OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former ConAgra sales executive is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 12 in Omaha for wire fraud.

Donald Wilson pleaded guilty on Monday in U.S. District Court in Omaha, where ConAgra is headquartered. Wilson originally pleaded not guilty to eight counts of wire fraud or aiding and abetting wire fraud.

Wilson was accused of using nearly $606,000 from his company’s marketing budget to help pay personal expenses and expenses for a professional softball team he helped sponsor.

Authorities say that from 2006 through April 2012 Wilson worked in Bothell, Washington, and supervised four regional managers. ConAgra provided him with a marketing budget, but he was not allowed to use it for personal or unapproved expenses.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A dog-loving Nebraska trucker has taken a lost pooch on a long haul back to its family in Arizona.

Trucker Jimmy Dimmitt was in Ashland preparing for a trip to California when he heard about Koda, a 95-pound bull mastiff, needing a lift back home to get to her owners in Arizona. Koda was returned to her owners, Dani and Jason Windham, on Monday.

Koda went missing on Aug. 4, the day the Windhams were planning to marry at Holmes Lake in Nebraska.

Before the wedding ceremony, Koda and the family’s other two large dogs, Finn and Hooch, knocked down a fence and took off from the Windham’s home. Finn and Hooch were found by animal control but Koda wasn’t. The Windhams moved seven days later to Arizona after Koda went missing.

Koda was found last Wednesday after a farmer reported a dog chasing his cattle near Wahoo.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 34-year-old Lincoln woman has surrendered to face charges in the fatal fall of a man from the sunroof of a sport utility vehicle she was driving.

Police spokeswoman Katie Flood says Lindsey McCallister turned herself in on Tuesday to face charges of leaving the scene of an injury accident, tampering with evidence and drunken driving. Jail records said she remained there on Wednesday. Court records don’t list her attorney’s name.

McCallister was driving the SUV on Aug. 24 when 27-year-old James “Jamie” Rubio fell from its sunroof. She first told investigators she drove left the scene because she couldn’t find her cellphone to call 911. But Flood says investigators learned that McCallister made seven calls and sent three text messages after Rubio fell, none of them to 911.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln man who stabbed his stepfather has been sentenced to between 20 months and five years in prison.

19-year-old Henrionce Cope was sentenced on Tuesday on a charge of second-degree attempted assault.

He was originally charged with second-degree assault but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge as part of a deal with prosecutors in September.

Police say Cope used a knife and his sister used a broken bottle to stab his 50-year-old stepfather 13 times in the head, arms and legs in April. He was treated at an area hospital.

A Lancaster County judge dismissed a second-degree assault charge against his sister in May.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Student Observatory will be open to the public on Thursday to provide safe, enlarged views of the partial solar eclipse.

The viewing period will run from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Faculty and staff from the UNL Department of Physics and Astronomy will be on hand with several eye-safe solar telescopes and protective solar glasses. They will be able to answer questions about eclipses and astronomy.

The direct rays of the sun can damage eyesight. Proper viewing glasses, a pinhole projection system or other equipment designed for the purpose are necessary for safe viewing.

The observatory is on the top level of UNL’s Stadium Drive parking garage, on T Street between 10th Street and Stadium Drive. Go online to https://bit.ly/1rpctYp for more information about the observatory.

VERDIGRE, Neb. (AP) — A man has been taken into custody, suspected of shooting to death a 66-year-old woman in northeast Nebraska’s Knox County.

Linda Privett was shot Monday and pronounced dead at her home in Verdigre (VUR’-dih-gree). Sheriff Don Henery says the 66-year-old man soon was taken into custody. Online court records don’t show that he’s been charged yet.

An autopsy has been scheduled.

FAIRBURY, Neb. (AP) — The governor has appointed a Fairbury lawyer to a county court judgeship in southeast Nebraska.

On Tuesday the office of Gov. Dave Heineman announced that Linda Bauer will be replacing Judge J. Patrick McArdle, who has retired from his post in the 1st Judicial District The district is composed of Gage, Jefferson, Johnson, Nemaha, Pawnee, Richardson, Saline (suh-LEEN’) and Thayer counties.

The 48-year-old Bauer has been a partner at Schwab & Bauer in Fairbury since 1996 and has been Jefferson County attorney since 1996. She is a law school graduate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.