(AP) — Phoenix police say a 6-year-old girl has died after she and her 8-year-old brother went for a joyride in their mother’s car and crashed into a pole.

Sgt. Steve Martos says the girl’s brother was behind the wheel when the accident occurred Wednesday evening. He suffered minor injuries.

According to Martos, the children’s mother had put them to bed and then couldn’t find them in their home a half-hour later.

Martos says the frantic mother went door-to-door in the neighborhood. Meanwhile, the accident had occurred a short distance away.

Martos says both children were still in their pajamas.

(AP) — Authorities say a man suspected of shoplifting in Hastings left an infant in a field as he fled a store employee.

The man being sought, 27-year-old Jaime Loya-Marquez, and 25-year-old Alyssa Kerr were baby-sitting the child for another Hastings woman.

Police say the Loya-Marquez and Kerr were seen taking items without paying from Allen’s Shopping Center on Monday. The two fled on foot when they were confronted by store employees.

Police say Loya-Marquez ran south, crossed a railroad track and then put down the infant in a field. A store employee stopped the chase to retrieve the baby. Officers soon captured Kerr, who’d fled north.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Loya-Marquez. Online court records don’t list the names of their attorneys.

An accident near the Wood River exit on Interstate 80 yesterday took burnt food to a whole new level.

A truck carrying 40-thousand pounds of food burst into flames following a blown tire.

The Nebraska State Patrol said the truck was eastbound when it apparently blew a tire.  The driver, unaware the tire had blown, continued to drive about 15 miles before a Trooper was able to track him down at the Wood River Exit.

The driver was able to get out of the truck uninjured, but attempts to put out the flames with a fire extinguisher failed.

(AP) — The judge in the Colorado theater shootings case says victims can attend the trial, even if they’ll be called to testify as prosecution witnesses.

The ruling Wednesday says all other prosecution witnesses will be barred from observing the trial.

Attorneys for defendant James Holmes had asked the judge to bar all prosecution witnesses from court proceedings so they couldn’t listen to other witnesses.

State court rules allow such exclusions to keep witnesses from influencing each other’s testimony.

But the judge says the court rules are trumped by the victims’ rights section of the state constitution, which allows crime victims to be present at critical stages of a case.

Holmes is charged with killing 12 people and injuring 70 in July 2012. He pleaded insanity.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

(AP) — This is fur real. Colonel Meow has 9-inch hair.

That’s good enough to put the Himalayan-Persian mix into the 2014 edition of the Guinness World Records book, due out Sept. 12.

Owners Anne Marie Avey and Eric Rosario, of Los Angeles, say the 2-year-old cat got its name because of his epic frown and fur. It takes both of them to brush the cat’s fur three times a week.

Three independent veterinarians verified the length of the colonel’s hair and submitted their findings to Guinness before he won the title.

Avey says the 10-pound cat has his own website, Facebook page and YouTube channel with more than 2 million views.

Avey says there’s one other thing Colonel Meow does quite well too: He sheds up a storm.

(AP) — Fast-food customers in search of burgers and fries on might run into striking workers instead.

Organizers say thousands of workers are set to stage walkouts in dozens of cities Thursday to push McDonald’s and other chains to pay higher wages.

It’s expected be the largest nationwide strike by fast-food workers, according to organizers. The biggest effort so far: About 2,200 of the nation’s millions of fast-food workers this summer staged a one-day strike in seven cities.

This follows a series of strikes that began last November in New York City, then spread to other cities. Workers say they want $15 an hour, which would be about $31,000 a year for full-time employees. That’s more than double the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, or $15,000 a year.

(AP) — Police have arrested three teenagers and are looking for fourth suspected of robbing nearly a dozen people in Omaha.

The robbery reports started flowing in to police about 7:40 p.m. Tuesday and continued until around 1 a.m. Wednesday.

The victims reported being accosted while walking or running by two or more robbers. Guns were brandished in many of the robberies.

The robbers took wallets, cellphone and other personal items. Some minor assaults were reported as well.

Officers have recovered some of the loot.

(AP) — The Denver Zoo has indefinitely suspended a program that let visitors pay to touch and feed a rhino after a black rhinoceros bit a woman’s finger.

The zoo says the woman was taken to a hospital Wednesday after Mshindi the rhino bit her finger while she was feeding it. The woman’s condition wasn’t disclosed.

Zoo officials called the incident a “terrible accident” and said they don’t think the rhino was trying to harm her.

The zoo this year started offering a rhino “meet and greet” in which visitors who paid an extra $60 were offered a chance to touch and feed a rhino. Other zoos have had similar programs.

The Denver Zoo says it will report the accident to its accrediting agency, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

(AP) — The Nebraska State Colleges’ board of trustees is asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the mother of a Peru State College student who disappeared nearly three years ago.

Attorneys filed the motion earlier this month in the lawsuit filed by LaTanya Thomas.

Thomas alleges that the college and other officials failed to protect her daughter, Tyler “Ty” Thomas, from fellow student Joshua Keadle. Keadle is in prison for sexual assault in a separate case.

LaTanya Thomas alleges that Keadle murdered her daughter in December 2010. Her body has never been found. Authorities say they believe Keadle was the last person to see Ty Thomas alive.

A judge previously signed an order dismissing Peru State College, the state of Nebraska, and local officials as defendants in the lawsuit.

(AP) — An Omaha woman has been given five years of probation and an order to pay restitution on forged payroll checks.

Federal prosecutors say 39-year-old Tara Heitkamp was sentenced on Monday for making and possessing a forged security.

Prosecutors say Heitkamp was a bookkeeper at a real estate management company when she embezzled nearly $28,600. Prosecutors say she used a signature stamp to sign extra, unauthorized payroll checks to herself from 2007 through 2010.