(AP) — The Gage Area Growth Enterprise board has fired the executive director it hired just last year.

The board voted on Thursday to dismiss Bill Demuth. Neither board members nor their attorney would say what led to Demuth’s ouster.

Demuth began the job on Sept. 4 last year after signing a two-year contract. He also declined to comment about the board’s decision.

The city of Beatrice and Gage County government contribute $100,000 annually to economic development through the agency.

(AP) — A Kansas truck driver has been sentenced for vehicular homicide stemming from a crash in south-central Nebraska.

According to court records, 47-year-old Victor Allende (uh’-YEHN’-day) was given 270 days in jail and fined $500 last week. He’d pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge.

A court affidavit says Allende, of South Bend Township, Kan., was eastbound on U.S. Highway 6 east of Hastings on April 24 and was following too closely behind another truck when the other truck stopped for a train crossing.

The affidavit says Allende’s semi rammed the other truck, pushing it into the path of an oncoming pickup driven by 52-year-old Neal Sahling. Sahling, of Wood River, was killed.

(AP) — A former Beatrice State Developmental Center worker accused of abusing developmentally disabled adults who lived at the center won’t get a new judge for his second trial.

Gage County District Judge Paul Korslund refused to recuse himself from Matthew Pangborn’s trial.

But Korslund is still considering whether to move the trial to another location.

Pangborn was sentenced last year to 15 to 23 years in prison after being convicted in July 2012 of four counts of abusing a vulnerable adult and several other charges. He was accused of beating and choking residents when he worked at the Beatrice State Developmental Center in 2011.

The Nebraska Supreme Court ordered a new trial because jurors at Pangborn’s first trial used a chart that prosecutors created during deliberations.

(AP) — A 29-year-old Lincoln man is scheduled to be sentenced next month for robbery and two counts of witness tampering.

Online court records say Dustin Langenberg was convicted on Wednesday in Lancaster County District Court. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 20.

Authorities say Langenberg and two other men attacked a 33-year-old Lincoln man after the man’s estranged wife knocked on his door on Nov. 4, 2011. Authorities also say Langenberg tried to persuade his girlfriend not to testify against him regarding what he’d said before and after the robbery.

Two of the three other people involved in the robbery have been sentenced and the third awaits sentencing.

(AP) — Here’s a reason to get some shuteye: A new study suggests our brains go on a cleaning spree during sleep, flushing out gunk that builds up while we’re awake.

Though the cleaning was observed in mice, scientists think it happens in people too.

The findings were reported in Friday’s issue of the journal Science and may provide new clues to treat Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases.

People who are sleep-deprived have trouble learning and making decisions. But despite decades of research, scientists can’t agree on the basic purpose of sleep.

For the study, researchers led by the University of Rochester Medical Center observed the brains of mice while awake and asleep. They found cellular waste flowed faster out of the brains of sleeping mice than awake mice.

 

(AP) — Omaha Public Power District has announced its plan to buy 400 megawatts of power from a wind farm being built near O’Neill in northeast Nebraska.

The utility’s board voted Thursday to approve a 20-year contract for the electricity, which is enough to supply power to 118,000 customers. The plan now goes to the Nebraska Power Review board for approval.

The agreement would bring OPPD’s use of renewable energy to 817 megawatts, nearly doubling its current capacity.

The announcement drew high praise from environmental groups, like the Nebraska Sierra Club. The group’s Ken Winston said Thursday that OPPD’s vote “is a huge win” for the utility’s customers and that the vote “locked in low-cost, clean energy that will provide benefits to customer-owners for years to come.”

The Club recently criticized the Nebraska Public Power District for rejecting a proposal to purchase additional wind energy.

(AP) — A Missouri case involving a 14-year-old girl who says she was raped by a 17-year-old acquaintance is being reopened.

Nodaway County prosecutor Robert Rice announced Wednesday that he’s asking a judge to appoint a special prosecutor. That person will investigate and decide if new charges should be filed.

Melinda Coleman, the mother of 14-year-old Daisy Coleman, claims justice was denied when Rice dropped felony charges in March 2012. That’s two months after she says her daughter was plied with alcohol, raped, then dumped on the family’s front porch in the northwest Missouri town of Maryville in sub-freezing temperatures.

Rice has faced intense scrutiny over his handling of the case.

He insists the investigation collapsed after the Colemans became uncooperative with investigators. Melinda Coleman denies that.

(AP) — The Nebraska Court of Appeals has upheld the murder conviction of a 19-year-old Omaha man.

Daion Williams also was convicted last year and sentenced to up to 80 years for second-degree murder and a weapons charge in the Nov. 29, 2011, fatal shooting of 20-year-old Bryant Morgan. Authorities say Williams and Morgan were involved in a love triangle with a teenage girl.

Williams argued in his appeal that his trial judge should have thrown out his confession to police because he was coerced and threatened into making it and because he was not sufficiently advised of his right to an attorney before making it.

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the state appeals court rejected Williams’ arguments.

(AP) — New research shows U.S. women are increasingly using donated eggs to get pregnant, with often good results.

What the researchers call the ideal outcome happens in only about 1 out of 4 pregnancies from donor eggs, but that’s up from 19 percent a decade ago.

The ideal is a single baby born on time at a healthy weight. More than a third of donor egg babies are twins and many are born pre-term; both conditions increase risks for complications.

The study looked at data from 2000 to 2010. It’s from researchers at Emory University and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and was published online Thursday by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

(AP) — Facebook is now allowing teenagers to share their posts on the social network with anyone on the Internet.

The change announced Wednesday affects Facebook users who list their ages as being somewhere from 13 to 17.

Until now, Facebook users falling within that age group had been limited to sharing information and photos only with their own friends or friends of those friends.

The new policy will give teens the choice of switching their settings so their posts can be accessible to the general public. Facebook says teens opting to be more open will receive a warning that they are exposing themselves to a broader audience.

The initial privacy settings of teens under 18 will automatically be programmed so posts are seen only by friends.