PIERCE, Neb. (AP) — More than 200 Nebraska farmers say they lost $9.7 million when the Pierce grain elevator failed earlier this year, and regulators say many of them won’t recover much.

Officials with the state Public Service Commission say they expect to raise $4.7 million from selling the grain the elevator held when it closed. The business also had $880,000 in bonds that will help pay claims.

But the amount of compensation farmers receive will vary based on their situation.

John Fecht, who oversees the commission’s Grain Warehouse Division, says farmers who can prove they were storing grain at the elevator will get most, if not all, their money back.

Farmers who sold $4.2 million in grain to the elevator will be lucky to receive 10 cents on every dollar they are owed.

HASTINGS, Neb.— A 31-year-old Hastings man has taken a deal and pleaded guilty to a charge related to the shooting death of his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son.

Amanda Pecor’s 9-year-old son has been charged with manslaughter, accused of using a .22-caliber rifle to fatally wound his little brother. 

Matthew Edwards made his plea Tuesday in Adams County District Court to negligent child abuse resulting in serious injury, a lesser charge than the original one: negligent child abuse resulting in death. His sentencing is set for Sept. 22.

A hearing for the boy’s mother was postponed to Sept. 8.

COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — A 41-year-old Columbus man has been sent to federal prison for distributing and possessing child pornography.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that Edward Johnson was sentenced to eight years and must serve 15 years of supervised release after he leaves prison.

Court records say the original state charges against Johnson were dismissed on Dec. 23, giving way to the federal case.

Prosecutors say a public website reported that a computer user in Columbus had posted two images of child pornography on the website. A Nebraska State Patrol officer posing as a teenage girl then had several online chats with Johnson. Prosecutors say that in July, Johnson sent child porn to the undercover officer.

A subsequent search of Johnson’s home computer revealed 200 videos of child pornography.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha man says he was shooting at a stop sign when the bullets accidentally wounded two teenagers.

A police officer testified Tuesday at a preliminary hearing in Douglas County Court that 21-year-old Davonte Hill told him he did not fire his gun at the two 16-year-old boys during the June 8 incident. The officer said Hill first denied involvement in the shooting but later changed his story.

One teen is recovering from a foot injury and another is recovering from a thigh wound.

Authorities say Hill shot the teens as they were walking with friends. He faces two counts of felony assault and two counts of use of a weapon to commit a felony. Court records do not list an attorney.

PAWNEE CITY, Neb. (AP) — A 57-year-old woman has pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges related to a fatal collision with a horse-drawn buggy in southeast Nebraska.

Online court records say Vivian Cockrell, of Pawnee City, made her pleas Monday in Pawnee County District Court. She was convicted of motor vehicle homicide and misdemeanor misuse of a learner’s permit.

Prosecutors say Cockrell was driving a Cadillac on July 21, 2013, that struck the buggy carrying 21-year-old Fannie Yoder and her 17-year-old brother Reuben. They were on their way to church at the time of the accident. Reuben Yoder died and Fannie Yoder was critically hurt.

Cockrell was driving on a learner’s permit when the crash occurred on Nebraska Highway 8/50 east of Pawnee City. She did not have a driver 21 or older with her.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Lincoln school board has authorized video surveillance at the district’s high schools.

The board approved the new policy on Monday.

The policy authorizes use of video cameras in the schools and on buses. The cameras can’t be located in places where people have expectations of privacy, including bathrooms and locker rooms.

The policy also says the recordings will be considered student records that could be subject to federal education privacy laws and that the use of video surveillance will be reviewed every year.

OSCEOLA, Neb. (AP) — A 63-year-old David City man has made a deal with prosecutors and been convicted of seven counts stemming from a pipe bomb explosion that seriously injured a teenage relative on Independence Day last year.

Russell Hilger pleaded no contest to attempted felony assault, misdemeanor reckless assault and five counts of criminal mischief. He made the pleas last week in Polk County District Court, after prosecutors lowered the felony assault charge. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 3.

Prosecutors say Hilger stuffed a 2-foot-long steel pipe with gunpowder and towels and lit what was meant to be an enormous firecracker at a family gathering at Ernst Lake. The blast sprayed shrapnel that tore into the abdomen of 14-year-old Lauren Campbell.

Hilger is her great-uncle.

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma farmer’s iPhone that was lost when it fell into a grain elevator has been returned to him unscathed after it was found in Japan.

Kevin Whitney lost the phone in October when it slipped out of his shirt pocket as he was unloading grain from a truck into a silo in Chickasha.

The load traveled to a depot in Convent, Louisiana, and then loaded onto a ship bound for the island of Hokkaido, Japan.

A worker at the Japanese facility phoned a counterpart in Louisiana, who then called Whitney in late May asking if he lost an iPhone.

Whitney says he’s glad to get the phone back because it had photos stored on it from his daughter’s wedding and vacation, and he thought those were lost forever.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas won’t be issuing any report cards this year on how well its public school students performed on standardized reading and math tests after cyberattacks and other problems this spring.

The State Board of Education decided Tuesday not to release any scores.

The board’s decision means there won’t be a report on how students scored overall statewide or how students in each school district or individual schools scored.

The University of Kansas center that designed the tests told the board last month that it should not release data for individual schools and districts because of cyberattacks and other problems from March 10 to April 10.

The state Department of Education typically releases data from testing each fall.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — After three delays, the world’s tallest water slide is scheduled to open this week.

Officials at Schlitterbahn water park in Kansas City, Kansas, said Tuesday that the public will be able to ride the Verrückt slide on Thursday.

The ride was originally scheduled to open on May 23 when the water park’s season began. The next scheduled opening on June 5 was postponed, and a June 29 date also was delayed. Park officials have said the delays were needed to allow for more testing.

Guinness World Records in April certified the 17-story, 168-foot-tall attraction as the tallest water slide in the world. Riders on the Verrückt, which means “insane” in German, plummet at 60 mph to 70 mph on four-person rafts.