(AP) — UPS will be hiring 55,000 U.S. seasonal workers to help with an increase in volume over the holiday season.

The world’s biggest package delivery company said Friday that it foresees peak season daily volume rising 8 percent this year.

Its peak day for holiday pickups will be Dec. 16, with anticipated pick-ups of more than 34 million packages around the world that day. A day later will be the peak delivery day, at more than 29 million packages.

United Parcel Service Inc. expects that Cyber Monday on Dec. 2 will see a 10 percent increase in pickup volume, surpassing 32 million packages.

The company said that there are 26 shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, six fewer than last year and the most compressed holiday shopping season since 2002.

(AP) — An autopsy report shows the 13-year-old boy who was killed by a Northern California sheriff’s deputy while holding a pellet gun was shot seven times.

The preliminary report from the Sonoma County coroner’s office says the two fatal wounds hit Andy Lopez in his right hip and the right side of his chest.

Investigators believe the deputies who encountered the boy Tuesday afternoon fired eight rounds. The timeline released by Santa Rosa police says those shots were fired within 10 seconds of the deputies’ first report of a suspicious person.

The deputies say the teen was carrying what looked like an assault rifle and had his back toward them at first. They ordered him to drop the weapon, but instead he turned toward them.

Only after the shooting did they realize that he was carrying a pellet gun that looked like an AK-47.

(AP) — Police say a Norfolk man accused of shoplifting tried to sell the stolen items online.

Norfolk police say 19-year-old Marcus J. Davis used social media to advertise two pairs of headphones. The post was a few days after an Aug. 27 theft at a local Target store that involved two pairs of headphones.

The cost of the headphones was valued at more than $530.

Police say Davis was identified as a suspect from store security cameras. Police then discovered the online post.

Davis was arrested Wednesday and he has been charged with felony shoplifting. He remains at the Madison County Jail.

Court records do not list an attorney.

(AP) — Authorities say the driver of a semitrailer entering Offutt Air Force Base was carrying more than 100 pounds of marijuana.

Michael Quinlan was arrested Wednesday after the semitrailer, which was delivering bottled water, went through a vehicle inspection that’s required to enter the base.

Suspicious packages were found during the inspection. A military dog was then brought in.

More than 115 vacuum-sealed packages of marijuana were confiscated, along with the truck.

The 46-year-old Quinlan is being held at Douglas County Corrections. He faces a charge of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. It’s unclear in court documents whether he has an attorney.

(AP) — Police say an Omaha man stabbed his on-again, off-again girlfriend more than 45 times before he tried to leave the state.

A Douglas County judge ruled Wednesday that there’s enough evidence to try 32-year-old Robert W. Grant on a charge of first-degree murder.

Grant is accused of killing 43-year-old Trudy McKee in September. The woman’s teenage daughter found her body in their apartment. A murder weapon has not been found.

Omaha police arrested Grant later in the day after he boarded a Chicago-bound bus. Omaha police detective Thomas Queen testified that blood found on Grant’s shoes tested positive for McKee’s DNA.

A message left for Grant’s attorney was not immediately returned.

(AP) — The Nebraska Court of Appeals has upheld the rape conviction of a 31-year-old Lincoln man who had sex with an unconscious woman.

Police say the 32-year-old woman woke up to find Matthew Gentry having sex with her after she had passed out at a friend’s house after a night of drinking in early 2012. Gentry was convicted months later of first-degree sexual assault and sentenced to 15 to 20 years in prison.

Gentry appealed, saying, among other things, that the trial court should not have allowed the testimony of another woman who said she, too, woke up to find Gentry trying to have sex with her in 2011. She did not report the incident to police.

On Tuesday, the Nebraska Court of Appeals rejected Gentry’s arguments.

(AP) — A Bellevue, Neb., man has been arrested and is being held in the Mills County Jail in Glenwood for alleged sex acts with two girls aged 7 and 8.

64-year-old John Robert Schondelmeyer is charged with second-degree sexual abuse and lascivious acts with a child.

If convicted on all counts he could face a maximum sentence of up to 70 years in prison.

Authorities say he was in the process of moving to North Carolina when he was taken into custody on Tuesday.

Schondelmeyer is being held on a $70,000 bond. A preliminary hearing in the case is set for Nov. 1.

 

(AP) — A 75-foot steel tree that weighs 6,000 pounds will be moved to its destination at American National Bank in Omaha on Friday.

The Salvation Army Tree of Lights will be assembled by 50 volunteers from the Ironworkers Local 21 union on Saturday.

The tree has 80,000 lights and 655 starbursts, all LED bulbs.

The Salvation Army says it’s the largest illuminated tree in Omaha and 80 percent more efficient than traditional lit trees of the past.

In honor of The Salvation Army’s 125th anniversary of continuous service in Omaha, a special light display is planned.

This year a new animated star will top the tree and 200 twinkling strobe lights will add extra sparkle.

The Tree of Lights Campaign begins Nov. 8 at the American National Bank.

(AP) — A woman convicted of scamming immigrants out of more than $11,000 says she’d be glad to serve her one-year jail sentence if prosecutors help her return from Brazil.

Gabriela Machado recently emailed the judge and said she was stuck in Brazil.

Machado says she went to Brazil to visit her mother in the hospital and get her affairs in order, but now her travel documents have expired and she’s having trouble getting new ones.

Lancaster County Attorney Joe Kelly says he can’t confirm that Machado is actually in Brazil, but his office will work to bring her back to Lincoln.

Machado was convicted of using her job at a legal aid organization to steal by telling immigrants they had to pay bogus fees.

(AP) — A central Indiana woman who promised to donate one of her kidneys to a man she barely knew has married him three years after his successful transplant surgery.

Chelsea Clair and Kyle Froelich met at a 2009 car show when he was 19 and she was 22. Clair learned that day that Froelich had a serious kidney disease — and she told him then and there she would give him one of hers.

She underwent the necessary tests and ended up being a near perfect match. Three years ago, she donated one of her kidneys to Froelich.

The couple was married Oct. 12 at the Danville Conservation Club, the venue that hosted the car show where they met.