(AP) — Sept. 11 victims’ loved ones will gather at ground zero to commemorate the attacks’ anniversary with the reading of names, moments of silence and serene music that have become tradition.

At Wednesday’s ceremony on the 9/11 memorial plaza, relatives will recite the names of the nearly 3,000 people who died when hijacked jets crashed into the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pa.

The Pentagon and the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville also plan name-reading, wreath-laying and other tributes.

The anniversary is expected to be the last before the Sept. 11 museum opens at ground zero. That’s due this spring.

Changes also are coming at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville. Officials gathered there Tuesday to mark the start of construction on a visitor center.

(AP) — Six Flags Over Texas is reopening the ride from which a park-goer fell to her death this summer.

The Dallas-area amusement park announced Tuesday that the Texas Giant roller coaster will reopen this weekend. The ride will have new seat belts and redesigned restraint bar pads.

Six Flags says its investigation into the July incident found no mechanical failure on the ride. The family of the woman who died after falling from the ride has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the amusement park company.

The company says in a statement that people with “unique body shapes or sizes” may not fit into the ride seat. It will now offer a roller coaster seat on the ride line for riders to judge for themselves in advance if they fit.

(AP) — Thousands of volunteers will honor Sept. 11 victims Wednesday with good deeds performed around the globe.

The anniversary of the terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people was designated a National Day of Service and Remembrance in 2009.

This year, a constellation of volunteer networks around the world will spread goodwill through volunteerism to honor those who died.

Public volunteer projects in New York, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and other cities will convene at firehouses and fire academies to honor first responders by painting and cleaning the facilities.

On the website 911day.org, thousands of people have pledged to perform a good deed on Sept. 11.

Among other things, people have pledged to give blood, donate books, pass out blankets at homeless shelters and volunteer at soup kitchens.

(AP) — A Justice Department official says the federal government will enable financial institutions to transact business with the legitimate marijuana industry without fear of prosecution.

The issue has taken on greater urgency now that Colorado and Washington have become the first states to legalize recreational use of marijuana.

Currently, processing money from marijuana sales puts federally insured banks at risk of drug racketeering charges.

In an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the issue was one that the federal government needed to deal with.

The Justice Department announced Aug. 29 that it won’t try to stop Colorado and Washington state from legalizing recreational marijuana use as long as they implement strong enforcement systems. Marijuana is an illegal drug under federal law.

(AP) — Lancaster County Attorney Joe Kelly is planning to seek re-election in 2014.

The top prosecutor in Lincoln formally announced his bid on Tuesday outside the county courthouse.

Kelly was elected to his first term in 2010, after a decade as chief deputy county attorney. He has served as a prosecutor for 28 years, handling homicide, robbery and sexual assault cases and others involving abuse of vulnerable adults.

Kelly says he wants to continue prosecuting people who use computers to entice children. He also points to a new program that lets veterans stay out of the courts if their offense was non-violent and they are suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder.

The Lancaster County attorney’s office filed more than 1,400 felony and 5,500 misdemeanor criminal charges last year.

(AP) — Nebraska officials say a Japanese manufacturer plans to open its first U.S. office in the state, so it can be near the Kawasaki plant that uses its railcar parts.

Lt. Gov. Lavon Heidemann said Tuesday that Morio Denki Co. plans to open in office in Lincoln by the end of the year.

The company will send two people to set up its Lincoln office with plans to hire more staff, but state officials say it wasn’t immediately clear how many people might be hired.

Nebraska spokeswoman Jen Rae Wang says state officials who are currently on a trade mission to Japan are working to gather more details about the company’s plans.

Morio Denki makes electrical equipment that’s used in railroad, automotive, shipping and real estate applications.

 

(AP) — A judge has dismissed a rape case filed against a 21-year-old University of Nebraska-Lincoln student.

Judge Steven Burns ruled Monday that the evidence against Dustin Trauernicht would not support a guilty verdict. Defense attorney Randy Paragas had asked the judge for a ruling after prosecutors rested their case.

Trauernicht was accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman in January last year at a booze-filled party. Trauernicht said he didn’t remember what happened that night.

At issue was whether the woman was so drunk she couldn’t give legal consent for sex. She conceded during testimony that it was possible the sex was consensual.

Prosecutors objected to the case’s dismissal, saying the woman’s state of intoxication was something for the jury to decide.

(AP) — Front-end loaders had to be called in to help residents dig out from several feet of hail that fell in the Denver area.

The hail on Monday hit hardest in the suburbs of Wheat Ridge and Lakewood west of Denver. Authorities say some residents in Lakewood were trapped for a short time because of hail piles.

Persistent rainfall Monday topped a daily local precipitation record and helped push Grand Junction’s year-to-date rainfall in the normal category.

(AP) — A federal appeals court is affirming a judge’s decision that Google overstepped its bounds by enabling its vehicles to collect emails, Internet passwords and Web surfing behavior while photographing neighborhoods for the search giant’s popular “Street View” mapping feature.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco said in a report Tuesday that the Google cars with cameras mounted on their roofs went far beyond listening to accessible radio communication.

A Google spokeperson says attorneys for the Internet giant are disappointed in the 9th Circuit’s decision and are considering our next steps.”

Google has apologized for the snooping, promised to stop collecting the data, and said what it did was inadvertent but not illegal.

(AP) — A cold and allergy decongestant now being sold nationwide contains a new form of pseudoephedrine that’s being billed as difficult to use to make methamphetamine. But the Drug Enforcement Administration is still refusing to allow it to be sold over the counter.

The DEA says government chemists were able to manufacture methamphetamine from the product, so like other products containing pseudoephedrine, Zephrex-D must be sold from behind the counter.

Zephrex-D has been sold in Missouri since December. Suburban St. Louis company Westport Pharmaceuticals rolled out the product to 15,000 pharmacies nationwide over the past month.

Westport says the amount of meth that can be made using Zephrex-D is so small that it’s impractical for meth-makers. The Missouri Narcotics Officers Association says it hasn’t found the product in any meth labs.