(AP) — Gov. Dave Heineman says he’s opposed to any use of public money to transport Nebraska prisoners to marriage ceremonies with other inmates.

The governor on Monday called it “an outrage” that two state prisoners from different facilities are trying to marry while incarcerated.

His comments came in response to questions about a lawsuit filed against the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services. The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the department on behalf of 42-year-old Paul Gillpatrick and 33-year-old Niccole Wetherell.

Gillpatrick is serving 55 to 90 years in Lincoln for second-degree murder. Wetherell is serving a life prison sentence in York for first-degree murder.

The department has refused to transport either of them for an in-person wedding, although they have offered to pay the transportation costs.

(AP) — Charges against a 37-year-old York man have been changed because blood test results have been thrown out.

Otis Newcomb had already pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide with a prior conviction for driving under the influence. he is now charged with felony manslaughter, tampering with physical evidence and second-degree assault.

At a recent hearing, a judge ruled that sheriff’s deputies had no probable cause to request a blood test for Newcomb.

Authorities say the van Newcomb was driving on Nov. 2 crossed the center line on U.S. Highway 34 about two miles west of York, striking another vehicle. Thirty-one-year-old Lauren Akerson was a passenger in the other vehicle, and she was fatally injured. She was from Aurora.

(AP) — Research led by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln chemist has led to the discovery of a new material with many possible uses.

The material could serve as a solid lubricant and provide a way to store carbon dioxide. It may also provide important clues about the composition of planets.

European researchers announced in 2011 that they had discovered a new substance when they combined dry ice and quartz under high pressure. But they weren’t able to determine the material’s crystal structure, and the question caught the attention of UNL chemist Xiao Cheng Zeng and his colleagues. Zeng and his team spent almost a year modeling possible structures.

The findings were reported in the Feb. 27 issue of Physical Review Letters X, an online journal of the American Physical Society.

(AP) — A northeast Nebraska man has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for a 2012 shooting that left another man paralyzed.

29-year-old Jordan Beehn was sentenced Friday for first-degree assault and tampering with a witness.

Prosecutors say Beehn shot Jorge Alberto Zepeda-Flores in the face after he tried to break up a fight between Beehn’s wife and another woman outside a Norfolk bar.

Beehn later encouraged his wife in a letter from jail to convince witnesses to change their stories.

Zepeda-Flores is now confined to a wheelchair, and his family members must care for him.

(AP) — A 22-year-old Lincoln man shot in self-defense last year by the father of his ex-girlfriend has pleaded no contest to making terroristic threats.

Jeffery Stotler Jr. pleaded no contest Friday in Lancaster County District Court. He faces up to five years in prison when he’s sentenced in May.

Authorities say a 50-year-old Bennet man shot Stotler last year with a .22-caliber rifle after Stotler kicked in the man’s back door. Police say Stotler had attacked the man’s 18-year-old daughter, left, then came back and kicked in the door.

Prosecutors determined Stotler was shot in self-defense.

(AP) — A 57-year-old Arizona man has been sentenced to 4 1/2 years in federal prison for hauling more than a ton of marijuana across Nebraska.

James Valimont, of Glendale, Ariz., was sentenced Friday in Omaha’s federal court.

Valimont pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute more than 50 kilograms of marijuana.

Valimont told officials he believed he was being paid $3,000 to haul furniture to Iowa, but he began to suspect something criminal when he noticed people following him. It made him uneasy, he said.

A Nebraska state trooper stopped Valimont along Interstate 80 on Nov. 18, 2012, in York County, and search of the truck turned up 101 bundles of marijuana weighing 2,396 pounds and valued at more than $2 million.

(AP) — Some of Nebraska’s most vulnerable people who can’t make decisions on their own could soon be supported by a state guardian.

Sen. Colby Coash of Lincoln introduced a bill to create the Office of the Public Guardian. The bill advanced from the first round of debate on a vote of 34-0 on Feb. 21.

Coash says Nebraska is the only state without this kind of office.

A county court can appoint a guardian or conservator to someone who is unable to make responsible decisions for themselves, due to reasons such as disability or mental illness.

If no one volunteers to serve, the court will ask an attorney to volunteer. Supporters say the need has outgrown the supply of volunteers and Nebraska needs a guardian program.

(AP) — It’ll probably be at least four more years before Nebraska’s new 531 area code makes its debut, years later than originally forecast.

On Feb. 26, 2011, the state Public Service Commission said eastern and central Nebraska phone users would have to dial all 10 digits (the 402 area code plus the local number), in anticipation of starting a new 531 area code.

But the demand for new phone numbers has ebbed as fewer and fewer people become first-time cellphone customers.

PSC communications manager Gene Hand says the state hasn’t gotten to its trigger for employing the 531 area code, which is 10 prefixes remaining for use in the 402 area. That’s expected to be at least four years away.

(AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has rejected a claim for compensation under the state’s wrongful conviction law for an inmate whose 1985 murder conviction was vacated, but who is serving a life sentence for an armed courtroom escape attempt more than two decades ago.

Troy Hess is serving life for kidnapping, assault and weapons counts for the 1993 escape attempt from a Lancaster County courtroom in which he briefly took a prison guard hostage.

Months after the standoff, the Nebraska Supreme Court vacated Hess’ 1985 second-degree murder conviction in another case because of a faulty jury instruction.

Based on that ruling, Hess sued for $500,000 under the state’s wrongful conviction act. The Nebraska Supreme Court denied his claim Friday, saying he had not shown he was innocent of the murder charges.