A New Jersey man is charged with conspiring with a New York City police officer to try to kidnap, rape and kill an unidentified woman in Manhattan.

Michael Vanhise was charged in federal court papers unsealed Friday in Manhattan. He was arrested in Trenton.

The FBI says Vanhise agreed to pay $5,000 to Officer Gilberto Valle for the abduction last year. The FBI says Vanhise also admitted emailing others about kidnapping, raping and killing women and children.

Valle was charged last year with targeting victims through a law-enforcement database. He allegedly wanted to kidnap, rape, kill and eat women.

The officer’s lawyer says he was engaging in sexual fantasies and intended no violence.

Vanhise’s lawyer did not immediately return a call for comment.

A state evaluation of TransCanada’s route for the Keystone XL oil pipeline through Nebraska has been sent to the governor.

The office of Gov. Dave Heineman said in a news release Friday that he has 30 days to review the more than 2,000 pages before making his decision.

His decision will be shared with the U.S. State Department, which has federal jurisdiction because the pipeline begins in Canada. The State Department recommendation will go to President Barack Obama, who has the final say.

TransCanada’s pipeline is designed to carry tar sands oil from Canada across Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. The company also has proposed connecting it to the Bakken oil field in Montana and North Dakota.

U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer has been named to Senate committees dealing with the military, environment and small business.

The Nebraska Republican announced her assignments Thursday, the same day she was sworn as Nebraska’s newest U.S. senator.

Fischer was elected in November, defeating Democrat and former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey to replace Sen. Ben Nelson.

Fischer will serve on five Senate committees: Armed Services; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Environment and Public Works; Small Business; and Indian Affairs.

Fischer says she is committed to working with Republicans and Democrats “to restore America’s fidelity to her constitutional principles.”

The Nebraska Supreme Court has upheld the 50-year to life sentence of a man who beat his ex-girlfriend to death.

William Pereira was sentenced last year in Lancaster County District after pleading no contest to second-degree murder.

Pereira killed 19-year-old Alissa Magoon in December 2010 in a fit of jealous rage, suspecting her of seeing another man.

Police summoned to Magoon’s Lincoln apartment discovered Pereira, a 27-year-old immigrant from El Salvador, beating Magoon on the head with a piece of wood. She died of blunt-force trauma to the head.

In his appeal, Pereira had argued that his sentence was excessive, but the state’s high court said Friday that his sentence is within the range set by state law.

The family of a makeup artist killed in a plane crash that also claimed the life of singer Jenni Rivera is trying to force the aircraft’s manufacturer to identify all those who had owned, operated and repaired the Learjet 25.

Rivera’s makeup artist, Jacob Yebale, was among the seven people killed when the aircraft crashed Dec. 9 in northern Mexico.

Yebale’s family filed a request this week in an Illinois court to compel Bombardier Aerospace and its Learjet division to turn over information on the aircraft’s history, including the names of all those who owned, operated and performed maintenance on the plane.

The petition for discovery was filed Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois because Bombardier does a substantial amount of business in the state.

This could give you nightmares: 1 in 24 U.S. adults say they recently fell asleep while driving.

And health officials think the number is probably higher. That’s because some people don’t realize it when they nod off for a second or two behind the wheel.

In a government study released Thursday, a little over 4 percent of U.S. adults said they fell asleep while driving at least once in the previous month. Some earlier studies reached a similar conclusion, but the survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was far larger.

The study found drowsy driving was more common in men and in people ages 25 to 34.

The results are from a survey of 147,000 adults in 2009 and 2010.

A 23-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of killing man whose body was found in a rural area north of Lincoln.

Authorities say Miguel Castillo, of Lincoln, was arrested Tuesday afternoon. He’s suspected of killing 25-year-old Tyler Schoenrock, also of Lincoln. Schoenrock’s bullet-riddled body was found early Sunday morning by a newspaper carrier.

Investigators say several shell casings were found near Schoenrock’s body.

Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner wouldn’t say what led to Castillo’s arrest after a traffic stop.

A Lancaster County jailer said Castillo remained in custody on Thursday. Online court records don’t list the name of Castillo’s attorney.

A new report to Congress says pipeline spills caused by flooding dumped 2.4 million gallons of crude oil and other hazardous liquids into U.S. waterways over the past two decades.

The Department of Transportation report was crafted in response to a 2011 spill into Montana’s Yellowstone River. The spill highlighted shortcomings in federal pipeline rules that require lines to be buried just 4 feet below riverbeds. Such scant cover can quickly be scoured away by floodwaters.

The Associated Press obtained the report this week. It says a review of accidents found flood-related pipeline spills since 1993 in California, Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Kentucky.

Agency officials will report back to Congress within the next year on what else should be done to prevent such accidents.

The Nebraska Court of Appeals says a lower court did not abuse its discretion in sentencing a man convicted of sexual assault to probation and six months in jail.

The appeals court ruled this week in the case of 23-year-old Jacob Martinez, of Omaha, who pleaded no contest last year to the 2010 rape of a teenage girl. Washington County Attorney Shurie Graeve appealed the sentence, saying it was too lenient.

Police say the girl was with Martinez, Martinez’ cousin and a woman in March 2010 when she became drunk. She reported the next day that she might have been raped. Medical test indicated she had, and DNA tests implicated Martinez.

At Martinez’ sentencing, the trial judge noted Martinez had no criminal history and was a low risk to reoffend.

Scientists say a 2-billion-year-old rock from Mars that landed on Earth is quite different from other Martian meteorites.

They say it is older than most and contains more water. It’s also similar to volcanic rocks examined by the NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity on the Martian surface.

About 65 Martian meteorites have been recovered on Earth, mostly in Antarctica or the Sahara desert. The oldest dates back 4.5 billion years. The rest are 1.3 billion years old or younger.

The recently tested 2-billion-year-old rock is about the size of a baseball. It was donated to the University of New Mexico by an American who bought it from a meteorite dealer last year.

Researchers performed tests to confirm its age and origin. The findings were published online Thursday in the journal Science.