OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha man was sentenced to a day in jail for poisoning four cottonwood trees on city property.

Court records say 44-year-old Donald Grenawalt was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty to criminal mischief. He was credited with a day he’d already served. Grenawalt also must pay $10,000 in restitution.

Officials say they found four or five holes had been drilled into each tree trunk. Court records say Grenawalt told a city employee who knew him that he’d poisoned the trees because they were messy and he was sick of them. The documents say investigators found drills and bits at Grenawalt’s home and chemicals that could have been poured into the trees.

The dead trees were cut down Thursday.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s top election official has announced a bill that would require voters to show identification at the polls, and Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature have indicated a willingness to pass it into law.

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate told reporters Thursday that a voter ID bill was needed to ensure integrity in Iowa’s election system. The assertion comes after Pate released a statement in October calling Iowa “one of the best states in the nation for both voter participation and voter integrity.”

Pate says the system is clean but needs to be kept that way. There is little evidence of fraudulent voting in Iowa.

Sen. Jeff Danielson, a Cedar Falls Democrat, says the changes would disenfranchise voters.

Pate didn’t provide a copy of the proposed bill but confirmed it wouldn’t allow use of student IDs as valid identification to vote.

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — After more than a century in operation, a Catholic high school in Leavenworth is closing its doors after this school year.

The Board of Trustees of the Leavenworth Regional Catholic School System announced Wednesday it will recommend that Archbishop Joseph Naumann close Immaculata High School, which offers seventh through 12th grade.

The Leavenworth Times reports the school will close June 2. Xavier Catholic School, which offers preschool through sixth grade, will remain open. Seventh- and eighth-grade students from Immaculata will move to Xavier next year.

School officials said struggling enrollment has caused cost per student to exceed revenue per student by more than $5,000.

The Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas said 66 students are currently enrolled in ninth through 12th grade at Immaculata.

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has chosen West Des Moines-based Hy-Vee to participate in a program that will let food stamp recipients shop for groceries online.

Hy-Vee is one of seven retailers that will participate in the two-year pilot program, which will begin this summer.

The USDA says it hopes to expand access to healthy food for people who receive food stamps, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

People won’t be able to use their food stamp benefits to pay service or delivery charges.

It wasn’t clear whether the program would be offered only in Iowa or if Hy-Vee customers in other states could participate.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A western Kansas family is outraged after game wardens killed a deer that was allowed inside their house and took walks with the family.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Kim Mcgaughey, of rural Ulysses, described the deer as “very much a big pet.” The 2-year-old mule deer was named Faline, after Bambi’s friend and future mate in the cartoon movie.

But it’s illegal to keep a wild animal as a pet in Kansas, and wildlife officials said something had to be done.

The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism says pet deer have killed at least two people. The department said it was trying to protect people from being physically injured by the deer, and eliminate the possibility of disease being passed to humans, livestock and other deer.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Ridesharing company Uber will give free rides on Missouri’s inauguration day in Jefferson City.

A statement from Uber provided to The Associated Press on Thursday says free rides through the app-based service are available from 7 a.m. Monday until 2 a.m. Tuesday.

Incoming Republican Gov. Eric Greitens and four other statewide elected officials will be sworn into office Monday. Celebrations include a Capitol ball.

Rides are free for those going to inaugural events.

Uber currently operates in St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield and Columbia. Republican House Speaker Todd Richardson says he wants to pass statewide regulations for ridesharing companies such as Uber. The company has said it likely would expand if there are statewide regulations instead of different regulations in each city.

Bills to do so failed last year.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City group is seeking a required citywide vote before any streetcar expansion can occur.

The Kansas City Star reports that the group filed petition signatures with the city clerk’s office Tuesday. The city attorney’s office will review the petition.

Election authorities will see if the group meets the threshold of 1,708 valid signatures of registered voters to place a measure on a Kansas City ballot.

City Attorney Cecilia Abbott says former City Attorney Bill Geary reviewed a preliminary petition last summer and made suggestions to its wording. Abbott says she doesn’t know if all those suggestions were incorporated, so she’ll review the petition language to see if it’s constitutional.

The newspaper couldn’t reach Kansas City attorney Sherry DeJanes, a member of the committee of petitioners, for comment.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The youngest of five people convicted in the deaths of six Kansas City firefighters will be resentenced in February.

Bryan Sheppard was sentenced to life in prison for an arson fire that sparked an explosion and killed the firefighters. Sheppard was 17 at the time of the November 1988 explosion.

The Kansas City Star reports Sheppard was granted a new sentencing hearing after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional to impose life without parole sentences on juveniles.

Sheppard, now 45, will be resentenced Feb. 15 and 16.

Firefighters Thomas Fry, Gerald Halloran, Luther Hurd, James Kilventon Jr., Robert D. McKarnin and Michael Oldham died in the explosion at a construction site in south Kansas City.

 

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Health officials have confirmed one case of mumps at the University of Kansas and are investigating nine other suspected cases since mid-December.

The Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department announced the findings Wednesday. Mary Beverly, the department’s director of epidemiology, says it’s not clear where the cases were contracted but some likely spread before the university’s winter break on Dec. 16. The first day for spring classes is Jan. 17.

Beverly said some of the students who became ill lived in group housing but others did not. She declined to share more details.

The University of Missouri reported more than 220 mumps cases by mid-December.

Federal officials say the 258 cases of mumps nationwide as of early December is the largest outbreak since 2006.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A group representing electronic cigarette retailers in Kansas is fighting to prevent the state from enforcing a new tax on vaping fluid.

A lobbyist for the Kansas Vapers Association argued during a legislative committee meeting Tuesday that the bill imposing the new tax on e-cigarettes was drafted poorly and made the original intent unclear.

The association told the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules and Regulations that legislators should revisit the law before allowing the Kansas Department of Revenue to enforce the tax.

A provision to a tax bill passed in 2015 imposed a new tax on vaping fluid of 20 cents per milliliter of “consumable material.”