Omaha police have arrested four people after finding several dogs in a feces-strewn basement.

The arrests were made Wednesday following complaints from people who said they had responded to an online ad selling dogs. The complaints said the dogs were kept in poor conditions and that the sellers were verbally aggressive and threatening.

Investigators say occupants of the home refused to answer the door for more than an hour. Once inside, officers say they found nine dogs — including a Chihuahua, a Great Dane and a St. Bernard.

Police also found four people hiding in the house.

The four, ranging in age from 28 to 51, face a variety of charges, including obstruction, giving false information and harboring too many dogs in unsanitary conditions.

(AP) — A Grand Island man has pleaded no contest to kidnapping and sexual assault of a child for raping a 4-year-old girl in 2011.

27-year-old Abraham Richardson entered the plea Friday afternoon. He faces up to 50 years in prison on each charge when he’s sentenced June 11 in Lancaster County.

The assault occured in Grand Island, but the case was moved to Lincoln earlier this year because of pretrial publicity. Richardson is already serving a 20-year federal sentence handed down in August for receiving and distributing child pornography.

Prosecutors say Richardson abducted the 4-year-old girl from a Grand Island apartment in October 2011 and raped her. The girl had to have surgery to repair her injuries from the attack.

 

The National Weather Service has confirmed that a powerful spring storm system spawned 12 tornadoes in six states in recent days.

Forecasters confirmed three tornadoes in Missouri, including two in the St. Louis area; three each in Arkansas and Alabama; and one each in Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia.

Emergency officials said three people were killed in the storms, which unleashed tornadoes and winds strong enough to peel the roofs from homes in the Deep South and heaped snow and ice on the Midwest, leaving thousands without power.

The weather service is predicting that another storm system will bring wintry weather to the north-central U.S. starting Saturday afternoon, potentially bringing 6 to 12 inches of snow to parts of eastern Montana, much of North Dakota, northern South Dakota and northern Minnesota.

Police say three people whose bodies were found inside a Topeka, KS home died in an apparent double murder-suicide.

Topeka police Lt. Scott Gilchrist says officers and emergency medical responders arrived after getting a 911 call around 9:15 p.m. CDT Friday from a woman at the home reporting that several people had been shot. He declined to give any identifying information about the three people who were found dead, including whether they lived in the house.

Police were searching for a person of interest. He says the person isn’t believed to be a threat to the general public.

The city of Topeka had recorded only two homicides this year prior to Friday, the newspaper reported.

 

The Nebraska Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of an Omaha man sentenced to life plus a minimum of 75 years for a 2010 fatal shooting.

Kevin Watt was convicted in 2011 in the death of 25-year-old Adrian Lessley and the wounding of 33-year-old Jason Marion. Police say Watt used a rifle to open fire on a north Omaha porch.

The 26-year-old Watt said in his appeal that there was insufficient evidence to convict him, improper jury instructions were given, his attorney was ineffective and his sentencing had been excessive, among other things.

On Friday, the Nebraska Supreme Court dismissed Watt’s arguments, but said the 448 days’ credit he received for time already served was improperly applied to his life sentence and should have been applied to his assault sentence.

A bill introduced in Congress would fix the conflict between the federal government’s marijuana prohibition and state laws that allow medical or recreational use.

California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher says his bill has three Republican and three Democratic sponsors.

It would assure that state laws on pot are respected by the feds by amending the Controlled Substances Act to make clear that individuals and businesses that comply with state marijuana laws are immune from federal prosecution. That would include marijuana dispensaries.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have medical marijuana laws. And Washington and Colorado last fall became the first to pass laws legalizing, taxing and regulating marijuana. The U.S. Justice Department has not said how it intends to respond to those state laws.

A Colorado teen has pleaded not guilty to murder and kidnapping in the slaying and dismemberment of a 10-year-old girl — despite police testimony that he has confessed.

Austin Sigg entered the not guilty plea Friday in the death of Jessica Ridgeway in the Denver suburb of Westminster.

Jessica disappeared while walking to school on Oct. 5, leading parents to take extraordinary precautions to keep their children safe. Residents were encouraged to report suspicious behavior by neighbors.

Sigg’s not guilty plea came despite his alleged confession and the discovery of some of the girl’s remains at his home.

He faces life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years if convicted. Sigg, who is 18, cannot face the death penalty because he was 17 at the time of the slaying.

The University of Nebraska Medical Center has found no evidence of research misconduct after questions were raised about data integrity in an academic article.

The university made the announcement Friday after conducting an internal investigation. The review came after the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care raised questions about a study it published online in February 2012. The study was done jointly by UNMC and researchers from Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will review UNMC’s findings, as required by federal research-misconduct regulations. The university says it can provide another update once that review is complete.

The study in question examined the role of some proteins involved in a lung complication that is associated with the AIDS virus.

A Lincoln bus driver seen on video punching a passenger and dragging him off the vehicle has been fired from his job.

City officials announced Friday that 43-year-old Troy Fischer of the StarTran Bus Service was fired Thursday. He was cited on suspicion of misdemeanor assault in connection with the March 23 incident.

The video shows Fischer punching the passenger 18 times, and then leaving the man on the side of a road.

The city’s Public Works and Utilities Department, which runs Star Tran, says Fischer notified his supervisor that he was having trouble with a passenger. The supervisor instructed Fisher to let the passenger leave voluntarily or call police.

In the video, Fischer tells his supervisor that he put the passenger off the bus and “it wasn’t pretty.”

The doctor of a 14-year-old Ohio girl who had cerebral palsy and weighed just 28 pounds when she died has been found guilty of three counts of failing to report child abuse or neglect.

Montgomery County prosecutor Mat Heck Jr. says Margaret Edwards was found guilty Friday in juvenile court in Dayton. The Trotwood resident is scheduled to be sentenced on the misdemeanors May 16.

Edwards was Makayla Norman’s doctor from July 2010 until the girl’s March 2011 death from nutritional and medical neglect complicated by her chronic condition.

Norman’s mother and a nurse were convicted last year of involuntary manslaughter and other charges. Two other nurses were convicted of failing to provide for a functionally impaired person.