LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 42-year-old Grand Island man has been given 10 months in a federal prison for selling methamphetamine.

Prosecutors say John Holroyd was sentenced on Thursday. He must serve five years of supervised release after he leaves prison.

Holroyd pleaded guilty in March. Prosecutors say he sold a police informant nearly 10 grams of meth on June 9 last year.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 16-year-old boy has been accused of killing a girl found in a northwest Omaha creek on May 15.

Omaha police say the boy was arrested Thursday and is being held in the Douglas County Youth Center. So far he faces adult charges of first-degree murder and use of a weapon to commit a felony.

The victim has been identified as 16-year-old Melanie Koontz, who’d been a student at Benson High School.

Police have not released a motive nor said how Koontz was killed.

The Associated Press generally doesn’t identify juveniles accused of a crime.

SEWARD, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s Concordia University has joined other colleges in issuing graduation guarantees.

The Seward school promises to cover the cost of courses beyond four years for students who follow personalized graduation plans.

Concordia Provost Jenny Mueller-Roebke told the local media that the school has been doing so for years and that “this is just formalizing it and putting it in writing.”

Midland University in Fremont and Doane College in Crete offer similar guarantees.

Mueller-Roebke says some programs at Concordia aren’t designed to let students graduate in four years. They include music education, for example.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska U.S. Senate hopefuls Deb Fischer and Bob Kerrey have agreed to a campaign debate at the State Fair in Grand Island.

Local media reports that the candidates will square off on Aug. 25.

Both are seeking to fill the seat that will open after the retirement of Democratic U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson. Nelson announced in December that he will not seek re-election, and national Democratic and Republican leaders have identified his seat as a key target in the November election.

Kerrey, a Democrat, is looking to return to the U.S. Senate after leaving office in 2001. The former Nebraska governor most recently served as president of The New School, a university in New York City.

Fischer, a Republican, is a Nebraska state senator from rural Valentine.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — State climatologists say farmers in Nebraska and Iowa should prepare for persistent drought conditions this summer that could devastate their crops.

Nebraska State Climatologist Harry Al Dutcher said Thursday that he expects that ranchers and farmers in the western part of the state will suffer crop damage, unless the weather suddenly becomes cooler and wetter. He says that’s unlikely, given the current conditions.

Ranchers in western Nebraska and farmers in north-central Iowa say the weather conditions are the driest they’ve ever seen.

The situation is less dire in Iowa, but State Climatologist Harry Hillaker predicts that June will be warmer than usual. High winds are also causing water to evaporate faster.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) —The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission  has closed the Mormon Island State Recreation Area swimming beach following reports of swimmer’s itch.

Officials say the beach will be closed for two to four weeks. Mormon Island is near the interchange of Interstate 80 and U.S. Highway 281 south of Grand Island.

Community health nurse Katie Wichman told Local media reports that swimmer’s itch is a skin reaction that occurs when a parasitic flatworm enters the outer layer of skin.

The parks superintendent who oversees Mormon Island, Mark Clymer, says there’s no way to be certain the parasites that cause swimmer’s itch are present in water at the beach. But Clymer says similar conditions last year forced a temporary closure.

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — A federal court trial date has been set for the Buffalo County Board of Supervisors chairman and his wife.

Richard and Janna Pierce are charged with bankruptcy fraud, accused of hiding money that they could have used to pay creditors listed in their bankruptcy. They have pleaded not guilty.

The Kearney Hub says (http://bit.ly/KexdmK) the trial is scheduled to begin July 17 in Lincoln.

The Pierces filed for bankruptcy in June 2003 and are accused of failing to disclose nearly $159,000 of Janna Pierce’s income.

The money was from commissions on grants that she wrote in 2004 for Buffalo and neighboring counties. She didn’t submit a bill to the county until 2010, which the board — including her husband — voted to pay.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a 14-year-old boy has been killed in an accident on train tracks in Grand Island.

The Grand Island Police Department says the boy was with some other youths near the tracks around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The department says one boy cut across the tracks in front of a train. Then a second boy tried, but he fell on the tracks and was struck by the train.

Police identified the victim as 14-year-old Cody Christensen, of Grand Island.

CERESCO, Neb. (AP) — A drunken-driving charge has been filed against a volunteer firefighter who was behind the wheel when his firetruck crashed into a ditch in eastern Nebraska.

A news release from the office of Saunders County Attorney Scott Tingelhoff says 52-year-old Rodney Lovell, of Ceresco, is charged with a misdemeanor for first-offense DUI.

The Saunders County Sheriff’s Office says the truck was responding to a fire in Valparaiso when the accident occurred in the early morning of May 28. Lovell missed a turn, and the truck ran off the roadway into a ditch. It had to be towed out.

No injuries have been reported.

A phone listed for Lovell is no longer in service. Online court records don’t list the name of Lovell’s attorney.