LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Whiteclay, Nebraska is known for its beer sales on the border of South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, but a new federal grant could help it become a hub for Native American arts and crafts.

The group GROW Nebraska was recently awarded a $100,000 federal grant to help artisans sell paintings, jewelry and other artwork in new markets. The nonprofit group is working with Lakota Hope, a faith ministry based in Whiteclay, and a University of Nebraska-Lincoln extension office employee based in Crawford.

GROW Nebraska CEO Janell Anderson Ehrke says the U.S. Small Business Administration grant will help artisans sell their work online or at events such as powwows. The groups have also recruited experienced artists from the reservation to provide guidance at training sessions in Whiteclay.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Officials say a task force will study Nebraska’s education practices for teaching deaf students and recommend ways to improve them.

The Nebraska Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing hopes to build on its success in raising school interpreter standards last year. Officials say that once the task force is formed, it will ask the Nebraska Education Department to hire a national consulting firm to analyze Nebraska’s system.

Commission executive director John Wyvill says about 49,000 students receive special education services from the state and of those, about 830 have a primary hearing disability.

LOUP CITY, Neb. (AP) — A former Loup City teacher accused of placing spy cameras in a girls locker room been convicted of a fourth crime.

Online court records say 25-year-old Anthony Rahe was found guilty of felony manufacture of visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct.

He’d made a plea deal and pleaded no contest to three other charges and underwent a brief nonjury trial on the fourth last month. Prosecutors dismissed or amended the original 15 counts against Rahe in return for his pleas. The judge’s decision on the fourth charge was filed Friday in Sherman County District Court.

District officials say a student reported finding the camera at Loup City Public School on Oct. 8. Investigators have said school security camera footage implicated Rahe.

His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 18.

The North Platte Community Playhouse will kick off their 2016/2017 season with a classic mystery, Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap.”

In the show, a group of strangers is stranded in a boarding house during a snowstorm, one of whom is a murderer. The suspects include the newly married couple who run the house, and the suspicions in their minds nearly wreck their perfect marriage. Others are a spinster with a curious background, an architect who seems better equipped to be a chef, a retired Army major, a strange little man who claims his car has overturned in a drift, and a jurist who makes life miserable for everyone. Into their midst comes a policeman, traveling on skis. He no sooner arrives, when the jurist is killed. Two down, and one to go. To get to the rationale of the murderer’s pattern, the policeman probes the background of everyone present and rattles a lot of skeletons. Another famous Agatha Christie switch finish!

Production dates for “The Mousetrap” are September 23, 24, 25 & 30 and October 1 & 2, 2016, with Friday and Saturday performances beginning at 8:00 pm and Sunday Matinees beginning at 2:00 pm.  Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for students.  Individual and Family season tickets are available.  Tickets sales begin on Monday, September 19.  Tickets are available at the NPCP Box Office (301 East 5^th Street) from Noon-5:00 pm, online at www.northplattecommunityplayhouse.com or at the door prior to each performance.

This production is made possible, in part, by the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment of the Arts, as well as our Corporate Sponsors, Adams and Swanson Funeral Home and Carpenter Memorial Chapel.

“The Mousetrap” is directed by Carolyn Clark with Assistant Director Robert Allen.