group.

Leaders seem to have resolved the issue of parking which has been an obstacle to the long-imagined project. Plans call for a new garage and other replacement parking for the 850 stalls that currently exist on the site.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police have arrested a 19-year-old man suspected of shooting an employee in a parking lot of the Nebraska Furniture Mart.

Police said late Thursday that the man was jailed on suspicion of assault, robbery and other crimes. Online court records don’t show that he’s been formally charged.

Police say the man used a shotgun to shoot 37-year-old Jared Clawson early Wednesday and fire at two of Clawson’s co-workers. One of the co-workers says he dodged gunfire in the parking lot when someone drove through, firing more than a dozen shots.