OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha has announced its dean of public health is in Sierra Leone to help the World Health Organization respond to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Ali S. Khan left Tuesday for the assignment, flying first to Geneva to meet with officials at the WHO headquarters. He then flew on Sierra Leone.

Earlier this month, UNMC joined the WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network. Khan was then directed through a medical assessment and security training. He will assist with exploring the dynamics of the disease in the country and reviewing prevention strategies in support of the WHO country office for the next four to six weeks.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Two storm systems merging over the Midwest this weekend are expected to produce significant snowfall across Iowa and lighter accumulation in Nebraska.

The National Weather Service says precipitation beginning late Saturday morning in some areas and late afternoon in others will transition into snowfall overnight. Accumulation of up to nine inches is possible in southeastern Iowa, and anywhere between one to four inches is expected across northern portions of the state.

Meteorologist Melinda Beerends says a storm entering the region from the southwest and another dropping out of Canada will meet. She says snowfall will get heavier as the storm moves through the state, with central and southeastern Iowa anticipating higher totals.

Beerends says light snow is expected in Nebraska, with predicted snow totals highest in the northeast.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Health officials say a case of measles in Lancaster County has turned out to be a false alarm.

The 5-year-old child believed to have measles has been cleared following a third test that didn’t confirm previous results.

According to a report on the case, the boy’s symptoms and two initial tests led officials to believe he had developed measles. Because the boy had received the first vaccination dose at the age of 2 and couldn’t be linked to other known measles cases, a third test was conducted. This test failed to confirm prior results.

Officials say other illnesses and reactions to medications have similar rash and fever symptoms.

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services has reported two cases in the Omaha-Blair area.

FREMONT, Neb. (AP) — A 21-year-old Omaha man has been arrested in connection with the death of a Fremont teenager who was found outdoors in bone-chilling cold last fall.

Fremont police said in a news release Friday that Douglas County deputies took Dakota McDonald into custody. He’s charged with procuring alcohol for a minor that resulted in a death. Online court records don’t list the name of McDonald’s attorney in the case.

The 16-year-old boy, Jaime Valdez, was spotted a little before 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 16 by a city worker. National Weather Service records say Fremont’s temperature then was 2 degrees, with a wind child of minus 16.

The boy died later that day. Lt. Kurt Bottorff (BAHT’-orf) said Friday that the cause of death was hypothermia associated with acute ethanol intoxication.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A Florida woman accused of drowning a puppy at a Nebraska airport has been arrested on a Florida theft warrant.

Cynthia Anderson was rearrested Thursday after she’d posted bond to leave the Hall County Jail. She’s been held there on a felony Nebraska charge of animal neglect. Attempts to reach her attorney on Friday were unsuccessful.

The 56-year-old Anderson, who is from Edgewater, Florida, on Jan. 23 was barred from boarding a flight at the Central Nebraska Regional Airport in Grand Island because the puppy was so young and not properly contained.

Authorities say Anderson then was seen entering a bathroom. Another woman soon reported finding a dead Doberman puppy in a toilet.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Gallup has long been known for phone polling, but the company is migrating away from that technology and toward online data collection.

Spokesman Johnathan Tozer said the change is “part of Gallup’s long-term migration plan toward online data collection, in addition to our sophisticated analytics and consulting.”

The company says attrition and transfers or promotions will help Gallup cut back its call center staff in Lincoln and Omaha.

Experts say phone polling has become less reliable as more people drop land lines. A 2012 Pew Research Center study showed that the percentage of households in which polling companies were able to reach an adult by phone fell to 62 percent in 2012 from 90 percent in 1997.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha man has been convicted of first-degree murder in connection to a shooting death at a party following a Miley Cyrus concert last year.

24-year-old LaRon M. Jones was found guilty Thursday in the March shooting of 21-year-old Brandon Samuels. He was also convicted on two weapons charges.

Police say a fight broke out at the house party, and when the fight escalated, Jones and others got into cars to leave. They say Jones returned to the end of the home’s driveway and began firing shots into the air and then at the house.

Jones faces a life term in prison. A sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha man has pleaded no contest to second-degree murder charges for strangling his girlfriend and leaving her in an empty grave.

20-year-old Mikael Loyd entered his plea deal Thursday. He was charged for choking 19-year-old Melissa Rodriguez in August 2013 and later dumping her body into a grave.

Police say the murder occurred just after Loyd had left a mental health institution. They say Loyd had an outstanding arrest warrant for making comments about wanting to kill his mother, but they didn’t take him into custody before the murder.

A message left for Loyd’s attorney was not immediately answered.

Loyd faces 20 years to life in prison. A sentencing hearing has been set for April.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Officials have canceled classes for the rest of the day after two fires were set at Lincoln High School in the capital city.

Concerns over smoke in the building led to the cancellation on Thursday morning. No injuries have been reported.

Students and school workers were evacuated twice. The first time was after someone started a fire in a trash can. The second time was after someone set fire to wrestling mats stored in a hallway near one of the gymnasiums.

District operations director Scott Wieskamp says officials hope to let people back into the building later Thursday to collect personal items.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The 21-year-old man accused in the shooting death of a 5-year-old Omaha girl has taken a plea deal.

Vincent Hicks pleaded no contest Thursday to second-degree murder and use of a weapon to commit a felony. He had previously been charged with first-degree murder and other weapons counts in connection to the January 2014 killing of Payton Benson.

A sentencing hearing for Hicks has been scheduled for April 3.