(AP) — The Nebraska Public Power District’s board has decided against boosting capacity of its nuclear power plant in the southeast corner of the state.

In December the board decided to seek federal permission to raise the Cooper Nuclear Station’s power output by 18 percent, to 946 megawatts from 800. But the board voted Friday to follow a recommendation from NPPD President and CEO Pat Pope to scrap the project.

Pope said the latest, detailed cost estimates for the project pegged it at $409 million, $120 million above an earlier estimate. He said NPPD “most likely would not see sufficient returns to justify that expense.” Pope also cited technical and other issues.

The plant sits along the Missouri River near Brownville, nearly 60 miles south of Omaha.

(AP) — Authorities have arrested two Omaha men in connection with a motel robbery in western Iowa.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office says the men were arrested early Friday morning following a car chase near Minden. Authorities were able to successfully deploy stop sticks that disabled the men’s vehicle from entering Nebraska.

The car eventually lost control and crashed near Crescent. The men were extricated from the vehicle and transported to area hospitals for treatment.

Authorities say one suspect is accused of displaying a firearm at the America’s Best Value Inn near Atlantic. The suspects’ names have not been released.

(AP) — Someone who bought a ticket at a convenience store in the eastern Nebraska town of Genoa has won a $1 million Powerball prize.

The Nebraska Lottery says the ticket matched the first five numbers in Wednesday’s drawing but not the Powerball number. The numbers were 5, 25, 30, 58 and 59, with the Powerball number of 32.

The ticket was sold at a Pump & Pantry on Willard Avenue.

Three jackpot-winning tickets for Wednesday’s $448 million drawing were sold. Two were sold in New Jersey and one in Minnesota.

Nebraska Lottery spokesman Neil Watson says the $1 million prize hadn’t been claimed as of Friday afternoon.

(AP) — A Ukrainian man has been cited with negligent boat operation in connection with an accident near Lincoln that injured two others.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission says it cited 37-year-old Valentyn Siny for operating a personal watercraft on Wednesday that collided with two people on Pawnee Lake.

Officials say the 14-year-old girl and 51-year-old woman were on separate tubes being pulled by a boat at the time.

The Lincoln residents were treated for minor injuries and released from a hospital. Both were wearing life jackets.

The boating accident was the 18th reported to the commission this year.

(AP) — Researchers in Philadelphia have begun an ovarian cancer detection study that relies on dogs’ keen sense of smell.

Scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center want to combine old-fashioned olfactory work with modern technology to help catch the disease in its earliest stages.

Ovarian cancer affects about 20,000 U.S. women each year. But survival rates are low because it’s often not diagnosed until it has spread.

The University of Pennsylvania’s Working Dog Center is training three canines using blood and tissue samples donated by ovarian cancer patients.

If dogs can identify the substance that marks the disease’s presence, Monell researchers believe they can create a sensor device to detect the same chemical.

The study is being funded by an $80,000 grant from the Madison, N.J.-based Kaleidoscope of Hope Foundation.

(AP) — A 25-year-old Lincoln mother who didn’t protect her toddler daughter from her boyfriend has been given 100 days in jail.

Online court records say Jessica Moton was sentenced on Thursday. Moton had pleaded no contest to attempted negligent child abuse after prosecutors lowered the charge.

Authorities say Moton did nothing to stop her boyfriend from breaking her 14-month-old daughters’ wrists and burning the little girl with cigarettes. Authorities also say Moton lied to police to protect the man.

The boyfriend, 24-year-old LaDaryl Lathan, in February was sentenced to two to four years for child abuse.

(AP) — A 35-year-old Iowa man has been charged with stealing groceries from a northeast Nebraska mom and her child.

A South Sioux City officer says he found grocery bags of pork and bread in the vehicle of Jacob Tuttle when he stopped Tuttle for speeding and a broken brake light last week. The officer matched the vehicle’s description to that provided by a witness to a theft from another vehicle in town that day.

The witness says a small child was in the other vehicle when the man took the bags.

Tuttle, of Sioux City, Iowa, is charged with felony robbery and misdemeanors related to the traffic stop.

A public phone listing for Tuttle couldn’t be found. Online court records don’t list the name of his attorney.

(AP) — A South Florida man who authorities say fatally shot his wife — and apparently then posted a photo of her body on Facebook — has turned himself in to police.

Miami-Dade police report that 31-year-old Derek Medina turned himself in Thursday, telling them he had shot 26-year-old Jennifer Alfonso. Detectives didn’t immediately give a motive. Charges were pending.

A post on a Facebook page identified as Medina’s says, “I’m going to prison or death sentence for killing my wife.”

The post claims that his wife was punching him and that he wasn’t going to stand any more abuse.

The next post was a photograph showing a woman in black leotards, slumped on the floor with blood on her left arm and left cheek. The photo was up for more than five hours before the page became unavailable late Thursday afternoon.

(AP) — A western Michigan family welcomed their 12th child this week — and they’re all boys.

Jay and Kateri Schwandt live in Rockford, near Grand Rapids. Their new son, Tucker, was born Sunday. Their oldest, Tyler, is 21.

The 38-year-old Kateri, who’s known as Teri, says there was a chuckle in the hospital room when the delivery nurse said it’s a boy. Teri says she doesn’t need a handbook for raising another.

The Schwandts are devout Roman Catholics who leave the size of their family to God. Teri’s sister has 10 children, and they, too, are all boys.

Dr. Bob Barbieri of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston says genetics play a role in large families with kids of a single gender. He calls the Schwandt family “amazing.”

 

(AP) — Authorities say a woman who escaped custody was arrested several hours later in Lincoln after she sought medical help for chest pains.

Lincoln police say 34-year-old Corrine Kucera escaped early Wednesday morning while she was being transported from a minimum-security facility to the Lancaster County Jail. She then called for an ambulance from an auto repair shop Thursday morning.

She ran when police showed up, but she was arrested in a nearby field.

Authorities say Kucera originally escaped custody when she got out of a correctional van and ran.

Kucera had been in jail in connection to two felony drug charges.