AUBURN, Neb. (AP) — A southeast Nebraska county is switching to plastic markers for veterans graves in order to thwart thieves.

Crooks have been stealing the standard bronze markers.

Nemaha County veterans service officer Bill Hessler told the county commissioners Wednesday that the new markers will come in two varieties: one for veterans who served during a war and one for veterans who served during peacetime. The bronze markers had designated service during specific wars.

Hessler says families that want to replace bronze markers can buy the plastic markers for $30.

SCHUYLER, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a teenage girl has died and two other people have been injured in a Schuyler crash.

The accident occurred around 11:15 p.m. Wednesday. Officers briefly chased a car that was being driven erratically but soon halted the pursuit because of safety concerns. Within minutes, they were sent to check a report that the car had rammed a tree.

The 15-year-old girl was found on the ground near the car. Authorities say she was flown to a Lincoln hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The driver was flown to an Omaha hospital for treatment, and a 15-year-old male passenger was taken to a Schuyler hospital.

Authorities suspect the driver had been drinking alcohol.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln man has been given 50 to 80 years in prison for sexually assaulting an unconscious 9-year-old girl and taking photographs.

Online court records say 56-year-old Alan Kosmicki was sentenced Wednesday in Lancaster County District Court. He’d pleaded no contest to attempted sexual assault of a child and visual depiction of sexual conduct. Prosecutors lowered the sexual assault charge in exchange for Kosmicki’s pleas.

Court records say a Seward man who bought the contents of a storage shed found a memory card among the items and then found explicit images of a man and girl on it. He turned it over to police.

Investigators say they determined that the man in the pictures is Kosmicki. He initially told investigators that he wasn’t the man in the pictures.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida sheriff says charges are unlikely against the parents whose 2-year-old son was killed by an alligator at Walt Disney World.

Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings tells The Associated Press there was no indication Will and Melissa Graves of suburban Omaha, Nebraska, committed any crime that contributed to the reptile grabbing their son, Lane Graves.

Demings says his department and the state wildlife agency would look into the issue of signs around Seven Seas Lagoon, where Disney had posted “no swimming” signs but no warnings about alligators.

Authorities say the boy waded into no more than 1 or 2 feet of water in the lagoon around nightfall Tuesday when he was taken from a small beach. The boy’s father desperately tried to fight off the gator, but couldn’t save his son.

BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) — The Air Force has agreed to a $55 million upgrade of the runway at Offutt Air Force Base, a move that will extend the life of the runway for about 20 years.

Nebraska’s congressional delegation welcomed the Air Force’s decision, which was announced Wednesday.

Sen. Deb Fischer says design work will begin this fall and construction will start in 2018.

The decision eases fears that a deteriorating runway could eventually prompt the Air Force to move the 55th Wing to a different base. That would have eliminated thousands of civilian and military jobs in the area.

Because of the crumbling runway, ground crews have had to watch constantly for loose chunks of concrete that could destroy a jet engine if they were sucked inside.

(Lincoln, Neb.)- At approximately 6:05 p.m., Wednesday, June 15, Lincoln Correctional Center Escapee Timothy Clausen, 52, was taken into custody at a residence at 3226 North 26^th Avenue in north Omaha.

The Nebraska State Patrol, Omaha Police Department, Douglas County Sheriff’s, U.S. Marshal’s Service and the Metro Fugitive Task Force took Clausen into custody without incident.

Leads developed by law enforcement authorities led to his arrest.

Clausen had changed his appearance, cut his hair, shaved his beard and changed his clothing.  A handgun was located near Clausen when he was arrested.

“Clausen’s arrest is the culmination of a lot of hard work and long hours by law enforcement from multiple agencies,” said Colonel Brad Rice, Superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol. “Our citizens were also a valuable resource and we would like to thank each and every one of them who called to provide a tip or information.”

Clausen has been taken the Tecumseh State Correctional Institute.

Clausen, 52, and fellow inmate Armon Dixon, 37, escaped from the Lincoln Correctional Center on Friday, June 10. Dixon was apprehended Saturday by authorities in Lincoln.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) —Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings says searchers have recovered the body of a 2-year-old Nebraska boy snatched by an alligator at Walt Disney World.

The boy was attacked Tuesday night as he waded in shallow water at the edge of the Seven Seas Lagoon at Disney’s Grand Floridian resort.

Demings identified the boy as Lane Graves of Elkhorn, Nebraska.

The search team grew to 50 people Wednesday as trappers and divers searched Disney’s network of man-made canals, ponds and lakes. Five alligators were caught and cut open before they found the body. The body was fully intact.

DAKOTA CITY, Neb. (AP) — An Iowa man is scheduled to go on trial Sept. 22, charged with three counts of vehicular homicide in northeast Nebraska.

Forty-five-year-old Christopher Cox pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a Dakota City courtroom. Authorities say Cox’s car ran off U.S. Highway 20 west of Jackson on Thursday 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. He also is from Council Bluffs.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha Public Power District is set to vote on whether to close the nation’s smallest nuclear power plant in Fort Calhoun.

The district board will vote on the fate of Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station on Thursday.

Once closed, a nuclear plant must undergo a decommissioning process to remove or decontaminate materials and equipment that have been exposed to radioactivity. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires decommissioning to be completed within 60 years of a plant’s closing.

Cleaning up the site after its closure is estimated to cost about $1 billion.

Power district President and Chief Executive Director Tim Burke has recommended using a decommissioning method that would give the utility the full 60 years to let radioactivity at the plant decay naturally and to fully dismantle the plant.

BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have identified a woman killed while walking down a suburban Omaha highway.

Sarpy County officials say 61-year-old Patricia A. Hall died in the accident. Deputies were dispatched a little before 2:45 a.m. Wednesday after a call about the woman on U.S. Highway 75 in Bellevue and then got a call from the driver of a vehicle that hit the woman. The 64-year-old man says his sport utility vehicle struck her as he was driving home from work.

Authorities say the woman apparently was walking in the middle of the right southbound lane. Investigators have been unable to determine why she was there.

.