Eagle Radio will again be providing coverage of the Nebraska State Wrestling Championships.

Join Sports Director Kyle LaBoria with State Wrestling Championship Coverage on FM98.1 and 1410AM. Updates Thursday and Friday, twice every hour with interviews from Coaches and Wrestlers. For all the results, interviews and more go to North Platte Post.com and click on State Wrestling at the top of the page.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google plans to invest more than $13 billion this year on new and expanded data centers and offices across the U.S.

CEO Sundar Pichai announced the news in a blog post Wednesday , emphasizing the company’s growth outside its Mountain View, California, home and across the Midwest and South.

“2019 marks the second year in a row we’ll be growing faster outside of the (San Francisco) Bay Area than in it,” he wrote.

Google will build new data centers in Nevada, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia. Pichai estimated the construction of the new centers will employ 10,000 workers.

It makes good political sense for Google to highlight its expansions outside coastal cities, said CFRA Research analyst Scott Kessler. U.S. legislators have paid increasing attention to Google and other big tech companies in the past year, and are considering passing privacy laws to regulate the companies’ reach. Investing more widely across the U.S. could help it curry favor with federal politicians and officials, he said.

Google is focused on expanding its cloud-computing business, a market where it faces stiff competition from larger rivals Amazon and Microsoft.

The company will have a physical presence in 24 states by the end of the year. It currently has locations in 21 states, and is expanding into Nevada, Ohio and Nebraska.

Its expansion is likely also a way to attract new employees, Kessler said. Google will add an office in Georgia, and expand its offices in several cities including in Seattle and Chicago.

Google said it spent more than $9 billion on similar expansions across the country last year.

Google did not give an exact number of employees it expects to hire as a result of the 2019 expansions, but said it would be “tens of thousands” of full-time workers.

An attorney for Nebraska running back Maurice Washington said Wednesday he never told anyone at the university about the nature of potential charges against the player in a pornography case that cropped up just as last season was getting started.

Washington was charged in California in December with possessing and distributing a video of a former girlfriend being sexually assaulted by two other people in 2016, when she was 15.

Washington is suspected of storing the video on his cellphone and sending it to the victim last March. He is charged with a felony count of possessing a video or photograph of a person under 18 who is engaging in or simulating sexual conduct and a misdemeanor count of posting a video or photograph of a person engaging in or simulating sexual conduct without consent, leading to the person suffering emotional distress. Washington was a star at King’s Academy in Sunnyvale, California, where he met the girl. He later attended high school in Texas.

The investigation in California stretched from last March into the summer. California authorities then asked Ed Sexton, who works in the Nebraska attorney general’s office, to help track down Washington for an interview.

According to court documents obtained by The Associated Press, Sexton said he contacted Nebraska and was called back first by an athletics compliance official, Jamie Vaughn, and then, on Sept. 14, by Jon Bruning, a former Nebraska attorney general who has a private practice in Lincoln who “indicated he had been contacted by members of the athletic department.”

“The nature of the case was disclosed and it was my understanding that Bruning would talk to Washington and his coaches, then let me know if, or when, I would be able to interview Washington,” Sexton wrote. “I do not anticipate being allowed to interview Washington.”

Five days later, court documents say, Sexton called Bruning, who told him Washington had told him he had no idea about the video allegation.

By the second week of September, Washington had started his freshman season and was on his way to becoming the team’s third-leading rusher.

The court documents suggest the case languished throughout the season and there is no indication Washington was ever interviewed. On Dec. 14, Bruning received copies of search warrants from the sheriff’s office in Santa Clara County, California, according to the documents.

Bruning said he represented only Washington. In an email to AP, Bruning wrote, “First, I’ve never represented the University of Nebraska as legal counsel, and I’ve never held myself out as doing so. Second, I did not share the search warrant with anyone at the university. My sense is that it was protected by attorney-client privilege.”

Bruning added that when he heard last Friday that charges were pending, he referred Washington to a local criminal defense attorney John C. Ball.

Sexton did not return a message left at his office.

Bruning was drawn into the case after Sexton spoke to Vaughn. Sexton wrote that Vaughn told him the football staff “wanted to know what was going on and wanted to talk to Washington.” Football coaches also were concerned about Washington needing a lawyer.

Court papers described futile attempts by a California detective and Sexton to arrange an interview with Washington through Vaughn and Bruning. They made repeated calls and sent texts to Washington that went unanswered.

In a statement Monday, the athletic department acknowledged it knew last fall Washington was wanted for an interview.

“Details were not shared and there was no additional follow up with the Nebraska Athletic Department,” the statement said. “Recently, we were made aware that charges may be filed against Maurice in California. We have not had a chance to review the charges, and will continue to monitor this ongoing legal process.”

California authorities are waiting for a judge to sign a warrant for Washington’s arrest. Once a warrant is signed, Washington would face extradition from Nebraska or he could return to California on his own and surrender to authorities.

Washington was considered a top player in Nebraska’s 2018 recruiting class, and he earned immediate playing time. He appeared in 11 games and started against Ohio State and Iowa. He finished with 455 yards rushing and 221 yards receiving. He also was Nebraska’s top kick return man.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Gov. Pete Ricketts is joining forces with Nebraska’s craft brewers to fight proposals that would raise taxes on craft beer in an effort to reduce property taxes.

Ricketts announced simultaneous events dubbed “Raise Glasses, Not Taxes” on March 1 in Omaha, Lincoln and Grand Island.

The events are designed to draw the public’s attention to LB314 and LB497, both of which would raise taxes on craft beer, spirits, wine and other goods.

Ricketts argues that the bills amount to a tax shift that would do little to address the long-term trend of rising property taxes. Supporters say the burden has increasingly shifted to farmers.

Ricketts has unveiled his own competing plan to slow the increases and says he’s open to other ideas as long as they don’t raise taxes.

OSHKOSH, Neb. (AP) – A Colorado woman has been charged with manslaughter for the death of her passenger when her pickup truck crashed in the Nebraska Panhandle.

Garden County Court records say 39-year-old Molly Raymer, of Milliken, Colorado, also is charged with drunken driving and willful reckless driving. The records don’t list the name of an attorney who could comment for her. Raymer is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.

The crash occurred around 1:10 a.m. Saturday, about 2 miles (3 kilometers) south of Lewellen. The Nebraska State Patrol says the pickup was headed west on a county road when it ran off the roadway into a ditch and rolled, ejecting the passenger.

He’s been identified as 48-year-old David Schwartz, who lived in Lewellen. The patrol says Raymer was taken to a Scottsbluff hospital for treatment.