LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A lawsuit filed by the mayor could force the Lincoln City Council to set a tax rate that would raise enough money to support the mayor’s budget next year.

A lawyer for Mayor Chris Beutler (BYTE’-lur) filed it late Tuesday afternoon. It’s aimed at settling the question of whether a council vote on the tax rate is purely ministerial and must correspond to the budget in place or whether the four Republican council members can set a different rate.

Beutler and the council Democrats have said the panel must approve a tax rate that fully supports the budget of record, in this case the budget Beutler submitted before vetoing the council’s revised version. The council’s Republicans have said the smaller budget approved by the Republican majority is the legal budget.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union is warning Nebraska nursing homes not to refuse to treatment patients with HIV.

The civil rights group said Tuesday that it sent letters to six Nebraska nursing homes that refused to treat a man with HIV in the months before his death.

The ACLU says the nursing homes refused to treat John Shelor, so he wound up in a facility in Broken Bow that was more than an hour from his home in Bertrand. He died July 31.

ACLU of Nebraska Executive Director Danielle Conrad says state and federal law prohibits treating someone differently because they have HIV.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Investigators say a man who accidentally shot an off-duty Omaha police officer was cleaning a gun when the officer startled him.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Tuesday that the 70-year-old man was in his home cleaning the exterior of the handgun when he unexpectedly encountered 38-year-old Ben Weidner at his door. Investigators say the man was startled and reacted by squeezing the handgun and trigger. A shot was fired and struck Weidner in the abdomen.

Officials say the homeowner believed the gun was unloaded at the time he was cleaning it.

Investigators say the man and Weidner know each other and are on good terms. The shooting has been determined to be accidental, and no criminal charges are expected.

Weidner is expected to recover.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A judge has ruled that an Omaha man convicted of killing four people in the summer of 2013 is mentally fit enough to face a death penalty hearing.

Douglas County District Judge Peter Bataillon on Tuesday declared Nikko Jenkins competent. His death penalty hearing has been set for Nov. 14, when Jenkins will go before a three-judge panel that will decide whether his crimes merit the death penalty.

The hearing has been delayed several times as mental health evaluations sought to determine whether Jenkins, who has mutilated himself multiple times in prison, is mentally competent.

Jenkins was convicted in 2014 of four counts of first-degree murder for the August 2013 shooting deaths of Juan Uribe-Pena, Jorge Cajiga-Ruiz, Curtis Bradford and Andrea Kruger.

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A joint task force of North Dakota and federal officials is investigating a clash between Dakota Access pipeline protesters and private security guards earlier this month.

The Morton County Sheriff’s Department is heading up the probe of the Sept. 3 incident, after which security guards and protesters reported injuries.

Tribal officials say about 30 protesters were pepper-sprayed and some were bitten by dogs at the construction site near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

The task force includes members of the Morton and Mercer County sheriff’s departments, the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier says the BIA is representing Native American tribes.

A North Dakota state agency that regulates private investigation and security firms is also looking into the incident.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An effort to have DNA results admitted into evidence in the case against a former doctor accused of killing four people with ties to an Omaha medical school could delay his trial.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine has asked the Nebraska Supreme Court to delay the first-degree murder trial of Anthony Garcia, which is set to begin next Monday. Kleine also asked the high court on Monday to vacate District Judge Gary Randall’s decision excluding advanced DNA analysis from trial.

Garcia is charged in the March 2008 slayings of Dr. William Hunter’s 11-year-old son and the family’s housekeeper, as well as the May 2013 killings of Dr. Roger Brumback and his wife. Prosecutors say Garcia was seeking revenge over being fired from a Creighton University School of Medicine residency program.

PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — A man who worked at a Bellevue group home for developmentally disabled people has been convicted in the sexual assault of one of the residents.

Online court records say 39-year-old Adrian Galbreath pleaded guilty Monday to attempted sexual assault and two counts of abuse of a vulnerable adult. Prosecutors lowered the assault charge in exchange for Galbreath’s pleas. He’s scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 21.

Court records say Galbreath worked at Hands of Heartland and had invited the group home resident to Galbreath’s Bellevue apartment on Sept. 23 last year. Authorities say Galbreath pushed down and began to assault the man after the man became intoxicated.

A Hands of Heartland official has said Galbreath is no longer an employee.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Republican majority has set the stage for an expected lawsuit over competing budgets to guide Lincoln’s spending and taxes.

The council voted 4-3 Monday to approve a tax rate that officials say wouldn’t generate enough revenue to support the budget submitted by Mayor Chris Beutler (BYTE’-lur), a Democrat.

Beutler and Democrats on the council say the council must approve a tax rate that fully supports the budget of record, in this case the budget Beutler submitted before vetoing the council’s budget.

The Republicans on the council say the mayor cannot veto a budget, and the trimmer budget approved by the Republican majority is the legal budget.

City Attorney Jeff Kirkpatrick has hired attorneys for both sides in anticipation of a lawsuit.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An off-duty Omaha police officer needed surgery after being shot in the stomach while visiting a friend’s home on the northwest edge of the city.

Douglas County Sheriff Tim Dunning says the incident that happened Monday morning in a barn near Bennington appears to have been an accident.

The 38-year-old officer’s friend was holding a .357 Magnum that went off and wounded the officer.

Authorities didn’t immediately identify the people involved in the incident Monday.

Omaha police said the officer was in stable condition Monday.