(AP) — The Grand Island council has approved a $5,000 contribution to a legal fight fund for keeping a veterans home in the south-central Nebraska community.

The City Council voted 9-0 Tuesday night to approve the expenditure. The money will join the $5,000 pledged by Hall County and the $2,500 promised by both the Grand Island Area Economic Development Corp. and the Grand Island Area Chamber of Commerce.

The $15,000 will be used to determine how Grand Island could challenge the state decision to build a replacement home in Kearney, which Gov. Dave Heineman announced on July 12. The Grand Island Veterans Home has been part of the community since the Soldiers and Sailors Home opened in 1888.

(AP) — A Montana judge who sentenced a former teacher to 30 days for raping a 14-year-old girl is standing by his comments that the girl was older than her “chronological age” when it came to sexual matters.

But District Judge G. Todd Baugh says that doesn’t make 54-year-old Stacey Rambold’s actions any less of a crime. The girl killed herself in February 2010 while the case was pending.

In handing down the sentence Monday, Baugh said the girl was “older than her chronological age” and “as much in control of the situation” as the teacher.

Baugh said a 14-year-old girl can’t consent, but this situation was not a “forcible beat-up rape.”

He says the girl’s death also complicated the county attorney’s case.

(AP) — Authorities say a 49-year-old man has been given 63 months in prison for robbing a bank branch in southeast Omaha.

Federal prosecutors say Jesus Robles, of Omaha, must serve three years of supervised release after he leaves prison.

Robles was convicted of robbing a Wells Fargo Bank branch on Aug. 13, 2012. No one was injured.

Robles had escaped with $297 of the bank’s money, but Omaha officers soon found him hiding in some bushes a couple of blocks away.

(AP) — An eastern Nebraska man has sued Wal-Mart, saying the failure of an overfilled plastic shopping bag led to the death of his wife.

The Sarpy County lawsuit filed William Freis, of Plattsmouth, has been moved to U.S. District Court in Omaha.

The lawsuit says the bag failed on April 16, 2010, outside a Wal-Mart store in Bellevue. A can inside fell onto the right big toe of Freis’ wife, Lynette, breaking and cutting it. The lawsuit says the injuries led to an infection that spread through her body “and ultimately resulted in her death on March 12, 2011.”

The lawsuit seeks more than $656,000.

A Wal-Mart spokesman declined to directly comment on the lawsuit’s allegations.

(AP) — A 15-year-old boy has been killed in the crash of a car full of teenagers in southeast Nebraska.

Lancaster County Sheriff’s Capt. Ben Houchin (HOW’-chihn) says the accident occurred a little after 7 p.m. Tuesday on a county road just north of Waverly. Houchin says six teenagers were in the car driven by a 15-year-old girl. He says she lost control of it on the gravel road. The car rolled at least twice and landed on its wheels in a ditch next to a cornfield.

Two of the six were ejected, including the boy who died. The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office identified him as Taylon Artman, of Eagle. The names of the others involved haven’t been released.

Houchin says none of the other teens’ injuries was considered life-threatening.

(AP) — The digital age has brought e-books to the masses, but a Nebraska college bookstore executive says most students still prefer real books from real paper.

John Parish is regional manager for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Bookstore’s parent company, Follett Higher Education Group, and he says most students would rather buy or rent real textbooks than acquire digital copies.

Parish says the UNL Bookstore provides an online service for textbooks and related videos and animated graphics.

He said the store’s most popular option is Rent-A-Text, which can save students at least half the price of a new book. He says the students can still highlight the book text and write notes on its pages, but the book must be returned by the end of the semester.

(AP) — No injuries have been reported after explosions rocked a bay at a truck trailer sales and repair facility in Grand Island.

Firefighters were dispatched around 4:45 p.m. Monday to Bosselman Tank & Trailer.

Grand Island Fire Chief Tim Hiemer says the first explosion probably occurred after the pressure relief system failed on a tanker that was in the bay where the fire broke out. He says the other blasts probably were tires exploding on the tanker.

Hiemer says the tanker had just fuel residue and fumes inside. The explosions and fire were contained to the bay.

The fire cause is being investigated.

(AP) — Services have been scheduled for a 15-year-old who was fatally injured in a rollover crash near Palmer in east-central Nebraska.

Authorities say Tyler Hillmer died after Friday night’s accident. Hillmer was a passenger in a vehicle driven by 17-year-old Heath McClellan, also from Palmer. McClellan was released from a hospital on Sunday.

The Howard County Sheriff’s Office says the accident occurred about 11 p.m. on 15th Avenue between the Merrick County line and Arthur Road. McClellan lost control of his vehicle, which went into a ditch and rolled, throwing out both teenagers.

The Grand Island Independent says (https://bit.ly/19WQe9D) there will be a visitation for students at Palmer Public School on Wednesday, with a public visitation to follow. A funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday in the school gym.

(AP) — The Nebraska Court of Appeals has ordered a lower court to hold a hearing on a man’s motion for post-conviction relief.

Michael Mesadieu was 17 in 2005, when police say he shot at a taxi driver 13 times after he and two others robbed her and ran over her with her taxi. The woman, who suffered three gunshot wounds, survived. Mesadieu was convicted and sentenced to up to 32 years for attempted murder and up to 15 years for a gun count. Both sentences are to be served one after the other.

Mesadieu, now 25, says a Douglas County District Court was wrong to deny his motion for post-conviction relief last year without holding an evidentiary hearing.

On Tuesday, the Nebraska Court of Appeals agreed.

(AP) — A judge has denied the state of Nebraska’s motion for a retrial in the case of a former Beatrice hospital patient who was awarded damages following negligent treatment.

Gage County District Court Judge Paul Korslund rejected the motion Tuesday and upheld the $150,000 award in Ian Ham’s case.

Assistant Attorney General Michael Rumbaugh had argued that there was not a sufficient basis for the amount of money awarded. But the state did not dispute that a doctor at the Beatrice State Developmental Center was negligent for failing to properly examine Ham in 2008.

Ham’s mother filed a lawsuit in 2009. Korslund ruled in favor of Ham and his mother in July.

Ham was among the nearly 50 “medically fragile” people later moved from the center.