LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln’s new, 17-block-long protected lane has proved popular with bicyclists.

But, they say, unfortunately, it’s also proved popular with a few car and truck drivers.

The $3.2 million N Street Bike Track connects the Haymarket district on the west side of downtown Lincoln with Antelope Valley trails and beyond to the east.

Cyclist Gary Bentrup said the lane’s curbs and dividers could be confusing some drivers.

The city plans to add more street striping at certain intersections this week to help keep cars in their designated lanes while turning. The city also intends to install more 3- or 4-foot tall reflective plastic tubes in and near the bike lane to deter motorized traffic.

WAYNE, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a pilot has been found dead at the scene of a plane crash in northeast Nebraska.

The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office says the wreckage of the single-engine Cessna 172 was found around 1:30 a.m. Monday in rural Wayne County. The pilot was pronounced dead at the scene. His name hasn’t been released, pending notification of relatives.

The Sheriff’s Office says the plane was reported overdue Sunday and had gone off radar. It had been diverted to the Wayne County airport from its destination of Sioux City, Iowa, because of bad weather.

Tom Becker manages the Wayne County facility, and he says Columbia, Missouri, was the last known stop for the aircraft.

Federal authorities will be investigating.

NORFOLK,Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man has died at a hospital after his all-terrain vehicle broke through ice on a pond near Norfolk.

Norfolk firefighters were sent to the pond a little after 4 p.m. Saturday. They pulled the man from the icy water. He was treated at a Norfolk hospital and then sent to an Omaha hospital. Authorities say he died there.

The man’s name hasn’t been released.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Department data show hundreds of incidents each year of the children of military service members being victims of sexual assault.

The abuse of military dependents is committed most often by male enlisted troops, according to the data provided exclusively to The Associated Press.

The figures offer greater insight into the sexual abuse of children committed by service members, a problem of uncertain scale due to a lack of transparency in the military’s legal proceedings. With more than 1 million military dependents, the number of cases appears statistically small. But for a profession that prides itself on honor and discipline, any episodes of abuse cast a pall.

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — A new grant will allow the Homestead National Monument of America to reimburse the travel costs for schools that bring fourth-graders to the site for field trips.

The monument is one of 186 federal sites to receive a grant from the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks.

The grant is part of the foundation’s Open OutDoors for Kids Program.

National Park Foundation grants have made it possible for more than 400,000 students to visit national parks and other public lands and waters.

Homestead National Monument of America will distribute the grant on a first-come basis.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln police say the number of rapes and attempted rapes reported in the city last year was the highest seen in at least the last 25 years.

Police received 188 reports through November, a 23 percent increase over the 152 cases reported in all of 2014.

The number has climbed steadily since the mid-2000s, when police investigated an average of 110 sexual assault cases a year. The FBI says the number of reported rapes statewide has increased since 2000, even as the total number nationally has fallen.

Police and advocates say they don’t know what’s driving the increase. It’s possible that more victims are reporting rapes than in the past.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Firefighters extinguished a small blaze outside of the Lincoln Electric System building in downtown Lincoln.

Firefighters were called to the scene around 5:45 p.m. Friday.

Acting Battalion Chief Lloyd Mueller says firefighters received reports of a package ablaze on a bench outside the building. The package was later identified as a transient man’s belongings.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but firefighters say a bag full of cigarette butts were found among the remains of the transient man’s belongings.

Fire Inspector Mike Wright says the department will review security cameras on the LES building which are believed to have captured footage of the fire before making a final determination of its cause.

LA VISTA, Neb. (AP) — Two police officers helped revive a 5-week-old child in La Vista who stopped breathing on New Year’s Eve.

La Vista Police Chief Bob Lausten says Lt. T.J. Jacik and Officer Steve Walter were called to an apartment Thursday shortly before midnight.

Lausten says Jacik and Walter found the child bleeding from the nose and not breathing. They performed CPR until Papillion firefighters arrived.

The current condition of the child wasn’t immediately available Friday afternoon.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha police chief says the department will discipline two officers who had contact with a man who was later arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting two people and wounding three more at an Omaha apartment.

Chief Todd Schmaderer (SHMAHD’-ur) said Wednesday that the two officers violated a department policy while checking the welfare of 22-year-old Destacia Straughn on Dec. 6. She and her 2-year-old daughter, Kenacia Amerson-Straughn, were shot to death late that night.

Schmaderer says the officers had contact earlier that evening with the man now charged with two counts of murder and nine more felonies: 23-year-old Dontevous (dawn’-TAYE’-vuhs) Loyd. They had removed him from the apartment but didn’t think they had sufficient cause to arrest him.

Schmaderer didn’t name the officers or specify which policy the officers violated.