(AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of a 23-year-old man given life in prison for his role in the 2011 slaying of an Omaha drug dealer.

Nicholas Ely was one of three people convicted of first-degree murder last year and sentenced to life for the July 2011 death of Kris Winters.

Ely argued in his appeal that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him and that the trial judge gave a faulty jury instruction.

The court rejected Ely’s arguments in its ruling issued Friday. But the court said 531 days for time served wrongly had been applied to Ely’s life sentence for murder. The court ordered that the credit be applied to the sentence of five to 15 years Ely was given for use of a deadly weapon.

(AP) — A U.S. district judge in Lincoln who once wrote that it was “time to tell Congress to go to hell” has decided to end his blog.

Judge Richard Kopf says his “Hercules and the umpire” blog has exceeded his wildest expectations, so “it is time to kill it.”

Kopf says he’s written all that he wants to write in the 416 posts since the blog began in February.

In October he wrote during the partial government shutdown that he was fed up and that it was “time to tell Congress to go to hell.”

But he said in his farewell post Wednesday that no one gave him “the slightest trouble” about expressing himself on the blog and said he was “quitting voluntarily and without a nudge from anyone.”

(AP) — A 23-year-old man has been given 20 to 60 months in prison for trying to get the victim of his assault to change her story.

The office of Saunders County Attorney Scott Tingelhoff says Steven Bahm, of Memphis, was sentenced last month for witness tampering. Bahm also was given a consecutive term of a year for misdemeanor domestic assault.

Prosecutors say Bahm was arrested after a sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to check an altercation between a man and woman on Aug. 8. Prosecutors say that while Bahm was in custody, he contacted the woman and tried to talk her into changing what she told the deputy and told her what she needed to say to prosecutors and in court so his charges would be dismissed.

PLATTSMOUTH, Neb. (AP) — Seven departments have been called in to help battle a fire inside an old building in downtown Plattsmouth.

The fire was reported around 11 p.m. Thursday at the Quart House Pub inside the structure. Four businesses in the building and an apartment have been affected. No injuries have been reported.

Firefighters have been hampered by the frigid weather. The National Weather Service says Plattsmouth temperatures hovered around zero or barely above, with wind chills reaching minus 14

The fire cause hasn’t been determined.

Plattsmouth is a city of about 6,500 residents that sits on the west bank of the Missouri River, 17 miles south of Omaha.

(AP) — Heather Robbins and John Hermann were hoping their baby would arrive before the end of 2013 so they could claim him on their income tax forms.

No luck there, but his birth at 1:21 a.m. Wednesday at Methodist Women’s Hospital still filled the Omaha couple with joy. He weighed 7 pounds and 3 ounces.

In Lincoln, 2014’s first birth didn’t occur until 3:03 a.m. at St. Elizabeth Regional Medical Center. Adilyn Jean Galusha weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces and was expected to soon go home with her parents, Frank Galusha and Skyler Novotny.

Hastings’ first child arrived at 5:58 a.m. Wednesday at Mary Lanning Hospital.

(AP) — A fire has displaced a west Omaha family, but no injuries have been reported.

The fire began around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, while a woman and her two children were home.

Omaha Fire Battalion Chief Kathy Bossman says the flames damaged only a bedroom, but there was smoke damage in other parts of the house.

The fire cause is being investigated.

The American Red Cross is helping the family.

(AP) — A 12-year-old Salina, Kansas girl who was shocked in May while dancing in the rain in downtown Salina has died in a Nebraska hospital.

Jayden Hicks was 11 on May 29th when she was playing with friends during a thunderstorm in Campbell Plaza. She was shocked when she came into contact with the metal covers of in-ground electrical junction boxes in front of the plaza. She died Tuesday morning in Lincoln of respiratory failure.

Her father, Jaymie Hicks, posted a Facebook message saying Jayden died at 3:56 a.m. Her aunt, Kim Queen of Inman, told KWCH-TV Jayden’s death was heartbreaking, but that she wasn’t suffering anymore.

In September old wiring was removed from the city-owned electrical system in the area where Jayden was shocked.

(AP) — A woman has been given probation for stealing items from a casino hotel in northeast Nebraska.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas D. Thalken sentenced 48-year-old Terrie Whitman, of Norfolk, to two years of probation for a theft conviction in connection with stolen items from Ohiya Casino and Resort on the Santee Sioux Indian Reservation. She must pay restitution.

Whitman and three other people stayed at the casino hotel last March. They’re accused of taking numerous items, including curtains, pillows, sheets and mattress pads. Surveillance cameras also caught the group taking towels, a clock radio and an iron.

Resort management says the items taken were valued at $884, the amount Whitman has been ordered to pay back.

The three other people have pleaded guilty in the case. They still await sentencing.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A child found crying inside a frigid car in a northeast Omaha parking lot has been taken into protective custody and her parents have been cited for neglect.

The Omaha Police Department says officers were sent to the lot around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The department says the officers found an intoxicated woman on the ground and, in a nearby lot, a parked car with its lights on, its engine off and a wailing 2-year-old inside.

Officers say an intoxicated man soon approached and said he and the woman were trying to return merchandise at the nearby Wal-Mart store. But the store is still under construction and was closed.

Fifty-six-year-old Patrick Deleau and 41-year-old Kimberly Deleau were cited for child neglect. Online court records don’t list their attorneys’ names.