DAKOTA CITY, Neb. (AP) — Gov. Dave Heineman has signed a state disaster declaration for northeastern Nebraska’s Dakota City following recent severe weather.

Heineman made the announcement Tuesday about severe weather that hit the area on Aug. 31. The storm produced large hail, damaging winds, heavy rains and flooding.

The declaration allows money from an emergency fund to be used to help the community, which experienced significant damage to its public infrastructure. It included tree damage, closed roads and widespread power outages.

The Nebraska Emergency Management Agency conducted a preliminary damage assessment of the area. An official says the agency will work with the city to determine accurate costs for damages.

VALLEY, Neb. (AP) — Authorities in eastern Nebraska say a man has died after being pinned by a forklift.

Valley police say George Young was using the forklift Monday night while working at Midwest Manufacturing. At some point, the machinery backed into a shelving unit and pinned him.

Co-workers freed Young and began performing CPR on him. He was sent by helicopter to a hospital and pronounced dead.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is conducting an investigation.

DENVER (AP) — Colorado’s new marijuana industry is in for a brand new element Wednesday — competition.

The state gave medical marijuana dispensaries and growers a nine-month exclusive on the new recreational pot business, fearing an unmanageable explosion of new businesses.

The grandfathering period expires Wednesday, meaning pot shops and growers who weren’t in business before votes approved recreational pot in 2012 are now able to enter the market.

Colorado is issuing licenses for 46 more pot shops, in addition to about 200 already in place. Colorado is also licensing 37 more growing facilities and 13 new product manufacturers who make marijuana-infused products.

The expansion means pot prices for consumers could soon drop. But some warn Colorado needs to watch for overproduction, which could give growers an incentive to sell pot illegally.

HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — A 1946 Hastings College graduate has left her entire $1.7 million estate to the college.

Sarah Leer’s gift is among the largest the university has received. She died in April in Viroqua, Wisconsin.

Leer majored in business administration at Hastings College, participated in the campus Spanish club and also met her husband, Stanley, while at school. She spent her career as an administrative assistant with the Social Security Administration in Madison, Wisconsin.

In addition to the gift, Leer established a scholarship in memory of her family and parents. She’s also helped support the restoration of the oldest building at Hastings College.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Ray Lambrecht, the former northeastern Nebraska Chevy dealer who collected a lifetime of cars that sold for $2.8 million last year, has died. He was 96.

Pierce County Sheriff Rick Eberhardt confirmed Lambrecht died at his home Sept. 22.

During one weekend last year, Lambrecht’s sale of his car collection drew 30,000 people to Pierce. The History Channel gave the auction three hours of prime time, and the highway through Pierce was backed up for miles because of the sale.

At the sale, the auctioneer sold one 1958 pickup for $140,000 and a 1978 Corvette for $80,000.

The sheriff visited with Lambrecht’s wife last week. He said she was missing her husband and that they’d been married nearly 70 years.

FREMONT, Neb. (AP) — A Fremont man has been sentenced to up to three years in prison for sexually assaulting a child.

20-year-old Blake Maslonka received the sentence of one to three years on Monday. He was found guilty in August of third-degree felony sexual assault of a child.

Prosecutors say Maslonka contacted the 14-year-old victim on Facebook and met her at her home in Fremont.

Maslonka’s attorney says his client his genuinely remorseful and lacked a positive male role model. The judge denied a request for probation.

Maslonka will receive credit for 159 days served and will have to register as a sex offender upon his release.

FREMONT, Neb. (AP) — A Fremont man who filed a petition last week to recall the eastern Nebraska city’s mayor has filed a new petition to recall his city councilman.

LaVern Kucera, who ran for mayor last year but lost to Scott Getzschman, filed a recall affidavit Sept. 24 against Getzschman. Kucera accuses Getzschman of trying to stop implementation of a city ordinance that bars property owners from renting homes to immigrants living in the country illegally.

On Monday, Kucera filed a recall affidavit against Ward 2 Councilman Larry Johnson, citing similar reasons regarding the city’s immigration ordinance.

Kucera also says a group of people in town plans to file recall affidavits against the city’s other three council members.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police say a 20-year-old Lincoln woman awoke to find a stranger in her bed and the man took her cellphone before leaving.

Lincoln Police Department spokeswoman Katie Flood says the man was clothed and the woman was not injured or assaulted during the Sunday morning encounter. Police believe he entered the home near Memorial Stadium through an unlocked door.

Flood says the woman asked the intruder why he was there and that he replied, “I don’t know.” He then left.

The woman says she and her roommates had a party before the Nebraska-Illinois football game and returned after the game with people they knew.

Police are searching for the man.

DENVER (AP) — The Colorado Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a marijuana-related firing case that could have big implications for the state’s pot smokers.

The case involves 35-year-old Brandon Coats, a quadriplegic medical marijuana patient who was fired from his job at the Dish Network after failing a drug test in 2010. Coats says he needs the drug to help with violent spasms he has suffered since he was paralyzed in a car accident.

Dish says that because pot is still illegal federally, medical marijuana is not a lawful activity covered by a state law intended to protect cigarette smokers from being fired for legal behavior off the clock.

The case is being watched closely around the country. Twenty-three states allow medical marijuana, but courts have ruled against patients who have been fired for using it.