(AP) — A $675,000 verdict against a former Boston University student who illegally downloaded and shared songs on the Internet has been upheld.

A jury ordered Providence, R.I., resident Joel Tenenbaum to pay $22,500 for each of 30 songs after the Recording Industry Association of America sued him on behalf of four record labels.

Tenenbaum argued the $675,000 award violates his due process rights because it’s not tied to the injury he caused. He estimates that to be no more than $450, or the cost of 30 albums.

A federal appeals court Tuesday found Tenenbaum’s conduct was “egregious” because he illegally shared songs for years despite numerous warnings.

The U.S. Supreme Court last year declined to hear Tenenbaum’s appeal.

Tenenbaum says he can’t comment on the ruling.

(AP) — Two Omaha men are improving after being critically wounded earlier this month by a gunman who killed two other people before police killed him.

Police said Tuesday that 31-year-old Aaron Anderson and 46-year-old Angel Cabrera have both improved to serious condition from critical condition. But both men remain hospitalized.

Police say 25-year-old Jorge Abraham Zarazua-Rubio wounded Anderson and Cabrera and killed 25-year-old Anthony Vazzano and 25-year-old Pascual Bautista-Raymundo in the June 15 shooting.

Zarazua-Rubio exchanged gunfire with Officer Coral Walker before Walker killed him.

Police are still investigating the shootings.

(AP) — Oklahoma has executed a man in the 2001 rape and murder of his girlfriend’s mother.

The state’s parole board had recommended that Brian Darrell Davis have his sentence reduced to life without parole, but Gov. Mary Fallin rejected the request for mercy. A spokesman for the governor said “justice is being served.”

The 39-year-old died Tuesday night at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

Prosecutors said Davis stabbed 52-year-old Josephine Sanford six times, broke her jaw and left marks around her neck. Davis was convicted of rape after jurors considered DNA evidence.

Four members of the Pardon and Parole Board voted this month to recommend a life sentence. Attorney General Scott Pruitt said afterward the board usurped the jury’s decision and said Davis deserved to die for a brutal crime.

A new lawsuit has been filed against Monster Beverage alleging that a teenager died last year from cardiac arrhythmia caused by habitually drinking the company’s energy drink.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Alameda County Superior Court. It alleges that 19-year-old Alex Morris would not have died if he had not consumed two cans of the energy drink every day for the three years before his death, including the day he died.

The lawsuit said Morris went into cardiac arrest during the early morning of July 1 and was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The family of a 14-year-old Maryland girl also sued the company last year after she consumed two 24-ounce cans of Monster and died.

Monster representatives did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

(AP) — The U.S. Army is slashing the number of combat brigades from 45 to 33, and shifting thousands of soldiers out of bases around the county as it moves forward with the long-planned move to cut the size of the service by 80,000.

Officials say the massive restructuring plans would eliminate brigades at 10 Army bases in the U.S. by 2017, including in Texas, Kentucky, Colorado, North Carolina, New York, Kansas and Washington. The Army will also cut thousands of other jobs across the service, including soldiers in units that support the brigades.

Officials provided details on the plans on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publically.

The Army is being reduced from a high of about 570,000 during the Iraq war to 490,000.

(AP) — A 61-year-old southeastern Michigan farmer caught growing thousands of marijuana plants has been spared prison and placed on probation by a compassionate judge who says the case “screams out” for leniency.

Edwin Schmieding was arrested two years ago after authorities found marijuana growing in his Lenawee County fields and greenhouse. His wife told police that they were trying to tap the state’s medical marijuana market.

But many plants were small and of low quality. Detroit federal Judge Bernard Friedman also was influenced Tuesday by letters from relatives and friends who said Schmieding was a selfless man who helped others at every turn.

Schmieding took responsibility for his crime but asked the judge for mercy. Schmieding is recovering from throat cancer and needs a medical procedure every three to four months.

(AP) — A White House official says President Barack Obama is telling the State Department it shouldn’t approve the Keystone XL pipeline unless it’s sure the project won’t increase greenhouse gas emissions.

Obama will make the announcement Tuesday in a speech on his climate change plan at Georgetown University. That’s according to a senior White House official, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the announcement by name ahead of Obama’s speech and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Environmental activists have been pleading with Obama not to approve the pipeline, which would carry oil extracted from tar sands in western Canada to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast. The White House has insisted the State Department is making the decision about whether the pipeline is in the national interest.

(AP) — Making technology fun. That’s the goal of so-called coding camps for kids that are becoming more popular amid an effort to expand access to computer programming and inspire more youths to seek technology careers.

Supporters of the initiative point to estimates there will be 1.4 million computing jobs by 2020 but only 400,000 computer science students by that time.

Those at iD Tech Camps, which have grown from 200 students in 1999 to 28,000 this year nationwide, use interest in gaming to build bridges to computer programing and hopefully tech careers.

At a recent forum, Code.org founder Hadi Partovi talked about his nonprofit’s push to expand programming classes in schools. He notes less than 5 percent of U.S. high school students spend time learning computer science while it’s a graduation requirement in China.

(AP) — About 500 people have been ordered to evacuate their homes in a northeast Iowa town that’s threatened by a rain-swollen creek.

The Butler County sheriff and other emergency officials are in New Hartford on Tuesday to help with the evacuation. Officials went from door to door on Monday to warn residents about the danger posed by Beaver Creek as it nears a record crest level.

New Hartford, nearly 90 miles northeast of Des Moines, was devastated in June 2008 when Beaver Creek crested at a record 16 feet.

The National Weather Service says more than 7 inches of rain fell Monday in portions of the Beaver Creek basin, ground that was already saturated. The rest of Butler County is under a flash flood watch until Wednesday morning.

(AP) — The body of a 24-year-old man presumed drowned in Lake North near Columbus has been recovered.

Officials say members of the Platte County Dive & Rescue team pulled the body of Jorge Manuel, of Madison, out of the water on Monday.

Authorities say an angler reported that the man and some relatives were on the south side of the lake when Manuel went into the water a little before 8 p.m. Saturday. He didn’t resurface.