If you want to see a simple assault charge enhanced to a felony, just wear brass knuckles.

On Saturday, at around 2:59 p.m., North Platte Police responded to Memorial Park, 1200 East 4th Street, on the report of two males fighting.

Officers arrived and met with the males involved in the disturbance and several independent witnesses.

It was reported that 24-year-old Colby Dewey and a 25-year-old man had been arguing back and forth via text message.

According to witnesses, the alleged victim was already at the park when Dewey arrived in a vehicle. They say Dewey exited the vehicle, charged the victim and punched him in the face while wearing brass knuckles.

Investigator John Deal says witnesses told officers that the victim didn’t retaliate and that Dewey was the aggressor.

Officers placed Dewey under arrest and charged him with felony 2nd-degree assault and use of a weapon to commit a felony.

Once in the patrol car, Deal says Dewey headbutted the metal partition in the cruiser, causing a laceration to his forehead.

Dewey was transported to Great Plains Health for treatment, then jailed at the Lincoln County Detention Center.

The victim suffered facial injuries which did not require medical attention.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Three Nebraska state legislators are lending their voices of support to a South Dakota constitutional amendment that would remove candidates’ party affiliations from primary and general election ballots.

Nebraska has a nonpartisan, one-chamber legislature, in which Republican and Democratic candidates run against each other in primaries and the top vote-getters advance to the general election.

Nebraska Speaker of the Legislature Galen Hadley, a Republican, says the system has worked well there for nearly 80 years, as it puts ideas ahead of affiliation. Instead of party leaders and caucuses setting agendas, bill sponsors have to build their own coalitions.

The South Dakota Republican Party opposes the measure, saying that removing party affiliation from ballots denies voters of relevant information. The South Dakota Democratic Party has not taken an official stance.

VAN NUYS, Calif. (AP) — About 180,000 pacifiers have been recalled due to a choking hazard.

The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission says the recall involves Munchkin-brand Latch lightweight pacifiers and clips, which are sold as a set. The commission says the clip cover can detach from the clip itself, creating a choking hazard.

Commission spokeswoman Patty Davis says Munchkin is conducting a voluntary recall in cooperation with the government.

There have been 10 reports of the clip cover coming off in the U.S. and Canada, but no injuries have been reported.

The sets were sold between March 2014 and March of this year at retailers nationwide, including Babies ‘R’ Us, Target, Wal-Mart and Amazon.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska hotel company and an executive have been given probation and fined for unlawfully employing someone who authorities say was living in the country illegally.

Prosecutors say Paul Younes (YOO’-nihs) was given five years’ probation Monday and fined $3,000. Kearney Hospitality Inc., which Younes says he owns, was fined $150,000 and also given five years of probation.

Prosecutors say a Mexican citizen who was working at a Hastings hotel operated by Kearney Hospitality quit in 2014 as she was being investigated. Prosecutors say Younes arranged a job for her, under a different name, at a motel in Kearney that also was run by Kearney Hospitality. She later returned under a different name to the Hastings hotel.

Younes’ attorney has said Kearney Hospitality has implemented corrective measures.