(AP) — Thousands of people who don’t have flood insurance could face staggering costs to rebuild after last week’s devastating floods in Colorado.

And they may be dismayed to learn that aid from the government is limited, and focused primarily on getting them temporary help with renting a new place or paying for relatively minor repairs on their homes.

For residents who lack flood insurance to cover bigger, longer-term costs, their only option might be a low-interest government loan or community-based relief groups.

More than 7,200 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed in Larimer and Boulder counties, the hardest-hit areas of Colorado. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency says fewer than 6,000 people in those two counties had flood insurance.

It’s unknown how many of the insured homes and businesses suffered flood damage.

Larimer County insurance agent Eric Weedin calls it heartbreaking.

(AP) — Sewer rates in Grand Island will likely soar for the next few years to pay for $73 million in improvements.

The City Council will likely approve 12 percent increases this year and next year, followed by a 6 percent raise in 2015 and 5 percent in 2016.

Councilman Mitch Nickerson says “the sticker shock on a project like this is alarming,” but it appears officials have little choice.

The improvements to the wastewater treatment plant and sewer collection system as well as billing process upgrades are long overdue.

Public Works Director John Collins says most of the sewer system is about 50 years old. Officials have postponed major maintenance projects for a decade and now, Collins says the system is in “theoretical structural failure.”

(AP) — The University of Nebraska Medical Center has been awarded a more than $11.2 million grant to continue and expand its nanotechnology research.

The grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences will be awarded over five years.

UNMC researcher Tatiana Bronich, director of the Nebraska Center for Nanomedicine, says the award will further and solidify the center’s efforts in the areas of drug delivery and nanomedicine.

Nanotechnology involves manipulating matter at the molecular level.

(AP) — Police say a 43-year-old was found dead Tuesday in her Omaha apartment, and a man has been arrested on suspicion of killing her.

Police say officers were called to the southwest Omaha apartment around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and found Trudie McKee dead inside.

Witnesses say McKee’s teenage daughter came home from school and found her mother bleeding. Neighbors say the girl ran into the apartment complex hallway screaming for help.

Police say they have arrested 32-year-old Robert Grant on suspicion of criminal homicide and a weapons count.

(AP) — Authorities are looking for a man who may have helped commit one of four Omaha killings that were linked together last month.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s office says an arrest warrant has been issued for Warren J. Levering, and the public may be able to help locate him.

Levering is accused of being an accessory to a felony. But the sheriff’s office didn’t say what role the 51-year-old played in the Aug. 21 death of 33-year-old Andrea Kruger.

Prosecutors have already charged 26-year-old Nikko Jenkins with four counts of murder in connection with Kruger’s death and three other killings.

Kruger was shot and killed in an intersection northwest of Omaha when she was headed home from a bar where she worked.

(AP) — Rescue crews in Colorado say the number of emergency calls is dropping after they’ve rescued hundreds more people stranded by floodwaters.

State officials say as many as eight people are believed to be dead. Fewer than 650 people are listed as missing and officials hope the number will continue to decline as the stranded get in touch with families.

The death toll is expected to increase but officials say it could take weeks or even months to search through flood-ravaged areas looking for people who died.

As skies clear and floodwaters recede, the number of emergency airlifts is tapering off. The Colorado National Guard says more than 2,300 people and 850 pets have been airlifted to safety.

Colorado counties report about 19,000 homes either damaged or destroyed.

(AP) — A mother charged with killing her two children has asked a California judge for the death penalty.

Forty-two-year-old Marilyn Edge appeared by video Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court to be arraigned on two counts of murder following her arrest over the weekend.

Judge Craig Robison asked Edge if she wanted her arraignment postponed to Oct. 25, and she twice said she would agree to that if the judge promised her the death penalty.

The judge postponed the arraignment.

A phone call by The Associated Press for comment from Edge’s public defender was not immediately returned.

Edge was involved in a custody dispute and had been ordered to return her son and daughter to their father in Georgia. They were found dead in a Santa Ana hotel room on Saturday.

(AP) — An Omaha pool hall owner has lost his court fight against a statewide smoking ban. But state lawyers are likely to appeal, because the judge found that exceptions to the ban for some businesses are not fair.

Lancaster County District Judge Jodi Nelson ruled Friday against Big John’s Billiards, which also had a pool hall in Lincoln.

Nelson found that Nebraska’s smoking ban is a permissible, legitimate exercise of sovereign power.

But during the course of the case, Nelson also ruled that the ban’s exceptions for cigar bars, tobacco stores and some hotel rooms amounted to special treatment, making them unconstitutional.

The Nebraska Attorney General’s Office says it will appeal that ruling.

(AP) — A Massachusetts man who authorities say chatted online with other men about their mutual desire to kidnap, rape, kill and eat children is facing a long prison sentence.

Prosecutors plan to ask for a 27-year prison term for Geoffrey Portway of Worcester when he is sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Worcester.

Authorities say they found a dungeon, homemade coffin, butchering kit and other tools in the basement of Portway’s home.

In a sentencing memo, prosecutors say the 40-year-old Portway solicited people for help to kidnap a child with the intent of raping, killing and eating the child.

Portway’s lawyer says the chats were only fantasies. He plans to ask for a sentence of about 18 years, at the low end of the range in a plea agreement with prosecutors.

(AP) — An Omaha woman accused of using several spas as fronts for prostitution has pleaded guilty to three federal counts in the case.

U.S. Attorney Deborah Gilg announced Monday that 42-year-old Tammy Schuck pleaded guilty to conspiracy to promote a prostitution enterprise and to induce interstate travel to engage in prostitution. Schuck also pleaded guilty to inducing or attempting to induce interstate travel to engage in prostitution and another count of conspiracy to launder money.

Schuck faces up to 45 years in prison when she is sentenced.

Authorities say Schuck operated three “spas” in Omaha where customers — some from out-of-state — received sex acts from workers, rather than legitimate spa services, in exchange for money.