LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Cattlemen will soon be moving into a new building on a Lincoln street that the group would like to be renamed.

The Lincoln City Council is expected to vote Monday on changing the name of two Lincoln streets in order to give the trade association a special address: 4611 Cattle Drive.

But city planning director David Cary told the Lincoln Journal Star that changing street names “doesn’t happen all that often, and actually we would like to keep it that way.”

As it stands, the building is being built on Discovery Drive, a short street in Nebraska Technology Park. There already is a Cattle Drive in the northeast of the city. Only four houses abut that street, and none has an address on Cattle Drive. Documents signed by the homeowners and presented to the City Council during a public hearing show none of the owners cares if the name is changed to Mustang Drive.

City planners are recommending that the council deny the changes, Cary said, because of the potential that it will encourage future more cumbersome and expensive requests.

But if the city were to allow name changes, this request would appear to have the right conditions, he said. It affects a small number of properties and the name is not a specific business name.

The group plans to move to the new building in late February. The new space provides double the room at its rented office about a 10-minute walk from the Capitol. The new building is about a 10-minute drive from there.

The North Platte Public Schools Foundation in conjunction with North Platte Public Schools is excited to announce that Bonnie Feeney was awarded the first staff member of the new year for the 2018-2019 school year.

Bonnie is a 6th-grade math teacher at Madison Middle School. She has worked for the North Platte Public School District since 1997.

She earned her Bachelors in Education from UNK with a double major in Elementary Education and Special Education (Mild/Moderate) She then earned her Masters in Curriculum and Instruction through Doane College. She has taught both Special Education and 6th grade Science, Math and Social Studies. Her favorite subjects in school were Science and Math and she says she is grateful to have had the opportunity to teach both of them at Madison.

Bonnie was nominated by her principal Danny McMurtry.

McMurtry stated that Bonnie is willing to go to bat for anyone who needs her.  “She accepts all challenges and is the first one to take charge when something needs to get done,” he said.

The North Platte Public Schools and North Platte Public Schools foundation developed the Staff recognition promotion to provide incentives for deserving teachers and support staff. The program is designed to recognize outstanding teachers and support staff for their contributions to NPPS. The nomination symbolizes the esteem and appreciation that everyone has for our school district employees.

Teachers are rewarded with a gift basket sponsored this month by Whitetail Screen Print, balloons and a gift card to the Bulldog store at NPHS from the Foundation and a bouquet of flowers donated by Prairie Friends and Flowers.

The North Platte Public Schools Foundation is facilitating the program and takes nominations from principals and administration. Staff members are awarded monthly throughout the school year and are recognized at the annual Education After Hours which will be held April 26th, 2019.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Aircraft from Nebraska’s Offutt Air Force Base will start flying out of Lincoln Airport by the end of the year so the base’s runway can be replaced.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that the Lincoln Airport Authority approved an initial agreement on Thursday that gives the Air Force access to its facilities.

The airport will need to make some adjustments in order to accommodate aircraft from Offutt, which is south of Omaha. Changes include updating a former maintenance hangar to house larger military aircraft and repairs to part of the tarmac.

Airport Executive Director David Haring says the Air Force would fund the improvements.

The runway replacement project is estimated cost as much as $100 million. Construction is expected to take about a year to complete.

GERING, Neb. (AP) — A grand jury has found no criminal wrongdoing by Scotts Bluff County authorities in the death of a jail inmate.

The jury released its decision Thursday in the case of 23-year-old Corey Green, who died Nov. 23 at Regional West Medical Center in Scottsbluff. He’d been arrested earlier in the day on a warrant and booked into jail. Authorities say Green later complained about a medical problem , so he was taken to the hospital, where he died.

Nebraska law requires that a grand jury examine the death of anyone in custody or while being apprehended.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit Friday filed by eight death-row inmates who argued that their sentences were invalidated by the Legislature’s repeal of capital punishment in 2015, before voters overturned the ban.

Justices denied the inmates’ request for a declaration that their sentences were no longer valid, upholding a decision issued by a district court judge. But the state’s highest court left open the possibility that the inmates could raise similar arguments when challenging their convictions individually.

“We conclude that the inmates have equally serviceable remedies and accordingly affirm the district court’s dismissal” of the case, Chief Justice Michael Heavican wrote in the opinion.

The inmates argued that the Legislature’s 2015 vote to override Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts’ veto and abolish the death penalty effectively reduced their sentences to life in prison. A petition drive led by death penalty supporters suspended the repeal law before it could go into effect and placed the issue before voters, who reinstated capital punishment in the 2016 general election .

The lawsuit also contended that the petition drive was invalid because Ricketts helped finance it, which the inmates said violated constitutional separation of powers. It further claimed that Ricketts should have been listed as an official sponsor of the petition because of his contributions and his close ties to activists who spearheaded the petition drive.

The court rejected those arguments.

In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska said the ruling doesn’t address its clients’ claims that they may no longer be executed.

“We look forward to resolution of these claims in the individual post-conviction proceedings the court has ruled that each prisoner must undertake,” said Danielle Conrad, the group’s executive director. “While we respect that Nebraskans of goodwill hold different viewpoints on the death penalty, these and other concerns about transparency, accountability and fairness will persist beyond this case.”

Nebraska carried out its first execution in more than two decades in August, using a never-before-tried combination of lethal injection drugs. Days before the execution, Nebraska corrections director Scott Frakes acknowledged in an affidavit that the state probably wouldn’t be able to obtain another batch of drugs in the future.

State officials refused to disclose their supplier, despite doing so in past cases, which prompted still-pending lawsuits from the ACLU of Nebraska and the state’s two largest newspapers. The Nebraska Supreme Court is expected to rule in those public-records lawsuits as well.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A bill to legalize medical marijuana in Nebraska is drawing passionate support from people who want the drug to treat chronic conditions, but opposition from top state officials, law enforcement and former Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne.

Both sides made their case Friday to lawmakers and the public.

The bill’s lead sponsor, Lincoln Sen. Anna Wishart, says the bill would help people who are suffering from debilitating seizures, nausea from cancer treatments and other chronic ailments.

Wishart has promised to launch a statewide ballot campaign if lawmakers don’t pass a legalization measure.

Gov. Pete Ricketts opposes the measure, arguing that legalization for medical purposes could open the door to recreational use. Osborne, a former Republican congressman, says he believes marijuana is addictive and dangerous.