(AP) — The Ash Grove Cement Co. has agreed to pay a $2.5 million penalty to the EPA and invest roughly $30 million in better pollution-control equipment at nine plants.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced the settlement agreement on Wednesday.

EPA officials say this deal will reduce air pollution and eliminate more than 17,000 tons of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide pollution annually.

Ash Grove has cement plants in Foreman, Ark.; Inkom, Idaho; Chanute, Kan.; Clancy, Mont.; Louisville, Neb.; Durkee, Ore.; Leamington, Utah; Seattle, Wash.; and Midlothian, Texas.

Ash Grove also pledged to spend $750,000 to reduce the effects of past excess emissions at several of its facilities.

Ash Grove is based in Overland Park, Kan.

(AP) — A Pennsylvania woman and her two daughters have been charged in the neglect-related death of their 32-year-old son and brother with Down syndrome.

Police say Robert Gensiak weighed just 69 pounds and was covered in scabies at the time of his death March 20. He was taken to the hospital a day earlier because he was semi-responsive and couldn’t stand up.

Authorities say 59-year-old Susan Gensiak and her daughters, 35-year-old Joan and 24-year-old Rebekah, were charged Wednesday with third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and neglect of care for a dependent person.

The victim reportedly hadn’t received any medical treatment since 2009.

The suspects said little to reporters as they were led into their arraignment.

(AP) — Donations of bullets have poured into a southeast Nebraska Boy Scout group after it raised concerns that an ammunition shortage would force campers to learn to shoot using air guns rather than rifles.

Leaders of the Scout’s Cornhusker Council sought donations of .22-caliber bullets after retailers weren’t able to fill their order.

Cornhusker Council district director Jerad Reimers says the group went public with its problem, hoping for donations of 24,000 rounds in time for training of scouts at camp.

Instead, people donated more than 65,000 bullets from as far away as Florida. Reimers says an Iowa man gave more than 10,000 rounds.

Reimers says the bullets will help ensure scouts learn how to handle a gun properly, something he calls “an absolute necessity.”

(AP) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the United States’ military is facing a number of challenges in the coming years, from civil war in Syria to the role of technology in global security.

Hagel’s remarks came Wednesday before a crowd of about 300 at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where Hagel earned a bachelor’s degree of science in history some 40 years ago. It was Hagel’s first trip to Nebraska since he was confirmed as defense secretary.

Hagel said U.S. policy decisions regarding Syria carry consequences “both for action and inaction,” and that those consequences are being weighed by President Barack Obama.

Hagel, who said last month that the U.S. was considering arming Syrian rebels, made no mention of that possibility Wednesday. He did not take questions from reporters.

A Nebraska man has been convicted of a federal bribery charge along with a former Chicago alderman and another man.

Jurors convicted 71-year-old Jim Barta, 59-year-old former alderman Ambrosio Medrano and their friend 50-year-old Gus Buenrostro on Monday.

Prosecutors say the three men agreed to bribe an undercover FBI agent posing as a purchasing agent for a California hospital to land a pharmaceutical contract.

Barta is a cattle rancher who lives in Fremont and owns the Sav-Rx prescription company.

The three men had argued they were entrapped by FBI agents who came up with the hospital contract deal, but the jury rejected that argument.

(AP) — An October trial has been scheduled for a Grand Island man accused of stealing a skid loader to rip up and carry off an automated teller machine.

41-year-old Bryce Malesker has pleaded not guilty to theft and other charges stemming from an incident on April 26.

Police say officers dispatched to the Five Points Bank building on South Locus found the skid loader and then followed it down Grand Island streets while it carried the ATM in its front bucket. The ATM soon fell onto the roadway, and the skid loader continued through yards and fences before hitting and damaging an elementary school.

Malesker was arrested after the skid loader stalled out on a curb.

(AP) — A 41-year-old man is being held on $5 million bail after police say he castrated a paraplegic during a dispute at an assisted living facility in Philadelphia.

Authorities say Edgar Bonilla is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and other counts in Monday night’s attack inside the Inglis Apartments at Elmwood. Lt. John Walker says Bonilla was visiting a female friend at the facility and that she apparently had some sort of dispute with the victim.

Walker says Bonilla was apparently trying to settle that dispute. The victim, Bonilla and the woman were all apparently friends.

Bonilla is in custody and it couldn’t immediately be determined if he had an attorney. The name of the victim wasn’t released, but he remains in critical condition at a hospital.

(AP) — The National Weather Service says radar shows a tornado briefly touched down over the east runways of Denver International Airport, where thousands of people took shelter in bathrooms and stairwells until a tornado warning passed.

There are no immediate reports of damage.

Weather service meteorologist Kyle Fredin says a 97 mph gust was measured at the airport before communications with instruments there were briefly knocked out Tuesday. Dark clouds blanketed parts of the horizon over the plains to the east.

Airport officials say some flights headed to Denver were diverted elsewhere.

Television coverage showed the airport’s normally busy terminal was empty during the tornadowarning.

As the storm passed, police briefly blocked traffic from Interstate 70 to Pena Boulevard, which leads to the airport.

(AP) — Officials say a body found in the Missouri River at South Sioux City was that of a missing Nebraska man.

Dakota County Attorney Kim Watson on Monday confirmed the identification of Anthony Campbell, of Waterbury.

Campbell had been missing since he went into the water around 4 a.m. Friday at Scenic Park Campground and was swept away. The body was found around 1 p.m. Sunday near a railroad bridge about a mile south of the campground.

South Sioux City Police Chief Scot Ford says Campbell went to the riverfront park with a woman. Her name isn’t being released, but Ford says she doesn’t face any charges stemming from the incident.

(AP) — A 6-year-old San Francisco Bay area boy has died after he was attacked by a relative’s dog.

Authorities say the attack occurred around 11:30 a.m. Monday at a grandparent’s home in Union City. The dog has been described as a pit bull or pit bull mix.

Union City Police Cmdr. Ben Horner says family members told investigators the boy was playing with the dog and may have attempted to climb on its back when he was attacked. The dog bit the boy on top of his head.

The boy has been identified as Nephi Selu. He died at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto.