LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts says he still plans to advocate for tax reforms in next year’s session despite a nearly $1 billion projected budget shortfall.

The governor said Tuesday that any changes will have to fit within the state budget, which he and lawmakers are required to balance. Ricketts says his focus will remain at least partially on property taxes, a major complaint of farm and ranch landowners.

The Legislative Fiscal Office says Nebraska faces a projected shortfall of $911 million in the upcoming two-year budget. Lawmakers and Ricketts have said they’re likely to draw some of the money needed from the state’s emergency cash-reserve fund.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A federal program that helps the public with Medicare-related questions has saved Nebraska residents more than $15 million over the last year.

Gov. Pete Ricketts announced the number Tuesday to spread awareness about the program to the 280,000 residents who are eligible but have not yet participated.

The Senior Health Insurance Information Program offers one-on-one Medicare counseling, a free telephone hotline, website and public presentations. The program’s 370 volunteer counselors assisted nearly 32,000 Nebraska residents between October 2015 and September 2016.

Program Director Alicia Jones says many of the savings were realized when residents learned about less expensive alternatives for their prescription drug plans. The program also helps residents whose Medicare claims were denied.

Nebraska Insurance Director Bruce Ramge says drug coverage changes every year.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Meteorologists say warmer weather has brought unusual November weather to Iowa and Nebraska: tornadoes.

The National Weather Service says as many as four tornadoes were reported Monday afternoon in central and northeast Iowa, while three were spotted Sunday in south-central Nebraska. The storms caused light damage and no injuries in both states.

Rich Thompson with the Storm Prediction Center said Tuesday that it’s rare for tornadoes to form so far north and west in late fall. He says warmer weather allowed the typical storm track to move north.

National Weather Service statistics show that only seven tornadoes have hit Nebraska in November since 1950. In Iowa, 41 tornadoes were reported in November between 1980 and 2015.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts is defending a proposal that would allow the state to obtain lethal injection drugs without disclosing its supplier.

Ricketts said Tuesday that the new protocol would allow greater flexibility for the Department of Correctional Services, which hasn’t executed an inmate since 1997 and has never done so using the current three-drug protocol.

The administrative proposal announced Monday would allow the state corrections director to choose which drugs are used in an execution and withhold the name of the supplier.

Ricketts argues that the changes are already allowed under a 2009 state law which changed the protocol from electrocution to lethal injection. That law allows the identities of “all members of the execution team” to remain confidential.

Death penalty opponents say they plan to fight the proposal.

SARGENT, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a passenger has died after the car she was in swerved to avoid a deer on Thanksgiving Day.

The accident occurred a little after 4 p.m. Thursday on U.S. Highway 183, about three miles south of Sargent.

The Nebraska State Patrol says that after driver Virgil Ramsdell swerved, the car ran into a ditch and rolled.

The patrol says Ramsdell and his passenger, 56-year-old Becky Millard, of Sargent, were taken to a Broken Bow hospital. She was declared dead there.