A North Platte man is facing several charges after he allegedly threatened to kill his girlfriend and her children.

Just before midnight on June 16, officers with the North Platte Police Department responded to Tabor Ranch Apartments, 1102 South Tabor, after a 23-year-old female reported that her boyfriend, 29-year-old Zachariah Graham, had threatened to kill her.

According to police, the victim stated that she returned home from work and found that Graham was drunk.

She said Graham was acting threatening toward the children, ages 2, 3 and 5, who had been home with him during the day.

Graham then allegedly attempted to strike the female, but missed and began throwing items.

He then reportedly threatened to kill the female, himself and the children, before storming out of the house.

Police say Graham returned a short time later, then left again and kicked the neighbor’s car, causing around $250 in damage.

Officers found Graham attempting to leave, but he was detained and placed under arrest.

Graham was transported to the Lincoln County Detention Center and jailed on charges of felony 3rd-degree domestic assault (prior convictions), three counts of child abuse and two counts of criminal mischief.

VALENTINE, Neb. (AP) — Officials say a light earthquake has rattled a portion of north-central Nebraska.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake occurred around 4:10 a.m. Thursday. Its epicenter was about 3 miles below ground at a spot about 7 miles south-southeast of Valentine. The agency says the tremor registered 3.3 on the Richter scale.

Eric Thacker is a dispatcher with the Cherry County Sheriff’s Office, and he says the office so far hasn’t received any reports of damage or injuries. But, he says, he and others in his office felt it

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Gov. Pete Ricketts has chosen a former Wyoming state engineer and program director at an engineering firm to lead the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources.

Ricketts announced Thursday that he is naming Jeff Fassett to the position.

Fassett is the director of the Water Rights Strategic Program for HDR Engineering, Inc. He also has maintained a water rights and resources engineering practice in Wyoming and Colorado.

Fassett served as state engineer and chief water resource official in Wyoming from 1987 to 2000. He was the deputy state engineer from 1984 to 1987. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from the University of Wyoming.

The new director starts Aug. 3 at a salary of $145,000 a year.

Today: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 10am. Partly sunny, with a high near 84. Breezy, with an east southeast wind 8 to 13 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 28 mph.
Tonight: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 65. East southeast wind 10 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 92. Breezy, with a south wind 13 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.
Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 66. South wind 13 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 87. West wind 9 to 18 mph becoming north northeast in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph.
Saturday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 63.
Sunday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 87.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s corrections director says a formal investigation into a prison riot last month is nearly complete.

Director Scott Frakes said Wednesday that he hopes to have the final report by the end of this week.

The review was launched after a May 10 prisoner uprising at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution that left two inmates dead. Death certificates from the state say Donald Peacock and Shon Collins died of blunt force trauma to the head.

Frakes says the prison remains on lockdown, although inmates have been allowed to have visitors and some access to outdoor recreation yards. He says he hopes to have final damage from the disturbance cleaned up in the next three weeks.

SIDNEY, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say two women in the Nebraska Panhandle may have participated in more than 100 burglaries in the area since 2014.

The Sidney Police Department and the Cheyenne County Sheriff’s Office say they plan to contact area residents who they believe were targeted. Authorities say some residents may not have realized their homes were burglarized.

One of the women told authorities about the alleged burglaries following a separate arrest in Colorado. It is unclear what charges will be filed in the case.

Authorities believe the women, both of Sidney, stole cash, jewelry and prescription medication.

One suspect told authorities the women scanned obituary notices and social media to target some homes.

FUNK, Nebraska (AP) — Authorities say a 26-year-old man has died after the motorcycle he was riding crashed into a utility vehicle in southern Nebraska.

The Phelps County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday that Douglas Davison was traveling on a dirt bike Sunday morning when it struck a utility vehicle on a roadway northwest of Funk. Davison, also of Funk, was thrown from the bike.

Authorities say Davison was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy has been ordered. The case is under investigation.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s corrections department is reviewing 2,000 prisoner sentences for accuracy after discovering that some inmates received credit they shouldn’t have.

Director Scott Frakes said Wednesday that the review could add as much as four months onto an inmate’s sentence, which could exacerbate prison crowding.

Frakes says the problem was discovered earlier this month while department officials were upgrading their process for calculating inmate sentences. The department was heavily criticized after previous administrators acknowledged that they ignored a Supreme Court ruling that outlined the correct way to calculate sentences.

Frakes says the newest problem wasn’t caused by bad legal advice, but staffers believed they were calculating sentences properly based on their understanding of a 2011 law.

The review is expected to be completed by the end of July.

ALLIANCE, Neb. (AP) — Two western Nebraska-based co-ops have agreed to become one.

Officials of Western Cooperative Co., or Westco, and Stateline Producers Cooperative say they will merge effective Aug. 1, pending an affirmative vote by Stateline shareholders at a special meeting on June 29 in Gering.

Stateline operations in Bridgeport and Gering would become part of Westco’s New Alliance Division. The combined entity would have 270 employees spread through several Nebraska communities and in Torrington, Wyoming.

Stateline is based in Gering, and Westco is based in Alliance.

MCCOOK, Neb. (AP) — A 54-year-old Culbertson woman has changed her plea to guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced in August for embezzling more than $814,000 from a livestock auction company in McCook.

Trina Hoyt is set to be sentenced on Aug. 3 in Red Willow County District Court. Court records say she submitted her guilty plea on June 1. She’d pleaded not guilty to the same charge last month.

Hoyt is accused of writing 26 unauthorized checks on Tri-State Livestock Commission Co. accounts between January 2012 and December 2013 and depositing them into her own accounts.

Her former employer says Hoyt took more than $1.2 million between 2010 and 2013. Investigators did not include 2010 and 2011 in their probe, because of the statute of limitations.