(AP) — A grand jury has cleared authorities of any wrongdoing in the February death of a Saunders County jail inmate.

Saunders County Attorney Scott Tingelhoff announced late Thursday afternoon that the grand jury had met this week and determined no crime had occurred in the death of 47-year-old Gloria O’Connor. O’Connor was found unresponsive in her cell on Feb. 10. She was taken to a Lincoln hospital but could not be revived.

State law requires such an investigation whenever someone dies in custody or while being arrested.

An autopsy showed O’Connor died of a heart attack.

She was serving a 30-day sentence for disorderly conduct, trespassing and other charges when she died.

(AP) — The U.S. Department of Labor has fined Hy-Vee, Fareway and other grocery stores in Iowa and Nebraska nearly $130,000 for violating child labor laws.

The Labor Department announced the fines Thursday.

The department says the violations included allowing workers under 18 to perform hazardous jobs that are prohibited. That included loading or operating power-driven paper balers, meat slicers, bakery machines and motor vehicles. No underage workers were injured.

The Labor Department report says Hy-Vee was assessed $68,200 for 27 violations at seven stores, while Fareway was assessed nearly $20,000 for 13 violations at eight stores. The violations would have happened since October 2011.

Representatives of Hy-Vee and Fareway say the stores are committed to maintaining a safe environment for young workers.

(AP) — The former director of the Lincoln YWCA who resigned in February days before she was sentenced to probation for stealing from a past employer is now facing new embezzlement charges.

42-year-old Denise Scholl-Serrett was charged Wednesday with embezzling more than $34,700 from the YWCA.

YWCA officials audited the nonprofits’ books after learning that Scholl-Serrett had stolen thousands of dollars from Omaha-based property management company DEI Communities, where she had been vice president of human resources.

Lancaster County prosecutors say Scholl-Serrett spent YWCA money from December 2011 until February to pay for a personal trip, various membership dues, court debts and settlements, tuition for classes and other expenses.

Scholl-Serrett is free on $3,500 bond. She could not be reached for comment Friday.

(AP) — The issue of Rolling Stone magazine with Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover has sold nearly twice as many copies as an average issue.

That’s according to Adweek, which says people bought more than 13,000 copies of the issue at more than 1,400 retailers from July 19 to July 29. That’s more than double the magazine’s average sales for previous years.

Retailers including Stop & Shop, CVS, Walgreens and others said they would not sell the issue after a public outcry over the cover, which critics said glamorized Tsarnaev. The 19-year-old has pleaded not guilty in the bombing.

Rolling Stone says the story was part of its “longstanding commitment to serious and thoughtful coverage of the most important political and cultural issues of our day.”

(AP) — High-profile kidnapping and murder cases in Iowa have prompted state authorities to make a change to how they issues Amber Alerts.

Officials announced Wednesday that the new policy means authorities need only a description of the child, the child’s abductor or the abductor’s vehicle. Before the change, some officials had believed that authorities needed both a description of the child and the suspect.

The change drew praise from the mother of Elizabeth Collins, who disappeared from Evansdale along with her cousin, Lyric Cook, in July 2012. The girls were found dead five months later.

Heather Collins says she asked authorities several times to issue an Amber Alert for the girls, but was told they could not because police did not have any suspect information.

(AP) — The Ohio man convicted of holding three women captive in his Cleveland house over a decade and raping them repeatedly has been sentenced to life without parole plus 1,000 years.

Fifty-three-year-old Ariel Castro was being given his sentence Thursday. He had pleaded guilty to 937 counts including aggravated murder, kidnapping, rape and assault.

A plea deal struck last week spared him from a possible death sentence for beating and starving a pregnant victim until she miscarried.

The women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old.

They escaped to freedom May 6 when one of them, Amanda Berry, broke out part of the door to Castro’s house and yelled to neighbors for help.

(AP) — A 61-year-old northeast Nebraska woman has been sentenced to prison for arson.

Daphne Hansen, of Neligh, was sentenced Wednesday in Antelope County District Court to 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 years. She had been convicted in May of arson, conspiracy to commit arson and aiding a felony.

Investigators say Hansen claimed a financial interest in a Neligh home and that she conspired with two other people to have the house burned down. No one was injured in the June 2010 blaze.

Hansen has vehemently denied any involvement in the fire, and her attorney indicated in court Wednesday that she intends to appeal the convictions.

(AP) — A Nebraska prison inmate has waived his right to an arraignment and agreed to forego a preliminary hearing.

Jeremy Dobbe made his first court appearance Thursday since being charged with manslaughter in the death of 47-year-old Joyce Meeks.

Meeks died June 25 when a state-owned van driven by Dobbe crashed into her minivan in Lincoln.

By waiving his right to an arraignment, Dobbe didn’t hear about the charge or possible penalties. By foregoing the preliminary hearing, he opted not to challenge whether prosecutors had enough evidence to charge him.

Defense lawyer DeAnn Stover declined to comment.

Although Dobbe was imprisoned for methamphetamine possession, he was allowed to drive other inmates to work-release assignments when the crash occurred.

The state has ended the prison-driver program.

(AP) — Authorities say a 12-year-old boy used a BB gun to rob a 10-year-old who was running a lemonade stand in western Pennsylvania.

Johnstown Sgt. Patrick Goggin says the 12-year-old approached the stand Monday with what appeared to be a handgun in his pocket and threatened the younger boy. Goggin says the boys “got into a wrestling match over the money box” before the older boy took $30 and ran away.

Three other children chased the boy home and helped police track him down. That’s when police determined the boy had a BB gun.

Police aren’t identifying the suspect because he’ll be charged in juvenile court where most cases remain confidential.

Johnstown is about 60 miles east of Pittsburgh.

(AP) — The nation’s most active death penalty state is running out of its execution drug.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice says its remaining supply of pentobarbital (pento-BAR-bit-all) expires in September. Department spokesman Jason Clark says officials are exploring all options but have yet to find an alternative.

Texas has lethally injected 11 death-row inmates so far this year, most recently on Wednesday. Two executions are scheduled in September and at least five others are set for following months.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the September executions may be delayed.

Other death penalty states have encountered similar problems as drug manufacturers have balked at using their products for capital punishment.

Texas has executed 503 inmates since 1976, when the Supreme Court allowed executions to resume. Virginia is second at 110.