(AP) — Powerful thunderstorms that spawned several tornadoes as they moved across the state have caused damage in several eastern Nebraska towns and across the rural areas between them.

The storms that developed in south-central Nebraska near Hastings Sunday afternoon damaged homes and businesses in Sutton, Garland, Cordova and Daykin. The storms also left nearly 17,000 utility customers without electricity Sunday evening.

The storms maintained their strength and continued to generate tornadoes for more than three hours as they moved across Nebraska. By the time the initial storms reached Omaha, the storms still produced winds over 70 mph and heavy winds but not tornadoes.

The storm knocked down several farm outbuildings west of Sutton and blew debris across U.S. Highway 6, forcing officials to close the highway.

(AP) — Firefighters are investigating a fire that killed an infant girl in western Iowa.

6-month-old Mayci Colburn-Lerette was killed in the fire in Council Bluffs around 8 p.m. Saturday.

Three other family members were critically injured by smoke inhalation and taken to Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha. They are 30-year-old Jeremiah Lerette, 70-year-old Terese Lerette and 2-year-old Gerard Lerette.

Assistant Council Bluffs Fire Chief Justin James says the fire started on the first floor of the home.

Authorities will investigate the fire to determine what may have caused it.

(AP) — Police say a 33-year-old homeless man arrested on suspicion of killing his ex-girlfriend set fire to a tent she was in at a homeless camp south of downtown Omaha.

Police believe Sonny Delong set the fire Tuesday night that killed 30-year-old Amanda Brown.

Brown’s new boyfriend, Michael Witt, says he and Brown were in the makeshift tent when Delong showed up and ordered them out. They refused, and Witt said Delong used a lighter to ignite the structure.

Witt says he then left the tent, but Brown refused. Witt says he tried to dismantle the tent from the outside, but couldn’t. He says that as the fire grew, Brown began to call for help.

Firefighters later found her body among the ashes.

(AP) — Collaboration between Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and the University of Nebraska Medical Center is helping monitor and learn more about the heart health of captive gorillas.

Veterinarians with the zoo and cardiology specialists at UNMC and its hospital are working together to run heart tests on the zoo’s gorillas, which are trained to undergo the tests awake to get the most accurate results.

That training was on display Friday at the zoo, when 30-year-old gorilla Mosuba followed commands to put his hands against wire mesh separating him from cardiac ultrasonographer Christine DuPree. DuPree then used a special probe to conduct a heart sonogram on the ape.

Mosuba’s results will be entered into a national gorilla cardiac database called the Great Ape Heart Project.

The mother of a Hastings boy, shot to death last month by his brother, and her live-in boyfriend have been charged with negligent child abuse resulting in death.

The Adams County Attorney’s Office filed charges Thursday against 29-year-old Amanda Pecor and 30-year-old Matthew Edwards.

Authorities say police, school and mental health officials had concerns about the 9-year-old’s often violent behavior and that officials had warned both his mother and her boyfriend to lock up all knives, other sharp items and guns in the house for weeks before the young boy was shot.

The boy shot and killed his brother, 4-year-old Beau Pecor, on April 18.

(AP) — Omaha police have arrested a homeless man in connection to the death of his ex-girlfriend, whose body was found near a fire.

33-year-old Sonny Delong was booked into jail Friday on suspicion of criminal homicide and first-degree arson in connection to the death of 30-year-old Amanda M. Brown. Court records do not list an attorney.

Firefighters found Brown south of downtown Omaha Tuesday night. Fire crews were dispatched to battle a blaze near railroad tracks in a wooded, brushy area used by homeless people.

Officials say it is unclear how Brown died. An autopsy has been ordered.

(AP) — Two people have been killed following a collision between a pickup and semitrailer near Louisville (LOO’-is-vihl) in eastern Nebraska.

The accident occurred around 4 a.m. Friday on Nebraska Highway 50, north of the Platte River. Authorities say the pickup ran a stop sign and was hit by the big rig.

19-year-old Tyler Armknect, a passenger in the pickup, was pronounced dead at the scene. The pickup driver, 25-year-old David Gressley, was flown to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, where he was pronounced dead.

The semitrailer driver, 66-year-old James Kastanek, was taken to a hospital but wasn’t hurt.

(AP) — Winnebago Hospital officials have submitted a plan to correct deficiencies noted by a federal agency that reviewed the death of a hospital patient.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid says the Indian Health Service hospital failed to meet the needs of the patient, who was admitted for respiratory problems and died three days later last month.

The agency warned the hospital to fix problems that posed a “serious threat to the health and safety of patients.”

The agency said in an April 29 letter to the hospital that it could lose Medicare and Medicaid funding if it didn’t solve the problems identified in the case review.

An agency spokeswoman says the hospital submitted an acceptable plan to the agency’s regional office in Kansas City, Missouri.

(AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has reversed a lower court’s refusal to extend a restraining order against a man acquitted of shooting at window washers outside food company ConAgra’s Omaha headquarters in 2012.

In late 2012, Douglas County Court granted ConAgra a temporary restraining order against Ryan Zimmerman, who was accused of shooting at window washers outside the ConAgra building where his estranged wife worked. No one was injured in the shooting, and Zimmerman was later acquitted by a jury of the charges.

On Friday in a majority decision, the Nebraska Supreme Court reversed the lower court’s ruling, ordering that a one-year injunction be issued against Zimmerman. In a dissent, Justices William Cassel and Kenneth Stephan said Zimmerman is already barred from entering ConAgra’s property and that the injunction is improper.

(AP) — A federal judge has ordered Creighton University in Omaha to pay nearly $500,000 in legal fees for a deaf medical student who successfully sued the school for discrimination.

Michael Argenyi (ar-GEN’-ee) sued Creighton in 2009, after leaving medical school when Creighton refused his requests for interpreters — even though he offered to pay for them himself. Last year, a federal judge ruled that Creighton must provide Argenyi with special equipment and interpreters to allow him to finish medical school. The judge did not require the university to reimburse Argenyi for $110,000 he had already spent for interpreters and special equipment.

In March, Argenyi’s lawyers filed a motion seeking nearly $621,000 in legal fees. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp ordered $478,000 in attorney and legal fees.