ST. PAUL, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say they’re investigating a wreck that killed a 21-year-old Nebraska man.

The Howard County Sheriff’s Office says Derek Holt from St. Paul died Sunday night after his vehicle was hit by another automobile traveling in the opposite direction.

The wreck occurred on Nebraska Highway 92, about two miles west of St. Paul. Holt was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The other driver was 29-year-old Justin Arrowsmith of Omaha. He was taken to one hospital and then transferred to another.

Authorities say it appears Arrowsmith’s vehicle may have crossed the center line. Both drivers were alone and wearing their seat belts.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Two suspected gang members have pleaded no contest to manslaughter charges for the beating deaths of two Lincoln men last year.

Twenty-year-old Ricky McLaughlin III and 23-year-old Tyler Thornburg took plea deals Monday to reduce their second-degree murder charges. The men admitted to the use of a deadly weapon in the assaults of 20-year-old Nathan “Shane” Walton and 27-year-old David Mueller.

Prosecutors say the assailants are gang members who used a baseball bat to beat random victims to make a name for their gang.

Walton was found beaten near his home on June 29, 2013. Muller was found that same morning north of downtown Lincoln. Both men died from their wounds days later at an area hospital.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska state troopers are planning to patrol Lancaster County lakes to help reduce alcohol-related accidents.

The special enforcement will take place primarily on weekends. The effort will begin Friday and run through Aug. 14.

The troopers will set up high visibility patrols and DUI checkpoints at county recreational areas.

The effort follows Sheriff Terry Wagner’s calls to ban alcohol at a county lake. Authorities say about 700 partiers converged at Branched Oak Lake during the Memorial Day weekend and trashed the beach.

Wagner says he welcomes the increased police presence.

The patrol will pay for the special enforcement with a $3,000 grant from the Nebraska Office of Highway Safety.

FAIRFIELD, Neb. (AP) — Firefighters from several departments have been called in to battle a blaze at a farm implement dealership in the south-central Nebraska town of Fairfield.

Authorities say the fire broke out early Tuesday morning at Oregon Trail Equipment. No injuries have been reported.

The blaze damaged the dealership’s main building, which contains an office and maintenance shop. The Nebraska State Patrol blocked off parts of Nebraska Highway 74 so emergency vehicles could reach the scene.

Investigators with the State Fire Marshal’s Office are trying to find out what caused the fire.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police say they believe four men stole copper wire valued at $26,000 from a south Lincoln construction site.

A foreman at the Aventine apartment complex discovered Friday that someone had cut the lock to a storage container and made off with electrical wire

Police officer Katie Flood says workers at Alter Metal Recycling called police Friday afternoon to report four men unloading wire they recognized as stolen. Officers arrived and found three men still at the scrap metal business. A fourth suspect turned himself in to police the next day. Online court records do not yet reflect charges have been filed.

Flood says investigators are trying to find out if the men are responsible for other thefts at the job site.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The U.S. Army has provided $1.4 million for more University of Nebraska research into remote-controlled robotic surgery.

University of Nebraska Medical Center and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers have been working since 2008 with the U.S. Army’s Joint Warfighter Medical Research Program to develop miniature robotic technology. The goal is to enable surgeons to perform minimally invasive procedures for wounded soldiers who immediately can’t be evacuated.

Dr. Dmitry Oleynikov is director of the Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery and the Center for Advanced Surgical Technology at the medical center, and he says minirobots have the capability to provide basic diagnosis and triage of internal injuries. They would be inserted into patients and be controlled by surgeons elsewhere.

He says the technology may be applied in civilian settings and rural environments.

LYONS, Neb. (AP) — The Center for Rural Affairs in Lyons is getting a $99,000 federal grant to provide training and business assistance to two small businesses that will specialize in growing vegetables.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it is providing the money to support a Nebraska Native American community to help strengthen tribal business and create jobs.

The funding is from USDA’s Rural Business Enterprise Grant program which supports small and emerging businesses in rural areas.

Businesses in Santee and Macy will receive vegetable growing assistance.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack says the investments “will help deliver more products and services to local customers, boost residents’ earnings and improve the economic vitality of this tribal community.”

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man who tried to hijack a car in Lincoln has been shot by a friend of the car’s teenage driver.

Police Capt. Michon Morrow (mih-SHAWN’ MOR’-roh) says the man approached the teen around 2 a.m. Sunday as the boy sat in a car. The man punched the boy’s face and got into the car. The boy left.

Morrow says a 16-year-old friend of the boy inside a nearby house heard the commotion outside and grabbed a gun. He fired a warning shot and told the man to leave. Morrow says that when the man left the car and began to approach the house, the boy fired, striking the man several times. The man was taken to a Lincoln hospital.

The names of those involved haven’t been released.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Federal investigators say overloaded storage bins on the roof of an Omaha livestock feed manufacturer’s plant caused the building collapse that killed two people in January.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced its findings Monday and cited International Nutrition for 13 violations of safety and health rules.

Regulators are proposing $120,560 in penalties and want to impose strict oversight on the company because of the violations.

International Nutrition officials declined to comment on the report Monday morning because they haven’t had a chance to review the decision.

OSHA says nine storage bins on the plant’s roof were overloaded, and the additional weight caused three floors to collapse inward in about 30 seconds.

The Jan. 20 collapse killed 47-year-old David Ball and 53-year-old Keith Everett and injured several others.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Installing a new credit card reading system for all parking meters in Lincoln could cost the city around $1 million.

According to the city’s parking manager, it would cost around $500 per meter to read new credit cards with computer chips instead of magnetic chips. He says Lincoln has about 2,400 meters. More than half can read credit cards.

The new credit cards that contain a computer chip require the cardholder to type a four-digit code to authorize the transaction.

The microchip cards makes it harder for people to steal credit card data and are more difficult to counterfeit.

Credit card companies Visa and Mastercard have announced they’re moving to the new cards by October 2015.