LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Christmas comes early for Gov. Pete Ricketts, and it lasts through most of the year.

The governor reported more than 400 gifts last year from constituents, friends, business associates and lobbyists.

The list of items he received includes a cape, red clown’s nose, a rugby shirt and Ronald Reagan candy jar.

Other gifts were more expensive, including five flight packages valued at more than $1,000 for trips to Washington and meetings of the Republican Governors Association.

Jack Gould of the group Common Cause Nebraska says such gifts serve no public purpose and should be restricted to trinkets valued at less than $5.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a 14-year-old boy faces a charge in what appears to be the accidental shooting of a girl in Des Moines.

Medics and officers were sent to the scene around 9:45 p.m. Saturday. Police say several juveniles were mishandling a gun and it went off.

The bullet struck the 14-year-old girl in the face. Sgt. Paul Parizek says the girl was taken to a hospital and is expected to live.

Parizek says the boy is being charged with reckless use of a firearm causing injury.

FESTUS, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a Missouri man and his dog have died after being struck by lightning.

Lt. Gary Higginbotham of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch officials were called to a residence south of Festus around 5 p.m. Saturday. They found the 72-year-old man and his dog unresponsive outside.

It’s not clear when the man was struck by lightning. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. Authorities haven’t released his name.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Police have shot and injured two dogs that they said charged an officer outside a home in Topeka.

Lt. Jack Mackey says officers exited a residence after responding to a disturbance around 10:30 a.m. Sunday when the homeowner opened the door and the dogs charged at the officer.

Mackey described the dogs as “vicious.” An officer on the scene said he had no choice but to fire because he felt threatened.

Animal control officers took the injured dogs away from the scene. Their condition wasn’t immediately known.

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s going to be a busy holiday weekend on the nation’s highways.

A record 43 million Americans are expected to travel this Independence Day weekend, with the overwhelming majority driving, according to AAA, a car lobbying group and one of the nation’s largest travel agencies. This tops the joint record set last year and in 2007.

Lower gas prices, strong consumer confidence and a generally healthy domestic economy have led more families to take trips this summer.

AAA estimates that U.S. drivers have saved $20 billion on gasoline so far this year compared to the same period last year. Gas prices as of June 20 were 46 cents per gallon below prices from a year ago.

“We are well on our way for 2016 to be a record-breaking year for summertime travel,” said AAA President and CEO Marshall Doney.

Ahead of last year’s holiday, AAA predicted that 41.9 million people would travel 50 miles or more from home during the weekend. AAA has since revised that number to say that 42.3 million people actually traveled. This year’s estimate — the highest since AAA started tracking in 2001 — is for 42.9 million travelers with 84 percent of them driving.

The holiday travel period is defined as Thursday, June 30 to Monday, July 4.

The number of travelers is estimated to be 10.7 percent higher than the average number during the past 15 years.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is bracing for more contentious legal and political fights over education funding even after legislators approved a narrow, short-term fix to satisfy a court mandate.

The Kansas Supreme Court directed lawmakers in a ruling last month to make education funding more fair to poor areas, forcing them to have a special session.

But the court will consider next the larger issue of whether the state spends enough overall on its schools. The justices could rule by early next year.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and the GOP-dominated Legislature’s leaders already have committed to rewriting school funding laws next year.

Kansas is likely to remain mired in the budget problems that will put pressure on legislators to rethink income tax cuts enacted in 2012 and 2013 at Brownback’s urging.

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — Tornado research has surged since a massive twister destroyed much of Joplin and killed 161 people in 2011.

Engineers, meteorologists and social scientists have published almost 800 peer-reviewed studies about tornadoes over the past five years. University of Florida doctoral student David Roueche says that’s a 36 percent increase from the five-year period before the Joplin storm.

Thousands of photographs and measurements were collected in Joplin and other towns in the aftermath of a record-setting string of tornadoes in the spring of 2011.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says fewer than 1 percent of all tornadoes are rated EF5, and few of those strike populated areas. That meant the massive damage in Joplin provided a rare opportunity to understand the effects of tornadoes.

BRANSON, Mo. (AP) — A 150-foot tall Ferris wheel from Chicago’s Navy Pier has started operating in the Missouri tourist destination of Branson.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that about 200 people turned out Thursday morning for its grand opening. The wheel includes 40 gondolas that hold up to 6 passengers apiece.

It came down in September after 20 years in Chicago and was replaced with a 196-foot Ferris wheel.

The disassembled structure moved to Branson in early 2016. This spring, a team of engineers from the Netherlands joined local contractors to install the wheel on its new site at The Track Family Fun Parks. The project cost about $4 million.

Branson Mayor Karen Best said she thought she would “run off the road” when she learned Branson was getting the relocated Ferris wheel.

DETROIT (AP) — Fiat Chrysler is adding 13,000 Maseratis to a recall of vehicles with confusing gear shifters like one in the SUV that crushed and killed Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin.

The company says it’s adding 2014 and 2015 Quattroporte and Ghibli (GIB-lee) sedans to the recall under pressure from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The cars have the same gear shifters that caused the recall of 1.1 million FCA vehicles worldwide in April. That recall came after drivers complained that they couldn’t tell if the transmission was in “park” after stopping.

Maserati says it’s doing the recall even though it has no complaints of cars rolling away unexpectedly.

Yelchin died Sunday after his 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee pinned him against a mailbox pillar at his home in Los Angeles.