HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — Southern Nebraska authorities say four people accused of pretending to kidnap children to scare them won’t face charges due to a lack of sufficient evidence.

Hastings Police Chief Pete Kortum says authorities believe the motive to fake-kidnap the kids in March was for the suspects’ amusement.

Police were notified about three separate incidents on March 7. Children told police that a black car with four occupants approached them and that one of the people inside tried to grab them. Each of the children was able to escape and call for help.

Authorities identified four suspects to be involved and interviewed several subjects. But they say there’s not enough evidence that could be used to successfully prosecute the suspects.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska state Sen. Jeremy Nordquist is resigning from the Legislature to take a job with Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Ashford.

Nordquist announced Wednesday night that he will step down on June 30 from the seat he first won in 2008.

He will serve as Ashford’s chief of staff in Washington. The two served together in the Legislature before Ashford left office due to term limits.

Nordquist was the lead sponsor this year of legislation to end Nebraska’s ban on driver’s licenses for youth brought to the country illegally as children but allowed to remain under the federal deferred-action program. He also was a leading figure in the 2014 ballot drive to increase the minimum wage.

Nordquist is in his seventh year in the Legislature, representing District 7 in south Omaha.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a car driver has died after a fiery Omaha crash that also killed his passenger.

The Omaha Police Department says 22-year-old Michael Harnett, of Bellevue, died early Thursday morning. He’d been hospitalized since the crash early Saturday morning.

Police say Harnett lost control of his car and it slid across several lanes of traffic in southeast Omaha, running into a cement truck. The car then caught fire.

Police have identified the passenger as 33-year-old Misty Vetrovsky, also of Bellevue.

Crash investigators say they believe speed and alcohol were crash factors.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Police in Kansas City, Kansas, are investigating the death of a 34-year-old local man after an officer shocked him with a stun gun.

Police said officers were summoned Wednesday after someone reported a man behaving strangely in the parking lot of a Family Dollar store. They say the man turned combative when paramedics tried to treat him and that an officer shocked him with a stun gun to subdue him.

The man later died at a hospital. Police identified him Thursday as Randall C. Torrence.

The police department’s major case unit is investigating. An autopsy and toxicology tests are being conducted to determine what caused Torrence to die.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — Prosecutors are methodically building a case that James Holmes knew right from wrong when he planned and carried out the deadly Colorado theater shootings. After a month of testimony from victims and investigators, prosecutors this week shifted to Holmes’ mental state. They hope to convince jurors he should be convicted and executed, not sent to a mental hospital.

Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the 2012 attack, which killed 12 people and injured 70.

On Thursday, prosecutors plan to question a state-appointed psychiatrist who examined Holmes. District Attorney George Brauchler has already told jurors the doctor concluded Holmes was legally sane.

Earlier this week, prosecutors showed jurors a notebook Holmes kept that included a map estimating how long it would take police to respond to an attack.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A fourth case of bird flu has been confirmed on a northeast Nebraska farm.

The state Agriculture Department said Wednesday the latest case involves 3 million hens on a farm in Knox County.

The new case of contagious bird flu was found 50 miles away from three cases in Dixon County that involved 4 million birds. All four of the infected farms are owned by the same company.

The Knox County farm has been quarantined, and nearby farms with birds will be tested.

Agriculture Director Greg Ibach says poultry farmers should restrict how many people and vehicles enter their farms.

Officials say the bird flu doesn’t represent a significant health risk for humans, but more than 40 million birds have been killed nationwide to limit the spread of the disease.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A former prosecutor who worked under the U.S. attorney for Nebraska has filed a lawsuit, claiming she was discriminated against because she’s a woman.

Jill Finken says in a federal lawsuit filed Friday that supervisors harassed her and she was treated differently than male colleagues. She says she experienced retaliation for complaining about it.

The lawsuit names the U.S. Justice Department, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the U.S. attorney’s office in Nebraska. The newspaper says Deborah Gilg, U.S. attorney for Nebraska, declined to comment.

Finken worked for the federal office in Nebraska for two years beginning in October 2012. She is seeking lost earnings, lost benefits and compensation for anguish and humiliation, among other damages.

PIERCE, Neb. (AP) — Two people in a car that ran a stop sign have died in a collision with a semitrailer in northeast Nebraska.

The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Wednesday that the accident occurred a little before 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, about a mile west of Osmond.

The release says the car driven by 88-year-old Darleen Wallin didn’t halt at the Bloomfield Road intersection with U.S. Highway 20 and collided with the semi.

The Sheriff’s Office says Wallin and her husband, 93-year-old Lloyd Wallin, were killed. They lived in Newman Grove. The truck driver, Jeffrey Petersen, of Oakland, was taken to a hospital.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 48-year-old man is suspected of stealing jewelry from several Lincoln homes while working in them for a cleaning service.

Robert Harris faces a felony theft charge from a March case and soon could face more charges. Harris has been jailed pending $75,000 bond. Online court records don’t list the name of an attorney who could be contacted to comment on Harris’ behalf.

Harris was arrested on April 1 after being accused of pawning six items stolen from a Lincoln woman’s home. He bonded out of jail but was rearrested last week after investigators checked reports from seven other clients of the cleaning service that jewelry had been stolen from December through March.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 32-year-old Lincoln man has been accused of accelerating his car to strike and injure a woman.

Bradley Lilleston is charged with domestic assault and use of a weapon. Online records don’t list an attorney who could be contacted to comment on behalf of Lilleston.

Court documents say Lilleston threw some photos in front of the car on Thursday morning and that he accelerated when the woman tried to retrieve them. The documents say she was thrown over the hood and windshield and suffered a cut on her forehead and swelling on her right shin.

The woman told police that she and Lilleston had been arguing for several days and that he had hit her in an eye the day before.