COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska utilities are reminding farmers to watch out for power lines when they are planting crops or doing other field work.

The Nebraska Public Power District says a farmer using a boom sprayer knocked out power to several hundred utility customers this spring because he made contact with a transmission line.

NPPD’s Joel Dagerman says the farmer didn’t realize how tall the boom sprayer was. Fortunately the farmer was unhurt, but the sprayer was damaged.

The utility says farmers should make sure to keep their equipment at least 20 feet away from power lines.

If a power line is hit, the utility says farmers should contact their local public power provider.

NEW YORK (AP) — “The Fate of the Furious” throttled past $1 billion globally and took No. 1 at the box office for the third straight week on a weekend where multicultural offerings dominated North American theaters

As expected, the eighth “Fast and the Furious” installment stayed atop the domestic box office with an estimated $19.4 million.

The film also passed its predecessor, “Furious 7,” to become the highest-grossing imported film in China, where the Universal release has grossed $361 million.

In second domestically with $12 million and drawing a large Hispanic audience was Eugenio Derbez’s comedy “How to Be a Latin Lover.”

The Bollywood sequel “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion” also surprised with $10.1 million, a total that bested Hollywood stars Emma Watson and Tom Hanks. Their terribly reviewed “The Circle” opened with $9.3 million.

YORK, Neb. (AP) — A large crowd is likely at this week’s hearing on the Nebraska route for the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline.

The Nebraska Public Service Commission is planning a daylong hearing on Wednesday in York to accept comments on the $8 billion project. The pipeline is designed to carry oil from Alberta, Canada, across Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska.

The project faces opposition from environmentalists as well as some landowners and Native American tribes. Nebraska is the only place where the route TransCanada proposed has not been approved.

Groups that oppose the pipeline plan to bus people from Lincoln and Omaha to York for the hearing.

Supporters of the project, which include labor unions and business groups, are also expected to bring large numbers.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska prison officials have allowed 73 inmates to avoid submitting samples of their DNA for more than two decades just because the inmates refused.

Prison officials have done little to force inmates to provide DNA that might link them to other crimes except write them up for rules violations.

State law requires all felons to submit a sample of their DNA.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine says he believes the law and subsequent court orders are clear that felons should provide DNA.

Corrections officials seem to be relying on a 1997 opinion from Nebraska’s Attorney General that suggested the law didn’t allow for forced DNA collection.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An attempt to slash funding for abortion providers could force health centers throughout Nebraska to cut services or close.

Language in the state’s budget would allow officials to prioritize certain health care providers over others when awarding federal Title X family planning money. Critics say it could strip funding from Planned Parenthood and from health centers that specialize in reproductive health but don’t provide abortions.

Providers say the change would result in higher rates of unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and cervical cancer because the low-income women they serve would no longer have access to reproductive health care.

Supporters of the proposal say any facilities can apply for funding but money should go first to health care facilities that offer a wider range of services.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Officials with Creighton University say they are investigating to try to learn who taped a profane, threatening letter targeting gays on a student’s dorm room door.

The hand-scrawled note found Tuesday opens with an expletive and a gay slur, then urges the targeted student to kill himself.

It goes on to say “gays are not welcome in Nebraska or Creighton!”

Creighton University’s president, the Rev. Daniel Hendrickson, said in a statement that the note violated Creighton’s policy on student, staff and faculty conduct and, “more crucially, is not at all representative of the environment we desire as a university.”

Creighton’s Office of Equity and Inclusion is investigating.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The state of Nebraska has made a goal to keep monarch butterflies and other pollinators off the federal endangered species list by planting 125 million milkweed plants by 2020 and providing incentives for farmers to incorporate pollinator habitat into their land.

The plan was created by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, with input from dozens of organizations and business, some which attended a summit on monarch butterflies in Lincoln last year.

World Wildlife Fund data says that the eastern monarch population has dropped an estimated 90 percent in the past 20 years, mostly because of habitat loss.

Commission biologist Melissa Panella says the federal government will wait until at least 2019 to decide whether to list monarchs as threatened or endangered.