(AP) — Prosecutors in Texas have accused a 17-year-old girl of recruiting her girlfriends to have sex with a 62-year-old Houston-area businessman for money.

Galveston County prosecutor Adam Poole says the League City high school student solicited her “easily manipulated” friends to provide sex for Michael Wayne McIntosh at his home in Friendswood this past summer. Webster police detective David Nettles says the student would drive the girls to McIntosh’s home and receive a percentage of more than $3,600 paid to the girls.

Police say the friends were as young as 14.

The alleged teen madam is charged with compelling prostitution. She’s free on $40,000 bond.

McIntosh is charged with three counts of sexual assault on a child and is free on $120,000 bond.

(AP) — Nebraska’s U.S. Sens. Mike Johanns and Deb Fischer have asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency to hold a listening session in Nebraska to hear how proposed carbon regulations would affect Nebraska businesses, agriculture operations and families.

The two Republican lawmakers made the request Wednesday in a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, saying that the EPA’s current schedule of listening sessions take place in states that use little coal.

The letter says Nebraska generates almost 70 percent of its electricity from coal and is an important transportation hub for coal shipments throughout the country.

Johanns says the EPA is “blind to the economic consequences their anti-coal agenda is having on rural America,” and Fischer says it’s regulations “will hurt all Nebraska families.”

(AP) — A man convicted of beating and raping a Beatrice woman has lost appeals of his conviction and sentence.

The Nebraska Court of Appeals Court ruled Tuesday against 31-year-old Joseph Buttercase. In December Buttercase was given 20 to 30 years for sexual assault, four to five years for false imprisonment, 20 months to five years for strangulation and one year for domestic assault. The sentences are to run consecutively.

Prosecutors say Buttercase raped and brutally beat a 29-year-old woman in July 2011 after they argued at his home.

The Appeals Court rejected Buttercase’s arguments, saying there was sufficient evidence to support the convictions and that the trial judge didn’t abuse his discretion by barring evidence about the victim’s past sexual activity. The court also said the sentences were not excessive.

(AP) — A former prison inmate accused of killing four people in Omaha now says in letters that he wants to plead guilty.

The Omaha World-Herald reported Thursday that it had received a letter from 27-year-old Nikko Jenkins that echoed letters he sent to prosecutors and a judge. Jenkins said he wants to spare the victims’ families from “more misery and suffering sorrow of a trial.”

Jenkins had pleaded not guilty on Oct. 9 to four first-degree murder charges and 10 weapons counts. Authorities say Jenkins killed all four within a month of leaving prison on July 30. He had served more than a decade for robbery, assault and weapons convictions.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine told the World-Herald on Wednesday that Jenkins’ attorneys have not asked for another plea hearing.

(AP) — A man has been convicted in the slaying of a 16-year-old Omaha boy who was wearing red, the color of a rival gang.

Court records say 24-year-old Joshua Vanackeren pleaded no contest on Tuesday to second-degree murder and a weapons charge. Prosecutors lowered the murder charge and dropped two other charges in exchange for Vanackeren’s pleas. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 28.

Police say Vanackeren and other Crips gang members were driving around in a minivan on Oct. 21 last year, seeking revenge for the slaying of a cousin of a gang member. They spotted Montrell Wiseman and two girls standing outside a house. All three were wearing red.

Shotgun blasts from the minivan killed Wiseman and wounded one of the girls. Police say Wiseman wasn’t a gang member.

(AP) — Nebraska officials investigating the death of an Iowa man are awaiting autopsy results.

35-year-old Matthew Ahlsten, of Sioux City, died Sunday morning. He was a passenger in a vehicle pulled over by a Nebraska State Patrol trooper. The reason for the traffic stop hasn’t been disclosed.

Patrol Capt. Paul Hattan says Ahlsten “did die at the scene of that traffic stop, and obviously it’s under investigation by the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office as a result of that in-custody death.”

Police are not releasing any other information at this time.

(AP) — A climate change study funded by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will include any human causes the university scientists find as they review the research.

The possible inclusion of the human element is in contrast to a study ordered by the Legislature in a bill passed this spring. At the urging of Sen. Beau McCoy, who disputes human involvement in global warming, the senators modified LB583 to study “cyclical” climate change. That’s been interpreted as meaning only natural internal and natural external forces such as volcanic eruptions and solar variations.

UNL Vice Chancellor Ronnie Green says he’s set aside $20,000 for the university study after talking to university scientists who are concerned about the scope of the Legislature’s mandated study that they’ll be contributing to.

(AP) — A Nebraska man has been arrested after his pickup truck became lodged into a house garage.

The Nebraska State Patrol says 26-year-old Blake Bunz, of Hooper, was driving Wednesday morning on Highway 77 in Winslow when his pickup door flew open. As he tried to grab the door, he fell out of the vehicle.

The pickup truck continued moving and eventually hit the side of a house garage. Bunz later located the car and tried to back it out but failed.

Bunz refused medical treatment and was taken to the Dodge County Jail, where he was later released on bond. He faces charges of driving under suspension and willful reckless driving. Court records do not list an attorney.

(AP) — An Omaha elementary school was briefly placed on lockdown as authorities investigated a nearby shooting.

Omaha police say they found a man with a gunshot wound Thursday morning near Wakonda Elementary School in the city’s north side. He was transferred to a nearby hospital in critical condition, though officials say his injuries do not appear to be life-threatening.

Authorities say they placed the school on lockdown as a precaution.

Additional information about the man’s condition has not been released.

(AP) — A former Bellevue teacher faces two misdemeanor charges connected to a sex talk case involving a juvenile.

Bellevue police say allegations were made against Joseph Blackstad in September, when he was teaching at Bellevue East High School. An examination of Blackstad’s cellphone found what were called “sexually explicit communications” between Blackstad and a juvenile.

Blackstad is charged with child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a child. He is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 4.

Online court records don’t list his attorney’s name. A public phone listing for Blackstad couldn’t be found.