(AP) — A former medical office administrator in Lincoln has been given 18 months in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution of nearly $542,000.

Federal prosecutors say 54-year-old Royann Schmidgall was sentenced on Monday in U.S. District Court in Lincoln. Schmidgall must serve three years of supervised release after she leaves prison.

Schmidgall had faced 15 counts, but prosecutors agreed to drop all but one in exchange for her guilty plea.

Prosecutors say Schmidgall handled payroll and other administrative duties at Nebraska Pulmonary Specialties for 15 years. She was fired in December 2011.

(AP) — Federal authorities have proposed to fine a southeast Nebraska co-op that operates a grain elevator where a worker was killed.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration says in a news release that the penalties proposed against Farmers Cooperative Co. total $22,800.

On Jan. 29 a 69-year-old co-op worker died after a semitrailer truck backed into him at the elevator in Talmage. Authorities say he was standing in a street to direct a truck into the elevator when a second truck backed into him.

The worker, Roger Teten, of Talmage, died later at a hospital.

OSHA says more safety violations were found at the elevator after an inspection.

The co-op’s attorney, Jim Luers, said Tuesday the co-op will contest the penalties and the citations.

(AP) — Authorities say a 79-year-old driver has died in a collision of two all-terrain vehicles on a rural road in south-central Nebraska.

Hamilton County Attorney Mike Powell says the accident occurred a little after 11 a.m. Saturday about six miles southeast of Giltner.

Powell says Ivan Stiegemeier’s ATV crossed the center line on a blind curve and rammed into an oncoming ATV driven by 58-year-old Gordon Klein, of Giltner.

Powell says Stiegemeier, of Harvard, died at the scene. Klein was taken to a hospital.

(AP) — A Nebraska judge says an Indiana doctor accused of killing four people with ties to an Omaha medical school must remain in jail to await trial.

Judge Lawrence Barrett ruled Tuesday morning that no bond would be set for Dr. Anthony Garcia.

Garcia, of Terre Haute, Ind., was arrested in Illinois last week and extradited Thursday to a jail in Omaha.

He is accused of shooting to death Creighton University pathologist Roger Brumback and fatally stabbing Brumback’s wife, Mary, in May at the Brumbacks’ Omaha home. Garcia is also accused in the fatal stabbings of 11-year-old Thomas Hunter and his family’s housekeeper, Shirlee Sherman, in March 2008, also in Omaha.

Brumback and Thomas Hunter’s father fired Garcia from a Creighton residency program in 2001.

(AP) — A central Ohio judge has ordered a woman to spend the next five Christmases in jail as part of her sentence for issuing state ID cards and driver’s licenses to immigrants who entered the country illegally.

Prosecutors say 44-year-old Betina Young — a former license agency employee — accepted payments from applicants to falsify records showing they had verified their immigration status. She has pleaded guilty.

Judge Michael Holbrook put Young on probation Monday for five years — ordering that she spend a minimum of three days in jail each Christmas while on probation.

If she violates probation, she could go to prison for 15 years.

(AP) — A two-vehicle crash at a highway intersection in northeast Nebraska has killed one woman and injured three other people.

The Nebraska State Patrol helped Stanton County officials respond to the wreck eight miles south of Stanton around 7 p.m. Sunday.

Authorities say 53-year-old James Pfeifer’s car pulled out in front of a southbound pickup truck driven by 19-year-old Cole Beyke of Stanton. The vehicles collided in the intersection of Highways 57 and 32.

In Pfeifer’s car, his wife, 51-year-old Peggy Pfeifer, was killed. James Pfeifer and his 21-year-old daughter Hannah Pfeifer were both critically injured and flown to Sioux City.

The Pfeifers, who are from Clarkson, had to be removed from their car with the Jaws of Life.

Beyke was taken to Faith Regional Hospital in Norfolk for treatment.

(AP) — The state and federal government are expected to spend $10 million to clean up properties in Columbus that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency believes contributed to groundwater contamination decades ago.

The Columbus City Council approved an amendment to its Superfund contract last week that allows for the additional federal and state funding. The EPA says the cleanup is necessary to control a plume of tainted groundwater created by three former dry-cleaners.

The EPA will pick up 90 percent of the cost, and the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality will cover the rest. The plan includes the demolition of four buildings.

The properties were identified as the sources of two carcinogenic chemicals commonly used in dry cleaning that leached into the soil and groundwater.

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(AP) — Residents were temporary evacuated from an east Lincoln neighborhood after a gas line break.

Fire and rescue crews responded to an emergency call shortly after 9 a.m. Monday.

Battalion Chief Jeanne Pashalek says a backhoe working in the area clipped a high pressure gas line. Black Hills Energy crews sealed off the broken main around 10:30 a.m.

Police say several houses were evacuated while workers fixed the leak. Officials say the wind was a factor in their decision to block off areas near the clipped line.

(AP) — Omaha police have identified a man who was killed and a man who was injured in nearby shootings overnight.

33-year-old Jhonte Peters, of Omaha, died from his injuries after officers found him in the street around 12:30 a.m. Monday. Peters was pronounced dead a local hospital.

Authorities say the gunman fled in a vehicle, but witnesses gave several different descriptions of the vehicle.

About 20 minutes later, police found a man who had been grazed by a bullet about three miles away. Police say 24-year-old Mark Minor was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

(AP) — A police cruiser in Omaha was rear-ended on Interstate 80, and a second crash was reported minutes later because of the resulting traffic backup.

The crash happened around 11:30 a.m. Monday. The officer suffered minor injuries, and his K-9 partner appeared to be unharmed.

The driver who struck the police cruiser was taken to a hospital in serious condition.

The crash blocked three lanes on the interstate. A second accident was reported less than 15 minutes later, not far from the original crash.

All lanes of the interstate have since reopened.