A teacher at a Northern California preschool accused of putting sleeping pills into toddlers’ sippy cups has been released from custody after being charged with child endangerment.

59-year-old Debbie Gratz is scheduled to appear in court again later this month.

She was arrested Friday after a colleague at the Morgan Hill Kiddie Academy saw her put an unknown substance into the children’s cups.

School officials notified police on Monday, who said Gratz acknowledged putting the over-the-counter sleeping aid “Sominex” into the kids’ drinks.

None of the children drank from the cups the day the incident was reported.

A 20-year-old Lincoln man has been given nearly a year in jail on a theft charge.

Tremain Berks pleaded no contest to theft by receiving stolen property. Authorities say Berks had been selling computers stolen from a Lincoln elementary school in 2011.

Berks’ attorney, Bob Creager, says there wasn’t any evidence that tied Berks to the burglary of about $30,000 worth of Apple computers and some projectors from Belmont Elementary School. But in court on Tuesday, Creager acknowledged that Berks was implicated in what happened to the stolen goods.

Lancaster County District Judge Jodi Nelson told Berks that he’d essentially taken no responsibility for what he did. Nelson gave Berks 360 days in jail.

Authorities are working to identify a body firefighters found in a vacant downtown Omaha building after extinguishing a blaze.

Firefighters were called to the building near 18th and Dodge streets around 2 a.m. Thursday after smoke was reported coming from the roof.

Once the fire was put out, the body was found inside an elevator car. Authorities say they could not immediately identify even the gender of the body.

Investigators are working to determine what killed the person and what caused the fire.

The apartment building has been vacant for about five years.

A couple suspected in a Kansas slaying and shooting at Nebraska law officers, have been charged with attempted murder.

33-year-old Michael Engstrom and 34-year-old Jamie Engstrom were arraigned on Wednesday in southeast Nebraska’s Johnson County.

Michael Engstrom faces 21 felony counts, including five of attempted second-degree murder. Jamie Engstrom, who also is known as Jamie Russell, faces a dozen counts.

Authorities suspect Engstrom in a double shooting in Topeka, Kan., on Feb. 13 that killed Ricky Mitchell and wounded a woman. Police believe Engstrom robbed a convenience store in Pawnee City, Neb., hours later.

Authorities say that when Nebraska officers tried to stop the couple, Engstrom fired at them, wounding one. The high-speed chase ended when their car became stuck.

A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of a Northern California man who was sentenced to 24 years in prison for attending an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan and plotting to attack targets in the U.S.

Hamid Hayat was convicted in 2006 of providing material support to terrorists and lying to FBI agents. Prosecutors said Hayatplanned attacks on hospitals, banks, grocery stores and government buildings.

Hayat, a U.S. citizen from Lodi (LOH’-dy), south of Sacramento, is now 30 years old.

A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his conviction Wednesday.

Judge A. Wallace Tashima dissented, saying he would have overturned it.

He says jurors went too far by convicting Hayat based on dire predictions of what he might have done in the future.

President Barack Obama has told House Republicans he’s still weighing a decision on the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to Texas. At a closed-door gathering with the Republicans on Wednesday, Obama said jobs numbers and other benefits touted by supporters are probably exaggerated, but he did not rule out a decision to approve the pipeline, according to participants.

Nebraska Republican Rep. Lee Terry said Obama appeared “conflicted” on the pipeline, saying many of the promised jobs would be temporary, and that much of the oil would likely be exported. But Terry said Obama also indicated that dire environmental consequences predicted by pipeline opponents were exaggerated.

Terry, who supports the pipeline, said he wished Obama’s comments were less negative, but he was still hopeful the project would be approved.

Police say a woman holding a baby boy has plunged eight stories out of a New York City apartment window to her death and may have jumped. They say the baby has survived.

The 45-year-old woman was discovered by police Wednesday afternoon. The baby was in her arms. The police officer who responded took the baby to a hospital, where he’s listed in stable condition.

The baby is believed to be about 10 months old. A hospital spokeswoman says she has no immediate information on his condition.

Police say the woman was pronounced dead at the scene. The apartment window was wide open, and there were no signs of struggle inside. There were no safety bars on the windows of the upper Manhattan apartment.

 

Death-penalty opponents are pleading with lawmakers to end capital punishment in Nebraska, appealing to their religious and financial sensibilities and arguing that the state has applied it unfairly.

Opponents asked lawmakers Wednesday to advance a repeal measure by state Sen. Ernie Chambers. Chambers, of Omaha, is the Legislature’s most outspoken death-penalty opponent.

The sister of murder victim James Thimm testified that the death penalty has prolonged her family’s suffering by keeping her brother’s killer in the public eye. Thimm’s killer, Michael Ryan, has sat on Nebraska’s death row for more than 25 years.

Chambers has three co-sponsors on the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, who together make up half of the panel.

The Nebraska County Attorneys Association opposes the bill.

Bishops from Iowa and Nebraska are welcoming newly elected Pope Francis.

Bishop Martin Amos from the Diocese of Davenport on Wednesday posted a note online welcoming 76-year-old Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who has chosen the papal name Francis.

In Nebraska, Bishop James Conley of Lincoln posted a brief celebratory note. He also scheduled a Mass for Wednesday afternoon.

Amos says in his note that he’s sure cardinals considered many factors in their selection Wednesday. He says they picked a leader who could bring reform to issues such as church scandals, Mass attendance, the role of women in the church and evangelization.

An Argentinian, Bergoglio is the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium.

Argentine Jorge Bergoglio has been elected Pope, the first ever from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium. He chose the name Pope Francis.

Cardinals elected a new Pope to lead the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics on Wednesday, overcoming deep divisions to select the 266th pontiff in a remarkably fast conclave.

Tens of thousands of people who braved cold rain to watch the smokestack atop the Sistine Chapel jumped in joy when white smoke poured out a few minutes past 7 p.m., many shouting “Habemus Papam!” or “We have a Pope!” – as the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica and churches across Rome pealed.

Elected on the fifth ballot, the Pope Francis was chosen in one of the fastest conclaves in years, remarkable given there was no clear front-runner going into the vote and that the church had been in turmoil following the upheaval unleashed by Pope Benedict XVI’s surprise resignation.

A winner must receive 77 votes, or two-thirds of the 115, to be named Pope.

The 76-year-old archbishop of Buenos Aires has spent nearly his entire career at home in Argentina, overseeing churches and shoe-leather priests.