Lincoln police say three homeless men now face felony forgery charges after agreeing to cash fake checks in exchange for money, a hotel room for a night and food from McDonald’s.

Lincoln Police Officer Katie Flood says the homeless men got caught up in a nationwide scam where thieves make bogus checks and then recruit transients to cash them.

Police arrested 54-year-old Paul Edward Bellow on suspicion of two counts of forgery on Tuesday. The other two suspects haven’t been arrested yet.

The three homeless men cashed five checks worth $21,138 at two Security First branches last Friday.

Investigators haven’t identified the group that recruited the homeless men the day before. The nationwide scam originated with gang members in Atlanta.

School emergency drills have moved beyond the duck-and-cover exercises of the Cold War era. Today’s drills practice brace students for the presence of armed intruders.

The shooting of 20 first-graders and six adults in Newtown, Conn., has school administrators reviewing and practicing their own emergency plans.

Most states began to require district emergency management plans after the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. Data compiled by the Education Commission of the States shows preparations vary widely.

On Wednesday, an intruder drill at Cary-Grove High School in Illinois featured the sound of gunfire from a starter pistol.

An October drill at Howe Hall in South Carolina saw victims fall with fake wounds.

Nebraskans from Lincoln and Milford will have their mugs featured on cans of sauerkraut after being picked as winners in a contest.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that Mike Marlar, of Lincoln, will appear on labels of Frank’s sauerkraut later this year. Marlar says he discovered the contest last summer on the company’s website and decided to enter.

His wife, Debbie, took a few photos of him posed with a can of Frank’s on his bicep, a la Popeye.

He will join a Milford family who also will grace the labels this year. Jeremy Kohout and Kohout’s young sons will be featured, with Kohout balancing a can on an accordion and his sons playing a set of drums in the background.

Stress, anxiety and panic attacks are on the rise at many U.S. high schools, due to heightened academic expectations and troubles at home made worse by the shaky economy.

So some schools are trying unconventional methods to help students cope. Those methods include homework-free nights and the teenage equivalent of “recess” at a small but growing number of schools across the country.

At Prospect High School in suburban Chicago, counselors are using a “therapy dog,” an 18-month-old golden retriever named Junie.

The staff there says Junie helps lighten the mood and, in more severe cases, aids them in calming students who are having panic attacks. Guidance counselor Lynn Thornton says they’re seeing more students who are having to be hospitalized because of anxiety and depression.

The state of Nebraska has responded to a lawsuit filed by three opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline that would carry Canadian tar sands oil south through Nebraska and other states to Gulf coast refineries.

The lawsuit says the law that established the review process is unconstitutional because it doesn’t allow for judicial review and doesn’t spell out what criteria should be considered when a pipeline project is being evaluated.

The response echoes points made in September when the state argued unsuccessfully for the lawsuit to be dismissed. The Attorney General’s Office contends the legislation is constitutional and that the three opponents have no rights to assert as taxpayers because no tax money is being spent. TransCanada is required to reimburse the state for the cost of its review.

Phoenix police say three people have been shot at an office complex. Their conditions are unknown and there is no suspect in custody.

Officer James Holmes says the victims were taken to hospitals. He didn’t know if their injuries are life threatening.

Holmes says police so far believe there was only one shooter but don’t know his whereabouts.

He says police were given conflicting information about the suspect leaving the scene.

Authorities say they discovered a budding marijuana-growing operation after residents of a Lincoln house called police to report the theft of marijuana pipes.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that officers were called to the house Saturday morning by residents who reported that two people, one of them armed with a handgun, forced their way inside and took two hookah pipes.

Officers questioning the residents noticed marijuana, paraphernalia and several bottles of fertilizer. They also saw light shining from under a door barred with a padlock and a power cord snaking into the room.

After getting a search warrant, police say they found three marijuana plants, grow lights and other equipment.

Police arrested a 19-year-old man on suspicion of manufacturing marijuana and ticketed his roommates for having marijuana paraphernalia.