LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A push to create “Choose Life” specialty license plates has been withdrawn from the Nebraska Legislature.

Senators abandoned the bill Monday at the sponsor’s request.

Sen. Tommy Garrett of Bellevue says the measure faced sharp opposition from lawmakers who support abortion rights.

He has chosen to focus on other bills in the legislative session’s final days, such as his priority measure to legalize medical marijuana.

The bill would have authorized the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles to create “Choose Life” plates that cost $5 more than standard plates. The additional revenue would go toward funding prenatal care facilities.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Grand Island officers have given a grandma some unsolicited advice about leashing her grandchild to a pole: don’t.

The officers were sent to a motel around 4:30 p.m. Sunday after a 911 caller reported seeing the child on a leash there. The officers say the woman had safely attached the child leash to the pole so the child wouldn’t wander onto U.S. Highway 30 nearby.

She didn’t want the 3-year-old to get hurt.

But Sgt. Tony Kuiper says the leash could have posed a problem had the child fallen or got snagged on something while not being supervised.

The officers told the woman that leashing the child to the pole just wasn’t as safe as she thought. They didn’t issue her a citation.

CATAWISSA, Mo. (AP) — Authorities in eastern Missouri’s Franklin County are investigating an explosion that heavily damaged a vacant cabin.

Sheriff Gary Toelke says no one was injured during the blast about 7 p.m. Sunday near Catawissa.

Toelke says authorities don’t yet know what caused the explosion. But he says searchers of the damaged cabin found an explosive called Tannerite, a material that can be bought at sporting goods stores for target practice.

Toelke says the owner of the cabin, a Robertsville man, later was arrested after deputies with a search warrant for his home were denied access by him. The sheriff says suspected methamphetamine, other explosive materials and weapons were found there.

FREEMAN, S.D. (AP) — TransCanada Corp. has shut down the Keystone pipeline while it investigates a possible spill in southeastern South Dakota.

The company says the potential leak was first reported Saturday afternoon. Crews sent to the scene in Hutchinson County found signs of oil on a “small surface area” about 4 miles from its Freeman pump station.

TransCanada is removing the oil and investigating where it came from. The company says it has found no significant harm to the environment.

The Keystone pipeline runs from the Canadian province of Alberta to refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma, passing through the eastern Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. It is separate from the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

TransCanada says it has notified landowners, regulatory and government agencies, and pipeline customers.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says a convicted sex offender did not have to update his status on the federal sex offender registry after moving to a foreign country.

The justices on Monday ruled unanimously in favor of Lester Nichols, a Kansas man who moved to the Philippines after his release from prison in 2012. Nichols moved without notifying authorities.

He was convicted of failing to update his sex-offender registration. A federal appeals court upheld his conviction.

Justice Samuel Alito said a straightforward reading of the law at the time did not require registry updates after moving out of the United States. He noted that Congress has since criminalized the failure of sex offenders to offer information about foreign travel.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a worker who fell to his death last month in Springfield had been removing paint from a pallet when it broke.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that 25-year-old Josh Halphin fell five stories while helping to move paint buckets. The paint was stacked on a wooden pallet that a forklift had raised to a balcony.

A witness told police he believes the workers may have retrieved too much paint from one side of the pallet, causing the pallet to tilt and break. Police said Halphin had at least one foot on the pallet when it flipped.

An attorney for his employer, RF Barratt Enterprises, says in a statement that the company intended for the workers to use an enclosed stairwell to move the paint. Federal officials are investigating.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska drivers will soon be able to help build a real-time map of road conditions through a new data-sharing program with the Department of Roads.

The department announced a partnership with navigation app Waze on Thursday.

The Waze Connected Citizens Program will allow drivers who are logged into the app to contribute traffic and road data anonymously while driving. Drivers can also share road reports, police traps and hazards. The Waze map evolves as it receives more data points from drivers, according to a news release.

The department will provide users with government-reported construction, road closure data and advance notice of major traffic events such as parades.

Department director Kyle Schneweis says the free app will help to ease congestion and inform infrastructure in the state.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas inmate accused of raping and trying to kill a woman last summer has been found dead in his cell.

The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office says 59-year-old Gary McCormick was found unresponsive in his cell at 4:51 a.m. Sunday while detention staff was conducting a routine welfare check of inmates.

Detention center staff and in-house medical workers tried to save his life but were unsuccessful.

McCormick was housed alone and had been in custody since July awaiting trial for attempted first-degree murder, rape, aggravated criminal sodomy, aggravated battery and felony fleeing and eluding.

The Sheriff’s Office is investigating his death.

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) — More than 150 marksmen from across the country are expected to visit western Nebraska later this month for a two-day shooting competition with some targets up to 1,400 yards away.

The competition will be one of the biggest events of its kind because few events focus on long-range shooting.

Most of the targets will be set up 400-to-800-yards away but some will be barely visible to the naked eye because of the distances involved. The competition will be held April 15th through 17th.

This will be the third competition since Eli Grow and Travis Petersen met at a local gun show last year and started talking about long-range shooting. They formed Western Nebraska Precision Shooters to hold the events.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City officials say repairing a lightning-damaged sculpture that is a fixture of the downtown skyline will cost more than $1 million.

The Star reports that the city’s insurance is expected to cover the cost of fixing the futuristic sculpture.

It’s one of four that sits atop the 300-foot tall pylons that suspend the Bartle Hall Convention Center above Interstate 670.

City Manager Troy Schulte says workers first noticed the damage last fall while setting up blue lights on the sculptures to celebrate the Kansas City Royals’ winning season. This is the first damage to the Sky Stations since they were installed in 1994.

On Wednesday, a City Council committee is expected to consider a $1.3 million repair contract with the fabricator that built the sculptures.