ASHLAND, Neb. (AP) — The National Weather Service says a weak tornado briefly moved through a rural area between Lincoln and Omaha on Thursday.

The weather service in Valley, just west of Omaha, says the tornado hit just before 5 p.m. Thursday near Ashland as strong thunderstorms moved across the southeastern and eastern portions of Nebraska.

The Saunders County Sheriff’s Department says no injuries or damage have been reported from the tornado.

The weather service says it expects to gather more information on the tornado later Thursday or Friday.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The head of Missouri’s public defender system says he is appointing Gov. Jay Nixon to handle a case in protest of declining funding.

Michael Barrett, the director of Missouri’s Public Defender System, wrote in a letter this week that repeated budget cuts have left his office unable to hire enough public defenders for people who can’t afford representation. The letter to Nixon was posted this week on the office’s website.

Barrett says the law allows him to appoint any Missouri attorney to secure representation for indigent clients. He says he’s starting with Nixon, a former attorney general. Barrett wrote that Nixon “not only created this problem, but is in a unique position to address it.”

Nixon’s office didn’t immediately respond to an email Thursday from The Associated Press seeking comment.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration office in Kansas City has proposed $105,000 in penalties for a Warrensburg aluminum foundry where a worker was crushed to death.

OSHA says the 57-year-old maintenance worker, who wasn’t identified, died in February when a 4,000-pound machine part fell on him while he was working at Stahl Specialty Company in Warrensburg.

Stahl Specialty, which is based in Kingsville, was also cited in January for a serious violation after a worker suffered an amputation injury two months earlier.

OSHA said in a release Thursday it found Stahl didn’t use certain machine safety procedures to prevent the February accident. OSHA cited the company for one repeated and five serious safety violations.

Stahl, which can contest the OSHA penalties, didn’t immediately respond to a message Thursday evening.

NEWTON, Kan. (AP) — The head of Amtrak celebrated the salvation of Newton’s passenger rail service and said there’s a possibility Wichita could get service.

Joe Boardman, Amtrak’s president and CEO, was in Newton on Thursday and called the Southwest Chief, which runs through Newton, a “critical link.” The Southwest Chief carries about 350,000 people a year from Chicago to Los Angeles. The route was threatened in Kansas by aged track.

The Wichita Eagle reports Boardman said Amtrak has invested about $40 million on area rails, which are owned by a railroad. He says Amtrak is also considering the possibility of restoring rail service from Newton through Wichita to link up with Oklahoma and Texas trains.

But he says that depends on whether states and communities are willing to support it.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge has granted class action status to a lawsuit filed against the Wilson County sheriff over his jail’s policy of allowing inmates to receive and send only postcards in the mail.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson on Thursday granted the request for class certification. The class would cover at least 40 people, the average daily inmate population at the jail.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and the Social Justice Law Collective sued Figgins in April alleging the policy violates the free speech and due process rights of prisoners and the people who write to them.

Sheriff Pete Figgins has defended the policy saying some people use coded language or plant a letter in sealed envelopes meant for someone whom they’re not supposed to contact.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A county official says enough signatures were gathered to allow a grand jury to criminally investigate Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s handling of Kansas’ online voter registration system.

But even Kobach’s harshest critics say they’ve seen no evidence he committed a crime.

Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew said Thursday that the petition has more than the required number of verified signatures. The next step is a judge’s review.

Kobach didn’t immediately return messages for comment.

The petition seeks an investigation into whether his office committed election fraud and voter suppression by deleting registration data.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is suing Kobach over voting rights issues, says it’s seen no evidence of criminal conduct.

Under a rarely used Kansas law, grand juries can be assembled by citizen petitions.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A light that appeared high over St. Louis’ Gateway Arch is perplexing officials.

The mystery started when an Illinois man shot video of the light early Tuesday morning and shared it with KTVI-TV. After seeing the report, an employee at an Illinois park across the river from the arch took a look at footage from a security camera and also saw the same light.

The video has been posted on the park’s Facebook page.

Mike Buehlhorn, director of the Metro East Parks and Recreation District, says he doesn’t know if he believes in UFOs, but “there’s something weird with that one.”

Spokesmen for the nearby Scott Air Force Base and the Federal Aviation Administration say they know nothing about the source of the light.

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle-based Amazon is unveiling its first branded cargo plane, one of 40 jetliners that will make up the e-commerce giant’s own air transportation network as it takes more control of its delivery process.

The latest push to speed delivery of its products comes as the company ships an increasing number of packages worldwide. Amazon’s parcel volume was an estimated 1 billion packages in 2015 — the same number that FedEx delivered three years earlier for hundreds of thousands of customers.

Amazon has had issues with the reliability of air freight services. In 2013, it offered refunds to customers who got their Christmas orders late after bad weather and a jump in online shopping caused delays for UPS and FedEx.

Analysts say it makes sense for Amazon to use an air fleet it controls as another way to get its products to online shoppers drawn to fast, no-extra-cost delivery.

Amazon will reveal its branded cargo plane, Amazon One, Friday at the annual Seafair Air Show. The plane will buzz over Seattle’s Lake Washington just before the Navy’s Blue Angels take to the skies, a company official said.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Missouri’s largest airport could soon get a name change.

The region’s airport commission is considering changing the name of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport to St. Louis International Airport at Lambert Field.

The airport is named for Albert Bond Lambert, who learned to fly with the Wright Brothers. The airport says Lambert was responsible for bringing the 1923 International Air Races to St. Louis. Lambert also was one of the first financial backers for Charles Lindbergh’s famous non-stop flight from New York to Paris in 1927 aboard the plane dubbed the “Spirit of St. Louis.”

But a recent survey showed that the name Lambert doesn’t connect with most passengers.

The airport commission is expected to vote on the name change Sept. 7.

HANNIBAL, Mo. (AP) — Visitors to the Marion County Courthouse in Hannibal are asking: What’s that smell?

The Hannibal Courier-Post reports that a foul odor has permeated the courthouse recently, something akin to a dead animal, but no animal has been found.

Commissioners believe the smell may be decaying remains of pigeons that got into the building about a month ago through a broken window in the rotunda. Workers shooed out the pigeons at the time and replaced the window, but Presiding Commissioner Lyndon Bode says some of the pigeons may have been hidden from view and later died.

Officials have been airing out the building in part by leaving windows open, and a restoration company was hired to clean the attic. Business at the court house has continued despite the odor.