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The last thing a working North Platte woman needed was to have her hours cut. She was already working less than 40 a week. But that’s what happened. A few days ago, she learned that her hours are now reduced to 28 per week. The woman, who asked not to be named for fear of job reprisal, is one of 10 or so Mid-Plains College part-time workers who will lose considerable hours, and pay, in North Platte and McCook. They include adjunct teachers, advisors, clerical workers and maintenance workers – often they hold two or more of those jobs at...

Nebraskans have observed the Colorado flooding with detached concern, but their worries are about to become reality, at least if they live along the South Platte River. Virtually all of the creeks mentioned in reports of last week's flooding shared something in comon -- they drain into the South Platte River. National Weather Service officials are warning that there will be flooding, but they're not entirely sure how bad it will be, because a number of river gauges were damaged by debris. A coordinating team from the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency is already in Ogallala to help local officials, and...

A woman who bragged on Facebook about cashing counterfeit checks around Lincoln won't be going on a spending spree anytime soon. Lancaster County District Judge Stephanie Stacy on Tuesday sentenced 23-year-old Aloni Jones to six to 12 years in state prison on two felony forgery charges. In March, Jones cashed at least four counterfeit rapid return income tax checks, each made out for $7,281.20, at Advance Cash, 2600 O St.; Cash Solutions, 3833 S. 48th St.; Red D Cash, 2601 N. 11th St.; and Moore Pawn, 1621 M St., according to an affidavit for her arrest. The affidavit says Jones...

Aerial photos of the flood damage caused by heavy rains along Colorado’s Front Range. A 60-year-old Cedar Cove woman was believed to be the fifth person killed in this week’s historic flooding as authorities scrambled Saturday to reach the 230 people listed as unaccounted for in northern Colorado. Meanwhile, evacuation orders spread throughout the day to communities downstream as rivers continued to flow above flood stage.

In 1993, a 7-year-old boy showed up at Omaha's Highland Elementary School with a loaded .25-caliber handgun.He was briefly taken from his mother — which was the beginning of two decades in and out of group homes, the Douglas County Youth Detention Center and, eventually, state prison. Nikko A. Jenkins has spent nearly his entire life in prison. When he finally won his freedom, on July 30, he had acquired a face full of tattoos and a handful of female admirers each calling herself his wife. Douglas County authorities now accuse him of a killing spree in August that left...

Fox confirms Vice President Joe Biden will have dinner Sunday night with a group of GOP Senators who could be swayed on Syria. The topic of conversation is expected to be what the President needs to say in his Tuesday address.

Nikko Jenkins left prison in July well short of the maximum time he could have spent there. That's renewing questions over prison time and state law. Sgt. John Wells, with the Omaha Police Officers Association said, "He was definitely one of those people that when he was released from prison, had grave concerns that something like this may happen." Wells and his partner had taken Jenkins into custody a decade ago for robbery. By the time the case worked it's way through court, Jenkins had been sentenced to 18 years in prison. Under the Good Time law, he was released...

While the investigators in the Jenkins case are still keeping details of the murders under wraps, sources tell Channel Six News it appears that what led up to Andrea Kruger's death happened quickly. In the early morning hours of August 21, Andrea Kruger, a wife and mother of three, was on her way home from work, approaching the intersection of 168th and Fort, where she was about to become the victim of a random attack. Our sources tell us Nikko Jenkins, along with an unidentified second party were in a vehicle stopped at that intersection when Andrea Kruger happened to...

A convicted robber in Nebraska allegedly shot four people in the head weeks after finishing a decade-long prison stint that began when he was a teenager.... . . . Jenkins' early release obviously calls into question the wisdom of "good-time" credit. It also calls into question the notion that prison has any power at all to rehabilitate criminals. Jenkins got locked up as a relatively young teenager and apparently just got more violent. The murder of 33-year-old Andrew Kruger is particularly horrifying. Kruger, a wife and mother of three, was on her way home from work right before she...

Before his July 30 release from prison, Nikko Jenkins reportedly had promised his fellow inmates that the world would soon take notice of his exploits. And he made another promise to them — that he would never return. Now authorities are trying to determine whether Jenkins attempted to make good on those boasts. As The World-Herald first reported Friday, Omaha police and Douglas County sheriff's detectives are investigating whether Jenkins, 26, was involved in three sets of killings in August that occurred over a 10-day span: » The Aug. 21 slaying of Andrea Kruger, 33. » The Aug. 19 killing...

A Plattsmouth woman's widower has sued Wal-Mart and the maker of its plastic bags, alleging an overfilled bag given to her at a Bellevue store broke, and, in a strange twist, led to her death. William Freis of Plattsmouth said his wife, Lynette, went grocery shopping April 16, 2010, at the Wal-Mart Supercenter on 15th Street and the cashier gave her one plastic bag for two 42-ounce cans of La Choy and a 2-pound bag of rice. On her way to the car, the bag broke and one of the cans of La Choy fell on her right foot, breaking...

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Allowing the Keystone XL pipeline to move forward would cut into the revenue of rail freight operators that transport oil and other liquids, but there would still be plenty of growth opportunities for cost-conscious operators, BNSF Railway CEO Matthew Rose said Wednesday. Rose told a lunch gathering at the annual Summer North America Prospect Expo at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston that pipelines present increasing competition to his company and his peers. “We know that rail on the surface is without a doubt the most efficient and lowest price, but we know that when we compete with...

Douglas County prosecutors will seek the death penalty in the first-degree murder case against a man

A federal judge has ruled that Nebraska cops must return over $1 million confiscated at a traffic stop from a woman who saved the money $1 at a time during her 15 year career as an exotic dancer. The money belongs to Tara Mishra, 33, of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., who began putting aside her earnings when she started dancing at age 18, according to an opinion U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon wrote last week. The money was meant to start her business and get out of the stripping business, the judge wrote. State troopers confiscated the money in March 2012...

Little is known about Sergio Martinez-Perez, who is accused of killing a 93-year-old Omaha woman and is in the United States illegally. Martinez-Perez, 19, was formally charged Friday with first-degree murder in the rape and slaying of Louise Sollowin. He is a native of Sonora, Mexico. Shawn Neudauer, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Friday that federal authorities have placed a detainer on Martinez-Perez. That means that if Douglas County authorities were to release him, he would be placed in ICE custody. Neudauer said he couldn't comment on the specifics of Martinez-Perez's immigration status, citing agency policy....

U.S. President Barack Obama has called into question the number of jobs that would be provided from the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in a New York Times interview over the weekend. Republicans have frequently stated that there would be a large number of jobs created if the pipeline is approved for construction, Obama said, adding that he disputes their premise. “Republicans have said that this would be a big jobs generator,” Obama said in the interview. “There is no evidence that that’s true. The most realistic estimates are this might maybe 2,000 jobs during the construction of the...

A teenager will now face first-degree murder charges in connection with the rape and death of a 93-year-old South Omaha woman. Autopsy results indicated that Louise Sollowin died of complications due to blunt-force trauma to her head and body, according to Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine. Sergio Martinez-Perez, 19, who had faced first-degree sexual assault charges, will be arraigned on the murder charges in Douglas County Court at 1 p.m. Friday, Kleine said. SNIP Omaha police say they found Martinez-Perez naked and on top of Sollowin. He had beaten her, sexually assaulted her and broken several bones in her face...

ServicesShare Share on twitterShare on email LINCOLN — A Nebraska City woman is asking a judge to halt immediately the state’s policy of denying driver’s licenses to people brought into the country illegally as children but allowed to stay under a new federal program. Mayra Saldana, who has lived in the United States since age 2 and is a Peru State College student, is seeking a preliminary injunction against the state policy. Saldana, 24, filed a federal lawsuit against the state in June, but now wants a judge to halt the state policy while the lawsuit is decided. Her lawyers,...

Published Wednesday, July 24, 2013 at 12:56 am / Updated at 3:49 am Sergio Perez Prosecutor: Teen beat, raped 93-year-old because he was 'angry with women'By Kevin Cole and Emerson Clarridge / World-Herald staff writers Share Related news •Son after mother's brutal rape, death: 'This is beyond words' A prosecutor told a Douglas County Court judge Wednesday that a 19-year-old man admitted to beating and raping the woman because he had been drinking and was “angry with women.” After reviewing the evidence, Judge Thomas K. Harmon ordered Sergio Perez held in jail without bail. Perez, who has no permanent address,...