(AP) — Online brokerage TD Ameritrade is offering a day of free seminars about investing Tuesday to help people plan for retirement.

The Omaha, Neb., based company is offering seven free webcasts throughout the day about the economy, the stock market and investment options.

TD Ameritrade’s Robert Miller says investors need to understand how rising health care costs and longer life spans might affect their retirement expenses.

TD Ameritrade says the education event will start at 9 a.m. Central on Tuesday and continue until 7 p.m.

More details about the event are available online at www.tdameritrade.com/educationday.

(AP) — Nebraska lawmakers have advanced a bill to ban new forms of popular synthetic drugs, including K2 and bath salts.

The bill won first-round approval on Tuesday with a 33-0 vote. The bill by Sen. Ken Schilz of Ogallala was introduced this year as part of Attorney General Jon Bruning’s annual legislative package.

Nebraska’s current ban on K2 was enacted in 2011 and updated last year, but overseas chemists have kept adjusting the drug’s formula to skirt the ban. K2 mimics the effects of marijuana.

Lancaster County authorities say the drug was responsible for the October death of 18-year-old Billy Tucker after a weekend party in Lincoln. Tucker died while sleeping at a friend’s house in nearby Waverly.

 

(AP) — The bishop of the Lincoln Catholic Diocese has issued a letter reminding the diocese’s nearly 98,000 members that the church stance has not changed over the millennia: The use of contraceptives is forbidden.

Bishop James Conley said he chose to issue the letter during Lent because of its theme of love and sacrifice being the language of love.

Conley told the newspaper that “we really live in a wounded world when it comes to the family.”

In his letter issued Tuesday, Conley says marriage was created “to be unifying and procreative” and that the church “has always taught that rejecting the gift of children erodes the love between husband and wife.”

(AP) — Grand Island leaders haven’t given up on retaining the state veterans home instead of seeing the state build a replacement in Kearney.

Grand Island Mayor Jay Vavricek said Grand Island leaders are fleshing out their counterproposal to the plan approved by Gov. Dave Heineman. The state plan already has been sent to federal officials in Washington, where it awaits funding.

Grand Island officials say the counterproposal would cost an estimated $80 million to update and expand the local facility, compared with the $121 million needed to build new in Kearney.

An early version of the counterproposal was directly sent to the Veterans Affairs Department in Washington, but VA officials have since said the decision about where to build rests with state officials.

(AP) — Two Nebraska sisters have been supporting each other as they dieted and exercised their way to a combined weight loss of 270 pounds.

Forty-nine-year-old Kathy Ladehoff, of Columbus, is overjoyed by her loss of 160 pounds over the past year. She said that she’s finally living, “not just existing.”

Ladehoff’s 44-year-old sister, Wendy Konz, of Genoa, weighed 335 pounds at one point. She’s lost 110 pounds and has dropped from a size 26 down to size 16.

To drop the weight, they exercised, changed their diets and eating habits and took a weight loss supplement.

Their mutual goal is to reach 150 pounds.

(AP) — A former Nebraska woman has been given two years of probation for lying about ground beef sold to Omaha Public Schools in 2011.

Kelly Rosberg was sentenced on Monday for making false representations that tubes of ground beef sold to the district had been federally inspected when they had not.

She and her husband, Paul, ran Nebraska’s Finest Meats in Randolph. Its operations since have been suspended, and, in 2012, a grand jury indicted the couple. They have separated, and Kelly Rosberg moved to Tennessee.

In December Paul Rosberg was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined $8,450.

(AP) — Authorities say a North Dakota woman whose 13-year-old son weighed 21 pounds when he died in January has been charged with murder.

State Medical Examiner William Massello says Jessica Jensen’s son died from chronic starvation due to untreated juvenile appetite disorder. He listed the manner of death as homicide.

Court documents say Jensen, of Kenmare, told investigators that her son had a hormonal growth problem and that his pituitary gland did not function properly. She also said her son had not seen a doctor for several years.

Jensen is also charged with neglect for failing to properly care for her other two children.

Court documents don’t list an attorney for Jensen. She could face life in prison without parole if convicted.

Kenmare’s in northern North Dakota near the Canadian border.

(AP) — Three owners of a former exotic dance bar in downtown Omaha have been accused of using the business to offer prostitution services.

A grand jury on Friday indicted 66-year-old Louis A. Venditte, his wife, 65-year-old Ruby Venditte, and 64-year-old John W. Wagstaffe on prostitution and conspiracy charges. Court records do not list attorneys.

The indictment says women working the stage at Goodfellas were encouraged by the Vendittes to engage in sex acts for extra cash. The Vendittes are accused of accepting payments from customers seeking sex.

The Vendittes and Wagstaffe are also accused of not reporting their incomes for several years.

Law enforcement raided the bar while serving a search warrant last year. It has since closed.

(AP) — A proposal that would let Nebraska voters decide whether to allow bets on previously run horse races is nearing final passage in the Legislature.

Supporters on Tuesday overcame a filibuster to try to keep the proposed constitutional amendment off the November ballot.

The measure by Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh of Omaha would allow voters to decide if Nebraska should license and regulate wagering through video terminals that show old races. Information that would identify specific horses or races is removed before they’re shown.

Supporters say the measure would help save jobs in the state’s struggling horse-racing industry. Opponents say allowing the machine bets amounts to expanded gambling.

Lawmakers have to vote once more on the measure before it can appear on the ballot.

(AP) — A man accused of killing four people in Omaha last summer will have his fate decided by a judge, not a jury.

On Tuesday, Douglas County District Judge Peter Bataillon granted a request by 27-year-old Nikko Jenkins to waive a jury trial and have a bench trial.

Jenkins is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the August deaths of Juan Uribe-Pena, Jorge Cajiga-Ruiz, Curtis Bradford and Andrea Kruger. He has pleaded not guilty, and claims he didn’t receive proper mental health treatment while previously in prison.

Earlier this month, Bataillon granted Jenkins’ request to act as his own attorney in the case, although a public defender will provide him advice.