BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — A Fremont man convicted of trying to meet a fictional 15-year-old girl for sex has been sentenced to probation and must register as a sex offender.

43-year-old Mark W. Avis was sentenced Wednesday in Gage County District Court to 36 months of probation. As part of a plea deal, several charges were dropped and Avis pleaded no contest to a felony charge of enticing a child by electronic means.

The Beatrice Police Department says Avis answered an online ad that an undercover officer posted on Craigslist. The officer told Avis he was a woman who was prostituting her 15-year-old daughter.

Avis was arrested in February when he showed up at an arranged location.

CHICAGO (AP) — New research on face transplants may help guide future operations for accident victims needing this kind of drastic surgery.

Medical imaging on the nation’s first full face transplant patient and two others shows that new blood vessel networks have formed joining their transplants with existing facial tissue.

That’s according to doctors who presented their data at a medical meeting Wednesday in Chicago.

The same thing typically happens with other transplants and it helps ensure their success. But doctors from Brigham and Women’s Hospital say this is the first time it has been shown with full face transplants.

The transplants all took place at the Boston hospital in 2011.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha area residents will pay more for water and natural gas service next year.

The Metropolitan Utilities District board voted Wednesday to increase its rates starting in January.

Utility officials estimate that the average residential customer will pay about $2.49 more per month for natural gas and water service.

MUD Chief Financial Officer Debra Schneider says the rate increases should generate $7.6 million for the utility.

That money will cover additional personnel costs and help the utility build up its cash reserves.

Officials say water rates will go up 5.5 percent and natural gas rates will increase 2.4 percent in January.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska utility that owns a nuclear power plant that has been idle since April 2011 says the troubled plant is now ready to restart, but federal regulators will make the final decision.

The Omaha Public Power District submitted a 139-page report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week making the case that the Fort Calhoun plant is ready.

An NRC spokeswoman says regulators are still reviewing the latest repairs.

Lou Cortopassi manages the nuclear plant 20 miles north of Omaha that sits across the Missouri River from Iowa. He says OPPD addressed Fort Calhoun’s problems, and it is ready to operate safely.

Fort Calhoun initially shut down for routine maintenance, but significant flooding in 2011, a small fire and a series of safety violations forced it to remain closed.

WABASH, Neb. (AP) — A 37-year-old Cass County man won’t be prosecuted for killing his father.

Cass County Attorney Nathan Cox says David Bouzek acted in self-defense on June 16 when he shot his father. Cox says Gary Bouzek was armed with a hammer when he came at his son.

Cox says that after the elder Bouzek’s release from prison, he was invited to visit his son. They began arguing as David Bouzek was driving to his Murdock home with his dad, and David Bouzek forced his dad to get out. Early on June 16, the younger Bouzek found his father hammering on the outside of his home. The son asked his father to stop. Cox said that when Gary Bouzek came at his son, David Bouzek fired.

DUNCAN, Neb. (AP) — A 55-year-old man has died while working on his truck at his home in eastern Nebraska.

The Platte County Sheriff’s Office says deputies were sent to the home in Duncan around 1:45 a.m. Wednesday. They found the man pinned under a pickup.

He’d been working on the truck when it shifted out of gear and rolled, trapping him under the vehicle frame. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

The man’s name isn’t being released until relatives are notified about his death.

The accident is being investigated.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 23-year-old Omaha man has made a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to a count of fraud in connection with a computer security breach at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln last year.

Daniel Stratman made the plea on Tuesday. Federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence at the low end of the guideline range and not more than two years of incarceration. Stratman’s sentencing is scheduled for March 21.

Stratman was a student at UNL in May 2012 when the breach occurred. Prosecutors say Stratman hacked into a database of more than 650,000 student, alumni and employee records.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Douglas County says it will extend benefits to same-sex spouses of employees who were legally married in other states.

The County Board voted Tuesday to change the definition of an eligible spouse so it can include someone who is the same gender as the employee. The new definition covers all benefits including health insurance.

The county will briefly reopen its enrollment period to accommodate the newly eligible spouses. Benefits would begin Jan. 1. The county is self-insured.

The City of Omaha recently said it would not offer health insurance and dental benefits to spouses of legally married gay employees. The Omaha police union has filed a grievance in response.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 22-year-old man has been charged with capital murder in the deaths of a southeast Kansas mother and her three children a week after being jailed.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office also charged David Cornell Bennett Jr., of Cherryvale, with rape and criminal threat. And as a potential alternative to the capital murder charge, Schmidt’s office filed four counts of first-degree murder in Labette County District Court.

Bennett is being held on $5 million bond over the deaths of 29-year-old Cami Umbarger and her young children. Their bodies were found in their Parsons home Nov. 25.

Parsons attorney Shane Adamson was appointed to represent Bennett. His office said he would not comment.

Bennett has a court hearing scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.