OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — No charges will be filed against an Omaha resident man who police say fatally shot a man who was trying to break into the resident’s home.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine says Monday morning’s shooting by 48-year-old Larry Rohatsch was justified.

Police say officers who were called to the home found 48-year-old Darrell Miller on a porch with two gunshot wounds. Miller was pronounced dead at an Omaha hospital.

Kleine says Miller knocked the front door off its hinges when he kicked it after ringing the doorbell twice.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal appeals court has overturned the bribery conviction of a Nebraska man.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Monday in its ruling that 72-year-old Jim Barta, of Fremont, was entrapped by federal agents. The court also ordered Barta immediately released from prison, where he was serving 21 months.

Jurors convicted Barta, former Chicago Alderman Ambrosio Medrano and another man, Gus Buenrostro, in June 2013.

Prosecutors had argued the three men agreed to bribe an undercover FBI agent posing as a purchasing agent for a California hospital to land a pharmaceutical contract.

Barta is a cattle rancher and founder of the Sav-Rx prescription company.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Nearly 56 percent of voters have approved a bond measure that will pay for new schools and renovations in the Grand Island district.

The votes were tallied Tuesday from the all-mail election. The measure will add to the district levy about 8 cents per $100 of assessed property value. That amounts to a tax increase of around $80 on a home assessed at $100,000.

The money will be spent on new and replacement schools and renovation and expansion projects.

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — A citizenship ceremony has been scheduled at Homestead National Monument of America in southeast Nebraska.

The event is set to begin at 2 p.m. on Constitution Day, Sept. 17. The day commemorates the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787.

After naturalization and the pledging of their allegiance to the United States, foreign-born citizens enjoy nearly all the same benefits, rights and responsibilities that the Constitution gives to native-born Americans.

The Homestead National Monument of America sits four miles west of Beatrice, along Nebraska Highway 4.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Two of Nebraska’s most populous counties have stopped honoring federal requests to hold suspected immigrants in jail without a warrant.

Lancaster and Sarpy counties have joined Hall County in requiring a warrant for such holds, which have come under intense scrutiny from civil rights organizations. The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska and nonprofit immigrant advocate group Justice for our Neighbors hope to sway officials with Douglas County — Nebraska’s largest — to stop the practice, too.

The 48-hour immigration detainers are issued to local law enforcement by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, asking that immigrants who have been arrested be held for two days after they would normally be released so that federal immigration officials can initiate an investigation and take people into custody, if necessary.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Heavy rainfall has caused flooding and power outages in Omaha, with the storms bringing down tree limbs and high waters stranding some motorists.

Omaha firefighters say a woman and three children had to be rescued from a minivan, which was trapped under a bridge. In some places, manhole covers popped off because the runoff overwhelmed storm sewers. More than 1,300 residents were without electricity Tuesday night.

For about half an hour, the Douglas County 911 system also wasn’t working properly. Mark Conrey, director of the 911 call center, says he’ll be working to find out what happened.

The rains also led to the cancellation of Wednesday events at a Grand Island farm show. A Nebraska trooper says muddy conditions have made parking near the Husker Harvest Days inaccessible.

MAQUOKETA, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man angry about his property taxes was fatally shot during a public meeting Tuesday after he pulled a gun from a briefcase and pointed it at the county assessor, the local sheriff said.

Francis Glaser, 71, had become agitated and vocal about his property taxes going up during a weekly meeting of Jackson County’s board of supervisors in Maquoketa, a town about 150 miles northeast of Des Moines.

As the meeting ended in the local courthouse, Glaser pulled a gun and fired at the county assessor but missed, Jackson County Sheriff Russ Kettmann said. One of the county’s three supervisors, Larry Koos, was nearby and stepped in. He struggled with Glaser, and a second shot was fired. Glaser was hit and died at the scene, Kettmann said.

The sheriff said Koos “probably saved a life.” He was injured during the struggle, when his arm crashed through a glass door, and was sent to a local hospital for stitches.

The shooting occurred during a meeting in which officials were discussing property assessments.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A 74-year-old Minnesota man has died and three passengers have been injured in a crash while heading to a Nebraska farm show.

Warren Kamstra was killed Tuesday morning on his way to the opening of Husker Harvest Days. He was also visiting for his grandson’s birthday.

Nebraska State Patrol says Kamstra’s truck collided with another truck whose driver failed to yield at an intersection without stop signs. The vehicle flipped upside down.

Two men and a 14-year-old girl were hospitalized and released. A 10-year-old boy wasn’t injured.

The driver of the other truck wasn’t injured. No charges have been filed.

The farm show was cancelled Wednesday due to heavy rains.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska doctor treating an American who became infected with Ebola while working in Liberia says the man’s condition is improving.

The patient, Dr. Rick Sacra of Massachusetts, arrived at the Nebraska Medical Center on Friday for treatment in the hospital’s specialized 10-bed isolation unit.

Dr. Phil Smith said in a written statement Tuesday that doctors at the Omaha hospital are pleased with Sacra’s progress, adding that Sacra is becoming more alert and interactive.

Smith said doctors “continue to be encouraged by what we’re seeing up to this point.”

The 51-year-old Sacra was the third American aid worker with the Ebola virus to be flown to the U.S. for treatment. A fourth worker, whose identity has not yet been revealed, arrived Tuesday morning at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

 

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A judge gave probation rather than a prison sentence Tuesday to a dying Iowa man who was convicted of growing marijuana that he said he used to treat his terminal cancer.

The sentence was a break for 48-year-old Benton Mackenzie, who could have faced three or more years in prison.

Mackenzie was convicted on drug charges stemming from a 2013 raid at his parents’ Long Grove, Iowa, home, where he lived. Sheriff’s deputies found 71 marijuana plant and growing equipment.

Mackenzie said he grew the plants to obtain cannabis oil that he used to treat his angiosarcoma.

The prosecution outraged advocates of medical marijuana.