LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska researcher says a high-tech, highly maneuverable tool developed to measure soil moisture in farm fields also can be deployed on battlefields.

Trenton Franz is an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who also is affiliated with the University of Nebraska’s Water for Food Institute. Franz first developed the cosmic ray neutron rover to help farmers manage their water resources.

The device measures neutrons that escape from soil after cosmic rays reach the Earth’s surface. Some of the rays’ neutrons are absorbed, but the amount that escape depends largely on the soil’s hydrogen content, which is largely determined by the water moisture present.

Franz says his device could help the military make soil maps on the fly to better predict where heavy equipment could travel.

PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say they’re investigating an anonymous bomb threat against a Papillion high school that was posted online.

The Papillion-La Vista School District says it discovered the threat against Papillion-La Vista South High School on Twitter Sunday afternoon. Papillion police searched the school Sunday night and Monday morning and found nothing. There were extra officers at the school Monday.

District officials alerted parents and students about the threat Monday. Some students left the school early in response.

District spokeswoman Annette Eyman says the Twitter account posted three threatening tweets against the school. The account is no longer accessible online.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The body of a 28-year-old Lincoln woman missing since Thanksgiving Day has been found and a suspect has been arrested.

Kelsey Miller’s body was found Sunday in a self-storage unit in northeast Lincoln. Lincoln Police Chief Jim Peschong says her husband, Kevin Miller, had used the storage unit in the past but it was rented in the name of a friend. Peschong says the friend found the body and called police.

Kelsey Miller was last seen Nov. 27 at a shelter for domestic violence victims. On Thursday police arrested the 33-year-old suspect on an assault charge. Peschong says the man now will face a murder charge. He is scheduled to be in court Monday. Court records don’t yet list the case.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The family of a 16-year-old girl who died after fainting on an Omaha school bus says she had a heart problem.

Her cousin, Nancy Gutierrez, said school officials have shared preliminary autopsy results with the family. Omaha South officials say doctors found fluid in Graciela Cabrera’s heart and sent it to a specialist for further investigation.

Gutierrez says the evaluation’s results will be returned within 30 days.

Cabrera fainted on the bus Tuesday and first responders found her unconscious and not breathing. She was taken to an area hospital where she was pronounced dead.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Creighton University’s next president is a Nebraska native who is currently working at Marquette University.

Creighton’s board chose the Rev. Daniel Hendrickson Sunday to become the university’s 25th president.

Hendrickson will start the job on July 1. He is currently associate provost of academic initiatives at Marquette, and he grew up in Elkhorn, Nebraska.

Current Creighton President Rev. Timothy Lannon is retiring in January. Chris Bradberry, who is dean of the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions, will become interim president on Dec. 21.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The nation’s highest military court will hear oral arguments this week in the case of a Kansas airman of aggravated assault for exposing multiple sex partners to HIV at swinger parties in Wichita.

The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces would hear oral arguments on Tuesday the case against David Gutierrez.

Gutierrez was a sergeant at McConnell Air Force Base when he was sentenced in 2011 to eight years and stripped of his rank for aggravated assault. He was also found guilty of violating his commander’s order to notify partners about his HIV status and use condoms. The military judge also convicted Gutierrez of indecent acts and adultery.

At issue is whether the likelihood of transmission was so great as to constitute aggravated assault.

WAYNE, Neb. (AP) — Wayne State College has indefinitely suspended a fraternity after two people suffered alcohol poisoning and police began investigating whether drinks at house parties were spiked with drugs.

Wayne State officials said in a press release that Tau Kappa Epsilon can no longer recruit or use college facilities or resources. Officials cited ‘illegal and dangerous activities related to the use of alcohol’ at the fraternity.

Jeff Carstens, dean of students at Wayne State, says administrators received numerous reports of underage drinking at the off-campus house.

Wayne State President Curt Frye says administrators didn’t arrive at the decision lightly.

School officials say they’re open to reinstating the fraternity if its members develop a plan to address the drinking culture and problems at the house.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lancaster County officials are turning to U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry for help to stop the IRS from withholding federal funds meant for the eastern Nebraska county.

The IRS has withheld thousands of dollars from Lancaster County since January 2013 because of debts owed by the Lancaster Rehabilitation Center to the federal veterans affairs department.

The county sold the center to Illinois-based Altitude Health Services in 2010. The VA agency still considers the county to be the center’s owner.

The federal VA department still associates the county’s tax ID number with the center. It has sought repayment by having the IRS withhold the money.

Altitude Health has been paying the county money to help replace the lost federal funds.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a woman has been seriously injured in an early-morning house fire in Omaha.

Douglas County emergency dispatchers say the woman suffered smoke inhalation and was taken to a local hospital after firefighters were called to the fire in north Omaha around 1:30 a.m. Friday.

Investigators have not declared what caused the fire, but said the blaze may have begun in the home’s kitchen.

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man serving life in prison for a 2005 shooting death in Lincoln has lost his appeal to the Nebraska Supreme Court.

In a ruling Friday, the court rejected arguments by 34-year-old Antonio Banks. Banks had challenged his sentence with a motion for postconviction relief, which is filed once all other appeals are exhausted.

Banks was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Robert Herndon. He also was sentenced to 20 to 30 years for a firearms conviction.

Banks argued in his motion that his attorney didn’t effectively defend him.