LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds is stepping down from his position and leaving the state late this summer, the university announced Monday.

Bounds, a Mississippi native, said in a statement that he plans to return to the South with his family after four years at the university’s helm.

“While rewarding, this job has also been personally demanding,” Bounds said. “I have done everything I could to serve our students and the people of Nebraska effectively. Now it’s time to recharge and reconnect with my family.”

Bounds gave no indication of what his next job might be. He previously served as commissioner of higher education for the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning.

Bounds became the University of Nebraska’s seventh president in April 2015, overseeing a campus with 52,000 students with campuses in Lincoln, Omaha, Kearney and Curtis. He replaced J.B. Milliken, who left to become chancellor of the City University of New York.

University of Nebraska Regents Chairman Tim Clare thanked Bounds for his service and said the regents were “despondent” to see him go. Clare said the regents tried to persuade Bounds to stay, but understood and appreciated his decision “to put family first.”

“He was a tireless leader who always put the university’s interests first,” Clare said. “Hank was the right person, at the right time, for our university, and we will forever be indebted for his great work.”

Regent Jim Pillen said Bounds’ departure will be a loss for the state, but thanked him for putting the university in a strong position for the future.

Under Bounds, student enrollment reached a record-high of 53,000 in 2017 and the university experienced record graduation rates. Bounds launched a “Commit to Complete” initiative in 2016 to help students graduate on time so they could join the workforce sooner with as little debt as possible.

The Nebraska Liquor Control Commission announced Monday that stores must destroy any alcohol in containers that came into physical contact with floodwater. Stores are forbidden from selling such products and can only claim losses through their insurance carrier.

The commission says it made the announcement after receiving numerous inquiries from retailers about what to do with their alcohol.

Wholesalers are also barred from picking up the product or reimbursing stores for their loss.

Lawmakers gave first-round approval Monday to a measure that would require coursework on student rights, understanding special needs students, teenage brain development and other relevant issues.

Administrators would need to undergo similar training in schools with a school resource officer.

The bill would also prohibit officers from becoming involved in school disciplinary matters.

Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, of Lincoln, says she introduced the bill out of concern that officers in some school had involved themselves in disciplinary matters.

The bill advanced 38-0 through the first of three required votes.

The Nebraska Public Power District declared a “notification of unusual event” March 15 at its Cooper Nuclear Station near Brownville, about 59 miles (95.5 kilometers) south of Omaha. The notification is the lowest and least serious of four emergency classifications established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for nuclear power plants. The district says it means simply that: Conditions are not ordinary.

The district’s Mark Becker said Monday that the plant never stopped generating power, because the rising river water stopped 4 inches (10 centimeters) short of the level at which the reactor had to be shut down as a safety precaution.

The river’s rapid rise was fueled by snowmelt and storm runoff from a late-winter weather system.

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.