LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Three people were sent to a hospital after a fire that damaged a house in Lincoln.

Authorities say the blaze was reported around 4 a.m. Sunday.

Battalion Fire Chief Leo Benes says a carelessly discarded cigarette started the fire. Damage was estimated at $40,000.

Benes says at least one of the three people sent to be checked at a hospital had received minor injuries.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — It’s that time of the century again, when cicadas (sih-KAYE’-duhs) emerge and raise their racket.

This year the Kansas brood, which experts say is one of 12 cicada broods across the country, will come to adult life in part of eastern Nebraska, including Cass, Cuming, Douglas, Johnson, Otoe, Pawnee, Sarpy and Saunders counties.

Some species emerge every year, but others follow life cycles of three, seven, 13 and 17 years — all prime numbers.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln bug expert Leon Higley said the theory is that cicadas have life cycles corresponding to prime numbers so predator species have difficulty synchronizing their life cycles with the cicada life cycles.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska judge threw out a drunken driving case earlier this month because the arresting officer didn’t have enough evidence to begin with.

The decision allows Randall Mansfield to avoid a possible fourth driving while intoxicated conviction for the December 2013 incident.

Defense attorney Mark Rappl says the officer rushed to judgment about his client. Mansfield doesn’t deny that he was drinking that night, but he says he wasn’t driving.

Mansfield was running from his truck to a car that was giving him a ride when the officer encountered him. The officer thought Mansfield was running from him when he started talking to him.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The University of Nebraska State Museum-Morrill Hall and the International Quilt Study Center and Museum are two of more than 2,000 museums across the nation that will offer free admission to military personnel and their families this summer.

The free admittance for the military will run from Memorial Day through Labor Day as part of the Blue Star Museum program. The complete list of participating museums is available at https://1.usa.gov/1gPy0eb .

Some special or limited-time museum exhibits may not be included in the program.

NEOLA, Iowa (AP) — The crash of a cattle truck a western Iowa interstate sent the driver to a hospital and several cattle onto the roadway.

The crash happened Friday afternoon when 45-year-old Trevor Lierman, of Stanton, Nebraska, overturned at he exited Interstate 80 onto I-680 near Neola.

Lierman was trapped in the cab for about 30 minutes before rescue workers freed him. He was then flown to an Omaha, Nebraska hospital, where he was treated for injuries not believed to be life-threatening.

Several cattle escaped from the overturned trailer, and area farmers and ranchers were called to the scene to help corral them. Several animals died in the crash, and seven had to be euthanized because of the injuries they suffered.

BELLE PLAINE, Iowa (AP) — Officials say no one was injured when 23 cars of a Union Pacific train traveling through the eastern Iowa town of Belle Plaine derailed.

The derailment happened around 11:20 p.m. Friday.

A Union Pacific spokesman said the cars were part of a 125-car train being pulled by three locomotives traveling from Nebraska to Illinois.

The spokesman says eight of the derailed car were loaded with soda ash, used in household cleaners, windshields and cellphones

Three cars were filled with lumber, another three contained animal feed and four contained flour, diced tomatoes, frozen fish and sodium bicarbonate. The five remaining derailed cars were empty.

Crews planned clean up and replace damaged track on Saturday. The cause of the derailment is being investigated.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Transportation has again selected American Airlines to provide 13 weekly nonstop, round-trip flights from the Central Nebraska Regional Airport in Grand Island to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

The recent decision was part of a bid to provide air service to Grand Island under the federal Essential Air Service program.

American Airlines, doing business in Grand Island as American Eagle, has been serving the Grand Island airport since 2011. The Department of Transportation’s decision extends the flight contract two years. The new contract will run from July 1 through June 30, 2017.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 53-year-old Lincoln bicyclist has died, 10 days after he was hit by a car as he tried to cross a city street.

Larry Lienemann died Thursday at a Lincoln hospital. He had been hit while riding his bike on May 11.

Police say Lienemann was riding south on the 84th Street sidewalk when he tried to cross the street at the intersection of Pinedale Avenue.

Police say a 26-year-old woman, who was driving north on 84th Street, tried to avoid hitting Lienemann, but thought she would collide with oncoming traffic. She turned back into her original lane, hitting Lienemann.

Officer Katie Flood said no citations have been issued, but the accident is still under investigation.

 

PONCA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Department of Agriculture has announced a third case of avian flu in northeast Nebraska’s Dixon County.

The department said in a news release Friday that testing by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed the presence of the highly contagious bird flu on a farm with 500,000 young hens.

The state department says the farm is less than a mile away from one where the state’s first case of bird flu was discovered and is owned by the same company.

The department says the flock will be destroyed, bringing the total number of chickens in the state lost due to the flu to 4 million.

Nationwide, the virus that has led to 40 million dead birds — mostly turkeys and egg-laying chickens.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The man accused of killing an Omaha police officer this week had been linked to two other violent crimes in recent years, but officials say they lacked evidence to prosecute him.

Marcus Wheeler was killed by police on Wednesday after police say he shot 29-year-old Officer Kerrie Orozco.

In 2012, Wheeler was accused of shooting at a car. One of the occupants, Erica Jenkins, identified Wheeler as the shooter. But charges against Wheeler were dropped after Jenkins was implicated in three 2013 murders. Prosecutors say that discredited Jenkins as a witness against Wheeler.

In 2007, Wheeler told police he had disposed of a gun in a 2007 double homicide. But because authorities couldn’t determine the shooter, prosecutors couldn’t charge Wheeler as an accessory.