(AP) — A man has been sentenced to prison after being convicted of two bank robberies in Omaha that occurred while he was on furlough from prison for four previous robberies.

U.S. Attorney Deborah Gilg announced Monday that 59-year-old Albert Dansby was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Omaha to seven years in prison for two bank robberies.

Dansby was serving more than eight years in prison for four bank robberies when the Bureau of Prisons placed him on furlough. The bureau put him on a bus from a Texas facility to a half-way house in Hastings, Neb.

Dansby left the bus in Omaha on July 24, 2013, and robbed a bank of $1,914. On Aug. 9, he robbed another Omaha bank of $3,502.

Omaha police arrested him on Aug. 11, 2013.

(AP) — A judge had denied bail for an Omaha man charged in a December shooting on a city street.

Bail was denied Monday for 21-year-old Teon D. Hill.

He’s charged in the killing of 34-year-old Virgil Dunn, who was shot Dec. 10 while walking on an Omaha street. He died the next day at an Omaha hospital.

Hill appeared in court for the first time since his arrest Friday on suspicion of first-degree murder, use of a gun to commit a felony and two counts of use of a gun by a prohibited person.

(AP) — Authorities say three people died and six were injured when a sport utility vehicle left the road and rolled in northeast Nebraska.

The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office says the crash happened about 7 a.m. Monday on Highway 81, a couple miles south of the junction with Highway 20.

A northbound Ford Excursion left the highway and went into a ditch. It then rolled several times.

All nine occupants were ejected from the vehicle, killing three of them. The six survivors were taken to a hospital in Norfolk.

All of those involved were males. Authorities aren’t releasing their names or ages until relatives can be notified.

(AP) — A car driver has been killed in a collision with a semitrailer in eastern Nebraska.

The accident occurred around 6:10 a.m. Monday on U.S. Highway 275 about a half mile east of Scribner.

Dodge County Sheriff Steve Hespen says the westbound car crossed the center line and rammed the oncoming truck.

The car driver was pronounced dead at the scene. His name isn’t being released yet. Hespen identified the truck driver as 72-year-old Ronnie Billheimer, of Randolph, Neb. Hespen says Billheimer wasn’t injured.

(AP) — Berkshire Hathaway shareholders who hope to get Warren Buffett’s autograph at the annual meeting this weekend now have the option of buying a diamond with the billionaire’s signature inscribed on it.

Berkshire’s Borsheims jewelry store is selling loose diamonds in sizes up to 5 carats with a tiny version of Buffett’s signature.

And a few lucky shareholders will have the chance to buy one of the diamonds or other jewelry from Buffett on Sunday because he plans to pose as a Borsheims salesman again that afternoon.

Shareholders get a discount at Borsheims because Berkshire owns the west Omaha store. Several shareholder events are planned there throughout the weekend.

Buffett and Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger will answer questions from an arena full of shareholders on Saturday at the annual meeting.

(AP) — Authorities have released the names of a motorcyclist who was killed and a car driver who was injured in a collision on U.S. Highway 30 just east of Grand Island.

The accident occurred just after 4 p.m. Sunday. The Hall County Sheriff’s Office says the motorcycle was headed east when it struck the driver’s side of a northbound car that was turning left onto the highway at Gunbarrel Road.

The motorcycle driver was pronounced dead at the scene. On Monday the Sheriff’s Office identified him as 52-year-old Rodney Beckman, of Marquette.

The car driver was taken to St. Francis Medical Center in Grand Island. She was identified as 59-year-old Constance Baasch, of Grand Island. Her injuries were considered non-life-threatening.

(AP) — University of Nebraska President J.B. Milliken will be stepping down on Friday before stepping up to his next challenge as chancellor of City University of New York.

Milliken announced in January that he’d accepted the new job, leaving the Nebraska post he’s held since 2004.

The move is a continuation of the intellectual awakening Milliken underwent as a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

When Milliken returned to the Nebraska system, it was coming off four years of double-digit tuition increases totaling 47 percent. He’s helped slow the rate of increases to an average annual rate of 4.2 percent over the last decade.

Milliken says he’s “always been a big believer that affordable access is priority No. 1 of public universities.”

(AP) — It’s a year of “lasts” for Newcastle High School in northeast Nebraska.

The last prom, the last set of finals, the last high school graduation in the village of 325 people.

Newcastle officials have been struggling with declining enrollment and so have agreed to consolidate the district with the Hartington district. The merger is expected to be approved Tuesday during a meeting of the State Committee for the Reorganization of School Districts in Lincoln.

The plan for next year has students from fifth grade through high school attending school in Hartington, 28 miles away. Hartington administrators have said students from prekindergarten through fourth grade will remain at Newcastle for at least for a year. Beyond that, it’s uncertain.

(AP) — The Veterans of Foreign Wars Club chapter in Hastings has sold its building because of dwindling membership.

The Hastings Tribune reports that Friday night’s bingo game was the last public event at the VFW club in downtown Hastings

Keith Dreher with the local VFW post says he’s seen membership drop from more than 700 15 years ago to about 360. Veterans of World War II and the Korean War are dying and younger veterans haven’t embraced the club.

Dreher says the group decided to sell its downtown building before it started losing significant amounts of money.

Shirley Murphy made sure to attend Friday’s last bingo night. She says it will be hard to see the club close because she has been attending events there for so long.

 

(AP) — Nebraska will again expand its ban on synthetic drugs under a new law, but some say the law doesn’t go far enough.

The law targets the newest generation of synthetic drugs that mimic the effects of marijuana. It was passed in the legislative session’s final day and signed by Gov. Dave Heineman last week.

Despite its passage, the law disappointed Steve Tucker, whose 18-year-old son, Billy, died in October from an overdose of the synthetic marijuana “K2.”

Tucker, of Greenwood, says the new law doesn’t stop substances developed recently in eastern Europe that will likely reach Nebraska soon.

Sen. Ken Schilz of Ogallala, who sponsored the bill, says some provision had to be removed from the bill in order for it to gain approval.