(AP) — A southeast Nebraska collision between a school bus and sport utility vehicle has injured two students and the bus driver.

The accident occurred just before 8 a.m. Friday at an intersection about 3 ½ miles south-southeast of Bennet.

Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner said the bus was carrying a dozen students for Palmyra Schools. He didn’t know their ages.

Wagner says the bus driver suffered a dislocated shoulder and the two students suffered only minor injuries. He says the SUV driver wasn’t hurt.

The accident is being investigated.

(AP) — A Nebraska prison inmate and his transgender partner are appealing a judge’s decision to dismiss their lawsuit against the state prison system, which they say has refused to let them marry.

The couple is challenging a Nebraska constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

Lancaster County District Judge Steven Burns dismissed the case on grounds that the prisoner, Harold Wilson, and Gracy Sedlak failed to pay an $82 court filing fee. Sedlak previously identified as a man named John Jirovsky.

The 57-year-old Wilson is serving a 56- to 170-year prison sentence for attempted murder, kidnapping and sexual assault. The 27-year-old Sedlak can’t visit Wilson because of a three-year waiting period on former inmates visiting prisons.

(AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has barred an attorney from practicing law until next year for failing to pay Nebraska Bar Association dues and representing clients after the bar had suspended his law license.

The state’s high court on Friday found that Robert L. Keith failed to pay his bar dues for 2012, but still appeared in court for three cases.

The high court also found that Keith had accepted payment in December 2011 to incorporate a family business, but failed to do so as promised. The state Supreme Court said Keith failed to respond to inquiries by its Counsel for Discipline regarding the two matters.

Keith has been suspended from practicing law until Jan. 1 and must apply for reinstatement to resume.

He could not be reached for comment Friday.

(AP) — Alexandria Village Board members have taken their first steps toward restricting where sex offenders may live in their southeast Nebraska community.

The board approved the proposed ordinance on its first reading Wednesday. Two more board approvals are needed for the ordinance to take effect.

It would bar sex offenders from living within 500 feet of schools, parks and day care centers and school bus stops on village property. There is a bus stop about two blocks from the home of the town’s only registered sex offender. The measure also would fine the landlords who rent to them.

The ACLU of Nebraska has told the board it has the right to pass restrictions but said the proposed ordinance exceeded the board’s authority.

(AP) — A driver has been killed in a collision between his car and a van on a state highway in northeast Nebraska.

The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office says the accident occurred about 4 a.m. Thursday on Nebraska Highway 15 just north of Wayne.

The sheriff’s office says a southbound van driven by James Bauman, of Sioux City, Iowa, crossed into oncoming traffic and collided with the car driven by Joseph Ramirez.

Ramirez was pronounced dead at the scene. He was alone in his car.

The sheriff’s office says Bauman and his passenger, Nina Robertson, of Sioux City, Iowa, were taken to Providence Medical Center in Wayne.

The collision is being investigated.

(AP) — A Lincoln company has been cited for safety violations connected to a cave-in during trenching operations.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration says Taylor’s Drain and Sewer Service committed 10 safety violations. OSHA also proposed penalties of $194,000.

The agency says the company failed to take basic safety precautions, resulting in a Taylor worker being injured in a March 22 accident while laying pipe to a new home.

OSHA also says inspectors found violations at a separate Taylor’s job site on April 11. OSHA says two people were working in a 10-foot-deep trench, installing water and sewer lines, but the company hadn’t provided cave-in protection.

(AP) — Lincoln zookeepers are working around the clock to hand-raise a newborn red panda whose mother became unable to care for him.

Three zookeepers at Lincoln Children’s Zoo are feeding the 6-week-old cub — aptly named Lincoln — with a doll-sized bottle. A sock bunny and stuffed animal are serving as surrogate siblings in his incubated space.

The cub developed a wound after his mother began excessively carrying him and cleaning him a few weeks after his July 26 birth. Zookeepers separated them out of concern that the constant licking could lead to an infection.

Lincoln currently weighs less than two pounds and will need to be hand-fed for about six more weeks. His feedings will soon be accessible via a panda cam.

(AP) — Someone who bought a ticket at a Lincoln store has won $1 million in the Powerball drawing.

Nebraska Lottery officials say the ticket matched five of the six numbers drawn Wednesday night. They were 11, 19, 33, 42 and 52. The ticket didn’t have the correct Powerball number of 33.

The ticket was sold at the Russ’s Market on Washington Street in Lincoln.

The winner has yet to claim his or her prize.

(AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the western Nebraska city of Bayard and its police chief over the death of a handcuffed man.

The widow of 31-year-old Daniel Driscoll sued in 2011, saying her husband was subjected to false arrest, excessive police force and deprivation of his due process rights.

An autopsy showed Driscoll died of a heart attack after being arrested in 2009 on suspicion of disturbing the peace.

The lawsuit says Driscoll was handcuffed by Chief Zakary Douglass despite being told that Driscoll had a phobia of having his hands behind his back.

U.S. District Judge John Gerrard this week granted the city’s motion for summary judgment, saying that while Driscoll’s death was tragic, no evidence was presented that showed Driscoll’s constitutional rights had been violated.

 

(AP) — Heat and little rain continue to intensify the drought in several states including primary crop growing areas.

The national drought monitor report released Thursday says in Iowa, the nation’s largest corn producer, severe drought spread to nearly 42 percent of the state up from 32 percent a week ago.

The drought monitor tracks conditions from Sept. 3 through Tuesday morning.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says about a third of corn and soybeans are in good or excellent condition in Iowa down from more than half rated in those categories a month ago. In Nebraska, where drought increased in some areas, non-irrigated corn is in similar shape.

Drought worsened in portions of Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin.

Further south, conditions in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas declined.