LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The city of Lincoln is trying to patent a beet brine formula that melts ice on the city’s streets.

The city’s public works maintenance manager, Ty Barger, and his staff have developed seven formulas for brine mixtures over the past two years with help from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s chemical and biomolecular engineering department.

The city has hired a patent attorney to work on a patent so the city can at least market the product locally. Barger signed an agreement acknowledging that the formula belongs to the city, not to him personally, since it was developed as part of his job.

Assistant City Attorney Steve Huggenberger says the city isn’t certain the formula can be patented.

CENTRAL CITY, Neb. (AP) — The Merrick County sheriff has resigned, saying he’d grown tired of his constant battle with a group of people who he says have been spreading lies.

Sheriff Kevin Campbell resigned at a meeting Tuesday of the Board of Supervisors. Board Chairman Roger Wiegert says the resignation took immediate effect and that Chief Deputy John Westman will be running the department until a replacement is hired.

Campbell says the lies being spread over social media have affected his family and says that he hopes his resignation will stop the attacks.

He’s been sheriff since 2010.

CENTRAL CITY, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a Central City man was killed when a locomotive struck his vehicle at a crossing in Merrick County.

The accident occurred Tuesday morning about 2½ miles northeast of Central City. The vehicle was headed north on 19th Road when it was struck by an eastbound train at the crossing near U.S. Highway 30.

The driver was identified as 53-year-old Steven Bankson. The Merrick County Sheriff’s Department says Bankson was pronounced dead at the scene.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Three firefighters who were injured in a funeral home fire have been released from the hospital.

The Omaha Fire Department says the three firefighters who were sent to the Nebraska Medical Center Tuesday morning are now at home resting.

A fire department news release says heavy equipment is being used to assist with moving collapsed sections of the building. Fire investigators were working with funeral home employees Tuesday to remove bodies removed from the building.

Firefighters were dispatched around 3:20 a.m. Tuesday to the Heafey-Hoffmann-Dworak & Cutler Mortuary on West Center Road.

A fourth person who was injured, co-owner Bill Cutler, received about 15 stitches.

The cause of the fire is still being investigated.

NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a 27-year-old Norfolk man was arrested after belt marks were found on his 7-year-old child’s body.

Police officers were sent to Washington Elementary School on Monday to check the child after school staffers noticed bruises and marks on the child’s body.

Police say the child’s father was arrested on suspicion of felony child abuse later in the day. Online court records don’t show that the man has been formally charged.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A former Nebraska football player has been sent to prison for burglary.

Online court records say 27-year-old Rickey Thenarse (theh-NARS’) was given three to six years at his sentencing hearing Tuesday in Lincoln. Prosecutors say he broke into a Lincoln home on Jan. 14, 2015, and stole several items. Thenarse pleaded no contest and was convicted of a felony burglary charge after prosecutors dismissed a second charge related to another break-in.

Thenarse played safety for the Huskers from 2006 through 2010 and played in three preseason games as a member of the NFL Seattle Seahawks in 2011.

ATLANTA (AP) — Authorities said a meteorologist for The Weather Channel died by suicide when crashing his car through an Atlanta parking garage wall and plowing into an adjacent hotel, injuring a worker.

Authorities said 39-year-old Nicholas Wiltgen was pronounced dead Sunday evening after the crash at Midtown Atlanta’s Colony Square Mall.

Mark Guilbeau, senior investigator with the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office, said Wiltgen’s death was a suicide.

Atlanta police spokeswoman Kim Jones says Wiltgen’s car traveled about 20 feet into the adjacent W Atlanta-Midtown, where it hit a hotel worker in a storage area. The worker was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Wiltgen is a graduate of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A memorial service has been set for an Omaha police dog killed during a standoff over the weekend.

The service will be held Thursday afternoon at Christ Community Church for the 9-year-old Belgian Malinois named Kobus. Police have said the dog had served with the department’s K-9 unit since 2008 and was scheduled to retire in March.

The dog’s shooting happened in the final hours of a 25-hour standoff between a 59-year-old Omaha man and police. The incident began when officials tried to serve a warrant ordering the man late Friday to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

The man is also accused of firing on police, although no people were injured. He surrendered Saturday evening.

The public is invited to the memorial service.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A disagreement over a Douglas County judge’s controversial courtroom ban on guns continues after officers who refused to disarm weren’t called to testify in court.

Police officers, prosecutors and even fellow judges gathered in a hallway during a hearing on the fifth floor of the county courthouse Monday to see whether an officer would be handcuffed for refusing to disarm.

But prosecutors didn’t call two officers to testify because they knew the officers would violate judge James Gleason’s courtroom gun ban.

Gleason denied the prosecutor’s request to hand off the case to another judge so the officers could testify without the risk of going to jail.

Gleason declined to comment on the dispute.

He is the only judge out of 28 at the courthouse with a no-guns policy.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say four people have been injured in a blast and fire at a funeral home in central Omaha.

Firefighters were dispatched around 3:20 a.m. Tuesday to the Heafey-Hoffmann-Dworak & Cutler Mortuary on West Center Road.

Fire Chief Bernard Kanger (KANG’-ur) says the rear of the building has partially collapsed.

The four injured people are being treated at Nebraska Medical Center. Three of them are firefighters. The fourth person injured is believed to be a mortuary employee.