VALHALLA, N.Y. (AP) — Police departments nationwide are being asked to issue more tickets for violations at railroad crossings because of recent crashes in New York, California and North Carolina.

After a fiery train-car collision killed six people in New York in February, Metropolitan Transportation Authority police are issuing summonses at six times last year’s rate.

A second fatal crash in California prompted the Federal Railroad Administration to announce a nationwide safety campaign, encouraging local police departments to bump up their patrols at crossings and issue more citations.

The Railroad Administration says there have been more than 10,000 crashes at railroad crossings in the last five years, causing more than 1,200 deaths and almost 4,700 injuries.

On Saturday, a light rail train hit a car in front of the University of Southern California, seriously injuring the driver and the train’s operator. Nineteen other train passengers were hurt.

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — Repairs will begin soon on the hard-to-move gates at the Harlan County Dam in south-central Nebraska.

The initial $12.3 million project will deal with corrosion on six of the dam’s gates, and the rest of the gates will be repaired over the following two years.

Ken Stark, the project manager and an engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Kansas City, told the Kearney Hub (https://bit.ly/1FVOISO) the whole project is expected to cost $25.7 million.

The corrosion built up over more than 50 years of use. And the dam’s gates are also hard to move because of friction problems with the bearings, so the repairs are a high priority.

Stark says the repair crew is getting set up now and assessing the gates.

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — Colorado’s attorney general says the Nebraska and Oklahoma lawsuit that asks the U.S. Supreme court to curtail Colorado’s new recreational marijuana law could have dire consequences for all three states.

Attorney General Cynthia Coffman says if the U.S. Supreme Court sides with the two states that border Colorado, the decision would take away the regulatory system that Colorado has built, while leaving the vote to legalize marijuana intact.

Colorado argued in a response to the lawsuit that Nebraska and Oklahoma filed the case in an attempt to reach across their borders and selectively invalidate state laws with which they disagree.

Coffman said bordering states have to deal with people leaving Colorado with marijuana that is illegal within their borders.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — With the session more than half finished, Nebraska lawmakers are still sorting through ways to lower property taxes while balancing the state budget.

Bills slated for debate include personal property tax legislation to benefit businesses and a $45 million annual increase for the state property tax credit fund, which reduces what property owners must pay.

Sen. Mike Gloor of Grand Island, chairman of the Revenue Committee, says a slowdown in state revenue will make it harder to pass “home run” tax cuts, but he says lawmakers will make progress this year.

Lawmakers have about $41 million for legislative items that aren’t already part of the two-year budget. Gloor says major spending cuts are unlikely because of the need to fund Medicaid programs and K-12 education.