UPDATE 4/19 07:54am

A U.S. law enforcement official and the uncle of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings are confirming that the name of the second suspect is Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older brother of Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a gun battle with police in Massachusetts overnight.

Three law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the ongoing investigation, confirmed the bomb suspects were brothers. One of the officials and the men’s uncle confirmed the identity of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

The uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Montgomery Village, Md., told The Associated Press that the men lived together near Boston and have been in the United States for about a decade. They traveled here together from the Russian region near Chechnya.

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Police are locking down some neighborhoods in Boston and its western suburbs as they search for the remaining suspect in the marathon bombings.

Authorities urged residents in Watertown, Newton, Waltham, Belmont, Cambridge, Arlington and the Allston-Brighton neighborhoods of Boston to stay indoors. All mass transit was shut down.

At least a quarter of a million people live in those suburbs. Many people in the city of Boston and surrounding areas rely on the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority to get to work.

The announcement Friday morning comes hours after the killing of one suspect, known as the man in the black hat from marathon surveillance footage. The man in the white hat is on the loose and police are calling him a “terrorist” who came here “to kill.”

More than 1,000 people have gathered in Grand Island, Neb., to support or oppose a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that would snake through six states.

Anti-pipeline activists say they’re hopeful President Barack Obama will reject the project after getting Secretary of State John Kerry’s recommendation.

But some, including Nebraska rancher Bruce Boettcher, told State Department representatives at Thursday’s hearing that opponents would stop the project regardless of the government’s decision.

Opponents argue the pipeline, which would carry 800,000 barrels of oil daily, would threaten the region’s water supply if it ruptured. They note the pipeline runs above part of a huge aquifer that provides water to much of the Midwest.

Supporters say pipelines are the safest way to transport oil and that the pipeline company agreed to safeguards exceeding federal regulations.

Nebraska lawmakers voted 33-8 to pass a measure that would leave register voters with fewer days to cast in-person early ballots.

On Thursday the Legislature gave final approval to the measure that would cut early voting days from 35 to 30 days.

Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh of Omaha introduced the bill because election officials say they need more time to program specialized voting machines used by visually impaired voters.

The 2002 Help America Vote Act requires specialized electronic voting machines to be available to assist voters with disabilities in casting their ballots privately. A Lincoln woman who is blind complained that the voting machines weren’t ready when the early voting polls opened last year.

NASA’s planet-hunting telescope has discovered two planets that seem like places for some sort of life to flourish. They are just the right size and in just the right place near their star.

William Borucki (Boh-ROO’-kee), the chief scientist for NASA’s Kepler (KEH’-plur) telescope, says the distant duo are the best candidates for habitable planets that astronomers have found. Past planets seen orbiting other stars are too big, too hot or too cold.

The planets are circling the same star and are slightly wider than Earth. However, they are not too big so they are solid, not balls of gas. One planet is a bit toasty and the other is a bit nippy.

The discoveries were announced Thursday in the journal Science.

A 75-year-old woman has been sentenced to at least 22 years in prison for killing her teen grandson at their home in suburban Detroit.

Sandra Layne got a minimum sentence of 20 years for second-degree murder Thursday, along with a mandatory two-year prison sentence for using a gun to kill 17-year-old Jonathan Hoffman.

Hoffman was shot six times, including twice in the back, last year in West Bloomfield Township. Layne says she shot him out of desperation during a physical altercation, but a jury rejected her self-defense claim.

Prosecutors say there’s no evidence of Layne being injured by Hoffman. A recording of a 911 call shows Hoffman being shot again while pleading for help.

Layne told the court she was “sorry.” She’ll get credit for 11 months served in jail.

Attorney General Eric Holder is telling Congress that marijuana’s impact on children is a factor as the Justice Department decides how to respond to two states that have legalized the drug.

Holder made the comment Thursday at a House hearing when he was asked about initiatives passed last year by Washington state and Colorado.

Holder says that his department is continuing to review the initiatives, and has not made a decision yet on how to respond. It could sue to block legal pot sales from ever happening, on the grounds that they conflict with federal law.

President Barack Obama has said that going after marijuana users in states where it’s legal is not a priority. Holder says that Obama hasn’t said he’s for legalization, adding that he isn’t either.

A former Omaha attorney who was disbarred in 2010 over mishandled Social Security payments meant for her clients has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.

The U.S. Attorney’s office for Nebraska announced the sentence for 47-year-old Kim Denise Erwin-Loncke on Thursday. Prosecutors say Erwin-Loncke spent nearly $93,000 in benefits over two years that were supposed to go to her clients.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says Erwin-Loncke served as a legal guardian for a number of people in nursing homes and appointed herself as a representative who had the power to receive their Social Security payments. Prosecutors say she wrote checks on her clients’ accounts, deposited them in her business accounts and used the money to support her lifestyle.

A judge has ordered Erwin-Loncke to repay the money.

Two children have been discovered living in a New Jersey storage unit.

Trenton police Lt. Mark Kieffer says officers went to a storage locker in nearby Ewing on Thursday after a woman arrested earlier in the day told them her two sons were there.

Police discovered a 5-year-old and a 10-year-old living inside a filthy, narrow, unheated unit at the Extra Space Storage facility.

The children were removed by police. The Mercer County prosecutor’s office is investigating.

Police say the boys’ mother was arrested for slashing the tires on her boyfriend’s car. They say she told them about her children as part of routine questioning on whether she had any dependents.

The FBI has released photos of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings and is asking for the public’s help in identifying them.

FBI Agent Richard DesLauriers says the photos came from surveillance cameras near the explosion sites.

The explosions Monday killed three people and injured more than 180.

The images were released hours after President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama attended an interfaith service at a Roman Catholic cathedral in Boston to remember the victims, including an 8-year-old boy.

A Lincoln man is one of 22 people honored with Carnegie medals for heroism.

Brandon Wemhoff risked his life to protect the people around him by foiling a Lincoln drugstore robbery in May 2011. He captured the suspect and held him until police officers arrived.

The awards announced Thursday are going to people from 10 states and Canada. Recipients include a Pennsylvania woman who died after coming to the aid of a domestic violence victim and three New Jersey men who rescued two people from a burning van that had crashed.

Carnegie medalists or their heirs receive financial grants approved by the commission.