DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government says new cars and trucks sold last year averaged 23.6 miles per gallon of gasoline, a record.

Mazda led all auto companies with an average of 27.1 mpg, followed by Honda at 26.6. Chrysler-Fiat had the worst mileage at 20.1, followed by Daimler at 21.1 mpg. All the figures are for combined city and highway driving.

The Environmental Protection Agency says the overall increase for 2012 is 1.2 miles per gallon above 2011. That’s the second-largest annual increase in 30 years.

The agency says automakers are increasing mileage by cutting weight and with more efficient engines and transmissions.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska man convicted for his roles in two cult-related murders in 1985 will have to wait another month on his commutation request.

Timothy Haverkamp wants the Nebraska Board of Pardons to commute his second-degree murder sentence of 10 years to life. The Lincoln Journal Star says (http://bit.ly/1aZidzJ) the board ran out of time Wednesday and didn’t consider whether to grant Haverkamp and others hearings on their requests.

Gov. Dave Heineman sits on the board with Secretary of State John Gale and Attorney General Jon Bruning, and the governor said the leftover applications would be heard first at the board’s Jan. 30 meeting.

The 51-year-old Haverkamp was paroled in 2009. One of the victims, fellow cult member James Thimm, was beaten, sexually abused, shot and partially skinned while still alive.

HENDERSON, Neb. (AP) — A January sentencing has been scheduled for a 19-year-old who’s pleaded guilty to vandalizing an old cemetery in south-central Nebraska.

Robert Kelly Jr., of Saronville, was scheduled to begin trial on Wednesday. He has pleaded guilty instead to felony criminal mischief causing damage of $1,500 or more. His sentencing is set for Jan. 24.

Prosecutors say he vandalized Farmers’ Valley Cemetery in August. Nearly 50 gravestones were pushed over and some were damaged beyond repair.

The cemetery was established in 1876 along the banks of the Big Blue River south-southwest of Henderson in rural Hamilton County.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court decision that said U.S. border officials exceeded their authority by imposing multimillion-dollar fines against Union Pacific Corp. for failing to discover illegal drugs in railcars that crossed into the country from Mexico.

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials were wrong to impose nearly $38 million in fines and to seize railroad equipment.

The government had argued that the Tariff Act of 1930 allowed the fines. But the appeals court said the act does not authorize penalties for drugs found on railcars Union Pacific “neither owns nor controls.”

DENVER (AP) — Synthetic marijuana is believed to have sickened 221 people in Colorado during an outbreak earlier this year.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Thursday is based on a joint investigation with state health officials launched after Colorado hospitals started seeing an increase in emergency room visits by people who had used synthetic pot in late August.

Of 127 cases reported in the Denver area and Colorado Springs, 10 were admitted into intensive care but no deaths were reported. Most were treated and released.

The report says the Colorado health and law enforcement officials are looking into whether one of two new variants of synthetic marijuana contributed to the illnesses. One was linked to a similar outbreak in Georgia in August.

Synthetic marijuana is illegal in Colorado. Four stores identified by those who became sick have been closed.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha woman accused of using spas as fronts for prostitution has been sentenced to 33 months in prison.

Federal prosecutors say 43-year-old Tammy Schuck was sentenced on Wednesday. Schuck had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to promote a prostitution enterprise and to induce interstate travel to engage in prostitution; inducing or attempting to induce interstate travel to engage in prostitution; and a conspiracy to launder money.

Authorities say Schuck operated three “spas” in Omaha from April 2008 to January 2012 where customers paid for sex acts from workers, rather than receiving legitimate spa services.

Schuck also was ordered to forfeit more than $235,000. She must serve five years of supervised release after she leaves prison.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lancaster County has decided not to prosecute a woman accused of prostituting her daughters

Online court records say the Lancaster County attorney’s office filed a motion last week to have the charges dismissed, and a judge complied.

The 36-year-old Upland woman already is serving 92 to 120 years in prison, having been convicted on several charges in Buffalo, Franklin and Furnas counties. The Associated Press is not using the woman’s name in order to protect the identity of the girls.

Prosecutors say that in Buffalo County alone, the mother let at least seven men have sex with her 14-year-old at least 20 times, and at least three men had sex with the 7-year-old.

Prison records say the mother won’t be eligible for parole until 2058, when she will be 81.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 30-year-old La Vista man faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of three federal charges accusing him of lying on an application for security clearance with the U.S. Air Force, as well as misuse of his Social Security number.

The U.S. Attorney’s office for Nebraska says Franklin Ansu was indicted Tuesday of one count of submitting a false document and another of making a false statement to a federal investigator.

Officials say Ansu applied in May for a civilian job at Offutt Air Force Base when he purposely omitted from his work history his employment from 2004 to 2006 with Ghana’s Bureau of National Investigations.

The third count says Ansu gave his Social Security number to someone else to use in an effort to get a job.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The owner of a dog in Omaha has been cited for animal cruelty for allegedly leaving the dog outside in freezing weather.

Animal control officers received a complaint that the dog was left outside of a home on Dec. 6. The National Weather Service says the high temperature that day was 12 degrees.

Officials say the animal was shivering and lacking proper shelter, food and water. A chain on its neck had to be surgically removed.

The Nebraska Humane Society says the dog, names Pouncer, is recovering at the shelter.

Additional information about the owner has not been released.