(AP) — A proposal to increase Nebraska’s minimum wage to $9 an hour is dead for the year.

The bill stalled Monday night on a 20-20 vote in the Legislature. Opponents also defeated several amendments that would have exempted small- and mid-sized businesses, and allowed companies to exclude employees who have worked for them for less than two years.

The measure would have raised the wage gradually, from $7.25 to $9.00 by 2017. Business groups opposed it, saying the legislation would have increased their labor costs and made them less competitive.

Lawmakers also rejected a proposal to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers, who currently make $2.13 an hour.

(AP) — A 24-year-old man has died and another man has been injured in an accident involving their motorcycles in Lincoln.

Lincoln police say the accident occurred about 4 p.m. Sunday on the west side of Lincoln.

Police Capt. Danny Reitan says the two men lost control of their motorcycles as they drove north on Folsom Bypass. One of the motorcycles crashed into a stream. The 24-year-old driver’s body was found there. The 25-year-old injured motorcyclist landed in a grassy area nearby.

Their names haven’t been released. The accident is being investigated.

(AP) — A May trial has been scheduled for a 46-year-old Genoa man charged with manslaughter in the crash death of his mother.

Michael Logan pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday in Platte County District Court. Logan’s trial is scheduled to begin on May 28.

Logan is accused of driving drunk when he turned in front of oncoming traffic northwest of Columbus the morning of Dec. 10. Authorities say Logan was driving south toward Columbus on U.S. Highway 81 when he tried to turn left. His vehicle was struck on the passenger side by a northbound car driven by 42-year-old Jeannine Velazquez, of Norfolk.

Logan’s mother, 63-year-old Lois Reynolds, of Genoa, died later at a hospital. Logan and Velazquez also were injured.

(AP) — The adversarial has given way to the collaborative in a Dodge County courtroom for juvenile offenders.

The railing has been taken away and a row of benches has been moved to make way for a conference table and 16 chairs.

County Judge Ken Vampola usually sits at the table with the defendant and his or her parents or guardian and the lawyers involved. Vampola says delinquent youths don’t fear authority, so they have to be personally motivated and buy into their futures.

The courtroom alterations illustrate other changes in the county system. Among them is a new truancy diversion program and efforts to provide alternatives to locking up juveniles.

(AP) — Authorities say a clerk has been stabbed by a thief he chased outside a Lincoln drugstore.

The theft and assault were reported about 7:40 a.m. Sunday at the CVS Pharmacy store at 16th and South streets.

Police say the man grabbed a prepaid cellphone and ran out of the store. The clerk chased the man and tried to restrain him in the parking lot, but the man used a pair of scissors to stab the clerk in an elbow. Officers soon spotted the man and arrested him.

The clerk refused medical attention.

(AP) — An Omaha police officer who was seriously hurt in a February crash has moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation center.

46-year-old Lou Tomsu is now at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln.

Tomsu suffered serious injuries, including a cut to the back of the head, broken vertebra and rib injuries in the Feb. 20 crash. The driver of the car that rear-ended Tomsu’s patrol car is being prosecuted for careless driving.

Tomsu is a 19-year member of Omaha department. His wife is also a long-time officer with the Omaha police.

(AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has again denied relief to a man who beat his girlfriend’s 22-month-old daughter to death.

Andre Robinson, of Omaha, was sentenced in April 2008 to life in prison for the November 2006 death of Branesha Thomas.

Prosecutors had said Robinson kicked the girl “like a soccer ball” while he was baby-sitting her and that she died from her injuries.

In 2009, the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld Robinson’s conviction of intentional child abuse resulting in death and his life sentence.

Robinson filed for post-conviction relief, a type of motion that is filed after all other appeals have been exhausted. In the motion, Robinson argued he should be released from prison because his lawyer was ineffective.

On Friday, the state’s high court rejected that argument.

(AP) — Two Boy Scouts who were hospitalized with burns after a gunpowder explosion in Council Bluffs last week have been released.

The two boys, Jared Holcomb and Scott Brown, had been treated at St. Elizabeth Regional Medical Center in Lincoln since the incident on Thursday.

The boys were hurt while experimenting with gunpowder at a Council Bluffs home in preparation for a spring ceremony.

Two other boys and two adults were also injured but didn’t have to be hospitalized as long. Holcomb and Brown were released from the Lincoln hospital on Saturday.