(AP) — A 26-year-old York man has made a deal with prosecutors and been convicted for shooting at a sheriff’s deputy.

Max McCall pleaded no contest to three charges on Monday: attempted first-degree assault on an officer, flight to avoid arrest and use of a firearm to commit a felony. Prosecutors dropped other charges in exchange for McCall’s pleas. His trial was to begin Dec. 3. His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 16.

Authorities say the deputy was responding to a call about McCall on Aug. 11 when the deputy spotted McCall’s vehicle and gave chase. The chase ended when McCall’s vehicle went into a ditch.

Sheriff Dale Radcliff has said McCall fired twice at the deputy but missed. The deputy shot back, hitting McCall twice.

(AP) — Omaha’s Christmas tree has been cut down from a local yard and delivered to the Durham Museum downtown.

Union Pacific employees removed the 45-foot-tall Colorado Blue Spruce tree from Kevin and Linda Redlinger’s yard in west Omaha on Monday.

The railroad has been providing a tree for Omaha’s Christmas celebration for more than 75 years.

In the past, the railroad used to cut down a tree along its right of way in the Pacific Northwest and bring the tree to Omaha. But this year is the 22nd year when Union Pacific harvested a tree locally for the tradition.

The tree will be decorated before the lighting ceremony on Friday, Nov. 29, at 4 p.m.

(AP) — A sex offender released from a Nebraska prison earlier this year has made a plea deal and been convicted of two counts of sexual assault of a child.

The York News-Times says 48-year-old Ross Shepherd, of rural Hampton, changed his original pleas of not guilty. York County Attorney Candace Dick said in court Monday that she had agreed to drop two counts in return for Shepherd’s two pleas of no contest. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 16.

Records say Shepherd was convicted in 1997 and 2010 of sexually assaulting children. For the 2010 conviction, he was sentenced to five years. He was released from custody in March.

Because of those convictions, the assault charge was enhanced to a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 50 years per count.

(AP) — A judge has ordered a death certificate issued for Tyler “Ty” Thomas, a Peru State College student who disappeared nearly three years ago after encountering a fellow student now serving prison time for raping another teen.

Thomas was 19 when she disappeared after leaving a party. Authorities say Joshua Keadle told them he and Thomas had sex in his vehicle the night she disappeared. Keadle later told investigators that Thomas threatened to report he had raped her.

Keadle is serving is serving 15 to 20 years for the 2008 rape of a 15-year-old Fremont girl. He has not been charged in Thomas’ disappearance.

Thomas’ mother is suing state college officials and Keadle for wrongful death. Attorney Vince Powers says the death certificate is necessary for the lawsuit to proceed.

(AP) — A 16-year-old girl accused of attacking a fellow student at Lincoln’s Pius X High School will be tried as an adult.

The girl’s attorney had requested the case be transferred to juvenile court, but a Lancaster County district judge denied the request on Monday. Prosecutors had argued against the request, saying the girl intended to kill as many people as she could.

Lincoln police say the girl attacked 17-year-old Ellen Kopetzky at the school on Oct. 7, using a knife and hammer. The girl was arrested the next day in Yates Center, Kan., and charged with first-degree assault and using a weapon to commit a felony. She has pleaded not guilty.

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

(AP) — Authorities say a Lincoln teenager has been cited for animal cruelty after killing a cat with a hatchet.

Lincoln police spokeswoman Katie Flood says the department received a report on Nov. 4 about a pool of blood in a neighborhood driveway. They confronted a 17-year-old who lived nearby, and he said it was blood from a squirrel.

A neighbor called police a week later with concerns that the blood belonged to a missing cat. Police confronted the boy, who said the cat accidentally got caught in a squirrel trap. He couldn’t free the cat’s leg, so he struck the animal with a hatchet and disposed of it.

The teen was cited Sunday on cruelty to animals and trapping. Flood says formal charges are pending.

(AP) — A Montana nature photographer has been sentenced to life in prison after he pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexually abusing an 10-year-old girl in Wyoming.

Jesse Paul Speer of Manhattan, Mont., was sentenced Tuesday by state District Judge Steven Cranfill after changing his pleas in the case.

Authorities say the 41-year-old Speer tricked the girl into accompanying him in October 2012 by saying he was looking for a lost puppy. They say he then pulled a gun and drove her into the wilderness outside Yellowstone National Park.

A pair of hunters later found the girl wandering at night along a dirt road about 20 miles southeast of Cody.

Speer was tracked down by investigators who paired the girl’s account of her abduction with video footage of his SUV passing through Yellowstone National Park the day before the assault.

(AP) — University of Nebraska-Lincoln officials are expecting a record-setting crowd of high school students at Math Day this week.

Officials say 112 Nebraska schools will be represented at Thursday’s event, which is sponsored by UNL’s Math Department. The more than 1,700 students will surpass the 1999 record of more than 1,400 students.

Students will have chances to compete in mathematical competitions, explore their math interests in math and discover what a math career can offer.

The Math Bowl team competition will involve 110 three-member teams from six classes.

(AP) — The future of state laws that regulate everything from the size of a hen’s cage to safe consumption of Gulf oysters may be at stake as farm bill negotiators work to resolve a long-simmering fight between agriculture and animal welfare interests.

The House Agriculture Committee added language to its version of the farm bill that says a state cannot impose certain production standards on agricultural products sold in interstate commerce. The provision authored by Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa is aimed at a California law that will require all eggs sold in the state to come from hens that inhabit cages in which they can spread their wings.

Opponents say that depending on how it is interpreted, the provision could lead to challenges of dozens of other state laws.

(AP) — Officials from three southeast Nebraska counties have held preliminary talks about establishing a regional jail.

Gage, Jefferson and Saline county officials met earlier this month and said the meeting was productive.

Under one scenario under discussion, inmates awaiting trial and unable to make bond and sentenced inmates from the three counties would be housed in a Saline County facility while 96-hour holding facilities would house other inmates.

Jefferson County Commissioner Michael Dux says he thinks “it’s something certainly worth looking into and it seems to me Saline County has space.”