KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — Criminal charges have been filed against the driver of a semitrailer truck related to a June crash that caused the death of a 14-year-old girl.

The 37-year-old truck driver from Gastonia, North Carolina, has been charged with misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide.

Rachelle Kort of Mitchell, Nebraska, was killed in the June 29 crash on Interstate 80 near the Odessa exit.

Prosecutors say the truck driver parked on the south shoulder of I-80 to look up directions. When he tried to merge back into traffic, the truck struck a 2007 Honda Accord that Kort was riding in.

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An air carrier based in Alaska says it’s filing a Chapter 11 reorganization plan.

PenAir announced Monday it’s closing its Denver hub pending approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The move would end essential air service routes between Denver and Liberal and Dodge City, Kansas, and North Platte and Kearney, Nebraska.

The company says a transition to a new carrier usually takes 30 to 90 days.

PenAir had previously announced it was ending Portland, Oregon, regional routes. All but an essential air service route between Portland and Crescent City, California, are to be shut down after Monday.

Operations in Alaska and Boston will not be affected.

PenAir CEO Danny Seybert in the announcement says the reorganization will allow the company to emerge as a stronger airline.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A state commission that will decide whether to approve or deny the Keystone XL pipeline in Nebraska has kicked off the first day of legal hearings on the project.

The Nebraska Public Service Commission is scheduled to hear testimony in a series of hearings that could run from Monday through Friday.

The $8 billion pipeline would transport oil from tar sands deposits in Alberta, Canada, across Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska, where it would connect with existing pipelines that feed Texas Gulf Coast refineries.

On Monday, attorney Dave Domina grilled an executive who would manage the project about why TransCanada had created multiple companies and which ones would be held accountable.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The head of the Nebraska state troopers’ union is pushing back against portions of a governor’s report detailing problems within the Nebraska State Patrol, saying the report unfairly puts part of the blame on the union.

Patrol Sgt. Brian Petersen, president of the State Troopers Association of Nebraska, said Friday that the union supported the recent firing of patrol head Brad Rice and had sought to highlight problems within the patrol prior to the governor’s report.

Gov. Pete Ricketts on Thursday released a report that blasted patrol leaders for what it said were several failings, including trying to influence the outcome of internal investigations.

The report also said Rice had an “unduly familiar” relationship with Petersen that allowed Peterson to influence patrol decision-making.

Petersen vehemently denied that.

NEW YORK (AP) — After a decade of development and several postponements, the long-awaited Stephen King adaptation “The Dark Tower” debuted with an estimated $19.5 million in North American ticket sales, narrowly edging out the two-week leader “Dunkirk.”

The so-so result for “The Dark Tower,” starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, wasn’t spectacular, but ambitions had already been scaled down for the movie, made for about $65 million by Sony Pictures and Media Rights Capital.

Christopher Nolan’s World War II epic “Dunkirk” slid to second with $17.6 million in its third week. It’s now made $133.6 million domestically.

Another long delayed film made its debut. The Halle Berry thriller “Kidnap” opened with $10.2 million.

In its first week of wide release, the Kathryn Bigelow-directed docudrama “Detroit” disappointed with $7.8 million.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Hunters may begin purchasing Nebraska fall turkey permits later this month.

The permits will be available starting Aug. 14 at OutdoorNebraska.org and Nebraska Game and Parks Commission permitting offices.

The permits are valid statewide and allow hunters to harvest two turkeys of either sex with a shotgun or archery equipment. Each hunter may have up to two permits. There is no minimum age requirement for youth. The fall turkey season runs Sept. 15-Jan. 31, 2018.

Read the 2017 Turkey Guide at outdoornebraska.gov/guides for more information.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Supporters and critics have sounded off at a Nebraska Board of Education meeting on a proposal to teach climate change in Nebraska’s public schools.

Nearly 70 people attended the meeting Friday in Lincoln as the board prepares to adopting new science standards next month. For the first time, the standards would specifically include the teaching of climate change. The wording of the latest draft calls on students to “evaluate the reliability and validity” of climate models before making a projection of future climate trends.

That’s a change from an earlier draft that treated climate change as settled science.

Omaha science teacher Michael Fryda urged the board to adopt the new standards. But former Millard School Board member Paul Meyer called climate change “a hoax.”

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The University of Nebraska Board of Regents is expected to name the new University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Business building after board member Howard Hawks.

The university says in a news release that the board is expected to approve the new name at an Aug. 11 meeting. The $84 million building, 240,000-square-foot set to open later this month will be named Howard L. Hawks Hall.

Hawks, of Omaha, has served as a regent since 2002, representing portions of central Omaha. He served as the board’s chairman in 2005 and 2014.

Hawks and his wife took a lead role in supporting the privately funded building, but asked the university not to disclose the amount they donated.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska Supreme Court ruling has cleared the way for a former public announcer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Memorial Stadium to again be tried for theft and other counts.

The state’s high court on Friday ruled that Patrick Combs’ trial court did not wrongly declare a mistrial in his case last year. Combs’ attorney says the presiding juror has said the jury voted unanimously to find Combs not guilty of three charges, but deadlocked on a fourth charge. The juror believed that information had been conveyed to the judge.

The high court said Combs’ request for acquittal on the three counts couldn’t be granted because it came after the mistrial was declared.

Prosecutors say Combs took hundreds of thousands of dollars from an elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer’s before her 2015 death. Combs countered that the woman thought of him as a son and encouraged him to spend the money.

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) — North Platte authorities say a 12-year-old girl who took her mom’s car without permission got caught the hard way: in a collision.

The accident occurred around 11:15 a.m. Thursday, when the car she was driving east collided at an intersection with a northbound car. Police say the girl had halted for a stop sign but apparently didn’t see the other car as she drove out into traffic.

She was taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries. It’s unclear whether the other driver was hurt.

Police cited the girl for driving without a license.