LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska drivers will have at least two new specialty license plate designs to choose from next year.

“Choose Life” and Native American Cultural Awareness and History plates approved by the Legislature this year join several other plates created in recent years. Planned Parenthood is also about two-thirds of the way to the 250 prepaid applications it needs to create a plate with the slogan “My Body, My Choice.”

The new plates will be available in January. Each will cost $5 more than a standard plate.

Proceeds from the Native American plate will fund college scholarships and youth leadership camps through the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs. Additional revenue from the “Choose Life” plate will supplement federal funds for the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Department of Labor has won two national awards for its reemployment program and the system it uses for unemployment insurance.

The American Institute for Full Employment has given the state its 2016 Full Employment Best Practices Award. The award recognizes Nebraska for frequent interaction with the unemployed and using new technological tools to help people find jobs.

Gov. Pete Ricketts says the reemployment program is helping employers expand opportunities for residents. The state’s most recent unemployment rate was 3 percent, lower than the national average of 4.4 percent.

The National Association of State Workforce Agencies has recognized Nebraska and four other states for efficiently communicating with employers to process unemployment insurance benefit claims.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services is looking to help residents beat the heat this summer.

The department offers two programs: One that provides electric fans through local organizations and another that helps in paying summer cooling bills.

Thirty-two organizations in 24 Nebraska counties work with the agency to distribute fans to needy citizens and distributed more than 5,600 fans statewide last year.

The cooling bill payment program uses federal money left over from the winter heating program. To qualify, a person in the household must be 70 or older, be receiving Aid to Dependent Children with a child 5 or younger, or be more susceptible to heat because of a medical condition. Income limits apply.

More information on the programs can be found at https://dhhs.ne.gov/EnergyAssistance.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Bee hives at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are destined for research that could help Nebraska’s beekeepers better understand bees, their benefits and how to tailor habitat to protect them.

Honeybee populations have been hard hit in the North American wild, leaving cultivated bees and less-populous wild critters like butterflies and bumblebees to spread pollen.

A recent survey by the Center for Biological Diversity found that 40 percent of the continent’s native insect pollinators are at risk of extinction, even though 90 percent of wild plants rely on insects for pollination.

All but about a dozen of the white boxes at the university’s East Campus pollinator garden will eventually be moved throughout the county to urban and rural locations for research.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska attorney general’s office has hired a staffer to coordinate a new state program designed to help sexual assault victims.

Anne Boatright will serve as the state’s forensic nursing coordinator. Attorney General Doug Peterson announced the new position Friday.

Boatright, a nurse, will manage a program created by lawmakers last year to improve sexual assault examinations and help pay for them. The program was designed to ensure that sex assault victims and law enforcement won’t have to pay the cost of an exam.

State officials have said the previous system prompted questions about who pays for the exams and when. The law shifts the onus off of law enforcement. The cost would instead be covered with private, state and federal money.