(AP) — High-profile kidnapping and murder cases in Iowa have prompted state authorities to make a change to how they issues Amber Alerts.

Officials announced Wednesday that the new policy means authorities need only a description of the child, the child’s abductor or the abductor’s vehicle. Before the change, some officials had believed that authorities needed both a description of the child and the suspect.

The change drew praise from the mother of Elizabeth Collins, who disappeared from Evansdale along with her cousin, Lyric Cook, in July 2012. The girls were found dead five months later.

Heather Collins says she asked authorities several times to issue an Amber Alert for the girls, but was told they could not because police did not have any suspect information.

(AP) — The Ohio man convicted of holding three women captive in his Cleveland house over a decade and raping them repeatedly has been sentenced to life without parole plus 1,000 years.

Fifty-three-year-old Ariel Castro was being given his sentence Thursday. He had pleaded guilty to 937 counts including aggravated murder, kidnapping, rape and assault.

A plea deal struck last week spared him from a possible death sentence for beating and starving a pregnant victim until she miscarried.

The women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old.

They escaped to freedom May 6 when one of them, Amanda Berry, broke out part of the door to Castro’s house and yelled to neighbors for help.

(AP) — A 61-year-old northeast Nebraska woman has been sentenced to prison for arson.

Daphne Hansen, of Neligh, was sentenced Wednesday in Antelope County District Court to 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 years. She had been convicted in May of arson, conspiracy to commit arson and aiding a felony.

Investigators say Hansen claimed a financial interest in a Neligh home and that she conspired with two other people to have the house burned down. No one was injured in the June 2010 blaze.

Hansen has vehemently denied any involvement in the fire, and her attorney indicated in court Wednesday that she intends to appeal the convictions.

(AP) — A Nebraska prison inmate has waived his right to an arraignment and agreed to forego a preliminary hearing.

Jeremy Dobbe made his first court appearance Thursday since being charged with manslaughter in the death of 47-year-old Joyce Meeks.

Meeks died June 25 when a state-owned van driven by Dobbe crashed into her minivan in Lincoln.

By waiving his right to an arraignment, Dobbe didn’t hear about the charge or possible penalties. By foregoing the preliminary hearing, he opted not to challenge whether prosecutors had enough evidence to charge him.

Defense lawyer DeAnn Stover declined to comment.

Although Dobbe was imprisoned for methamphetamine possession, he was allowed to drive other inmates to work-release assignments when the crash occurred.

The state has ended the prison-driver program.

(AP) — Authorities say a 12-year-old boy used a BB gun to rob a 10-year-old who was running a lemonade stand in western Pennsylvania.

Johnstown Sgt. Patrick Goggin says the 12-year-old approached the stand Monday with what appeared to be a handgun in his pocket and threatened the younger boy. Goggin says the boys “got into a wrestling match over the money box” before the older boy took $30 and ran away.

Three other children chased the boy home and helped police track him down. That’s when police determined the boy had a BB gun.

Police aren’t identifying the suspect because he’ll be charged in juvenile court where most cases remain confidential.

Johnstown is about 60 miles east of Pittsburgh.

(AP) — The nation’s most active death penalty state is running out of its execution drug.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice says its remaining supply of pentobarbital (pento-BAR-bit-all) expires in September. Department spokesman Jason Clark says officials are exploring all options but have yet to find an alternative.

Texas has lethally injected 11 death-row inmates so far this year, most recently on Wednesday. Two executions are scheduled in September and at least five others are set for following months.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the September executions may be delayed.

Other death penalty states have encountered similar problems as drug manufacturers have balked at using their products for capital punishment.

Texas has executed 503 inmates since 1976, when the Supreme Court allowed executions to resume. Virginia is second at 110.

(AP) — Trial has been delayed for a man accused of injuring a Nebraska State Patrol trooper by ramming his tractor into the trooper’s car.

Sioux City, Iowa, television station KTIV reports (https://bit.ly/15fhI7x) that 39-year-old Aaron White, of Plainview, appeared in Antelope County District Court in Neligh on Wednesday. His next court appearance is set for Aug. 28 for a pretrial conference.

Authorities say White created several disturbances in December and when law enforcement officers confronted him, White tried to ram a deputy’s car with his tractor before hitting a trooper’s car and hurting him.

Another state trooper shot White.

White is charged with four felonies, including assaulting an officer.

(AP) — A man who kidnapped and raped three women in Cleveland over a decade in his house is heading back to court where he’ll face a sentence up to life in prison plus 1,000 years.

The sentence 53-year-old Ariel Castro could receive Thursday was hammered out as part of a plea deal that spared him a possible death sentence for a forced miscarriage suffered by one victim.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty says the women kept diaries documenting the psychological and sexual abuse they suffered daily for a decade.

He alleged Wednesday that Castro fed them just once a day.

The case broke May 6 when one victim kicked out part of a door at Castro’s house and called to neighbors for help. Castro was arrested within hours.

(AP) — Gov. Dave Heineman has named two new judges.

Heineman picked 44-year-old Jeffrey Funke (FUNK), of Nebraska City, to serve as district judge in southeast Nebraska. Funke currently serves as a county judge for the 2nd Judicial District.

Funke replaces former Cass County District Judge Randall Rehmeier, who recently retired.

Heineman also named 44-year-old Stephen R.W. Twiss, of Central City, as a county judge for the 5th Judicial District. The district is composed of Boone, Butler, Colfax, Hamilton, Merrick, Nance, Platte, Polk, Saunders, Seward, and York counties.

Twiss, a private practice attorney, replaces former York County Judge Curtis Evans, who retired in May.

(AP) — A 25-year-old worker remains in extremely critical condition at an Omaha hospital after the ladder he was carrying hit a power line.

Emergency crews were called to a west Omaha apartment building Wednesday morning for a report that a man had been electrocuted.

Rescue workers found 25-year-old Pedro Armederiz, who had been working on the apartment’s gutters when the aluminum ladder he was moving touched a live electrical wire.

Medics were able to revive Armederiz, but he remains in critical condition.