The top 10 Nebraska stories of 2015, as voted by Associated Press newspaper and broadcast members:

1. DEATH PENALTY: Nebraska lawmakers abolish the state’s death penalty in a landmark vote with support from conservatives who came to oppose the punishment for religious, practical or financial reasons. The vote galvanizes death penalty supporters who launch a successful ballot drive to place the issue on next year’s general election ballot.

2. KEYSTONE XL: President Barack Obama rejects a presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, a project that would have cut through Nebraska on its way to Texas Gulf Coast refineries.

3. GAY MARRIAGE-NEBRASKA: A federal judge strikes down Nebraska’s ban on gay marriage and civil unions as unconstitutional in March, prompting the state to appeal. But the ban — one of the most restrictive in the nation — is ultimately overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court’s finding in June that same-sex couples have a right to marry anywhere in the United States.

4. PRISON RIOT: A riot at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution leaves two inmates dead and four others injured and causes widespread damage.

5. OMAHA OFFICER KILLED: Omaha police officer Kerrie Orozco was one day away from going on maternity leave to care for the daughter she had delivered prematurely three months earlier when she is shot and killed in May.

6. HUSKER FOOTBALL: Nebraska goes 5-7 in Mike Riley’s first regular season as head football coach, the Cornhuskers’ first losing season since Bill Callahan’s 2007 team had the same record.

7. CONAGRA CHANGES: ConAgra Foods announces plans to move its headquarters to Chicago from Omaha, eliminate 1,500 office jobs and unload roughly two-thirds of the company by selling a division that makes store-brand food and spinning off its frozen potatoes business.

8. FRACKING WATER DISPOSAL: State regulators approve a disposal well that will let a Colorado energy company discard oil and natural gas wastewater underground in northwest Nebraska. The decision prompts state lawmakers to re-examine the state’s oil and natural gas regulations, which critics say are too lax.

9. FUEL TAX: Nebraska motorists will pay higher taxes at the gas pump to cover road and bridge repairs under a law passed over Gov. Pete Ricketts’ objections.

10. BIRD FLU: The bird flu sweeps through farms in the Midwest in the spring, and roughly 48 million birds either die from the virus or are euthanized to prevent its spread. Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska lose the most birds.