WILBER, Neb. (AP) — A former Saline County Court assistant clerk has been given probation and some jail time for stealing thousands of dollars from the office.

Court records say 42-year-old Jodi Rezabek was sentenced Monday to three years of probation and 90 days in jail. Rezabek had pleaded guilty to felony theft and attempted forgery. The Nebraska State Auditor’s office says that when confronted with a $15,500 discrepancy in the county court’s financial books, Rezabek admitted that she had taken the money to pay a contractor who did work at her home. An audit also said Rezabek had drawn a cashier’s check for more than $62,000 from the account in May 2015 and then deposited it a month later.

Court records say Rezabek already has paid restitution.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man charged with murder has told a judge that he wants to keep his lawyer, an Omaha attorney criticized for hiring a witness in the man’s homicide case.

61-year-old James Cotton told Douglas County District Judge Gary Randall on Monday that he understood the ramifications of what could be seen as potential ethical violations by his attorney, Travis Penn.

Cotton says he wants to continue with the trial. Jury selection began Monday.

Before the hearing Monday, Cotton was given an article published by the newspaper Sunday that explained how Penn hired 31-year-old Lindsey Redinbaugh as his receptionist.

Prosecutors say Redinbaugh sent messages telling another witness in Cotton’s case to not “snitch” while her boss was questioning the witness in a pretrial deposition.

Redinbaugh has been charged with witness tampering.

BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say two dogs died when a Nebraska woman left them inside a hot car for roughly four hours.

36-year-old Ashley Alberts-Roach of Bellevue was charged with two counts of animal abandonment resulting in death.

Authorities say Alberts-Roach put the dogs in the car around 10 a.m. Friday. She returned around 2:15 p.m., saw they were not moving and brought them inside a garage, where she tried to cool them off with water. Alberts-Roach called police to report the dogs’ deaths.

Police say the dogs belonged to her boyfriend. They say they did not know the dogs’ ages or breeds, but describe them as medium-to-large-sized animals.

Online court records did not list an attorney for Alberts-Roach

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a 25-year-old man died after he was shot this weekend in Grand Island.

Marvin Rafael of Grand Island was pronounced dead at a local hospital after the shooting in his home around 2:30 a.m. Sunday. Authorities haven’t said whether his death was a homicide or a suicide.

Grand Island Police Capt. Dean Elliott says an autopsy was done Monday morning.

Neighbors say they heard a party at the home Saturday night, but the festivities weren’t loud enough to disrupt them. One neighbor reported hearing loud shouting around 3 a.m. that sounded like an argument.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Authorities say a skydiving plane caught fire and the 13 passengers aboard parachuted to safety as it made an emergency landing at a small Colorado airport.

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office says the plane had just taken off from Colorado Springs East Airport when its engine caught fire Sunday afternoon. Officials believe it may have started when a bird got into the engine.

The skydivers, who were using Out of the Blue Skydiving and had been trained, jumped from the plane and were picked up by company workers. No injuries were reported.

Passenger Trent Reese said they heard a pop and a few seconds later, the pilot said, “Everybody out.”

The pilot landed safely back at the airport.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld a six-month prison sentence for a Nebraska man who was manufacturing fireworks and explosive devices in a shed behind his Ralston house.

Jeffrey Belmont had argued he shouldn’t have been convicted because he was making explosives as a hobby, not a business. But the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the law prohibiting making explosives still applied to Belmont.

Authorities found 36 completed explosives and 28 partially completed devices along with more than 2,000 pounds of chemicals used to make flash powder.

The court says the quantity of materials found shows Belmont was engaged in manufacturing explosives, so it upheld the sentence.

Belmont pleaded guilty last year, but he appealed to question whether the law applied to his hobby.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln program is looking for some grandmas and grandpas who want to work with children.

The Foster Grandparent program, adults spend 15 to 20 hours a week at schools, usually working one-on-one with kids.

Elisa Stutheit with the Aging Partners program says the Foster Grandparents program volunteers get a tax-free stipend of $2.65 an hour that doesn’t affect qualification for food stamps, subsidized housing or Supplemental Social Security income. Volunteers also receive mileage reimbursements or a bus pass, paid leave and paid holidays.

Volunteers must be 55 or older and have incomes of no more than 200 percent of the poverty level, which is a little under $24,000 a year for a single person.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A 12-year-old boy has died at a water park in Kansas City, Kansas.

Police spokesman Officer Cameron Morgan says the boy died Sunday at the Schlitterbahn Water Park. Morgan says he does not yet know the circumstances of the death.

Among the park’s attractions is the Verruckt water slide, which is promoted as the world’s tallest water slide.

A park official did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment Sunday.

There was no additional information released about the fatality.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — The remains of Dale Robert Geddes, a Grand Island native who was serving in the Marine Corps when he was killed 72 years ago during World War II, have been identified through DNA testing and are coming home.

Graveside services with full military honors are scheduled for Aug. 22 in Grand Island.

Geddes died in the Battle of Tarawa, which took place Nov. 20-23, 1943, as American troops fought to capture the island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands. About 1,000 Marines and sailors were killed and another 2,000 wounded.

Geddes was born on Feb. 21, 1922, in Grand Island. He graduated from high school in 1940 and enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserves on Nov. 20, 1942.

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say an Omaha man was killed in an early morning motorcycle crash.

Omaha police say 36-year-old Charles J. Harman Jr. was riding southbound on 50th Street in Omaha around 1 a.m. Sunday when his motorcycle struck a curb, left the road and ran into a light pole.

Police say Harman was pronounced dead at the scene. He was wearing a helmet.

Police say they’re still investigating the crash.