NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) — A Colorado man has pleaded not guilty to allegations that he stole two all-terrain vehicles and a trailer from a western Nebraska sheriff’s department.

Richard Keith pleaded not guilty on Monday and is scheduled for a case status hearing on Dec. 7. The 36-year-old Keith is from Evans, Colorado.

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office says the ATVs and a trailer were taken from a county roads department lot in North Platte late on July 29 or early on July 30. The items were recovered in August in the Greeley, Colorado, area.

CRAWFORD, Neb. (AP) — A prosecutor has decided not to charge a Crawford man who accidentally ran over and killed his 80-year-old mother while backing out of his driveway in the northern Nebraska Panhandle.

The accident occurred around 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 21 in Crawford.

Dawes County Attorney Vance Haug says 50-year-old Randy Corbin couldn’t see JoAnn Corbin, who was out walking. Haug says accident analysis and witness reports make it clear the woman’s death was a tragic accident.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska attorney general’s office is defending language approved for a 2016 death penalty ballot measure.

State attorneys argued in a court filing Tuesday that the ballot language is “sufficient, fair and not misleading.” Death penalty opponents have challenged the wording in court, saying it’s slanted in favor of the death penalty.

The ballot language informs voters that retaining the repeal law would eliminate capital punishment and change the “maximum” penalty for first-degree murder to life in prison.

Critics say the word “maximum” is misleading because it incorrectly implies that first-degree murder convicts could face a lesser sentence than life in prison.

Nebraska lawmakers abolished the death penalty in May, but the repeal measure was suspended until voters decide the issue next year.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska regulators have quietly inspected Planned Parenthood of the Heartland’s Lincoln and Omaha clinics at the request of Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts.

Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services surveyors visited the clinics in August. Omaha clinic director Brenda Harvey said surveyors were interested in speaking with staff who handle fetal tissue.

The visits came after a group accusing Planned Parenthood of illegally selling fetal tissue released videos, prompting congressional inquiries and multiple state investigations this summer.

A department spokeswoman said she could provide little information about the inspections, but confirmed regulators made a similar visit to the Bellevue clinic.

The results appear similar to those of public investigations of Planned Parenthood clinics elsewhere that returned no evidence the organization violated state laws for handling fetal tissue.

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) — A North Platte man accused of driving his car into a canal so he could collect on his insurance has been sent to prison.

Court records say 32-year-old Josh Salisbury was sentenced on Monday to 18 to 36 months for insurance fraud and other crimes. He’d pleaded no contest and was convicted after taking a plea deal.

Police say Salisbury reported on June 28, 2014, that the car was parked in front of his home when it was stolen. The car was pulled from the canal in Lincoln County on Aug. 11, 2014. Police says investigators later learned that Salisbury drove the car into the canal and collected $27,500 in insurance.

United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg announced that Anthony James “AJ” Horton, 46, formerly of Stratton, Nebraska, was sentenced on October 21, 2015, in Lincoln, Nebraska, to 28 years in prison by United States Senior District Judge Richard G. Kopf, for production of child pornography.

After serving his prison sentence, Horton will also be required to serve 10 years on supervised release and continue to register as a sex offender.

Horton had been previously convicted of sexual assault of a child in Colorado in 1995 and was already required to register as a sex offender.  The sentence handed down today will run concurrently with any future state prison sentence imposed upon Horton by the District Court of Hitchcock County for state charges to which Horton has pleaded guilty, including an unrelated sexual assault in Hitchcock County.

In addition to the prison term, the Court ordered the forfeiture to the United States of 25 items of computer and surveillance equipment used by Horton in the commission of the illegal activity.

In October 2014, based on numerous reports of sexual assaults and illegal drug activity, investigators executed a search warrant at Horton’s residence in Stratton, Hitchcock County, Nebraska.  During the execution of that search warrant, various items of computer and camera equipment were located.  A later forensic examination of that equipment revealed numerous videos of sexually explicit conduct that Horton had produced of himself and a minor victim.  Horton pleaded guilty to manufacturing child pornography between April 1, 2013, and September 1, 2013, in the District of Nebraska.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

This case was investigated by the Nebraska State Patrol and the CODE Drug Task Force.

Stratton is 34 miles west of McCook.

CAMBRIDGE, Neb. (AP) — Adams County prosecutors have decided not to file any charges connected to allegations of hazing by Cambridge Public Schools students at a summer wrestling camp at Hastings College.

The Nebraska State Patrol investigated after the district reported that two students came forward with complaints. Authorities have not released the specifics of the complaints.

County Attorney Donna Fegler Daiss (deyse) said Monday that the state hazing law doesn’t apply to high school-sponsored events such as the wrestling camp. She says other charges were considered but rejected because the crimes alleged couldn’t be proved.

It’s unclear whether the district will take any further action. Cambridge Public Schools Superintendent Rob Gregory didn’t immediately return an Associated Press message left Tuesday.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Two Nebraska farmers and one from Iowa have been recognized by the White House for their efforts to support the government’s sustainable and climate-smart agriculture program.

A statement from the White House Monday credits Keith Berns, of Bladen, Nebraska, with educating farmers and ranchers about the importance of soil health and carbon sequestration.

Martin Kleinschmit, of Hartington, Nebraska, an organic grain and cattle farmer, mentored others through a four-year program that enrolled 60,000 Nebraska acres in a USDA organic transition program.

Timothy Smith of Eagle Grove, Iowa, who grows soybeans, corn and cover crops on his family’s Century Farm, was recognized for his work with the Iowa Soybean Association and other groups to implement new farming methods designed to strengthen soil health and improve water quality.