(AP) — A 19-year-old man is accused of beating and sexually assaulting a 93-year-old Omaha woman in her home.

Prosecutors said Wednesday that Sergio Perez is charged with first-degree sexual assault, first-degree assault and burglary.

According to a police report, an officer who was sent to check on the woman found her covered in blood in a bedroom around 9 a.m. Sunday. The officer reported that Perez was unclothed and passed out on top of her.

The woman suffered heavy trauma.

Prosecutors say Perez, who doesn’t speak English, admitted to the assault and rape, saying he was mad at women after a night of drinking.

Perez had been working as a roofer and has no known ties to Omaha.

(AP) — Fort Carson officials say they are investigating allegations of sexual misconduct involving several soldiers and under-age girls.

Officials said Wednesday the investigation is being conducted by the Army Criminal Investigation Command.

Fort Carson didn’t say how many soldiers were under investigation, where the alleged misconduct took place or how many girls were allegedly involved.

No one has been arrested.

Officials said commanders are aware of the investigation.

Fort Carson is an infantry post outside Colorado Springs.

(AP) — A Nebraska prison inmate who was driving a state van during a fatal crash last month has been charged with manslaughter.

Lancaster County Attorney Joe Kelly said Wednesday that 35-year-old Jeremy Dobbe had been charged in the June 25 crash that killed 47-year-old Joyce Meeks.

Tests showed Dobbe wasn’t on alcohol or drugs when the accident happened, but witnesses said he was speeding and swerving.

Dobbe is currently in prison for methamphetamine possession, and he as an extensive record, but he was allowed to drive other inmates to work-release assignments.

The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services ended the longstanding prison-driver program after the crash.

Dobbe is scheduled to make his initial court appearance on Aug. 1.

Meeks’ family has already announced plans to file a wrongful-death lawsuit against the state.

(AP) — Firefighters are beginning to stop the 1,700-acre wildfire burning near about 50 summer homes in Wyoming.

The Fairfield Fire was 15 percent contained Wednesday because of lines crews have dug on its north side. Firefighters will now try to build some containment lines along the head of the fire near Lander.

The homes and campgrounds in Sinks Canyon were evacuated after it broke out Monday. U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Kristie Salzmann says no homes have been lost. Crews dug lines and an air tanker also dropped slurry to protect them.

It’s the most significant fire of the season so far in Wyoming.

Crews are also fighting a fire burning on about 100 acres in the Medicine Bow National Forest. A 250-acre wildfire in the Washakie (WASH’-ah-kee) Wilderness is being monitored.

(AP) — Authorities say two women who got lost while hiking in a Maine state park died in a car accident shortly after their rescue.

Thirty-seven-year-old Amy Stiner, of Machias (muh-CHY’-us), and 38-year-old Melissa Moyer, of Sunbury, Pa., were killed Tuesday night when they drove their car into the ocean after driving the wrong way down a road. The county sheriff says Moyer was five months pregnant.

Officials say the women became lost while hiking near Roque Bluffs State Park. A landowner found them and their dog and gave them a ride to a home. Authorities later took them back to their car.

A short time later, the women called to say they had driven their vehicle into the water — and then the phone went dead. The car was later found underwater.

(AP) — A 29-year-old Lincoln man who held police at bay for nine hours last summer has been given two to four years in prison.

Online court records say Damien Brown pleaded guilty to a weapons charge after prosecutors dropped two other charges. He was sentenced Tuesday by Judge Steven Burns in Lancaster County District Court.

Authorities say officers  were sent to a Lincoln home around 4 p.m. on Aug. 2 after someone reported that a man was pointing a gun out of a window. When the officers arrived, Brown climbed out of a second-floor window and threatened officers, brandishing a knife and screwdriver.

Police say Brown then jumped onto a neighbor’s roof, where he stayed until surrendering around 1 a.m. the next day.

(AP) — A Tennessee man with more than 15 years left on a Mississippi bank robbery sentence has been given more prison time in Nebraska.

Online court records say 35-year-old Michael Watson, of Hendersonville, Tenn., was sentenced Tuesday in Lincoln to five to 10 years for robbing a U.S. Bank branch on Jan. 22, 2009. He got away with nearly $3,400, and no one was hurt.

Watson had made a deal with Lancaster County prosecutors and pleaded guilty to a lesser robbery charge.

Authorities say the Lincoln bank was but one of 12 Watson robbed over three months in several states: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, two in Tennessee and one in Utah.

(AP) — Federal regulators will provide another update on the efforts to repair the troubled Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant.

The power plant, which sits across from Iowa on the Missouri River about 20 miles north of Omaha, has been offline for 27 months.

Fort Calhoun initially shut down for routine maintenance, but significant flooding in 2011, a small fire and a series of safety violations forced it to remain closed.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokeswoman Lara Uselding says Fort Calhoun is making progress, but the Omaha Public Power District still has to address 15 items on the restart checklist.

Regulators must sign off before the plant can restart.

The meeting will be held from 6-9 p.m. on Wednesday at the Ramada Plaza Hotel near 72nd Street and Interstate 80 in Omaha.

 

(AP) — A 42-year-old Creston woman has been given four years of probation for felony child abuse.

Janelle Gertsch had pleaded no contest to three counts after prosecutors dropped two other counts. Gertsch was sentenced last week in Platte County District Court.

Prosecutors say Gertsch and her boyfriend, Larry Einspahr Jr., beat and spanked her 12-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter on multiple occasions. In May Einspahr was sentenced to 30 to 36 months in prison.

(AP) — What Beatrice authorities feared was a dead body turned out to be a drunken one.

On Tuesday afternoon Beatrice police and Fire and Rescue crew members were sent to where the Big Blue River flows under the West Court Street bridge. Two boys riding their bikes had spotted the body and called 911.

Police Chief Bruce Lang says the rescue workers discovered the man was either sleeping or had passed out half in the water after some heavy drinking.

The man was taken to a detoxification center.