VALLEY, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say the death toll has risen to four in an eastern Nebraska collision.

The accident involved three vehicles and happened around 8:30 p.m. Sunday, about three miles northeast of Valley, at the intersection of Nebraska Highway 36 and 252nd Street.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said Monday that a northbound pickup ran a stop sign and hit an eastbound sport utility vehicle, knocking the SUV into the path of a westbound vehicle.

Three of the people in those vehicles were pronounced dead at the scene, and a fourth died later at an Omaha hospital.

The four were identified as 40-year-old Amber Wood, of Kennard, 49-year-old Jason Miller, of Valley; and 57-year-old John Prusa and 55-year-old Dorine Prusa, both of Howells.

The two teenagers in the pickup survived the collision.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha Fire Department says the firefighter injured while battling a house blaze was a fire captain.

The firefighter had issued a distress call Saturday night and was taken to an Omaha hospital for treatment.

Battalion Chief Tim McCaw said Monday that Capt. Gary Franks already has been released from the hospital. He says Franks is a 21-year veteran of the department.

The cause of the fire is still being investigated.

 

SEWARD, Neb. (AP) — State troopers arrested six people and seized nearly 227 pounds of marijuana after a weekend traffic stop along Interstate 80 in southeast Nebraska.

The Nebraska State Patrol says a trooper stopped a minivan for traffic violations just before 12:30 p.m. Saturday near the Seward exit. The patrol says the trooper smelled marijuana, and a subsequent search uncovered the marijuana in nine duffel bags in the back of the minivan. The driver and her passenger were arrested.

A sport utility vehicle that appeared to be traveling with the minivan was stopped near another I-80 exit. The patrol says papers in the SUV linked the two vehicles, so the four people in the SUV were arrested as well.

All six were taken to Seward County Jail on suspicion of possession for sale.

PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — A woman in eastern Nebraska has celebrated her 105th birthday with cake.

Mildred Moss, a resident at Immanuel Trinity Village Assisted Living in Papillion, turned 105 on Thursday.

Moss was born in Massachusetts in 1910, when Howard Taft was president and the average wage was 22 cents an hour.

Moss graduated with degrees from Boston University and the former Bouvé-Boston School of Physical Education. She went on to become a physical education teacher.

Moss, who is slowly losing her sight, says exercise and eating vegetables have helped her experience a good life.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a firefighter has been injured after responding to a house fire in Omaha.

Chief Bernie Kanger with the Omaha Fire Department says the firefighter was taken to Nebraska Medicine with injuries following the fire Saturday night. The firefighter issued a distress call and was retrieved by a team.

Additional information about the firefighter or the injuries has not been released.

Several fire crews responded to the fire.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The brother of a man found dead in Omaha is facing a murder charge.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office says 23-year-old Stephen Russell turned himself in to authorities Saturday afternoon, shortly after deputies found the body of 27-year-old Jonathan Russell inside a home. Additional information about the death has not been released.

Online records show Stephen Russell is being detained at a Douglas County Corrections facility on charges of first-degree murder and use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony. Online records did not indicate whether he had an attorney.

Deputies had been responding to a report of a cutting when they found Jonathan Russell.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Supporters of a proposed $102 million learning center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center say it will offer cutting-edge technology.

The University of Nebraska Board of Regents is scheduled Friday to vote on the center, which would be called the Global Center for Advanced Interprofessional Learning.

Plans for the center have been limited. But it’s supposed to offer the kind of technology that would allow a student to step inside a virtual heart or practice patient care on mannequins that replicate breathing, bleeding and giving birth.

School officials have requested some funds from the Nebraska Legislature, which is pending. Another portion is expected to be covered through private donations.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality has issued a notice of violation to University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen, one of the largest swine producers in the state.

The violation notice was dated March 20. It says the violations included discharging wastewater from a truck wash east of Humphrey into an earthen storage pit for livestock waste. The notice says the pit isn’t designed or permitted for wastewater treatment.

The department says it found the violations during a March 2 inspection. Pillen has been cited for both unauthorized discharge of processed wastewater and unauthorized use of a livestock waste control facility.

Pillen did not immediately return phone messages left Saturday by The Associated Press at his office and Columbus home.

WAHOO, Neb. (AP) — A Saunders County jury has convicted an Ashland man of two counts of second-degree sexual assault on a child.

Gilbert Edmonds was convicted Friday, following a three-day trial.

Edmonds faces up to 50 years on each count when he’s sentenced this summer.

Edmonds was arrested following a 2012 investigation after the Ashland Police Department received a report of a sexual assault on two minors.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A registered sex offender has been sentenced to 180 days in jail for going into an Omaha consignment store, taking off his clothes and walking around naked.

36-year-old Shawn Noble was charged with indecent exposure for walking out of the dressing room of the boutique on March 28 after completely undressing.

Police say he exposed himself to the manager of the store and her 13-year-old daughter.

Noble pleaded guilty and was sentenced Monday. He has been on the state’s sex offender registry since 1997, when he was convicted of lewd or obscene conduct. He also was convicted of third-degree sexual abuse of a minor in 2003.