AINSWORTH, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a pilot has perished in the crash of a plane in northern Nebraska.

The plane took off Saturday morning from Ainsworth Regional Airport in Brown County, heading to North Dakota. Authorities say the wreckage was found Saturday evening, just a few miles from the airport.

The name of the pilot, who was alone in the aircraft, has not been released.

The crash cause is being investigated.

COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska Public Power District executive will lead a national utility trade group for the next year.

NPPD’s Chief Operating Officer Tom Kent was recently chosen at the president of RMEL.

The group serves the utility industry with education and networking services.

The utilities that participate in the group share techniques and practices to help the industry improve.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s job-licensing requirements will face renewed scrutiny in next year’s legislative session if a lawmaker and two unlikely allies have their way.

Lawmakers and Gov. Pete Ricketts targeted the state’s occupational licensing rules earlier this year. They ended the 2016 session with a handful of changes, but state Sen. Laura Ebke of Crete is pushing for a more sweeping approach next year.

Ebke will travel to Lincoln, Lexington, Norfolk and Omaha this fall to pitch her idea directly to the public. She’ll be joined by the right-leaning Platte Institute, which advocates for free markets, and the left-leaning American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska, which wants more job opportunities for ex-prisoners.

Some professions may welcome the changes, but others argue that occupational licensing protects public safety.

CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — The average price of a gallon of regular-grade gasoline fell 7 cents nationally over the past two weeks, to $2.62.

Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg Survey said Sunday that the drop comes as flooded refineries continue to come back online after the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey.

Lundberg says she expects prices will continue to fall in the next few weeks.

Gas in San Francisco was the highest in the contiguous United States at an average of $3.18 a gallon. The lowest was in St. Louis at $2.19 a gallon.

The U.S. average diesel price is $2.51, down 2 cents from two weeks ago.

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) — Early harvest of sugar beets in western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming has begun.

Western Sugar vice president Jerry Darnell says the company’s plants in Scottsbluff and Torrington, Wyoming, have bought over 100,000 tons of beets with an average sugar content of nearly 16 percent. Darnell says that average has been rising daily.

American Sugar Alliance chief economist Jack Roney says this year’s harvest is occurring at one of the best times for sugar prices. Roney says prices have increased in recent months from 28- to 29-cents a pound to 32- to 33-cents a pound currently.

The regular sugar beet harvest is set to begin Oct. 6.

GERING, Neb. (AP) — A former Gering Police sergeant has been fined $650, plus court costs, after pleading no contest in a case in which officials allege he stole from a program that helps kids purchase gifts at Christmas.

40-year-old Henry Moreno was fined Friday after entering the plea to one misdemeanor theft count in Scotts Bluff County Court.

In exchange for his plea, two other theft counts were dropped.

Prosecutors had said Moreno stole from the Shop with a Cop program on three separate occasions, totaling $1,300.

Moreno resigned from the Gering Police Department in August.

alLINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — About 60 Nebraska soldiers are participating in a multinational military training exercise in Sweden.

Nebraska Army National Guard members spent Thursday parachuting onto an island in the Baltic Sea, conducting surveillance and reporting their opponents’ activities.

The soldiers face a language barrier as they work side-by-side with Swedish soldiers on the island of Gotland, but that’s one of the goals. Soldiers are learning to work through such challenges together through Aurora 17, a massive military training exercise involving nearly 20,000 troopers from eight countries.

Maj. Gen. John Gronski, deputy commanding general for the Army National Guard in Europe, says the exercises help highlight challenges and find ways to overcome them. The mission is also to help Sweden learn to better defend its borders.

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GERING, Neb. (AP) — Gov. Pete Ricketts has appointed a Scottsbluff attorney to fill a western Nebraska district judgeship left vacant by the retiring of longtime District Judge Randall Lippstreu earlier this year.

Andrea Miller, of Bayard, has been named the new district judge for the 12th Judicial District of Nebraska.

Miller is currently an attorney at Simmons Olsen Law Firm in Scottsbluff. She holds a bachelor of science in political science from the University of Nebraska at Kearney and received her law degree from the University of Nebraska.

Her primary office will be in Gering in Scotts Bluff County. The district also includes Banner, Box Butte, Cheyenne, Dawes, Deuel, Garden, Grant, Kimball, Morrill, Sheridan and Sioux counties.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A spokeswoman for the Nebraska Secretary of State’s office says Nebraska was not among those states targeted by hackers last year.

Laura Strimple says the U.S. Department of Homeland Security contacted the office Friday, but only to share that Nebraska’s system had not been among those targeted.

That comes as election officials in 21 states were told by the federal agency that hackers targeted their systems last year, although most were not breached.

Homeland Security officials tell The Associated Press that hackers believed to be Russian agents targeted the voter registration systems in September.

Strimple says this one-time her office is happy “being at the bottom of the list.”

HOLDREGE, Neb. (AP) — Officials in south-central Nebraska are issuing a warning about possible rabies exposure at a little league football game last weekend.

The Two Rivers Public Health Department in Holdrege says a bat that was in the area during the event in Cozad on Sunday has tested positive for rabies. The department is asking anyone who had direct contact with a bat to immediately seek medical attention and contact the health department.

Rabies is a viral disease transmitted through the bite or scratch of an infected animal that affects people. It is almost always fatal if not treated before symptoms appear.