NELIGH, Neb. (AP) — The Antelope County clerk says the counting of the Neligh (NEE’-lee) recall petition signatures should be finished by the end of the week.

The petitions were turned in last week against all four Neligh council members but none against Mayor Joe Hartz.

County clerk Lisa Payne, who also serves as election commissioner, says her office has until Aug. 28 to count and verify the signatures. She says, though, that the work likely will be completed by the end of this week.

The recall petition affidavits cite the council members’ support for annexing some property without regard for future costs. The council voted in July to annex areas on the east and west ends of U.S. Highway 275 as it passes through town.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a 27-year-old man has died more than three weeks after being shot in the backyard of a home in northeast Omaha.

Police say Ran’dell Busch died Wednesday. He was shot on July 26 and taken to Creighton University Medical Center.

No arrests have been reported in what police say has become a homicide investigation.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say they have arrested a suspect after a 76-year-old woman was robbed and punched in the face inside a church in Omaha, Nebraska.

The Omaha Police Department said Wednesday that 22-year-old Wayman Clark was arrested after a felony warrant for robbery was issued. The department said investigators are still working to identify another male believed to have helped in the Sunday robbery that was caught on surveillance video at St. Cecilia Cathedral.

The video shows the woman reading a parish newsletter inside the church’s entrance when one of the suspects approaches her from behind and grabs her purse before running out of the door. The other male strikes the woman in the head, knocking her down, before also fleeing the scene.

The Rev. James Netusil said he was in the sacristy preparing for morning Mass when the assault occurred.

The woman, who wasn’t identified, was helped by a parishioner before being taken to an Omaha hospital, where she was treated and released.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 68-year-old man has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison after placing an advertisement for a sex slave online.

Paul Michael Tegeler was sentenced Wednesday on charges of coercion and enticing a juvenile. He was ordered to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison and to be on supervised release for 10 years.

Nebraska State Patrol was alerted in April 2014 that Tegeler had placed an online advertisement looking for a sex slave. According to prosecutors, authorities posed as a 13-year-old girl and communicated with Tegeler, and he invited the girl to meet him for sex.

Authorities also say Tegeler asked for nude pictures of the girl and sent a one-way bus ticket for her to travel from her home to Lexington.

DENVER (AP) — A state that has legalized recreational marijuana is renewing efforts to get teenagers to stay away from the drug.

Colorado is launching a $2 million campaign Thursday called “What’s Next,” with the message that marijuana can keep youths from achieving their full potential.

The campaign shows kids being active and reminds them that their brains aren’t fully developed until they’re 25. The ads say that pot use can make it harder for them to pass a test, land a job, or pass the exam for a driver’s license.

The campaign comes a year after a much-maligned “Don’t Be A Lab Rat” campaign angered marijuana activists, who said it recycled Drug War-era scare tactics. At least one school district declined to display the campaign’s human-sized rat cages.

The youth education campaigns are paid for with marijuana tax proceeds.

BLAIR, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a teenage boy watched as his friend raped a teenage girl on the floor of an apartment building laundry room in eastern Nebraska.

Blair police have arrested both 14-year-olds, and they were charged as adults Wednesday. The Associated Press generally doesn’t name juveniles accused of crimes. A criminal complaint for the case is unclear about the girl’s age, which is either 14 or 15.

The girl told investigators that she was assaulted early Saturday morning after she babysat a neighbor’s children. She told officers the boys approached and talked to her as she waited to get into her own apartment. She says they asked whether she wanted to have sex. She says she said no, but then the boys forced her into the building’s laundry room.

HARTINGTON, Neb. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the death of a man found unresponsive in a jail cell in northeast Nebraska.

The Cedar County Sheriff’s Office says 52-year-old Frank Potts Jr. was found unconscious early Tuesday at the Cedar County Jail in Hartington. Officials say emergency responders attempted to revive him but he was pronounced dead.

Potts was at the jail after he was arrested Monday night on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, resisting arrest and refusing a chemical test.

Additional information about the death was not released. The Nebraska State Patrol is investigating.

 

BLUE SPRINGS, Neb. (AP) — Gage County is celebrating the recent addition of a 160-year-old local landmark to the National Register of Historic Places.

A ceremony was held Saturday as part of the annual Blue Springs Celebration to commemorate the national recognition of the city’s Johnson Cabin Museum. The event featured guest speaker Ruben Acosta, the Nebraska State Historical Society Register Coordinator, who said his office had to use a different approach to get the cabin added to the registry.

The structure didn’t fit the criteria for a historical cabin because it was moved from its original location, so it was added under the criteria for a mid-century museum.

The cabin was built near Blue Springs in 1855 and moved to Blue Springs Park in 1949.