LINCOLN, Neb. – The three hunting accidents reported to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission in 2016 were the fewest recorded in a year since the state began keeping track in 1958. None of the 2016 hunting incidents was fatal.

The 2016 incidents mark a decrease compared to the 10 incidents – none fatal – recorded in 2015.

“Hunting in Nebraska continues to be a very safe outdoor recreational activity in which many families participate,” Nebraska Hunter Education Coordinator Wendy Horine said.

The record-low number of hunting incidents in 2016 coincided with a year in which a record 10,111 hunter education certificates were issued. Hunter education in Nebraska dates to the 1970s, but the program was revamped in 2015 to allow students the option of taking the course online, with the youngest group of students required to attend a two-hour Hunt Safe Session. The online option made certification more readily available to all Nebraskans.

“The average number of hunters in the state has remained stable for the past 17 years, while incident numbers have steadily declined during the same period and have dramatically declined since the inception of hunter education in Nebraska,” Horine said.

For more information about hunter education in Nebraska, visit HuntSafeNebraska.org. Anyone interested in becoming a volunteer hunter education instructor or mentor should call Horine at 402-471-6134.

“It goes without saying that if we didn’t have the dedication and commitment of our nearly 1,000 volunteer instructors, the hunter education program wouldn’t be possible,” Horine added.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Alumni of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at Creighton University in Omaha dispute allegations that a frat member accused of attacking another student was drugged as part of a hazing ritual.

Nineteen-year-old Christopher Wheeler, from Kansas City, Kansas, is accused of using a pocket knife to cut another student’s throat in her room Saturday. She was hospitalized. Wheeler faces felony assault and weapons charges.

Wheeler’s attorney contends Wheeler was forced to take a hallucinogenic drug before the attack and has no memory of the attack.

A statement issued Thursday by alumni Bryan Mick and Eric Hamilton says an alumni investigation “does not support the allegations and speculation of the parents and counsel” of Wheeler. The statement also says any alcohol or drugs consumed by Wheeler appear to have been voluntary.

BRIDGEPORT, Neb. (AP) — Sentencing has been delayed for a Nebraska man convicted of killing a Colorado man and hiding his body in a barrel.

Twenty-five-year-old Zachary Mueller is facing a life sentence for first-degree murder in the slaying of 33-year-old Pedro Adrian Dominguez, of Greeley, Colorado. A jury convicted Mueller last month of the murder and of two weapons charges.

His new sentencing date is March 13. The original date was Feb. 27.

Authorities say Mueller shot Dominguez in the back of the head while riding in a car in Bridgeport on Nov. 22, 2015. The body of Dominguez was discovered in a barrel on a Morrill County farm in December 2015.

CHADRON, Neb. (AP) — Pregnant bighorn sheep ewes have been fitted with special transmitters in an effort to improve the health of wild herds in northwest Nebraska.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission says a helicopter was used to help in the capture of 20 this week. They were fitted with monitors in their reproductive tracts. The monitors are expelled when the lambs are born, alerting commission staffers who will race to the area.

Their goal is to find and fit each lamb with a tracking collar to help biologists learn what’s causing so many of the lambs to die in the Pine Ridge area of Dawes and Sioux counties. The commission says the experts think no lambs survived last year and that most died within a couple months of birth.