OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — More rainfall than expected flowed into the Missouri River last month, but the river’s reservoirs still have plenty of room because of this year’s below-average snowfall.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it expects 26.6 million acre feet of water will flow into the Missouri River this year. That’s 105 percent of normal.

The Corps says last month’s runoff of 6.8 million acre feet was 125 percent of normal, so the amount of water released from the dam on the South Dakota-Nebraska border was reduced to minimize flooding.

The river’s reservoirs are using only 35 percent of the space reserved for flood control storage. It helps that the snowpack above Fort Peck Dam was 72 percent of normal and the snowpack below that dam was 78 percent of normal.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have released the name of a 53-year-old man whose body was found on a bike path under a bridge in Lincoln.

Lincoln police identified the man as Robbie Young, a transient. An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday.

Lincoln Police Chief Jim Peschong (peh-SHAWNG’) says investigators are treating the case as a possible homicide. Peschong says Young had checked in and reserved a bed on Sunday night at the People’s City Mission, which provides housing and other services for the poor and homeless. Young’s body was found by a jogger early Monday morning.

HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — The attorney for a former Hastings High School teacher has challenged the age of a girl who authorities say had sex with the man when she was 15.

Kevin Knake is the attorney for 38-year-old Johnathan Shafer, and in court on Monday Knake said it can’t be clearly established when the sexual relationship started. Under Nebraska law, people 19 and older cannot have sexual contact with people younger than 16.

Knake cited an email the girl sent to police saying she was mistaken about the time frame of the relationship. But prosecutor Cassie Baldwin said the girl is changing her story because of her feelings for Shafer.

The judge ruled there was probable cause to believe a crime could have been committed, so Shafer was bound over for trial.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 30-year-old Lincoln woman is recovering from two surgeries after being struck by a firework while shielding her 2-year-old daughter.

Shannon Tellier was hit Friday night during a family fireworks show. Tellier said Monday that she embraced her daughter to protect her after an errant artillery shell screamed overhead, and then Tellier was hit on the right side of her face by another errant shell.

The shell broke her upper and lower right jawbones and loosened some teeth. Surgeons stitched up her cheek after inserting metal plates. She’s been released from a hospital.

Tellier’s daughter, Haileigh, suffered only a small burn.

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man has been charged with trying to have sex with a girl in exchange for trading cards and a DVD player.

25-year-old Joshua D. Vrana was charged Monday with attempted first-degree sexual assault of a child. He is being held at the Lancaster County jail on $100,000 bond.

Authorities say a Nebraska State Patrol investigator received a tip about an exchange on an online dating site in which a user claimed to have a 25-year-old friend who wanted to have sex with a 16-year-old’s younger sister. After identifying the user as Vrana, investigators contacted the suspect pretending to be the 16-year-old girl.

Authorities say they met July 1 at a public library, where Vrana was arrested.

Vrana has been appointed a public defender.

CRETE, Neb. (AP) — Officials in the small Nebraska city of Crete have closed their 911 dispatch center and switched those services to nearby Beatrice.

Crete Police Chief Steve Hensel says all law enforcement and fire and rescue calls from the city have been switched to a regional 911 center at the Beatrice Police Department as of Monday morning. Remaining operations at the old location in Crete will end Wednesday afternoon.

City officials chose to consolidate to save money. Hensel says Crete will save $80,000 to $100,000 annually, mostly through personnel costs. Five dispatcher positions in Crete were eliminated.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police have arrested two teenagers in connection with a fatal shooting last week, and they are still looking for a 12-year-old suspect.

Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer says the two suspects in custody in connection with the June 29 shooting are 15- and 17-years-old.

Thirty-one-year-old Jamymell Ray died after the shooting that took place, and a 30-year-old man was wounded but he was released from the hospital the following day.

The two men were driving near a northeast Omaha park when they were shot.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police are investigating the suspicious death of a man whose body was found on a bike path under a bridge in Lincoln.

A jogger found the body of a man in his mid-50s early Monday morning on the Salt Creek Levee Trail, a few blocks west of downtown. Police have identified the dead man but have not released his name. Jeff Tyson is chief financial officer of the People’s City Mission, and he says the man was a frequent guest at the mission, which provides housing and other services for the poor and homeless.

Tyson says police are treating the death as a possible homicide. Police say there was swelling on the left side of the man’s face and a cut on his left hand.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Investor Warren Buffett has given more than $2.8 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock to five charities as part of his plan to gradually give away his fortune.

Buffett, who is Berkshire’s chairman and CEO, said in a news release Monday that he made his annual gifts last week.

Buffett has been giving away blocks of Berkshire stock since 2006 with the biggest share going to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

He also gave Class B Berkshire shares to his own foundation and to the foundations run by each of his three children.

In addition to these major gifts that Buffett makes each summer, he also gives smaller blocks of stock to several unnamed charities each year.