OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A partnership between the city of Omaha and the Empowerment Network hopes to have jobs for a record number of teenagers this summer to teach life and employment skills.

The 2017 kick-off for the program, known as Step-Up Omaha, was held Wednesday morning. Step-Up aims to pair 14- to 21-year-olds with community businesses to provide summer jobs, vocational education, career exploration opportunities and internships so kids utilize their summers and stay out of trouble.

Program Director Jami Anders-Kemp says Step-Up helped nearly 470 young adults secure summer jobs or training in 2016. This year, the eight-week program hopes to help 600 kids.

Summer crime rates have decreased since the program started in 2008, and the city is noticing.

Mayor Jean Stothert is pledging to double the program’s funding for next year to $1 million.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha man has been given two life sentences for killing his girlfriend and her 2-year-old daughter, as well as another 45 to 50 years for shooting three other witnesses.

A judge handed down the sentences Wednesday for 24-year-old Dontevous Loyd, who avoided the possibility of the death penalty last year when he pleaded no contest to first-degree murder, attempted murder and weapons counts.

Police say Loyd kicked in the apartment door of 22-year-old Destacia Straughn on Dec. 6, 2015, and shot her and her daughter, Kenacia Amerson-Straughn, to death. He also shot three other women visiting Straughn.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 19-year-old Omaha man has been sentenced to decades in prison for killing a man and wounding another in a botched robbery in an Omaha park.

Jamar Milton was sentenced Wednesday in Douglas County District Court to 58 to 82 years. He was convicted in November second-degree murder, assault and a weapons count.

Prosecutors say Milton and two other boys fatally shot 31-year-old Jamymell Ray and wounded Charles Fisher on June 29, 2015.

Milton was 17 at the time of the shootings, but he was prosecuted as an adult. Another teen, 16-year-old Shuntayvious Primes-Willis, was sentenced in July to 30-50 years in prison for his role. The other youth involved who was 12 at the time was sent to Boys Town in Omaha.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A University of Nebraska-Lincoln music professor has been accused of buying and selling steroids.

Court records say 43-year-old Jeffrey McCray is charged with nine felony counts of possession of a controlled substance. He didn’t immediately return messages left Wednesday by The Associated Press. The court records don’t list the name of an attorney who could comment for him.

Authorities say McCray used and sold anabolic steroids for bodybuilding competitions.

University spokesman Steve Smith says the university is aware of the allegations and says officials “will take appropriate action when necessary.” The university website says McCray was appointed an associate professor of bassoon in 2007.

PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — Documents filed with Sarpy County indicate that Facebook may be considering building a data center in the area, which is already home to data centers for other large companies.

A company spokeswoman declined to comment, saying only that Facebook is evaluating potential data center sites.

Facebook has not confirmed the site, but the data center applications are signed by an LLC with the same California address as Facebook’s headquarters. Another address in the applications is that of a law firm that has previously represented Facebook in a number of acquisitions.

If the company selects the site south of Papillion (puh-PIHL’-yuhn), it’ll operate among Yahoo and Fidelity which also have data centers in the county.

Sarpy County Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Andrew Rainbolt says the data center could see a groundbreaking by this spring.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A woman who attacked a high school classmate in Lincoln more than three years ago has waived a preliminary hearing to determine whether she violated her probation in the case.

19-year-old Sarah Piccolo appeared in Lancaster County District Court on Tuesday. Prosecutors are seeking to have her five-year probation sentence revoked after she was charged with arson late last year in an Omaha case. Police in Omaha say Piccolo set a fire in a Metropolitan Community College bathroom on Nov. 5. That case is pending a mental health evaluation for Piccolo.

If she’s found guilty of violating probation, she could get up to 20 years in prison for the 2013 stabbing of a Pius X classmate in a bathroom of the school.

 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a 16-year-old girl from Nebraska who admitted throwing her newborn out of a second-floor window will be sentenced as a juvenile in the baby’s death.

Police say she gave birth Sept. 30 at her mother’s apartment in Omaha, Nebraska, tossed the child out the window then told her mom, who called 911. The Associated Press generally doesn’t name juveniles charged with crimes.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said Monday that what the girl did wasn’t planned, and that “it was more of a panicked reaction.” An autopsy determined that the baby was in her seventh month of development.

The teenager could be given probation or be placed in a group home or detention center at her March 24 evaluation hearing.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police say a Lincoln man has accidentally shot himself with a handgun.

Officers were sent to the man’s home around 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Police Capt. Bob Farmer says the 28-year-old man reported that he was putting the gun into his holster when it fired, striking him in a foot.

He was taken to a hospital for treatment. His name hasn’t been released.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 19-year-old charged with assaulting a woman with a knife at Creighton University over the weekend says he was forced to take drugs beforehand while trying to join a fraternity.

Christopher Wheeler’s attorney Matthew Burns said in court that the drug Wheeler took contributed to his erratic behavior.

Prosecutors say Wheeler went into an 18-year-old woman’s room Saturday and asked for someone else before using a pocket knife to cut her throat.

Wheeler has been banned from Creighton’s campus and plans to live with his parents in Kansas City, Kansas, once they pay $10,000 bond. He is charged with second-degree assault.

Creighton University suspended Phi Kappa Psi fraternity after the weekend incident. Members won’t be allowed to wear their fraternity gear on campus.