(AP) — A 23-year-old Lincoln man has been given six months in jail in a child abuse case.

Online court records say Chad Hollibaugh was sentenced last week. He’d made a deal with prosecutors, who lowered the charge in exchange for Hollibaugh’s plea of no contest.

Court records say a day care worker noticed bruises on the 2-year-old girl’s face in March and called state authorities. More bruises were found later on her buttocks, legs and back. The little girl indicated that her father had caused the bruises.

(AP) — Nearly a mile underground in an abandoned gold mine, one of the most important quests in physics has come up empty-handed.

Scientists announced Wednesday that the most advanced Earth-based search for dark matter turned up absolutely no evidence of the mysterious material that has mass but cannot be seen.

Physicists released the initial findings after the first few months of experiments at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, which was built in the former Homestake gold mine in South Dakota’s Black Hills.

The site’s underground location helps screen out background radiation, potentially making it easier for scientists to trap dark matter, which they hoped would be revealed in the form of weakly interacting particles nicknamed WIMPS.

(AP) — In a Lincoln speech, a Yale law professor will discuss efforts to patrol the wall of separation between church and state.

Stephen Carter’s lecture is titled “The Current Situation in Church and State.” It is scheduled to begin at noon Friday in Hamann Auditorium at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The event is free and open to the public.

Organizers say Carter will review recent developments and explain how a greater attention to history and game theory will help people gain a richer understanding of how and why to protect the wall of separation.

Carter has taught at Yale since 1982. Among his books on law and politics is “God’s Name in Vain: The Wrongs and Rights of Religion in Politics.”

(AP) — Scientists have found a planet way out in the cosmos that’s close in size and content to Earth — an astronomical first.

But hold off on the travel plans. This rocky world is so close to its sun that it’s at least 2,000 degrees hotter than here, almost certainly too hot for life.

Astrophysicists reported Wednesday in the journal Nature that the exoplanet Kepler-78b appears to be made of rock and iron just like Earth. They measured the planet’s mass to determine its density and content. It’s actually a little bigger than Earth and nearly double its weight.

Kepler-78b is located in the Cygnus constellation hundreds of light-years away. Incredibly, it orbits its sun every 8½ hours.

Scientists used NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope and ground observatories for the studies.

(AP) — The Education Department is seeking the public’s help in developing a rating system for America’s colleges and universities.

The department announced Wednesday that it will be playing host to public forums on the ratings system next month in California, Virginia, Iowa and Louisiana with plans to present a draft system late next year.

The goal of the ratings system sought by President Barack Obama is to help reign in the rising costs of college and to make institutions of higher learning more accountable in areas such as graduation rates.

Members of the higher education community have questioned whether it is the federal government’s job to create such a system and whether it would be fair.

(AP) — Starbucks says its profit rose 34 percent in its fiscal fourth-quarter, as the coffee chain attracted more customers around the world.

The Seattle-based company said global sales rose 7 percent at cafes open at least a year, including an 8 percent rise in both the U.S. and Asia.

Starbucks Corp. has managed to keep growing through a mix of measures. It’s adding items such as Evolution juices, revamped its food offerings and hiked prices over the summer.

For the quarter, Starbucks said it earned $481.1 million, or 63 cents per share. Analysts expected 59 cents per share. A year ago, the company earned $359 million, or 46 cents per share.

Revenue rose to $3.8 billion, but was short of the $3.81 billion analysts expected.

(AP) — An Ohio cancer patient has died less than three weeks after attending his daughter’s wedding on a gurney to fulfill his promise to walk her down the aisle.

A spokesman for University Hospitals in Cleveland says 56-year-old Scott Nagy died at the hospital Monday.

The terminally ill Brunswick man wore a tuxedo and arrived by ambulance for his daughter Sarah’s Oct. 12 church wedding in Strongsville. Guests cried and clapped as the pair made their way down the aisle with help from a volunteer team of medical professionals.

The Plain Dealer reported that from the gurney, Nagy gave away the 24-year-old bride, and when she burst into tears, he reminded her not to streak her makeup.

Nagy was diagnosed last year with urethral cancer and had been hospitalized for months.

(AP) — The leadership of three Omaha-area hospitals with ties to the University of Nebraska Medical Center will be merged.

The change that will affect the operation of UNMC, the Nebraska Medical Center and the Bellevue Medical Center was announced Wednesday.

A new board will be created to oversee all those facilities, and a two-person executive team will be hired to run the enterprise.

The new leadership will also oversee the UNMC Physicians network of outpatient clinics across the area.

The new enterprise has not been named.

Dr. Bradley Britigan will serve as interim president while continuing to act as dean of UNMC’s College of Medicine. The Nebraska Medical Center’s CFO Bill Dinsmoor will serve as interim CEO for the combined enterprise.