GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Repairs have begun on a cracked cross atop St. Mary’s Cathedral in Grand Island.

The Rev. Richard Piontkowski said workers repairing copper and slate on the cathedral roof this past spring noticed cracks on the back side of the cross. Weather damage is suspected.

The cathedral’s east entrance was roped off to keep people from being injured if the cross were to crash down to the sidewalk below. Iron rods in the cross will be replaced with steel, and then the cross will be returned to its site atop the roof.

Piontkowski hopes the work will be finished and the east entrance reopened by the second week of July.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Grand Island’s insurance carrier has settled a claim against the city over the drowning of a 5-year-old girl at the city’s Island Oasis Water Park last summer.

The claim for more than $1 million was filed in September by Dumale Bariyiga, of Lincoln, the mother of the girl, Nubari Koffree. Bariyiga alleged the lifeguards on duty July 18, 2015, were negligent. The Hall County coroner has said the drowning was an accident, and city officials say personnel followed proper procedures that day.

A memo from the city attorney to the City Council for its meeting Tuesday says the insurance carrier has agreed to pay $240,000 to settle the claim filed by Bariyiga. Council action is not required.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man has been arrested in connection with a car crash in Omaha that killed a teenage girl.

Authorities say 28-year-old Tyvinn Smith is charged with suspicion of felony motor vehicle homicide, willful reckless driving and operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license.

He is accused of causing a collision that killed 16-year-old Janis Brown around 10:45 p.m. Friday.

Authorities say minutes before the crash, Smith was involved in another collision and fled. They say he then rear-ended the car in which Janis was a passenger.

The driver and a 4-year-old boy were taken to the hospital for injuries that weren’t life-threatening.

Smith was treated for minor injuries before he was taken to jail Sunday. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge has found in favor of the city of Lincoln in a civil rights lawsuit filed by a man arrested and convicted of trespassing for handing out religious leaflets outside an arena on public land.

U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp on Thursday granted the city’s request for summary judgment, ending Larry Ball’s lawsuit.

The 78-year-old Ball was ticketed last year, found guilty of two misdemeanor trespassing counts and fined $100 plus court costs. Ball has maintained that the area in front of the arena entrance where he was handing out religious pamphlets is a public sidewalk and that the city violated his free speech rights.

But the city says the area is quasi-public because it’s contracted to private tenants.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The University of Nebraska at Omaha has received a $2.2 million federal grant to help establish courses of study at two universities in Afghanistan.

University officials say the effort will build upon UNO’s long relationship with Afghanistan.

The grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development will allow UNO’s Center for Afghanistan Studies and School of Communication to help establish bachelor’s degree programs in communications studies at Kabul University and Balkh University.

The two-year project is similar to a $1.3 million grant program that allowed the longtime partners to develop student-faculty exchange programs for the journalism school at Kabul University. That was awarded in 2010.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln police say officers have shot and killed a man they suspect of shooting two women, one of whom died from her injuries.

Police confronted the 22-year-old man on a Lincoln street around 9 a.m. Sunday and shot him when he pointed a handgun at them.

Police say the man was suspected of shooting two women in separate cars around 3 a.m. Sunday, killing a 20-year-old woman.

Officers discovered the women after they heard gunshots while investigating a separate incident. Both women were taken to a hospital, where the 20-year-old was pronounced dead. The other woman, a 23-year-old, remains hospitalized. Her condition has not been released.

The names of the women and the suspect have not been released.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police say a 20-year-old woman was killed and a 23-year-old woman was hospitalized after they were shot in separate vehicles early Sunday in Lincoln.

Officers were called a north Lincoln neighborhood around 3 a.m. to investigate a report of a fight when they heard gunshots.

Police say they found the women nearby, and each had been shot in separate vehicles. Both women were taken to a hospital, where the 20-year-old was pronounced dead. The other woman remains hospitalized. Her condition has not been released.

Police have not yet identified the women.

There were no reports by midday Sunday of arrests in the case.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office says one person is dead following a two-vehicle, late-night crash in north Omaha.

The sheriff’s office says the crash occurred around 10:45 p.m. Friday on Sorenson Parkway.

A preliminary investigation shows that a westbound car rear-ended another car at a high speed. The car that was hit was carrying three people, and a person in the front passenger seat died at the scene. The driver and a back seat passenger were taken to a hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening.

The driver of the car that rear-ended the other also suffered minor injuries.

The names of those injured have not yet been released.

An autopsy has been ordered. Investigators are looking into whether speed and alcohol contributed to the crash.

CLARINDA, Iowa (AP) — A Des Moines man has been arrested after police say he traveled to southwestern Iowa and shot his older brother twice.

41-year-old Aaron Kubly was arrested Thursday night after police say he walked uninvited into his brother’s house and started shooting.

Police say 45-year-old Jason Kubly, of Clarinda, was shot in both legs. He was flown to an Omaha, Nebraska, hospital for treatment and is expected to survive.

Police did not give a suspected motive for the shooting. Aaron Kubly was found soon after the shooting on a Clarinda street. He was arrested and charged with attempted murder, burglary and assault.

He remained in the Page County Jail on Saturday on $100,000 bond and could not be reached for comment.