HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — A former Hastings police detective has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor theft count for running a fraudulent fundraising site.

The Nebraska Attorney General’s Office says Jerry Esch entered the plea Friday in Adams County District Court.

Prosecutors say that in November 2015, Esch was an officer with the Hastings Police Department when he created a GoFundMe page, asking for money to cover medical expenses for cancer treatment. He raised more than $30,000.

Officials say that while Esch did have cancer, he did not have the medical bills he claimed to have incurred.

Esch has been ordered to pay $7,500 in restitution. He is no longer employed by the Hastings department.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The director of the U.S. Agriculture Department Rural Development for Nebraska has announced she’s leaving her post.

Maxine Moul said in a news release that her exit is effective Jan. 20.

She was named to the position in June 2009 and managed a staff that ran more than 40 housing, business, electric, telecommunications, water and wastewater and community facility programs.

Moul served the state from 1991 to 1993 as lieutenant governor for Ben Nelson, who was governor. She resigned in 1993 to become the director of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.

GERING, Neb. (AP) — Scotts Bluff County commissioners tentatively have approved a more than $4 million project to help alleviate overcrowding at the county jail in Gering.

The plans discussed Thursday include a 10-bed medical unit and a relocation of the administrator offices that will provide room for eight inmate beds.

The project will be paid for with $1.1 million from the county capital improvement fund and a $3 million bond issue. The board had been considering an $11 million expansion project.

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) — A North Platte man who was accused of child abuse in 2009 has been charged in a new case.

Online court records say 31-year-old James Coleman Jr. is charged with four counts of felony intentional child abuse. A phone listed for him is no longer in service. The court records don’t list the name an attorney who could comment for him. Coleman’s arraignment is scheduled for Feb. 8.

The new case began June 4, when hospital doctors told police about several fractured ribs and a skull fracture they found on Coleman’s 2-month-old baby, who’d been taken to the hospital.

Court records say Coleman was charged with intentional child abuse causing injury in 2009. He pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of misdemeanor assault and was given 12 months’ probation.

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — The man who drove two others back to Chicago after they robbed a Kearney credit union has been sent to prison.

Clifton Hudson was sentenced Thursday to 16½ years and ordered to pay nearly $123,000 in restitution jointly with co-defendants Patrick Wigley and Thomas Dunlap. Hudson had pleaded guilty.

Wigley was sentenced to 17½ years and Dunlap was given 11 years for their roles in the Oct. 17, 2014, robbery of the Kearney Federal Credit Union.

Authorities say Hudson was living in Kearney when Dunlap and Wigley traveled there the day before the robbery. Hudson drove the two to the credit union office, drove them away afterward and soon took them back to Chicago, where they divided their haul.

CVS is now selling a rival generic version of Mylan’s EpiPen at about a sixth of its price, just months after the maker of the emergency allergy treatment was eviscerated before Congress because of its soaring cost to consumers.

The drugstore chain says it will charge $109.99 for a two-pack of the authorized generic version of Adrenaclick, a lesser-known treatment compared to EpiPen, which can cost more than $600.

CVS Health Corp., the nation’s second-largest drugstore chain, says it cut the price of the generic version of Adrenaclick nearly in half.

The treatments are used in emergencies to stop anaphylaxis, the potentially fatal allergic reactions to insect bites and stings and foods like nuts and eggs.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts is calling on lawmakers to pass a property tax overhaul, merge state agencies and approve incremental income tax cuts that would begin in 2020.

The Republican governor also used his third annual State of the State address to call for lighter job-licensing regulations in a variety of professions.

The plan would lower the state’s top income tax bracket in increments anytime state revenue grows by more than 3.5 percent. It also would change the way property taxes are calculated, using a landowner’s potential income rather than a land parcel’s market value.

Ricketts’ speech came in the midst of a projected $900 million budget shortfall. His plan calls for budget cuts at the University of Nebraska and state agencies, but increases funding for K-12 public schools.