McCOOK, Neb. (AP) — A 36-year-old McCook man has been sentenced for several burglaries and an escape attempt.

Local media reports that Happ Wells was given 18-20 years for burglary and theft and 14-16 years for the escape attempt, to be served consecutively. He’s also listed in court records as Hap E. Wells.

The burglaries occurred between September and December last year.

Authorities say his accomplice on several of the crimes, 36-year-old Tammy Knight, accepted a plea agreement on a burglary charge. Her sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 6.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police have released the name of a 23-year-old man who died after his car crashed into a west Omaha carwash business.

Officers were dispatched to the scene a little after 2 a.m. Thursday. Police say the man was alone in his car and was declared dead at the scene.

He was identified as Benjamin Botkin, who lived in the suburban Omaha city of Ralston.

Crash investigators suspect Botkin had been speeding when he lost control of his car and was ejected as it ran off the road into the carwash.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 37-year-old Lincoln man has been given four to eight years in prison for possessing cocaine with intent to sell.

John Sampson was sentenced in Lancaster County District Court on Tuesday.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports (https://bit.ly/LnyC5B) that on Nov. 5, Sampson was an intoxicated passenger in a traffic stop and was taken to Cornhusker Place Detox. Authorities say nearly 22 grams of cocaine was found there in one of his pockets.

In 2002 Sampson was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison, later reduced to four years, for distributing another illegal drug, ecstasy.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A new study suggests cougars are again spreading across the Midwest a century after the generally reclusive predators were hunted to near extinction in much of the region.

The findings by a University of Minnesota doctoral student, a Southern Illinois University wildlife ecologist and the Cougar Network are detailed in the latest Journal of Wildlife Management.

The study showed 178 cougar confirmations in the Midwest and as far south of Texas between 1990 and 2008.

Confirmed sightings of Midwest cougars were sporadic before 1990, when there were only a couple. The study shows that number spiked to more than 30 by 2008.

Sixty-seven confirmations were in Nebraska, 31 in North Dakota, 12 each in Oklahoma and Texas, 11 in South Dakota and 10 in Missouri. Other states had single-digit tallies.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Federal authorities have indicted a fifth person who prosecutors say used spas as fronts for a prostitution operation in Omaha.

Federal prosecutors say the spas attracted customers from the Omaha area, elsewhere in Nebraska and from other states.

The prosecutors say 45-year-old Kimberly Bivens, of Omaha, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to a conspiracy charge.

The other four are 63-year-old William Knox, of Omaha; 41-year-old Tammy Schuck, of Omaha; 31-year-old Christopher Tierney, of Omaha; and 22-year-old Tabatha Ashburn, of Junction City, Kan.

All four have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and other charges.

Trial dates haven’t been set.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Army National Guard has sent a helicopter and crew to help fight wildfires in Colorado.

Nebraska Guard officials say they deployed a UH-60 Black Hawk and four-member crew from the 1-376th Aviation Battalion. They’ve been sent to the Fort Collins, Colo., area.

The helicopter is equipped with a 660-gallon bucket that can scoop water from lakes and other water bodies so it can be spread on or ahead of flames.

The helicopter left Lincoln on Tuesday and could remain in Colorado for more than a couple of weeks.

The Nebraska Guard says the help was requested through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, a multistate agreement that eases the way for emergency aid from state to state.