NEBRASKA CITY, Neb. (AP) — The foundation that will take over operation of Arbor Lodge state park and mansion plans to make the home of Arbor Day founder J. Sterling Morton more accessible to people with disabilities.

The Arbor Day Foundation on Nov. 1 will assume responsibility for the 72-acre Arbor Lodge State Historical Park in Nebraska City. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission last month approved a five-year agreement with the foundation. The commission still will own the park and the 52-room home built by Morton in 1855.

Tammy Partsch (parch) is president of Friends of Arbor Lodge, and she told the newspaper that the foundation plans to spend $1.5 million on the accessibility issues, restore terraced gardens, build an events shelter and make other upgrades.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska police have arrested a man who they say bit a customer when stealing potpourri and cigarillos from a tobacco store.

The 34-year-old man was arrested Thursday afternoon. Lincoln police say he punched a 55-year-old man in the head and bit him on the face. They say the clerk refused to sell to the suspect because he didn’t have an ID. The customer tried to stop him from stealing merchandise.

The customer did not require medical treatment. Police say the suspect left behind paperwork with his name on it.

The man was booked into the Lancaster County Jail. It’s unclear if he’s been charged.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An American aid worker infected with Ebola has been given blood from a fellow doctor who battled the disease, and Nebraska doctors say the man has responded well to aggressive treatment in the past week.

Doctors say Dr. Rick Sacra received two blood transfusions from Dr. Kent Brantly last weekend after arriving at the Nebraska Medical Center. Sacra has also been given an experimental drug that doctors refuse to identify. And he has received supportive care including IV fluids.

Brantly is one of the first two Americans treated for Ebola in Atlanta last month. He and Sacra are close friends from their missionary work.

The 51-year-old Sacra had been working at a hospital in Liberia.

VALLEY, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man has died in a collision involving a truck and a pickup in western Douglas County.

The Nebraska State Patrol says the Thursday morning crash occurred around 6 a.m. A pickup was westbound on Highway 36 when it was hit by a truck headed north on a street intersection.

The driver of the pickup, 36-year-old Ryan T. Boelman, of Bennington, was killed. The driver of the truck, 21-year-old Gregory K. Swatzell, 21, of Fremont, was not injured.

Authorities say preliminary reports indicate Swatzell failed to stop at a stop sign.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Attorneys for a former doctor accused of killing four people with ties to an Omaha medical school are searching for journals of one of the victims they believe can help exonerate their client.

That search was revealed Thursday in a hearing where defense attorneys for Anthony Garcia demanded investigators’ handwritten notes, as well as a file reportedly kept by Dr. Roger Brumback, who was killed along with his wife in May 2013.

The attorneys agreed to take a day to go over all evidence police have.

Garcia is charged with first-degree murder in the 2008 deaths of the 11-year-old son of Creighton University pathologist William Hunter and the family’s housekeeper, as well as the Brumbacks.

Authorities say Garcia’s motive was revenge for being fired from Creighton’s pathology department in 2001.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri women seeking abortions will face one of the nation’s most stringent waiting periods, after state lawmakers overrode the governor’s veto to enact a 72-hour delay that has no exception for rape or incest.

The new requirement will take effect 30 days after Wednesday’s vote by the Republican-led Legislature.

About half the states, including Missouri, have 24-hour waiting periods. The new law will be the second most-stringent behind South Dakota, where weekends and holidays don’t count in the 72 hours. Utah also has a 72-hour delay, but grants exceptions for rape, incest and other circumstances.

Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon had denounced the measure as “extreme and disrespectful” toward women.

Planned Parenthood, which operates Missouri’s only licensed abortion clinic, has not said whether it will challenge the 72-hour law in court.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lancaster County has agreed to pay $75,000 to the father of a teen who sued after the boy committed suicide in a Lincoln detention center.

Sixteen-year-old Jonathan Kennedy was found unresponsive in his cell in 2012 and later died. A judge had ordered the boy detained for suspected drug use and self-harming behavior.

In the lawsuit, the teen’s father, Mark Kennedy, said his son was mentally ill and that detention center staff knew the teen had a history of suicide attempts, but failed to protect him.

A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit Monday, after the parties had settled. Lancaster County Attorney Joe Kelly says the settlement money will come from the county’s general fund.

 

LORTON, Neb. (AP) — The National Weather Service has confirmed that a relatively weak tornado ran for seven miles through southeast Nebraska’s Otoe County.

The county’s emergency manager, Gregg Goebel, reported damage to farm outbuildings on Tuesday near old Nebraska Highway 2 and County Road L. He says other buildings were damaged along U.S. Highway 75 and Nebraska Highway 128.

The National Weather Service says a survey team checked the damage and other evidence and rated the twister as an EF1, packing winds between 86 and 110 mph. It first set down about two miles northeast of Lorton and dissipated about nine miles east of Lorton. No injuries have been reported.

Tuesday’s storms drenched much of eastern Nebraska and southern Iowa, causing roadway flooding in several locations.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 22-year-old Omaha resident has been sent to prison for knifing to death a 74-year-old man last year.

Online court records say Cedric Hatten was sentenced on Tuesday to 15 years for manslaughter and eight to 12 years for using a weapon. He’d pleaded guilty after prosecutors lowered a murder charge to manslaughter. Hatten was credited with 364 days already served.

Authorities say Paul Riederer was stabbed on Aug. 20, 2013, after confronting Hatten, who was harassing a woman for money.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Missouri woman has been sent to prison for robbing a Nebraska bank in December.

Julie Balero, of Kansas City, was sentenced Wednesday in Lancaster County court to three to six years in prison. She will get credit for more than 250 days served in jail.

Balero was accused of entering a Lincoln bank on Dec. 26 and demanding money from a teller. She was not armed and left with money in a purse. She was arrested later that day.

Balero pleaded guilty in August to attempted robbery in a plea deal. Her attorney says her client was homeless and in need of money at the time of the robbery. Balero told the judge during her sentencing that she was sorry for her actions.