(AP) — A jury has convicted a former Houston police officer in the videotaped beating of a black teenage burglary suspect.

Drew Ryser was convicted Wednesday of official oppression, a misdemeanor. He will serve two years’ probation and pay a $1,000 fine.

The 32-year-old is the last of the four fired police officers to resolve their cases for their roles in the March 2010 beating of then-15-year-old Chad Holley.

A security camera captured the arrest on video. Community activists criticized the department over the incident, calling the beating an example of police brutality against minorities.

In the video, Holley can be seen on the ground as officers appear to kick and hit his head, abdomen and legs.

Ryser’s attorneys say he followed textbook arrest procedures for a suspect believed to be armed.

(AP) — A police officer and another driver have been injured in a three-vehicle collision west of downtown Omaha.

Police say the accident occurred about 1:15 p.m. Tuesday. Lt. Darci Tierney says Officer Michael Martin was responding to a call about an abduction when the accident occurred. The abduction report proved to be false.

Police say two vehicles collided at the intersection, and one of them was pushed into another lane and into Martin’s police cruiser.

Martin and one of the drivers were taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries. The third driver wasn’t hurt.

(AP) — Meteorologists are warning that a gigantic line of powerful thunderstorms is likely to threaten one in five Americans.

The storm system packing tree-toppling winds is forecast to rumble Wednesday from Iowa to Maryland.

The continuous line of storms might even spawn an unusual weather event called a derecho (duh-RAY’-choh). That’s a massive storm of strong straight-line winds spanning at least 240 miles. A historic derecho last year killed 13 people and knocked out power to 4 million residents.

Bill Bunting, operations chief at the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center, says Wednesday’s storms are likely to produce tornadoes, dangerous lightning and large hail. Power outages are likely, to be followed by oppressive heat. Cities at risk include Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Detroit, Baltimore, Washington, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Ohio, and Louisville, Ky.

(AP) — A Philadelphia couple who believe in faith healing over medicine is set to hear evidence against them on Wednesday in the death of a second child.

Herbert and Catherine Schaible (SHY’-bul) are in custody after their 8-month-old son, Brandon, died of pneumonia in April.

The Schaibles were still on probation in what prosecutors call the “eerily similar” pneumonia death of their 2-year-old son, Kent, in 2009.

Their seven surviving children are now in foster care.

Herbert Schaible teaches at a school affiliated with their Pentecostal church. He has told police he believes in “divine healing,” and says Jesus died “to break the devil’s power.”

A jury had convicted the couple of involuntary manslaughter in Kent’s death. Defense lawyers say the Schaibles are good parents who don’t intend their children any harm.

(AP) — Authorities say at least two people have been fatally injured and three others hurt in a collision between an ambulance and a pickup in eastern Nebraska.

The accident occurred around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday on U.S. Highway 34 near Elmwood.

Cass County Sheriff William Brueggemann (BROO’-geh-muhn) says deputies had been trying to find the pickup because of a report about an erratic driver. He says the pickup crossed into oncoming traffic and struck the ambulance. The Weeping Water ambulance was taking a patient to a Lincoln hospital.

Officials say the pickup driver died at the scene and that the ambulance driver died at a Lincoln hospital. Three others in the ambulance, including the patient, were taken to hospitals.

The names of those involved haven’t been released.

(AP) — The former Kansas lawman convicted in the death of his wife could face a punishment that would keep him in prison for decades.

Jurors found Brett Seacat guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of his 34-year-old wife, Vashti Seacat, in their home just days after she filed for divorce in 2011.

Sentencing was set for Aug. 5, and prosecutors say they intend to seek a “hard 50” sentence, which means Seacat would have no chance for parole for at least 50 years.

Investigators found Vashti Seacat’s body among the charred remains of the Kingman house where the couple lived with their two sons, ages 2 and 4.

Brett Seacat, a former police instructor and sheriff’s deputy, escaped the blaze safely with the two boys.

Crews are fighting at least four major wildfires in Colorado, including one that has burned homes.

El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa says a fire northeast of Colorado Springs led to the evacuation of hundreds of homes Tuesday. Video from a helicopter showed flames engulfing several large homes.

To the south, the Bureau of Land Management says three structures have been lost in a fire that prompted evacuations, including that of the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park.

A wildfire in southern Colorado in rural Huerfano County has prompted evacuation orders to about 200 homes.

A lightning-sparked wildfire that started Monday in Rocky Mountain National Park also is burning.

(AP) — A Nebraska police chief will pay a $750 fine for storing campaign signs in a police station and using public money to buy more than $200 worth of snack food.

Sutton Police Chief Tracey Landenberger agreed to the civil penalty as part of a settlement with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission. Commission members voted 8-0 last week to approve the fine.

The campaign signs were stored in the station between January 2010 and June 2012, and the snacks were bought between March 2010 and June 2012, according to the settlement.

The settlement says Landenberger did not intend to violate state law, and he believed at the time that his actions were allowed.

A phone message left for Landenberger at the police station was not immediately returned.

(AP) — Gov. Dave Heineman says he hopes to have a new adjutant general in place for the Nebraska National Guard by mid-July.

Heineman said Tuesday that a screening panel will likely name two to four finalists for the job by the end of June, so the change-of-command can be made in July.

The chosen finalist will replace outgoing Maj. Gen. Judd Lyons, who is taking a new job as deputy director of the U.S. Army National Guard in Arlington, Va.

The 50-year-old Lyons is Nebraska’s 32nd adjutant general. He assumed command of the Nebraska National Guard in August 2009.

The adjutant general serves as the senior uniformed officer responsible for leading nearly 4,700 Army and Air National Guard personnel in Nebraska. The position is part of the governor’s cabinet.

(AP) — A Grand Island man convicted in the kidnapping and rape of a 4-year-old girl has been given 96 to 100 years in state prison.

Judge James Livingston on Tuesday sentenced 27-year-old Abraham Richardson to two consecutive terms of 48 to 50 years. Richardson had pleaded no contest in April after prosecutors lowered the charges and dropped another.

Prosecutors say he kidnapped the girl from a Grand Island apartment on Oct. 2, 2011, and savagely assaulted her.

Richardson already faces 20 years in federal prison on a child pornography conviction. Livingston ordered Richardson to serve his two state sentences after his federal sentence has been completed.