BLUE SPRINGS, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have released the names of a driver killed and another driver injured in a southeast Nebraska collision.

The Gage County Sheriff’s Office said Friday that 41-year-old Harry Hart III, of Lincoln, was killed Thursday afternoon when his car collided with an oncoming vehicle on U.S. Highway 77 just west of Blue Springs.

The driver of the other vehicle was identified as 63-year-old Lora Lee Stohs, of Marysville, Kansas. She was flown to a Lincoln hospital for treatment. A 12-year-old grandson with her was taken by ambulance to a Lincoln hospital, and another grandson was taken to a Beatrice hospital.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha city attorney says Mayor Jean Stothert correctly followed city code and policy in selecting Dan Olsen as fire chief.

Firefighters’ union president Steve LeClair and mayoral candidate Heath Mello have criticized Stothert’s handling of the process. They accused Stothert of evading city ordinance in order to hire Olsen, whom she had appointed as interim chief in April.

Omaha City Attorney Paul Kratz says Stothert asked him Thursday to review the process that resulted in Olsen’s hiring, which was announced Wednesday.

Kratz says he looked at the city code, the firefighters’ union contract and Human Resources personnel policies. He also discussed the process with the Omaha human resources director and deputy city attorney.

Kratz concluded that the mayor followed appropriate procedures in hiring Olsen.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a man who’d been resentenced this year for a 1990 Omaha slaying when he was 16.

The court released its ruling Friday in the case of Christopher Garza, who originally was convicted of first-degree murder and given an automatic life sentence without parole for the slaying of Christina O’Day.

In February Garza was resentenced because the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled judges must have the option of sentencing juveniles to something other than automatic life terms. He argued in his appeal that his new sentence of 90 years was excessive.

The Nebraska high court ruled that the district judge considered all relevant sentencing factors and then imposed a new sentence within the statutory limits and supported by the record.

YUTAN, Neb. (AP) — A judge has dismissed a manslaughter charge that was filed against a Yutan man following the death of his sister more than two years after she was beaten.

Judge Patrick McDermott ruled last week that there wasn’t enough evidence to try Randall McDuffee.

Authorities say Michelle McDuffee was visiting her brother in December 2013. He told officers that he and his sister had been drinking the night of Dec. 7 and that he found her the next morning on the kitchen floor. She was hospitalized but never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead on March 3 this year.

An autopsy showed she died of complications from a blunt force head injury.

Saunders County Attorney Steven Twohig says he’ll confer with the county sheriff’s office and decide whether to refile charges.

NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man has been killed in the crash of a pickup he was driving in Norfolk.

The accident occurred a little before 6:20 p.m. Wednesday. Police say the pickup ran off the roadway and onto a terrace, where is struck a tree.

Police say the driver died later at a Norfolk hospital. His name hasn’t been released.

The crash is being investigated.

SOUTH SIOUX CITY, Neb. (AP) — South Sioux City is planning to reroute more industrial sewage away from a neighborhood that has been afflicted with sewer gas for the past three months.

The city will begin a $60,000 project this week to keep waste from traveling east by adjusting two blocks of sewer line near the neighborhood.

The sewage will travel north, returning to the lines it flowed through before the city performed a multimillion-dollar project in August that rerouted the sewage to the east.

About 10 families in the five-block area are still staying in hotels after residents were driven from their homes in October due to potentially toxic hydrogen sulfide gas, which was originally tied to Big Ox Energy.

City officials say tests show hydrogen sulfide levels are back to normal, but that strong odors persist.

RALSTON, Neb. (AP) — A 23-year-old Omaha woman accused of breaking one of her infant son’s legs has been given five years of probation.

Court records say Brittany Burgess was sentenced last week in Douglas County District Court. She’d pleaded guilty to a lesser child abuse charge after making an agreement with prosecutors.

Ralston police arrested Burgess last January. A court document says a hospital doctor told officers a bone in one of the boy’s lower legs was fractured more than once and was caused “by pushing down and twisting.”

The boy was 2 months old at the time. He and his older brother were placed in state custody.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Bail has been set at $5 million for an Iowa resident accused of killing a romantic rival last seen alive more than four years ago in Omaha.

Forty-one-year-old Shanna Golyar, of Persia, Iowa, is charged with first-degree murder. Bail was set during a hearing Tuesday inside the Douglas County Jail. Prosecutors say she killed Cari Farver, of Macedonia, Iowa, who was 37 when she was reported missing in November 2012.

Golyar’s attorney is James Martin Davis, and he said Tuesday there’s no confession, no body, no murder weapon and “no sufficient showing of blood that there was a death that even took place.”

Prosecutors say Golyar and Farver had dated the same man and that Golyar tried to cover up the killing by posing online as Farver.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln has been cutting down young, healthy ash trees to save money for its battle against an insect invader.

The emerald ash borer, which has killed millions of ash trees in other states, has been confirmed within 16 miles of Lincoln and already may be in the state capital. The city has around 70,000 ash trees, including around 14,000 on city street rights of way and in parks.

The city is removing younger ashes that are 14 inches in diameter or less at breast height. Experts say that to keep those trees alive through the looming infestation would require $150 chemical treatments every two years.

Under the city program, replacement trees will be lining streets as untreated ash trees die.

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have accused an Omaha firefighter slapping, shoving and threatening to kill a woman inside a home on Christmas morning.

Jail records say 45-year-old Sean Brenner remained in custody Wednesday. Court records say he’s charged with felony terroristic threats. The records don’t list an attorney who could comment for Brenner. The Fire Department has placed him on leave.

Deputies responding to the home around 5:30 a.m. Sunday say the woman had redness and swelling on her face. They say she reported that she and Brenner got into an argument and that he slapped her several times, punched her in a cheek and shoved her into a countertop. She also says he put a kitchen knife to her throat and threatened to kill her and her son before killing himself.