OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha school board is expected to vote Monday on a $250,000 settlement with the family of a 12-year-old boy who drowned in a district pool more than a year ago.

The family of Demariont’e Brown-Elliott filed a $1 million claim against the district in January, alleging negligence by district employees and administrators. The boy was found unresponsive in the Nathan Hale Middle School pool on Nov. 13, 2014. He died the next day in a hospital. An autopsy confirmed that he’d drowned.

The family says in its claim that Demariont’e and his classmates were being supervised by one teacher who was providing basic swimming instruction. The district says 10 students were in class that day.

PLEASANT DALE, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say two people have been arrested and more than 91 pounds of marijuana has been seized after a traffic stop in Seward County.

The state trooper pulled over an eastbound sport utility vehicle a little after 11 a.m. Wednesday near the Pleasant Dale exit off Interstate 80. The Nebraska State Patrol says a police dog alerted officers to the odor of drugs coming from the back of the SUV, and a subsequent search turned up the pot inside two suitcases and five boxes.

The driver and his passenger were taken into custody. Online court records don’t show that either person has been charged. The patrol says both are from Fairbanks, Alaska.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 35-year-old Omaha teacher has been accused of having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old former student.

Online court records say Brian Robeson is charged with two counts of sexual assault of a child. Police say he was arrested Tuesday after he, the girl and her family were interviewed.

Online jail records say Robeson remained in Douglas County Jail on Thursday. Court records don’t list the name of an attorney who could be contacted to comment on Robeson’s behalf.

Robeson was a seventh-grade math teacher at Davis Middle School. The Omaha district says he’s no longer an employee.

RALSTON, Neb. (AP) — Two credit card data theft devices have been found on gas pumps at a store in Ralston.

The devices, known as skimmers, were discovered Wednesday on two pumps farthest from the Super Store building. They were turned over to the U.S. Secret Service.

Ralston Police Chief Ron Murtaugh says his officers are trying to find out how long the devices were in place and whose credit or debit card information was stolen.

No arrests have been reported.

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — A 25-year-old man was arrested after a sheriff’s deputy spotted what looked like drug paraphernalia when the man tried to go through a courtroom security checkpoint at the Gage County Courthouse in Beatrice.

Authorities say the man was headed into the courtroom for his hearing on two other cases. The man’s black glasses case set off a metal detector at the checkpoint. An arrest report says the case was partially open and the deputy could see small plastic bags inside.

The man gave the case to the deputy, and a spoon inside the case later tested positive for methamphetamine.

The man was taken into custody. Online court records don’t yet show that he’s been charged.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An Iowa bank robbery suspect has been arrested in Nebraska.

Authorities say officers took 46-year-old Dwight Rogers into custody Wednesday in Lincoln. An Iowa warrant for his arrest lists the charge as first-degree robbery. Iowa online court records don’t list the name of an attorney who could be contacted to comment on Rogers’ behalf.

Rogers is suspected of robbing the Frontier Bank on 23rd Avenue in Council Bluffs on Dec. 10. Council Bluffs police say he used a small handgun to back up his demand for cash from a teller, who gave him an undisclosed amount of money. No shots were fired.

DENVER (AP) — Snoop Dogg has his own line of marijuana. So does Willie Nelson. Melissa Etheridge has a marijuana-infused wine.

As the fast-growing marijuana industry emerges from the black market and starts looking like a mainstream industry, there’s a scramble to brand and trademark pot products.

Makeshift branding efforts, from celebrity names on boxes of weed to the many weed-themed T-shirts and stickers common in towns with a legal marijuana market, show the industry taking halting steps toward the mainstream.

But patents and trademarks are largely regulated by the federal government, which considers marijuana an illegal drug, ineligible for any sort of legal protection. The result is a Wild West environment of marijuana entrepreneurs trying to stake claims and establish cross-state markets using a patchwork of state laws.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say an 82-year-old man injured in a Lincoln fire has died.

Lincoln police say Georgiy Kuznetsov (GYOR’-gee kooz-neht-SAHF’) died Monday afternoon at a Lincoln hospital.

City fire inspector Damon Robbins says a caregiver found Kuznetsov inside the house around 11:30 p.m. Saturday. Kuznetsov was outside the house and covered in a blanket when firefighters arrived.

Robbins says that inside the home, a 2-foot flame was shooting from a broken gas line, and the stove had apparently been moved. There was no apparent damage to the building.

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A former Lincoln teacher convicted of sexually assaulting a student is appealing his sentence.

Online court records say an attorney for 23-year-old Jackson Hedrick on Tuesday filed a notice of appeal with the Nebraska Appeals Court. A hearing date has not been set. Hedrick is claiming that the sentence is excessive.

On Dec. 10 Hedrick was sentenced to 20 to 30 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to sexual assault. Hedrick lost his job in March following allegations of an inappropriate relationship with the 14-year-old student.

Hedrick graduated last year from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a bachelor’s degree in education and was hired to teach social studies at Irving Middle School in August 2014.

PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — Bail has been set for four people accused of vandalism at a U.S. defense contractor’s building in Bellevue, not far from Offutt Air Force Base. They were arrested Sunday at the Northrop Grumman building. Bail was set Tuesday. All are charged with burglary and criminal mischief.

One of them, Jessica Reznicek, of Des Moines, Iowa, said they are peace workers. She says they wanted “to bring public awareness to the fact that we really don’t know what our billions of taxpayers’ dollars are really going toward when we’re handing them over to Northrop Grumman.”

Northrop Grumman has a contract for military weather products and works with Air Force personnel at Offutt. In October, the company was selected to develop the Air Force’s next long-range bomber.