(AP) — Residents in and around Omaha’s Benson community can get to know their local police officers a little better over coffee.

Omaha police are holding another “Coffee with a Cop” event Thursday morning at 8 a.m. at Leo’s Diner on Maple Street, just west of the Benson area.

Omaha police want to get to know community members outside the constraints of emergency and crisis situations. To do that, they’re inviting the public to sit down for a cup of coffee.

The invitation is part of a nationwide movement by law enforcement agencies.

The concept is a simple: Police and residents come together in an informal, neutral space to discuss community issues and build relationships over a cup of coffee.

(AP) — A 38-year-old Beatrice man has been given 35 to 60 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl.

William Foster was sentenced on Wednesday in Gage County District Court in Beatrice. Foster pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree sexual assault of a child. Prosecutors dropped four counts of third-degree sexual assault of a child in exchange for Foster’s plea.

He was charged last April after the girl told a school employee about the 15 to 20 sexual assaults that had occurred since October 2012.

Police say Foster admitted what he’d done and said the assaults had occurred in Gage and Saline counties.

(AP) — Authorities say a 50-year-old southeast Nebraska woman has been arrested, accused of lying to officers who were trying to find her son.

Officers went to the woman’s home in Adams on Tuesday in their search for 23-year-old Jaryn Sanne, who is wanted on a felony warrant alleging forgery in Gage County. The officers say Lisa Sanne repeatedly told them her son was not at home, although he’d been living there off and on. She acknowledged that his vehicle was parked in the driveway.

The officers say they suspected she was lying, so they waited outside the property while a search warrant was obtained.

Once armed with the warrant, the officers entered home and found Jaryn Sanne in his bedroom.

Online court records don’t list the names of the Sannes’ attorneys.

(AP) — A 29-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to secretly recording images of women changing clothes in a Lincoln restaurant employee locker room.

On Wednesday Dustin Lindgren, of Milford, filed the pleas to three felony counts of unlawful intrusion.

Police say Lindgren was manager of the Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery in Lincoln. Police say he hid a cellphone in a pocket of his jacket, which he left hanging in the women’s dressing room between Jan. 1 and Feb. 10.

One of the women noticed the phone. She told police she saw images on the phone of hands putting the phone into the coat pocket and aiming it toward where women change clothes.

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Cali.–A rapper who worked with members of the group Wu-Tang Clan cut off his penis and jumped from a second floor balcony in an apparent suicide attempt, TMZ reports.

Andre Johnson was found on the sidewalk outside an apartment building in West Hollywood at 1:00 am on Wednesday morning and taken to Cedars-Sinai hospital in critical condition.

A spokesperson for the hospital said it does not comment on patients, but TMZ reports that attempts to reattach Johnson’s penis failed.

Johnson is also known by the stage name Christ Bearer, and is in the rap group Northstar. Wu-Tang Clan founding member RZA produced Northstar’s debut album.

Members of Northstar told TMZ they were there when Johnson, without warning, cut off his penis and leaped. They said by the time they got downstairs he was running around screaming.

They also said hard drugs were not involved, and believe Johnson must have mental problems.

Source: foxnews.com

(AP) — Gov. Dave Heineman has signed a bill designed to help Nebraska prepare for floods, water shortages and water quality problems.

The measure approved Wednesday will provide about $11 million annually to help pay for projects related to water management and quality, flood control, and compliance with interstate compacts. It will generate an estimated $32 million by mid-2015.

The bill by Sen. Tom Carlson of Holdrege would also expand the Natural Resources Commission, from 16 members to 27, to ensure that more major water users are represented. The new commission would include irrigators, cities, public power districts and wildlife conservation groups.

Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial says the law will help bring together surface and groundwater users, who are often at odds.

(AP) — A child welfare expert accused of exposing himself to teenage girls in Lincoln has been placed on sick leave from his job.

The University of Southern Maine said that 68-year-old Steven Preister is on sick leave from his associate director job at the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement, based in Portland, Maine. The school is responsible for hiring at the center.

Preister is charged with public nudity and disturbing the peace in connection to an incident April 7 at the Cornhusker Marriott in Lincoln. He is accused of yelling at four girls, following them to their room and trying to stop them from closing their door. The girls said Preister appeared intoxicated.

Preister has pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges.

(AP) — Authorities say a 21-year-old man has been arrested on a homicide charge stemming from a shooting at a park across a street from Omaha’s Benson High School.

The suspect was identified on Wednesday as Dennis Brewer Jr. Online court records don’t list the name of his attorney.

Officers were sent around 9:10 p.m. Monday to investigate shots at the Gallagher Park pool parking lot. They soon were advised that two people with gunshot wounds had arrived at Methodist Hospital.

One of the wounded men was pronounced dead a short time later. He was identified as Tielor (TYE’-lur) Williams, of Omaha. The other man was identified as 22-year-old Joshua Schmitt, also of Omaha.

(AP) — Homestead National Monument of America will conduct a prescribed burn on more than 60 acres of its restored tallgrass prairie in southeast Nebraska.

Officials say the burn will occur the first day in which favorable and safe conditions exist. Representatives from the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and local firefighters will aid in setting and controlling the flames.

Homestead Superintendent Mark Engler says fire is used to control woody plants, invasive species and reduce thatch. He says fire “is a natural occurrence that holds many benefits for the native prairie grasses.”

The monument’s 2.5 miles of trails will be closed during the burn.

Homestead National Monument of America sits four miles west of Beatrice, along Nebraska Highway 4.

(AP) — Authorities in Lincoln say a toddler was not hurt after getting stuck inside a claw crane machine at a bowling alley.

Lincoln police say a woman called Monday afternoon to report her 3-year-old son missing from her apartment.

Authorities later discovered the boy had ended up inside a claw crane machine at a bowling alley across the street. Patrons at the bowling alley spotted the boy playing with stuffed animals inside the machine.

The machine’s vendor was contacted to let the boy out. He was reunited with his mother a short time later.

Police say the mother was not cited because she immediately contacted police about the missing child.