Speakers split the time available at a hearing concerning a new oil pipeline route through Nebraska.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that more than 160 people signed up to address the packed hearing in Albion on Tuesday. The public hearing was expected to be the only one on the Keystone XL pipeline route TransCanada wants to use in carrying crude oil to the Gulf Coast.

TransCanada’s Corey Goulet told the assembly that the company thought Nebraska’s review of the $7 billion, 1,700-mile project was good and the project should be approved.

But Oglala Lakota Nation Vice President Tom Poor Bear followed Goulet to the microphone to say that if the pipeline were to leak and oil were to get “in the water, our water is no good.”

The woman who was listed as the world’s oldest person has died in a Georgia nursing home at age 116.

Besse Cooper died peacefully Tuesday afternoon in Monroe, according to her son Sidney Cooper.

Cooper says his mother had been ill recently with a stomach virus, then felt better on Monday. On Tuesday he said she had her hair set and watched a Christmas video, but later had trouble breathing. He said she was put on oxygen in her room and died there about 2 p.m.

She was declared the world’s oldest person in January. In May, Guinness World Records learned that Maria Gomes Valentin of Brazil was 48 days older. Valentin died June 21.

A Guinness official says the title now belongs to 115-year-old Dina Manfredini, of Johnston, Iowa.

A rare Chinese coin worth $120 has been dropped on one of the Salvation Army’s red kettles in Omaha.

Salvation Army Lt. John Fetzer IV says the 2006 Chinese Yuan coin was donated in southwest Omaha last weekend.

The gold coin donation added some excitement to the kettle campaign. Fetzer says that generous donations like this help the group continue to serve others.

There is somewhat of a tradition of gold coin kettle donations in some parts of the country. In Chicago, for example, more than 300 gold coins have been donated over the past 25 years.

The Salvation Army hopes to raise $3.1 million through its annual holiday donation campaign in Omaha.

Nebraska health officials continue to urge people to get a flu shot after a jump of cases in Douglas County.

Officials said Tuesday that the county has 27 confirmed cases of influenza. That’s well above the normal five or fewer at this point in the season.

Douglas County Health Director Dr. Adi Pour says it’s too early to say what the jump means. But he says it’s not too late for people to get vaccinated.

Officials say the flu season lasts two to three months. It peaks around February or March.

Another Starbucks may soon pop up around the corner, with the world’s biggest coffee company planning to add at least 1,500 cafes in the U.S. over the next five years.

The plan would boost the number of Starbucks cafes in the country by about 13 percent. It is set to be announced at the company’s investor day in New York on Wednesday.

The Seattle-based company also says it will eventually serve a new brand of tea in its cafes. Rather than its Tazo tea, Starbucks is turning its attention to Teavana, which it announced it would acquire last month.

Worldwide, Starbucks says it will have more than 20,000 cafes by 2014. Much of that growth will come from China, which will surpass Canada as the company’s second-biggest market.

The Nebraska Supreme Court has again been asked to determine whether a trial court unfairly ordered a Nebraska man to register as a sex offender.

In January, the state’s high court ruled that the due process rights of 32-year-old Chad Norman, of Wilcox, had been violated.

Norman was accused of fondling a boy and initially charged with child sexual assault, but pleaded no contest to simple assault.

Trial judges can order someone convicted of non-sex-based offenses to register as a sex offender if evidence shows the person committed a sex offense. But the state’s high court said the lower court relied only on prosecutors’ assertion that Norman had committed a sex offense.

The lower court was ordered to reconsider, and it again ordered Norman to register as a sex offender.

Nebraska sent the Omaha school district $6.3 million too much last year because the district mistakenly submitted a special education expense twice.

The Omaha World-Herald reports Omaha school board discussed the funding problem Monday night.

The state Education Department audited the district’s budget in August and discovered the district had submitted a special expense twice. State finance administrator Russ Inbody says this appears to be an error.

Inbody says he doesn’t know of any other school district in the state that made the same mistake.

Now that the error has been discovered, the state will deduct $6.3 million from this year’s payments to the district. This year the Omaha district has a general fund budget of about $484 million.

A judge has sentenced a Lincoln man to four to six years in prison for attacking another man with a machete.

The Lincoln Journal Star reported Tuesday that Juan Cruz will serve time for the Jan. 1 attack that sent his victim to the hospital with several injuries, including to his head.

Cruz pleaded guilty in October to second-degree assault. Police say Cruz broke into the victim’s apartment and attacked him with a two-foot machete. The victim used a hammer to fight back.

The newspaper reports the victim told authorities the attack was over a woman.

New York City police are questioning a suspect in the death of a subway rider who was shoved onto the tracks.

New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne says investigators recovered security video showing a man fitting the description of the assailant working with street vendors near Rockefeller Center.

Police went there Tuesday and took him into custody.

Ki-Suck Han of Queens died shortly after being hit by a train Monday at the Times Square subway station.

Police say he tried to climb a few feet to safety, but got trapped between the train and the platform’s edge.

Subway pushes are unusual. Among the more high-profile cases was the January 1999 death of Kendra Webdale. A former mental patient admitted he shoved her to her death.

Omaha police say a trail of tossed stolen items helped lead them to four men suspected in at least two robberies.

KETV-TV in Omaha reports authorities took the men into custody early Tuesday morning following a car chase that involved several officers.

A police helicopter tracked the men after a robbery report included a description of a silver minivan. Police say the men in the van started throwing items out of the vehicle that included clothing and pellet guns.

Police say the men may be connected to another robbery just before midnight Monday.