(AP) — A former Omaha middle school teacher has been sentenced to nine to 14 years in prison for his inappropriate relationships with girls he taught.

A Douglas County District judge sentenced 36-year-old Shad Knutson on Wednesday. Prosecutors say Knutson had inappropriate relationships with girls ages 13 to 15 from 2008 to 2010 while he taught at Nathan Hale Magnet Middle School.

Knutson was convicted in March of using a cell phone to commit sexual assault and child abuse for asking a girl for lewd photos.

Prosecutors say Knutson exchanged some 27,000 messages and calls with one girl. He was acquitted of counts involving three other girls.

(AP) — The Nebraska Court of Appeals has reversed a man’s drug possession conviction, saying law enforcement officers overstepped when they searched his car because he smelled like marijuana in the police station.

The case stems from the 2011 conviction of Roger Dalland, of Grand Island, on a count of possession of methamphetamine. A Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputy testified that he smelled marijuana on Dalland, and based on that, followed Dalland to his car and searched it. He found three syringes with traces of meth in them.

Dalland was sentenced to 270 days in jail.

Dalland appealed, raising the question of whether the odor of marijuana on a person inside a building gives police probable cause to search that person’s vehicle once he enters it.

The appeals court found it did not.

(AP) — Authorities have removed at least 20 cats from an Omaha house.

The Nebraska Humane Society removed the cats Wednesday afternoon.

The Omaha Fire Department was also called in to ventilate the home due to a strong odor emanating from the property on the city’s north side.

The Humane Society continues to check out the cats. Additional information about their conditions was not available, and no details have been released about the homeowners.

(AP) — A Nebraska prison inmate with drunken- and reckless-driving convictions was behind the wheel of a state-owned van that was involved in a fatal crash in Lincoln.

The Department of Correctional Services says 35-year-old Jeremy Dobbe was assigned to drive inmates to and from work details out of the Community Corrections Center in Lincoln. Lincoln police say Dobbe was driving at a high rate of speed around 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday, when he went into oncoming traffic and struck a minivan nearly head-on.

Lincoln police say the other vehicle’s driver, 47-year-old Joyce R. Meeks, died at the scene.

Dobbe is serving a 5-7 year sentence for possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver, terroristic threats and criminal mischief from Colfax and Butler counties

(AP) — The government is about to retire most of the chimpanzees who’ve spent their lives in U.S. research labs.

The National Institutes of Health said Wednesday that it will retire about 310 chimps from medical research over the next few years, saying humans’ closest relatives “deserve special respect.”

The agency will keep only 50 other chimps essentially on retainer — available if needed for crucial medical studies that could be performed no other way.

The decision was long expected, after the prestigious Institute of Medicine declared in 2011 that nearly all use of chimps for invasive medical research no longer can be justified. What’s not clear is exactly where all the retiring chimps will spend their final days, as NIH said more space in sanctuaries is needed.

(AP) — The parents of a 16-year-old West Virginia girl say one of the friends accused of stabbing her to death had been like a second daughter to them.

But she lied to them for the better part of a year about what happened last July.

The unidentified juvenile had been friends with Skylar Neese since age 8, and Mary Neese says the girls became inseparable when they hit high school.

Now that girl and another classmate — 16-year-old Rachel Shoaf — are charged with plotting the attack. Only if she is charged as an adult will the second suspect be identified.

Mary Neese says she defended the girl for months, until lies tripped her up with police.

Only when Shoaf pleaded guilty to second-degree murder did the truth begin to emerge.

(AP) — Authorities say a woman has died in a collision that occurred south of downtown Lincoln.

The accident happened a little before 10:30 p.m. Tuesday and involved a minivan and a larger van. Lincoln police Capt. Michon Morrow says police received at least three calls before the crash from people who said the bigger van was speeding and running red lights.

The woman driving the minivan was pronounced dead at the scene. Morrow says the man driving the van was taken to a Lincoln hospital for treatment of injuries that didn’t appear to be life-threatening.

The drivers’ names haven’t been released. Morrow says they had been alone in their vehicles.

(AP) — The Saline County Veterans’ Memorial on the courthouse square in Wilber doesn’t have the standard features.

There are no names on any bricks or paving stones. There are no plaques carrying the names of any former sergeants or sailors, majors or Marines, privates or pilots.

Instead it uses a computer database to honor and remember the county’s veterans.

The recently completed memorial has a computer screen built into a kiosk in the base of the memorial. Type a name and the screen could soon display the veteran’s hometown, years of military service, rank, decorations or honors and, if one were submitted, a photo.

The memorial sits on a pentagon-shaped plaza, surrounded by flagpoles and lights. Benches and landscaping will be installed.

(AP) — A Connecticut couple are letting customers at a Starbucks coffee shop choose the name of their baby.

Twenty-five-year-old Jennifer James and 24-year-old Mark Dixon of West Haven tell the New Haven Register they have been struggling between two names for the boy they are expecting in September.

So they decided to put it to a vote.

They’ve placed signs at the Starbucks on the New Haven Green, where they are regulars, asking people to vote for either the name Jackson or Logan.

So far, they have received about 1,800 votes in the coffee cup serving as a ballot box, and say “Logan” is leading. But there is still time.

The baby poll closes on Tuesday. The couple says they will post the winning name in the store.

(AP) — Nebraska opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline say they’re thrilled that President Barack Obama mentioned the project during his speech on climate change, but they aren’t backing off their campaign.

Obama said Tuesday that the Canada-to-Texas pipeline project should only be approved if it doesn’t worsen carbon pollution.

Bold Nebraska executive director Jane Kleeb says the president’s remarks could shift the debate toward two federal reviews.

One study by the U.S. State Department found the pipeline would have a negligible impact on greenhouse emissions. Another by the Environmental Protection Agency said emissions could be higher than the State Department predicts.

Pipeline supporters say the project has undergone exhaustive reviews at the federal level and in Nebraska. Opponents say the State Department report relies on information from the oil pipeline industry.