A 26-year-old man charged with setting fire to three books at a University of Nebraska-Lincoln library last year has been given one to three years in prison.

Online court records say Joshua Hughes, of Lincoln, was charged with first-degree arson.  Hughes pleaded no contest after prosecutors lowered the charge. He was sentenced on Tuesday and credited for 327 days served.

Documents say Hughes was hiding in Love Library North when it closed at 11 p.m. on May 23, 2012. Police say Hughes called 911 for help because he couldn’t find a way out of the library after the fire started.

University officials say that other than the burned books, the library wasn’t damaged.

The Illinois House has approved the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Lawmakers voted 61-57 Wednesday to allow physicians to prescribe marijuana to patients with specific terminal illnesses or debilitating medical conditions.

The legislation goes to the state Senate, where a similar version was approved in 2009. Senate President John Cullerton’s spokeswoman said this week he supports the legislation.

The measure gives a framework for a four-year pilot program that includes requiring patients and caregivers to undergo background checks. The legislation sets a 2.5 ounce limit per patient per purchase.

Supporters say marijuana can relieve continual pain without triggering the harmful effects of other prescription drugs. Opponents say the program would encourage the use of marijuana for recreational purposes.

Gov. Pat Quinn hasn’t said whether he would sign the measure.

A 42-year-old Oklahoma man has been indicted in a Nebraska federal court, accused of taking a teenage girl from her suburban Omaha home to his Oklahoma home for sex.

Dennis Lewis is charged with sexual exploitation of a minor and transporting a minor for sex. He could serve life in prison if convicted.

An investigator said in a court affidavit that Lewis asked the 14-year-old Bellevue girl for sex via text messages, persuaded her to send him nude pictures of herself and sent her pictures of his genitals. Prosecutors say Lewis picked up the girl from her Bellevue home on April 10. Police in Tulsa found Lewis and the girl at his home.

 

Three Omaha men have been indicted on federal charges that accuse them of bilking more than 100 people of about $4 million in a Ponzi scheme.

The federal indictments announced Wednesday name 44-year-old Jonathan Arrington, 52-year-old Michael Kratville and 38-year-old Michael Welke. Each faces 14 counts of mail and wire fraud and conspiracy.

Federal authorities say the three told investors with Elite Management Holdings Corp. that the fund guaranteed returns of 4 percent to 6 percent a month, and that investors’ risk was low, because only 10 percent of their principal investment would be invested at any one time.

Prosecutors say the three used more than $700,000 themselves, including for golf club memberships, travel and dining.

If convicted, the men face up to 20 years on each count.

Capitol police say it turns out the suspicious packages investigated in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday weren’t hazardous.

But spokeswoman Makema Turner said a man was still being questioned late in the day after being stopped in connection with the packages.

The packages raised concern after the FBI said that letters mailed to President Barack Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi tested positive for poisonous ricin. Those letters were sent for more extensive testing, because field tests often yield false positives for ricin.

Authorities closed some parts of Senate office buildings while they investigated the packages. The Capitol was already on edge because of Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings.

A Wyoming man who was granted the state’s first retrial based on DNA evidence has been released from jail on bond after more than 23 years in prison.

A stepdaughter of 63-year-old Andrew J. Johnson says he posted $10,000 bond Wednesday. Johnson previously had been transferred to the Cheyenne jail from the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins.

Johnson was convicted of raping a Cheyenne woman in her apartment in 1989. He was sentenced to life in prison because he had previous convictions.

Recently, the first-ever DNA tests in Johnson’s case showed a match for the man who was the victim’s fiance at the time, not for Johnson.

A judge on Tuesday granted Johnson a new trial. Johnson’s stepdaughter, Angela Johnson of Denver, says she was thrilled to hear of his release.

Most major media outlets, including CNN and the Associated Press reported early this afternoon that an arrest had been made in the Boston Marathon Bombing case.

The FBI was quick to counter the reports with a statement denying any arrests.

From the FBI:

“Contrary to widespread reporting, no arrest has been made in connection with the Boston Marathon attack,” the FBI statement reads. “Over the past day and a half, there have been a number of press reports based on information from unofficial sources that has been inaccurate. Since these stories often have unintended consequences, we ask the media, particularly at this early stage of the investigation, to exercise caution and attempt to verify information through appropriate official channels before reporting.”

In a battle to be the “first,” many major media outlets are actually doing a disservice to Americans by reporting unconfirmed and, in most cases, false information.

Journalists learn in journalism 101, that unconfirmed reports should never be reported as fact.  The fact that the biggest an most popular news sources are engaging in this practice, should be a concern to all of us.

Like the boy who cried wolf, these practices do little good and destroy the credibility of journalists around the world.

The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), who gained fame for picketing the funerals of American soldiers, is at it again, making a public announcement that they plan to picket the funerals of the Boston Marathon victims.

The WBC recently distributed a flier claiming that God was responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing because Massachusetts was the first State to legalize same-sex marriage.

See the flier here: https://twitter.com/WBCFliers/status/324138246735028224/photo/1

But hacker group Anonymous took issue with the announcement and hacked the groups Facebook page, rewriting Bio information and filling its wall with anti-WBC posts.

The hacktivist group issued a warning via Twitter, telling the WBC that if they tried anything in Boston, they would feel the full fury of the online community.

This isn’t the first time Anonymous has launched an attack against the WBC.

Anonymous launched a full-fledged attack on the WBC after the group threatened to picket the funerals of the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting victims, by posting WBC members personal information online, overtaking the group’s website and hacking the Twitter account of one of the WBC’s representatives.

 

Southeast Community College officials are reporting double-digit declines in enrollment.

College President Jack Huck released figures for the spring quarter and for all four quarters of the year on Tuesday.

The year-to-year figure is down nearly 12 percent, and the spring quarter enrollment is down around 17 percent from the 2012 figure. The school says the final count of full-time students for the 2012-2013 school year is just over 8,800, compared with just under 10,000 the year before.

Officials say many community colleges across the nation are experiencing declines in enrollment, with fewer high school graduates and an improving economy.

The district serves 15 counties in southeast Nebraska and has campuses in Lincoln, Beatrice and Milford.

A 19-year-old southeast Nebraska man has been given two to five years in prison for sexually assaulting a child.

Damien Hartman, of York, was sentenced on Monday. He’d pleaded no contest to sexually assaulting a 3-year-old girl.

Hartman’s attorney, Nancy Waldron, says Hartman had been molested and abused as a child and was intoxicated the day he was caught molesting the girl.

Prosecutor Candace Dick told the judge that Harman didn’t seek help to keep from becoming a perpetrator himself. Dick says Hartman “crossed that line and needs to pay for his crime.”

Hartman was given credit for 125 days already served.