A Washington man and one from Missouri have been imprisoned in a Nebraska marijuana case.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that 27-year-old Aaron Hilts, of Lacey, Wash., was given two to three years in prison for attempted delivery of the 22 pounds of pot. Twenty-six-year-old Mazeyar Attaran, of Ellisville, Mo., was given 44 to 96 months in prison for trying to avoid arrest and for aiding and abetting the attempted delivery of drugs.

The Nebraska State Patrol says a trooper noticed two vehicles traveling together on Interstate 80 in Lincoln on March 9 last year.

The trooper pulled over one of them, which was driven by Hilts, and the marijuana was found inside.

The vehicle driven by Attaran was forced into a ditch after a chase by another trooper.

Iraq veteran Alma Felix hopes the U.S. military’s new rules to open hundreds of thousands of combat jobs to women will lead society to recognize that female troops can be courageous warriors.

The 27-year-old Army veteran says that women have proven themselves over the past decade in Iraq and Afghanistan and have come home with the feeling that few know of their contributions.

She says female soldiers tend to disappear into the background.

Across the country, members of the military of both sexes said they accept the new policy so long as women will have to meet the same standards as their male colleagues.

Others believe the public may not be ready to handle seeing more female troops come home in body bags or with lost limbs.

The criminal charges continue to mount against a Texas man who had described himself as a spokesman for the hacker-activist group Anonymous.

A two-count federal indictment returned Thursday in Dallas charges Barrett Brown with concealing evidence by hiding two laptop computers from authorities.

The 31-year-old defendant was a de facto spokesman for Anonymous, willing to speak for a movement that prides itself on anonymity.

The latest indictment alleges that he concealed the laptops from authorities at the home of an associated identified only as “KM.” The indictment doesn’t detail what was on the laptops. He already is accused of stealing data from the Austin-based private intelligence firm Stratfor and threatening an FBI agent on the Internet.

Brown’s attorney, Doug Morris, declined to comment on the new charges.

Prosecutors will review internal priest personnel files kept by the Los Angeles Roman Catholic archdiocese that show retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and other top church officials worked to shield molester priests.

District attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said in an emailed statement Tuesday that the office will “evaluate all documents as they become available to us.”

Thousands of pages of confidential records from the files of 14 priests accused of sex abuse were made public Monday.

The documents show how the church handled abuse allegations for decades and provide the strongest evidence to date that Mahony and a top aide consulted about how to handle molester priests and protect the archdiocese from scandal.

Mahony issued an apology Monday.

Dozens more priest files will soon become public under a 2007 settlement agreement.

A law enforcement official says Texas authorities have at least one person in custody in connection to the Lone Star College campus shooting in Houston, and local authorities think there could potentially be a second shooter.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss an ongoing case. The official says multiple injuries have been reported.

The Houston-area community college is on lockdown amid reports of a shooter on campus. Lone Star College System issued an alert on its website telling students and faculty to take immediate shelter or avoid the campus.

Gov. Dave Heineman today approved the route reviewed in the final evaluation report, which avoids the environmentally-sensitive Sand Hills region of Nebraska. Gov. Heineman sent the following letter to President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, notifying them of the accepted Nebraska route.

In the letter of approval signed by Gov. Heineman, the findings are listed from the evaluation by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality of the proposed route.

What are your thoughts on the approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline?

A northeast Ohio middle-school teacher has until later this week to respond to an allegation that she posted a Facebook photo of her students with their mouths covered with duct tape.

The Akron Public Schools Board of Education voted last week to pursue the firing of Melissa Cairns. She’s a math teacher at Buchtel Community Learning Center.

The school district says the photo, posted on Cairn’s personal Facebook page, showed some of her students with duct tape across their mouths. The caption read: “Finally found a way to get them to be quiet!!!” The district says a colleague of Cairns’ notified a supervisor of the photo.

The Akron Beacon Journal reports that Cairns was put on paid leave Oct. 19. She hasn’t responded to requests for comment.

Police are investigating a fire that damaged two houses under construction in Omaha and caused a series of small explosions.

The Omaha World-Herald reports three propane tanks exploded Monday afternoon inside one house. The subsequent fire damaged a second nearby home.

Electricians working inside the first house were able to escape without injury. They then alerted workers in the second home.

The front of the first house collapsed and a side of the second home had fire damage. It was declared under control less than an hour later.

Fire officials say nobody was injured.