CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — U.S. gasoline prices have risen again, but at a slower pace.

The average price of regular jumped 3 cents a gallon in the past two weeks to $2.87 a gallon.

Analyst Trilby Lundberg says it’s the smallest hike in nine weeks. The average is 82 cents a gallon lower than a year ago.

The highest price in the continental United States was $3.62 in San Diego. The lowest was $2.45 in Tucson, Arizona.

The average California price was $3.49, down 17 cents a gallon over two weeks.

The average national price for midgrade gas was $3.07, with premium going for $3.24.

Lundberg says Sunday that with a good gas supply and stable crude oil prices, gasoline prices could stop rising and might even drop in the next two weeks.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The National Park Service is finally beginning to excavate the opening of an unexplored cave in the Black Hills of South Dakota that researchers believe could help broaden our understanding of how the region’s climate has changed over thousands of years.

Employees at Wind Cave National Park discovered Persistence Cave in 2004. The federal agency kept it secret, partly to prevent amateur spelunkers from exploring on their own until they could get inside.

A team of scientists, led by East Tennessee State University professor Jim Mead begin excavating the cave Monday.

Mead says preliminary samples from the cave shows bones as old as 11,000 years, or around the latest Ice Age. He says looking at which animals lived in the region then will help understand how it’s changed.

MCCOOL JUNCTION, Neb. (AP) — Flood concerns are easing along the Big Blue River in southeast Nebraska.

Residents in part of McCool Junction had been urged to evacuate Saturday as the Big Blue River threatened. But conditions improved Sunday because no additional rain fell overnight.

McCool Junction village chairman Steve Green says the community plans to spend Sunday cleaning up the sand bags it set out a day earlier.

Water damage was reported in two homes on the south side of McCool Junction, including one with five feet of water inside. At least four homes in another neighborhood also had damage.

Several county roads remain closed with water over them and roads crossing the river in York County were closed Sunday.

In Beatrice, officials reopened U.S. 136 Sunday morning.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police are investigating a crash that killed a 6-year-old boy and a motorcyclist late Saturday.

Police say the motorcycle was speeding when it crashed into the passenger side of a Ford Escape in northeast Omaha.

The 6-year-old Chance Delaney was riding in the back seat of the SUV, and he died from his injuries.

The 20-year-old motorcyclist, Gage Adam Tyler Dawes, also died.

The Ford’s front-seat passenger, 29-year-old Ejay Edmond White Jr., was taken to a hospital with head injuries but he is expected to survive. The SUV’s driver, 20-year-old Brooke Bodnar, suffered only minor injuries.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have identified the elderly man and woman who died in a weekend house fire.

Lincoln Police said 74-year-old Ervin Martin and 69-year-old Janice Ortiz died Saturday night in the fire.

Initially, firefighters thought they were responding to a medical problem, but they encountered smoke and flames when they opened the door of the home near where Interstates 80 and 180 meet.

Fire investigators determined that a lit cigarette started the fire.

Autopsies will be performed to confirm they died from fire-related injuries. Authorities believe Martin and Ortiz died from smoke inhalation and burns.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a Nebraska woman followed her ex-boyfriend onto Interstate 80 and rammed his car several times.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s office says the incident happened near Lincoln around 4:30 a.m. Saturday.

The sheriff’s office says the 40-year-old woman followed her ex-boyfriend onto I-80 and rammed his car repeatedly.

The ex-boyfriend told authorities that the woman is upset about a recent breakup.

A passenger in the ex-boyfriend’s car sustained minor injuries.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A 49-year-old Grand Island man has been charged Friday in Hall County Court with seven counts of sexual assault on a child.

The man was in Hall County Court on Friday, when his bond was set at $100,000. He remained jailed Saturday.

Prosecutors say the man had sexual contact with a child younger than 14 between 2002 and May of this year. He’s also charged with one count of first-degree sexual assault of a child for raping a child younger than 12 sometime between February 2009 and February 2011.

His preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 27.

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RAYMOND, Neb. (AP) — A barn north of Raymond owned by a Lincoln man has burned down.

No one was injured in the fire that occurred early Friday morning.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office says nobody was inside. The building, worth about $61,000, was a total loss.

A sheriff’s office report says a witness saw the barn fully engulfed in flames at 6:29 a.m.

Sgt. Michael Scriven says the barn contained 10 guns, a 1993 Honda Accord, a 1951 Studebaker Land Cruiser, tools, a gun safe and beer-making equipment.

The State Fire Marshal’s office did not immediately determine the cause of the fire, but Scriven said there was a lot of lightning near the barn Friday morning.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Prosecutors say two boys, ages 2 and 4, were caged “like animals” in their northwest Omaha home while their parents were at work.

33-year-old Martha Navarro and 37-year-old Venancio Vazquez have been charged with three counts of child abuse. They remained jailed Saturday and could not be reached for comment.

Police found the boys Wednesday, naked and locked in a room with no food or water in their parents’ mobile home. They were found after their 9-year-old sister told school officials the boys were locked in a room and left alone all day.

Police said the room smelled of urine and had feces on the floor.

Navarro was convicted of misdemeanor child neglect in 2013 for leaving the two boys home alone.

HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — A former Hastings High School teacher will stand trial on a charge of first-degree sexual assault of a child for an incident police say involved a student.

38-year-old Johnathan Shafer waived his preliminary hearing in Adams County Court on Friday.

Court documents say Shafer had a sexual relationship with a female student, who is now 18, beginning in 2012, when she was 15.

Shafer’s attorney, Kevin Knake, told the judge Friday that Shafer wished to waive the preliminary hearing and proceed to trial in district court because he wished to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.

If convicted, Shafer faces 15 years to life in prison.