LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Eight more Nebraska counties have been added to a national list of those eligible for a streamlined drought relief process.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it streamlined the process as crops in many states burn up in the widest drought in nearly 25 years.

Nearly 1,370 counties nationwide now will automatically qualify for disaster assistance if they’re in a severe drought for at least eight weeks or were in extreme drought this growing season.

The eight new Nebraska counties on the list are Boone, Custer, Greeley, Howard, Merrick, Nance, Sherman and Valley. Already on the list were Banner, Chase, Dawson, Dundy, Franklin, Frontier, Furnas, Gosper, Harlan, Hayes, Hitchcock, Kimball, Lincoln, Perkins, Phelps and Red Willow.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say they’ve arrested a 25-year-old Omaha man on accusations that he fatally shot a southeast Omaha man and his two sons.

Timothy J. Britt was arrested Wednesday and charged with three counts of first-degree murder and three related firearms charges.

He’s accused of shooting 44-year-old Miguel Avalos, 18-year-old Miguel Avalos Jr. and his 16-year-old brother, Jose Avalos, on July 9.

Police have said someone broke into the Avalos home and opened fire. Other family members in the home escaped injury.

Britt is the third person to be arrested in the case. Others are 33-year-old Anthony Davis, of Omaha, and 27-year-old Tiaotta Clairday, of Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Britt’s case did not yet appear in online courts records.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police have a good lead in the search for a hit and run driver — his vehicle’s license plate.

A driver crashed into a parked sport utility vehicle early Wednesday, then drove away. The crash left the parked a Ford Escape on its side.

Officers who responded about 1 a.m. found a license plate along with parts of a Jeep’s bumper.

Police were still searching for the Jeep’s driver Wednesday.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A southern Nebraska natural resources district has banned lawn watering and car washing as water demand peaks in the drought.

Little Blue Natural Resources District says its public water system is in an emergency situation because pumps can’t keep up with demand and water towers can’t be filled.

The district says all nonessential water use should be curtailed.

The water project serves more than 280 tower and business hookups in eastern Thayer County and west and central Jefferson County, including the villages of Gilead and Gladstone.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — After days of scorching heat and strong winds, a shift in the weather is helping firefighters battle wildfires burning in north-central Nebraska along the scenic Niobrara River.

Nebraska Emergency Management Agency spokesman Mike Wight says an overnight cold front saw temperatures drop, humidity increase and winds die down in the area on Wednesday.

Wight says the biggest help to firefighters might be a shift in the wind, which had been coming from the south and pushing flames into trees and other growth along stream beds. With the wind now coming from the northwest, it’s helping keep the fire out of those channels.

Wight says firefighters will learn early Thursday whether they were able to keep the fires, which have burned about 113 square miles altogether.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Community Blood Bank in Lincoln has merged with its longtime Minnesota associate, Memorial Blood Centers.

Both will become divisions of a new organization called Innovative Blood Resources that will be based in St. Paul.

CEO Phyllis Ericson, of the Lincoln blood bank, says both agencies have been affected by the depressed economy and says that’s a key reason for the merger.

The blood banks will merge effective Aug. 1. Officials say blood donors and hospitals shouldn’t notice any changes.

Nebraska Community Blood Bank was founded in 1968. It collects about 50,000 units of blood annually to share with hospitals in six counties.

Memorial Blood Centers collects nearly 200,000 units of blood each year and serves 32 hospitals in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

DAVENPORT, Neb. (AP) — A southern Nebraska natural resources district has banned lawn watering and car washing as the drought and high temperatures raise the demand for water.

Little Blue Natural Resources District says its Little Blue Public Water Project is in an emergency situation because the system pumps can’t keep up with demand and water towers can’t be filled.

The district says all nonessential water use should be curtailed.

The district website says its Little Blue Public Water Project serves more than 280 tower and business hookups in eastern Thayer County and west and central Jefferson County, including the villages of Gilead and Gladstone.

Water is bought from the city of Fairbury and is piped through 120 miles of buried lines.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha man says he’s been moving warily around his apartment, keeping watch for dangerous spiders that have moved in.

Dylan Baumann says that he’s been catching brown recluse spiders in his east-central Omaha apartment for four months.

Experts say the dangerously venomous brown recluse spiders aren’t aggressive, but their bites can result in painful wounds. Fatal bites to humans are extremely rare.

Dennis Ferraro, of the Douglas County Extension Office, says the higher number of spiders and bugs in general is likely due to a relatively mild winter and higher-than-normal summer temperatures.

Baumann says he plans to move out of the apartment in September. Until then he’s taking precautions such as shaking out his clothes and shoes before putting them on.