The North Platte Police Department arrested three people on drugs and weapons charges after receiving an anonymous tip via Crimestoppers.

DENVER (AP) — About 1,000 flights into Denver have been canceled as a winter storm hits the western U.S., with blizzard conditions expected to engulf parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska and South Dakota.

School was canceled Wednesday in many places where up to more than a foot (30 centimeters) of snow and winds as high as 80 mph (129 kmh) was possible.

State and local government workers in Denver and Wyoming were told to stay home and many colleges also closed for the day.

Parts of Interstates 80 and 25 were closed in Wyoming because of heavy snow and whiteout conditions.

Heavy snow was falling in northern Arizona and forecasters say dangerous winds in New Mexico are expected to make travel hazardous across much of the state.

With the predicted blizzard moving into Nebraska this morning, the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) will be closing westbound I-80 at Ogallala at 10:00 a.m. MDT or 11:00 a.m. CDT. Travel on secondary roads west of Ogallala is not advised.

Travelers are advised to be alert, be aware and check the most up to date travel conditions and closures available through 511, Nebraska’s Advanced Traveler Information System. The system is available at all times via phone by, online at www.511.nebraska.gov, Nebraska 511’s smartphone app or by dialing 511.

Travelers are also encouraged to utilize NDOT’s Plow Tracker at https://plows.nebraska.gov/index.html where the public will be able to observe road conditions in real time from the cabs of NDOT snowplows.

Please note that weather conditions are often worse than they appear on camera.

Motorists are reminded to make sure everyone in their vehicle wears a seat belt and children are in a car safety seat. Do not use cruise control in wet or snowy weather and keep a full gas tank.

For safe-driving tips and winter weather information, visit NDOT’s website, https://dot.nebraska.gov/safety/driving/winter/

As a reminder, the NSP Highway Helpline is available 24 hours per day for motorists in need of assistance. Drivers can reach NSP by dialing *55 from any cell phone. Call 911 for any emergency

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is proposing to allow year-round sales of gasoline mixed with 15 percent ethanol, seeking to calm a dispute that has riled two politically important blocs — the oil industry and corn farmers.

Tuesday’s proposed rule change by the Environmental Protection Agency would fulfill a pledge that President Donald Trump made to U.S. corn farmers, for whom ethanol is an important driver of demand for their crops. Many environmentalists oppose any expansion of the ethanol industry, saying the increase in corn production has polluted waterways and destroyed habitat.

Federal law for more than a decade has mandated that oil refineries mix ethanol into their fuel. The Trump administration’s former EPA chief, Scott Pruitt, had angered lawmakers, growers and ethanol processors in Iowa and other key election states by granting a spate of exemptions sparing refineries from that mandate.

The dispute sparked a billboard campaign and at least one tractor rally by angry farmers in the Midwest last year, threatening to erode what has been a base of support for Trump.

Tuesday’s proposal would allow sale of fuel mixed with a higher blend of ethanol year-round, ending a summertime ban imposed out of concerns for increased smog from the higher ethanol blend.

The proposal “absolutely is moving in the right direction,” said Geoff Cooper, head of the ethanol industry’s Renewable Fuels Association. Ethanol supporters would “keep a watchful eye” on the EPA’s current administrator, Andrew Wheeler, as Wheeler weighs whether to grant future exemption requests from refineries, he said.

Beyond increasing the amount of ethanol allowed in vehicle fuel, the EPA is proposing regulatory changes in the ethanol program.

A group representing oil refiners and other oil industry partners, the Fueling American Jobs Coalition, spoke positively of the EPA proposal.

The Trump administration was striking “a careful balance between the need to maintain jobs and investment in the vital refining sector and the desire of some in the biofuels sector to expand the use of higher blends of ethanol,” the oil industry group said in a statement.

Only a small fraction of U.S. gas stations currently sell the higher-ethanol blend, called E15. The rule, if the administration puts it into effect, isn’t expected to have any big immediate effect on ethanol sales, but would signal the marketplace to take another look at the fuel blend in the longer term, Cooper said.

Environmental groups contend the U.S. Clean Air Act prohibits year-round sales of E15, and court challenges are expected.

Conservation advocates and some researchers say the ethanol mandate has been unexpectedly devastating for the environment. The increased demand for corn led farmers to plow millions of additional acres of land —depriving monarch butterflies and countless other species of habitat. Farmers also upped their use of nitrate-containing fertilizers, which pollute waterways.

Any future expansion of ethanol use “would expand corn production, resulting in more nitrogen fertilizer use, more pollution of waterways, and more losses in habitat,” said Aaron Smith, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Davis.