BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — Gage County will challenge its insurers’ decision not to cover it for a $28.1 million judgment awarded to six people who were wrongfully convicted of murder.

The county board approved hiring a law firm Wednesday to fight its insurers’ decision not to cover the lawsuit filed by six people who were wrongfully convicted in the 1985 murder of a Beatrice woman.

County officials have said Gage County doesn’t have the resources to pay the judgment.

The Keating O’Gara law firm will receive more money if it manages to collect from the Nebraska Intergovernmental Risk Management Association or EMC Insurance.

COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — A council member has apologized for her vote to erect a cell tower in a Columbus park, but the tower is still expected to go up.

Several people who live near Glur Park criticized the City Council at its Monday meeting for its August approval of Verizon’s request to erect an 80-foot tower designed to resemble an evergreen tree. Many of the residents complained that they weren’t notified about the proposal and so couldn’t register their opposition with city officials.

Councilwoman Beth Augustine-Schulte apologized for her vote for the tower, saying she wouldn’t want it across the street from her house either.

City Attorney Neal Valorz told the crowd that reneging on the Verizon contract would open the city to a lawsuit.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Teachers at an Omaha middle school dealing with unruly student behavior have received an extra day of training that focused on student discipline.

Nathan Hale Magnet Middle School teachers say some students are disruptive and exhibit aggressive behavior, including assaults on staff and other students. Educators participated in a training course Tuesday designed to give them better techniques to deescalate behavioral problems and engage students.

A consulting firm is assisting with the training.

Omaha Public Schools officials have held parent meetings about the problems and pledged to provide more staff and training.

Additional security guards and student deans have been added and the school is hiring a social worker.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 21-year-old man has been given 10 to 15 years in prison for his role in an attempted robbery that led to a fatal shooting in Lincoln.

Online court records say Joseph Bratt had pleaded no contest to attempted robbery in exchange for prosecutors dropping a weapons charge. Bratt was sentenced Tuesday.

Authorities say Bratt, Brandon Benson and Joshua Lock were charged after the November 2015 robbery attempt of people trying to buy marijuana. Authorities say Benson later went back to the house where the robbery attempt failed and fired several handgun rounds, killing 19-year-old Richard Randall Jr., of Plattsmouth, and wounding 18-year-old Angok Wal, of Bellevue.

Benson is scheduled to be sentenced next week. Lock is set to be sentenced on Dec. 16.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The City Council has voted unanimously to rename a two-block street section in north Omaha for a local civil rights leader.

The proposal approved Tuesday renames Lake Street from North 22nd to North 24th Street for Bertha Calloway. She helped found the Great Plains Black History Museum in 1976 and served as director and curator. City officials say Calloway also participated in protests to integrate diners and the city’s Peony Park.

Councilman Ben Gray says the application for the name change was “something that has been a long time coming.”

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha City Council has changed its collective mind and voted to apply the city’s 2.5 percent restaurant tax to food trucks.

The council voted 5-2 Tuesday to expand the tax to food trucks, which were specifically exempted when the city began charging the tax in 2010.

Operators of regular restaurants have complained that the exemption was unfair, but a majority of council members has resisted expansion of the tax. In September four council members — Pete Festersen, Chris Jerram, Rich Pahls and Aimee Melton — voted to kill an expansion proposal.

But on Tuesday Melton and Jerram switched their votes to yes and joined the other council members in favor of expansion.

Omaha Food Trucks Association leader Kelly Keegan says the association has no problem with the expansion.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Operators of a Kansas water park where a state lawmaker’s 10-year-old son was killed on a waterslide last summer say that ride will be demolished.

Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts and the family that runs it said in a statement Tuesday that the 168-foot “Verruckt” at the Schlitterbahn park in Kansas City, Kansas, will eventually be torn down.

The ride has been closed since authorities say Caleb Thomas Schwab was killed Aug. 7 while on the Verruckt, which is German for “insane.” Two other riders in Caleb’s raft, both women, were injured.

Attorneys for Caleb and the women are investigating the accident. No charges or lawsuits have been filed as of Tuesday. Messages left by The Associated Press for the attorneys were not immediately returned.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 53-year-old Lincoln man has been sentenced to up to 50 years in prison for sexually assaulting a girl hundreds of times over nearly a decade.

Jack Borkowski was sentenced Monday to 40 to 50 years in prison. Even with so-called good time credit, Borkowski will be at least 80 before he’s eligible for parole.

Prosecutors say he began inappropriately touching the girl when she was 6 and soon began raping her before she reached puberty. The abuse continued until the girl was in her teens.

Police say Borkowski admitted during a police interview to committing more than 200 sexual assaults on the girl.

ODELL, Neb. (AP) — A veteran teacher has been accused of slapping a student in southeast Nebraska.

The incident occurred last week in an agriculture classroom at Diller-Odell High School in Diller. Authorities say a student was leaning against or otherwise moving a desk, causing the desk legs to make a squeaking noise. The teacher told the student to stop moving the desk and, while standing behind the student, slapping a side of the boy’s face.

The teacher described it to a Gage County Sheriff’s Office investigator as a light slap. The teacher was ticketed for misdemeanor assault. Online court records don’t yet show that he’s been formally charged.

Superintendent Mike Meyerle declined to comment Tuesday but said the teacher had worked 31 years for the district.

DAKOTA CITY, Neb. (AP) — A 45-year-old Iowa man has been found guilty of vehicular homicide in the crash deaths of three people in northeast Nebraska.

Online court records say Christopher Cox, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, pleaded no contest to three counts last week in Dakota County Court. He’s scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 4.

Authorities say Cox’s car ran off U.S. Highway 20 west of Jackson on June 9 and struck a concrete creek barrier. He told officers he swerved to avoid hitting a deer.

Two of his passengers died at the scene: 57-year-old Connie Fauzae and 9-year-old Espinoza Lara, both of Council Bluffs, Iowa. A third passenger died later at a Sioux City, Iowa, hospital: 10-year-old Jose Lara, also of Council Bluffs.

Cox was treated for minor injuries.