Associated Press

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An eastern Nebraska man has claimed his $1 million Powerball prize.

The Nebraska Lottery says Daniel Moore, of Bellwood, bought the ticket at the Parkview One Stop on Colfax Street in Schuyler. It matched the first five numbers drawn Saturday night: 18, 21, 24, 30 and 60. But it didn't match the Powerball number: 20.

BLAIR, Neb. (AP) — A banker who leads a nonprofit wants to transform an old college campus in eastern Nebraska into a place where former foster care youths would live and learn various trades.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that Ed Shada came up with the idea while working on an annual event devoted to getting homeless people connected to the services they need. He's working with the man who owns the former Dana College campus in Blair, which would be the site for the $20 million project.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Some western Iowa fields are getting sprayed to get rid of painted lady butterflies that have proven problematic for soybean crops.

Iowa State University Extension field agronomist Joel DeJong says the agricultural community believes this year's influx of the painted lady butterfly, or thistle caterpillar, is the largest ever in Siouxland.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa State Fair set a new attendance record, as pleasant weather gave a boost to the usual attractions of food, animals, carnival rides and performances.

Fair officials say Monday that an unofficial 1,170,375 people visited the fair during its 11-day run on the eastside of Des Moines. That topped the previous record, set last year, by about 40,000 people.

The busiest day was Saturday, Aug. 10, when 122,111 visited the fair.

Attendance exceeded 100,000 on nine of the fair's 11 days.

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said Tuesday that anti-immigrant sentiment in rural America declines when residents know and appreciate the role of those moving into their communities.

A private university in Nebraska plans to offer an online program this fall that will cover the science, cultivation, processing and regulation of marijuana and hemp.

Doane University in Crete will offer the three-course program. Chemistry professor Andrea Holmes will help teach the certificate program, and she told the Omaha World-Herald that the industry is growing rapidly. She cited jobs across the country for cultivators, technicians, scientists, geneticists, administrators, salespeople, marketers and advertisers.

FAIRBURY, Neb. (AP) — A living history event scheduled at Rock Creek Station State Historical Park will show what everyday life was like in the Nebraska Territory in 1864.

On Aug. 17 historians will inhabit the park's reconstructed road ranch, demonstrating haying, carpentry, blacksmithing and stock tending.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Sarpy County Sheriff's Office is giving people the opportunity to get rid of unwanted or unsafe guns, ammunition and leftover fireworks.

People can turn in those items from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. Aug. 17 at a drop-off location at the Sarpy County Sheriff's Office south parking lot garage in Papillion.

The amnesty day event allows the items to be dropped off with no questions asked, but police will document all firearms. If a gun is linked to a crime or reported stolen, police will investigate.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a group of tanning salon owners, who had claimed the Nebraska Cancer Coalition had defamed them and hurt their businesses with an anti-indoor tanning message.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Representatives of a small aviation museum in southwestern Iowa hoped they had stumbled upon a rare postage stamp potentially worth a fortune. But experts at a national stamp convention in Omaha have delivered the sad truth: it isn't the real thing, after all.

The Iowa Aviation Museum in Greenfield, Iowa, has had what it thought was an "Inverted Jenny" stamp on display for some 20 years and brought it to the Omaha gathering.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska has kicked off his re-election campaign surrounded by top Republicans who vouched for the first-term lawmaker as best candidate in the deeply conservative state.

Sasse announced his 2020 campaign bid Monday, saying he'll work to minimize the role of Washington in Nebraska residents' lives and support President Donald Trump's "really great judicial nominees."

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a pilot who was injured in the crash of an ultralight plane east of Lincoln told rescuers flying had been on his "bucket list."

The crash occurred just before 11:30 a.m. Sunday north of Pester Airport. The crumpled wreckage ended up nose-down in a mowed field within a few yards of a field of corn.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports the 65-year-old pilot, Douglas Bornemeier, told Lincoln fire department rescuers he descended too steeply when trying to land. He added that the flight was an attempt at "checking flying off his bucket list."

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts is defending the Republican Party from criticism by a state senator that the GOP is "enabling white supremacy" through its support of President Donald Trump.

Ricketts, a Republican Trump supporter, called the critique by state Sen. John McCollister "baseless" in a Twitter posting Monday afternoon.

Ricketts doesn't mention McCollister by name in his posting, but says the GOP doesn't tolerate hateful views. He says white supremacy and racism have no place in the country and must be driven out.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska state trooper has cited a driver after pulling over a vehicle that had registration stickers painted onto its license plates.

Nebraska State Patrol spokesman Cody Thomas says the vehicle was stopped Monday morning at an Interstate 80 exit in north Lincoln. Trooper Adam Strode spotted the problem, and he ticketed the driver for having fictitious plates and not having valid registration.

Insurance and finance company Ameritas has notified customers that their personal information may have been exposed in a data breach.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that the Lincoln-based company said in a letter dated July 23 that several of its employees fell victim to phishing scams in May and early June that tricked them into providing their email credentials. The company says it has taken action to address the exposure, including disabling the unauthorized access and deploying a mandatory company-wide password reset.

Nebraska business and education leaders have unveiled a new plan designed to create 25,000 jobs while adding $15,000 to the annual income of every resident by 2030.

The plan unveiled Tuesday by the group Blueprint Nebraska also seeks to bring 43,000 new young adults into the state and attract $200 million in annual research and development initiatives. The group also hopes to make Nebraska a top-ranked state for its quality of life.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Some Omaha community college students are putting their sheet metal lessons to work building an airplane.

The Metropolitan Community College students, two or more at a time, work on the plane four hours a day, five days a week for five weeks. Then another set of students takes over.

The workforce training manager for the college, Sam Dickson, says the students get 100 hours of training in basic skills.

HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Omaha, Nebraska, says repair work on a levee breach near Hamburg, Iowa, has been completed.

The agency said in a news release Friday that the breach was one of four priority breaches to be closed in the wake of historic flooding along the Missouri River in March. The Corps says the work, which began in early May, was completed Thursday.

Newt Marine Service of Dubuque, Iowa, was awarded the $12 million contract for the repair work.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska state officials who want to profit off their government experience and connections after leaving office face virtually no obstacles to becoming lobbyists, unlike most other states that bar them from immediately switching roles.

A new report by the consumer-rights group Public Citizen says Nebraska is among seven states with no restrictions on former lawmakers, governors or other elected officials becoming lobbyists.  The other states without restrictions are Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Wyoming.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A New York company wants to build a 230-megawatt solar power farm east of Nebraska's capital city of Lincoln.

Ranger Power says it has arranged leases with the owners of more than 1,000 acres near a Lincoln Electric System substation. The project development manager, Colin Snow, says Ranger has talked to Lincoln Electric, Omaha Public Power District and Nebraska Public Power District about buying the power but has not sealed any deals.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Former Iowa Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven says he was unexpectedly asked to resign by the governor last month after he objected to the governor's request that he continue paying the salary of a woman moving from his department to the governor's office.

Foxhoven, who gained national attention last week after The Associated Press reported on his admiration for the late rapper Tupac Shakur, says he declined to approve paying the salary of Elizabeth Matney. She left DHS on May 17 to accept a job as Reynolds' adviser on health policy.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska's attorney general is suing the Hilton hotel company, alleging the chain hid the true price of rooms from consumers and charged hidden fees.

The lawsuit announced Tuesday accuses Hilton of violating Nebraska's consumer protection laws. Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson says the company failed to heed warnings from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and customer complaints.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A poultry farm that could house up to 380,000 chickens has been proposed for Lancaster County as the county considers new regulations for large livestock operations.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that Sunset Poultry LLC applied earlier this month for a special permit for eight barns housing up to 47,500 chickens each on 80 acres (32.4 hectares) just south of the Saunders County line.

The birds would go to the Lincoln Premium Poultry plant in Fremont that's processing chickens for Costco.

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — The Gage County Sheriff's Office may resurrect its K-9 program and put its drug dog back to work.

The officer who'd handled the 4-year-old Belgian Malinois, Buster, announced last month that he was leaving the department. The county Board of Supervisors voted to let Buster's handler, Coltin Bebensee, buy the dog for $250. The value was based largely on predictions that Buster wouldn't be able to perform adequately under a different handler.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Thousands of lottery players who bought tickets for drawings that were rigged by an insider could be eligible for refunds under a tentative $4.3 million legal settlement.

A judge still must approve the deal from lawyers for plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit and the Multi-State Lottery Association.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Millard Public Schools District in Omaha intends to offer new programs this coming school year to improve the social skills of students with autism and other intellectual or developmental disabilities.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that the programs will use recreation specialists and volunteer peers to teach basic skills, such as starting a conversation or how to order an Uber.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Health officials are warning those in eastern Nebraska's Douglas County to take precautions after West Nile virus is found in mosquitoes in the county.

The Douglas County Health Department says in a news release that four local mosquito pools at two locations have tested positive for the mosquito-borne illness.  The pools are located at Seymour L. Smith Park in Ralston and Zorinsky Lake Park in western Omaha.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska's secretary of state has won a national award for its efforts to keep election secure.

Nebraska Secretary of State Robert Evnen's office received the Innovators Award earlier this week from the National Association of State Election Directors.

Evnen's office collaborated with Nebraska's registration database vendor and a federal cybersecurity contractor on the project.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Officials say Nebraska's unemployment rate remained unchanged in June at 3%.

The Nebraska Labor Department said in a news release Friday that the preliminary June rate matched the May rate and was two-tenths of a point higher than the June 2018 rate of 2.8%.

The new Nebraska rate is well below June's national preliminary rate of 3.7% — up a tenth of a point from 3.6% in May.

State Labor Commissioner John Albin says several industries, including mining and construction and financial activities, reached record high employment levels last month.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The lower Missouri River is likely to remain high throughout the summer because of the large amount of water being released from dams upstream.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it needs to keep the releases high to clear out space in all the dams along the river. So it will continue releasing more than double the average amount of water from Gavins Point Dam on the Nebraska-South Dakota border at least into August.