School officials say the crackdown would help them fight the growing use of e-cigarettes among students, who can easily hide them.

“It’s a problem for every school,” said Lisa Albers, a Grand Island Public Schools board member who is pushing for the bill. “Nobody really knew about this (until recently). It was flying under the radar.”

Albers said she’s concerned about the high concentrations of nicotine in some solutions used in e-cigarettes, as well as the fruity flavors that appeal to young people. The vaping industry touts the product as a safer alternative to cigarettes, although health advocates say they’re still harmful and can lead to lifelong addictions.

E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that turn liquid often containing nicotine into an inhalable vapor. They’re generally considered a less dangerous alternative to regular cigarettes, but health officials have warned nicotine is harmful to developing brains. U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced new policies in November to limit sales of many flavored vaping products to brick-and-mortar outlets that have either age-restricted entry or areas that aren’t accessible to people younger than 18.

Albers said students have told her that classmates sneak e-cigarettes into schools and smoke them in bathrooms. The devices are small and are easily mistaken for computer flash drives. Grand Island school officials have even caught elementary school children with them, she said.

Administrators at Scottsbluff High School have seen a similar increase in vaping products this year, with at least 50 incidents in which a student was caught, said Assistant Principal Matt Huck.

“It just seems like it’s exploded this year,” Huck said.

Huck said the school confiscates vaping devices and imposes a three-day, in-school suspension for a student’s first offense. Those caught more than once can face longer suspensions. Huck said raising the age could help address the problem.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Dan Quick, a Democrat from Grand Island, said he has received support from senators of both parties in the ostensibly nonpartisan Legislature.

“It’s hit so fast, and not just in Nebraska,” he said. “You could have kids vaping in their homes or in secret, and the parents wouldn’t know it.”

Quick said he’ll likely have to lower the proposed age limit from 21 to 19 to overcome opposition in the Legislature’s General Affairs Committee, where the bill is sitting. But he said he will try to persuade lawmakers to raise it back to 21 when it’s debated in the full Legislature.

“I really want the best bill I can get that I can pass on the floor to get these nicotine products away from kids in school,” he said. “If I can’t get it to 21, I’ll vote for 19, because we have to have something.”

Last year, Grand Island Central Catholic High School restricted flash drives in part to make it harder for students to bring vaping devices to school. Students who want to use a flash drive must have it checked by school officials.

Principal Jordan Engle said school officials haven’t caught any student with a vaping device, but he has heard rumblings that they’re being used.

“You can call pretty much any school administrator in the state, and they’re going to tell you the same thing: that it’s widespread,” he said.

Advocates for vaping devices said they support restrictions to keep the product away from minors but argue that raising the age limit could drive more young people to use cigarettes, which would still be limited to people 18 or older. They also argue that vaping devices don’t emit the same odors or pose the same health risks as secondhand smoke in public places.

“Any bill that that sets a different age limit for tobacco products and vapor products is going to be bad for public health,” said Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association. “It will incentivize teens who want to use nicotine to get their nicotine in a more hazardous form — smoking.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation did not find evidence that President Donald Trump’s campaign “conspired or coordinated” with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. Mueller also investigated whether Trump obstructed justice but did not come to a definitive answer.

In a four-page letter to Congress, Attorney General William Barr said Mueller’s report “does not exonerate” the president on obstruction and instead “sets out evidence on both sides of the question.”

Barr released his four-page summary of Mueller’s report Sunday afternoon. Mueller wrapped up his investigation on Friday with no new indictments, bringing to a close a probe that has shadowed Trump for nearly two years.

Democrats vowed to press on with their own investigations, while the White House claimed vindication.

“The findings of the Department of Justice are a total and complete exoneration of the President of the United States,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

In reality, Mueller’s investigation left open the question of whether Trump obstructed justice by firing FBI Director James Comey and drafting an incomplete explanation about his son’s meeting with a Russian lawyer during the campaign. That left it to the attorney general to decide. After consulting with DOJ officials, Barr said he and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, determined the evidence “is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense.”

Barr, nominated to his job by Trump last fall, said their decision was based on the evidence uncovered by Mueller and not based on whether a sitting president can be indicted.

Barr’s chief of staff called White House counsel Emmet Flood at 3 p.m. Sunday to brief him on the report to Congress.

Mueller’s investigation ensnared nearly three dozen people, senior Trump campaign operatives among them. The probe illuminated Russia’s assault on the American political system, painted the Trump campaign as eager to exploit the release of hacked Democratic emails to hurt Democrat Hillary Clinton and exposed lies by Trump aides aimed at covering up their Russia-related contacts.

Mueller submitted his report to Barr instead of directly to Congress and the public because, unlike independent counsels such as Ken Starr in the case of President Bill Clinton, his investigation operated under the close supervision of the Justice Department, which appointed him.

Mueller was assigned to the job in May 2017 by Rosenstein, who oversaw much of his work. Barr and Rosenstein analyzed Mueller’s report on Saturday, laboring to condense it into a summary letter of main conclusions.

Barr said that Mueller “thoroughly” investigated the question of whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia’s election interference, issuing more than 2,800 subpoenas, obtaining nearly 500 search warrants and interviewing 500 witnesses.

As temperatures start to warm, snowmelt in the Dakotas and Minnesota will escalate, sending more water down the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and their tributaries.

Lt. Col. James Startzell, deputy commander of the Corps of Engineers’ Omaha, Nebraska, district, said even warmer temperatures are possible into next week. He urged people living near rivers to be watchful.

Bill Brinton, emergency management director for hard-hit Buchanan County, Missouri, which includes St. Joseph’s 76,000 residents, said his counties and surrounding ones have already been ravaged by flooding.

“There’s a sense from the National Weather Service that we should expect it to continue to happen into May,” Brinton said. “With our levee breaches in Atchison and Holt and Buchanan counties, it’s kind of scary really.”

A precautionary evacuation involving hundreds of homes in the St. Joseph area was lifted as the Missouri River began a swift decline after unofficially rising to a new all-time high, inches above the 1993 record. St. Joseph was largely spared, but Brinton said 250 homes were flooded in the southern part of Buchanan County. It wasn’t clear when residents would be able to get back.

When they do, officials say they need to be careful. Contaminants that escaped from flooded farm fields, industrial operations, and sewage plants are part of the murky water now saturating homes.

In Fremont County, Iowa, homes remain underwater, so it will be some time before residents can return, said county Supervisor Randy Hickey.

“We don’t want them in that water, anyway,” Hickey said.

Experts also warn that sharp objects — broken glass, pieces of metal, pointy sticks and rocks — could lurk in muddy debris. Downed or broken power lines also may pose electrocution hazards.

On Saturday, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said President Donald Trump granted her request for an expedited disaster declaration for 56 counties with flooding damage. The move makes assistance available to homeowners, renters, businesses, public entities, and some nonprofit organizations.

Another risk is posed by wildlife. Brinton said two people in Buchanan County were bitten by snakes after returning home following flooding in 2011.

The Missouri River had yet to crest further downstream in Missouri, but the flooding impact in those areas was expected to be far less severe.

In South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem activated 13 members of the Army National Guard to help distribute water on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation after floodwaters washed out a county water line. The guardsmen will provide drinkable water to people in the communities of Red Shirt, Pine Ridge, Porcupine, Evergreen and Wounded Knee. The Guard will set up from a central location in each community until the waterline is fixed.

Even the lower Mississippi River was impacted. The U.S. Coast Guard on Friday rescued two boaters from a disabled vessel near New Orleans. Coast Guard officials said the flooding means more debris in the river, and the currents can pull a boat into danger.

The Extension has compiled a list of the state’s certified public health environmental laboratories where homeowners can obtain a water test kit. This information is available on Nebraska Extension’s flood resources website.

Food safety tips also are on the flood resources website. This includes guidelines to help people decide when to throw out food and how to disinfect food that can be saved.

The Extension is also a resource for those wanting to help flood victims. The Eastern Nebraska Research and Extension Center near Mead and Haskell Ag Lab near Concord are serving as donation locations for hay and fencing materials. Those wishing to obtain the donated materials should contact the Nebraska Department of Agriculture.