LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man who’d been ticketed for trespassing while handing out religious leaflets outside Lincoln’s Pinnacle Bank Arena has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city.

Larry Ball says in a lawsuit filed Thursday that arena policies violate his free speech rights. The lawsuit names the mayor, the police chief and the arena operator, SMG.

Ball was arrested and cited last week for trespassing during the girls state basketball tournament. A year ago he was arrested and cited outside the state boys basketball tournament.

City Attorney Jeff Kirkpatrick told the newspaper that the city worked with SMG to craft a policy that would allow for First Amendment demonstrations. But Ball says there shouldn’t be any limits on a public sidewalk.

NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — Norfolk police have arrested a 29-year-old man they say had been peeping through a window of a woman’s home.

The woman called police early Wednesday after seeing the man looking into her living room window while taking her dog outside.

When officers arrived, they say they approached the man from Norfolk, who ran away. Officers caught up to the man and took him into custody.

The 29-year-old was arrested for criminal trespass, disturbing the peace and obstructing a police officer. He was taken to the Norfolk city jail and later transferred to the Madison County jail.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A state senator from Omaha was briefly hospitalized after collapsing at the Nebraska Capitol.

Sen. Sara Howard was taken to a Lincoln hospital after losing consciousness from an apparent seizure in her office around 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Howard was examined and released.

Her mother, former state Sen. Gwen Howard, says a CT scan showed no problems, but her daughter will undergo additional tests on Friday. Gwen Howard says her daughter has never had a seizure before.

The 33-year-old Howard was elected to the Legislature in 2012. She succeeded her mother, who left office due to term limits.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A judge has sentenced a Nebraska businessman to two years of probation for fraudulently landing $25 million in federal contracts intended for companies owned by disabled veterans.

Ram Hingorani, of Omaha, must forfeit $3.3 million seized from business and personal bank accounts but he’ll pay no additional restitution.

Federal prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Stephanie Rose to impose a two-year prison sentence.

Hingorani’s companies won 45 contracts to perform construction work for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Des Moines and Omaha and at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. They were awarded bids for government projects under a program to encourage contracts for veterans injured during service.

Hingorani is not a veteran. He falsely claimed that an associate who was service-disabled was in charge of a company Hingorani controlled.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police are looking for vandals who have torn up turf in city parks across Omaha.

The vandals appear to be using all-terrain vehicles to tear up the turf. Officials have found ruts, tire tracks and churned-up mud at city parks, soccer fields and even a remote-controlled airplane field.

Police say damage has been reported at Hawk Field and Standing Bear Lake in northwest Omaha, Zorinsky Lake soccer fields in southwest Omaha and Walnut Grove Park in Millard.

Police ticketed two juveniles in the northwest Omaha vandalism, but have not made any arrests or issued tickets for the vandalism at Zorinsky Lake or Walnut Grove Park.

WATERBURY, Neb. (AP) — Fire officials say a grass fire in rural Nebraska has destroyed several sheds in the area.

The Allen Fire Department responded to the fire about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday in Waterbury, Nebraska. Chief Rod Stevens says firefighters arrived to find the flames had spread to an abandoned car and trailer home after already damaging several nearby sheds.

No injuries were reported in the blaze. Firefighters extinguished the flames within 45 minutes.

Waterbury is about 22 miles west of Sioux City.

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln police say a 23-year-old woman has been arrested and charged with threatening to blow up a local cable company after getting stood up for an appointment.

Police say Mikka Phillips of Lincoln waited hours for a technician to arrive and install cable service on Tuesday, but didn’t know Time Warner Cable had tried to reschedule.

Authorities say Phillips threatened to blow up the company’s building after speaking with a representative who told her the appointment had been canceled and that they’d have to reschedule it.

The company’s building was evacuated and Lincoln authorities searched for a bomb but didn’t find one. The company said in a statement that it takes every threat seriously.

Phillips has been charged with false reporting.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Phillips has an attorney.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lancaster County commissioner charged with theft in nearby York County says he’s occasionally forgetful but is no thief.

71-year-old Larry Hudkins is accused of stealing a tractor part from York Equipment Inc. last month.

Hudkins said he took the part on Feb. 18 and had even left his business card atop the tractor he took the part from. Hudkins says he had an arrangement with the previous owner of the business that he’s patronized for nearly 50 years. Hudkins says the previous owner let Hudkins take items from the store and pay for them later. But this time, Hudkins says, he forgot to go back and pay for it.

Hudkins says he’s paid York Equipment.

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar says two officers were shot around midnight at a Ferguson, Missouri, protest.

He said a 32-year-old officer from Webster Groves was shot in the face and a 41-year-old officer from St. Louis County was shot in the shoulder.

He says both are conscious.

Belmar says he did not know who shot the officers.

The shots were fired as protesters had gathered following the resignation of Ferguson’s embattled Police Chief Thomas Jackson on Wednesday.

Jackson was the sixth employee to resign or be fired after a Justice Department report cleared a white former Ferguson police officer, Darren Wilson, of civil rights charges in the shooting of black 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson last summer. Wilson has since resigned.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 22-year-old man has been acquitted of first-degree murder in the shooting death of an Omaha teen.

Jurors deliberated about eight hours before finding Dennis Brewer Jr. not guilty Wednesday in the fatal shooting of 18-year old Tielor (TYE’-lur) Williams, who died in April 2014 as Brewer robbed someone else.

Brewer was not accused of being the shooter, but prosecutors charged him under a Nebraska law that holds accomplices accountable if someone dies while a felony is committed. Another man, Adrian Lester, is accused of firing the shots.

Brewer’s attorney says Brewer and Lester were acting separately that night, and Brewer therefore wasn’t an accomplice in Williams’ slaying.

Brown says he understands that the Williams family wants justice, that that he didn’t commit the crime.