OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police have released the name of a man whose body was found in a northeast Omaha alley.

On Tuesday police identified the man as 37-year-old Bernell McCowin.

Officers and paramedics were sent to the scene next to a Burger King restaurant around 11:50 p.m. Monday. McCowin was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police say people had reported gunshots in the area about an hour earlier, but officers found nothing then.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha city officials say they’re working on a panhandling ordinance to address a problem that some people believe has gotten worse.

City officials say they’re hearing about the problem frequently. City prosecutor Matt Kuhse says he’s working on a panhandling ordinance that he hopes the city council can vote on by the end of the year.

Kuhse says the ordinance will need to balance what the community wants with what the constitution and federal courts have said about panhandling.

Steve Frazee, senior program director at Open Door Mission, a local shelter, says giving a panhandler money is likely not going to take care of the needs they have.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a 24-year-old Grand Island woman has died in a car crash in rural Hall County.

The Nebraska State Patrol says 24-year-old Kaitlyn Worthington was found around 6:40 p.m. Friday. Her 2007 Volkswagen had driven into a cornfield.

Worthington was declared dead at the scene. She was wearing a seat belt. Authorities say they believe the crash may have happened during the early-morning hours on Friday.

A Nebraska State Patrol accident report notes that Grand Island police had reported that Worthington fled from an officer just before midnight on Thursday. Grand Island police say Worthington fled on Highway 34 to avoid arrest.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln police saw a surge in service calls during the Nebraska football team’s season opener.

Police were busier Saturday than they were on any other day last year. Officers responded to 459 calls for service, beating last year’s busiest day by 16 calls. Last year’s busiest day was also the first Husker game of the season.

Lincoln police had 47 additional officers directing traffic on Saturday, while others responded to the record number of calls.

Of those calls, 43 were traffic accidents, 67 were alcohol-related arrests, 66 were for disturbances and 18 were assaults. Public Safety Director Tom Casady says all of those numbers are higher than usual.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Officials with the Grand Island City Cemetery are asking to be removed as a site for the Pokemon Go game, saying it’s disrespectful and causing maintenance problems.

Cemetery employees have seen an increase in visitors since the game debuted in early July. Many are kids walking through the cemetery with their phones, and more recently, certain parts of the cemetery have seen an increase in traffic.

Cemetery superintendent Mark Sands says a dirt road around a Civil War monument has seen more extensive rutting, and staff members have reported broken sprinkler heads and tire tracks in the grass near the game’s hot spots.

Sands says some parents have brought their children out to play at the cemetery.

 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Parents of the toddler who was killed by an alligator at Walt Disney World in Florida say they will always remember their sweet little boy.

Melissa and Matt Graves spoke to a group of several hundred people gathered at a high school football stadium Saturday to remember Lane Graves on what would have been his third birthday.

Lane died June 14 after an alligator pulled him into a lagoon at Disney’s upscale Grand Floridian Resort.

Melissa Graves said the family wanted to celebrate Lane’s “first birthday in heaven.”

Matt Graves said Lane’s life brought the family so much joy. The crowd wore blue shirts and released blue balloons into the air.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha’s zoo is blaming staff miscommunication for an incident in which a boy using a wheelchair was barred from the zoo’s new splash pad.

Nicole Steng said she took her 8-year-old son, Titus, in July to the new Alaskan Adventure at the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium.

But a young staffer and zoo supervisor told them Titus’ wheelchair couldn’t go onto the pad because pad’s ground cover wasn’t durable enough to handle the wheels.

There were no signs posted to that effect, and zoo spokeswoman Dawn Ream says that’s because wheelchairs are allowed. Ream says electric-powered rental scooters are barred because they aren’t waterproof.

Ream blamed the incident on miscommunication and says the rules were made clear at a meeting in mid-August.

HEBRON, Neb. (AP) — A southeastern Nebraska man has been sentenced to 30 to 40 years in prison for several counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child.

60-year-old Harold Stone, of Davenport, was sentenced Thursday in Thayer County District Court.

A jury convicted Stone in June of four counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child and one count of felony child abuse.

Prosecutors say Stone began a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl at his business and home.

The victim disclosed the sexual abuse in May 2015, and a search of Stone’s home turned up a variety of digital photos, emails and text messages.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 50-year-old Hartington man has been released from prison after the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that courts cannot impose a separate “habitual criminal” sentence.

The high court on Friday ordered the release of Barney Meyer. Meyer had been sentenced in 2012 to two to four years in prison for theft and burglary counts for stealing copper wire, plus an additional 10 years on a habitual criminal count.

But the state’s high court said it has previously made clear that the state’s habitual criminal law is not a separate offense. It’s a factor considered to enhance the sentences of other crimes.

The high court agreed with a lower court that because Meyer had already served his time on the other charges, he should be released.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Creighton University in Omaha will hold a lecture later this month on the role of free speech on college campuses.

A panel of visiting lecturers will examine the issue in “Campus as a Safe Space or Free Speech Zone” on Sept. 27. The event will begin at 7:30 a.m. at the Harper Center Auditorium.

Panelists include Antony Davies of Duquesne University; Stanley Fish, of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University; Jonathan Rauch of the Brookings Institution; and Omar Wasow, of Princeton University.

The lecture is free and open to the public, and is sponsored by Creighton’s Institute for Economic Inquiry.