The Connection Homeless Shelter will be hosting a “Box Out” in the parking lot of Gary’s Superfoods located at 1620 East 4^th Street in North Platte.  The primary goal of this event is fundraising for the Connection Homeless Shelter, but also to bring attention to the impact that homelessness has on our communities, state and nation.

The event will be held November 15, 16 and 17 from 8:00am-8:00pm, with lunch provided by Nebraskaland National Bank on the 16^th and First National Bank on the 17^th from 11:00am-1:00pm.

A free-will offering will be collected for lunch.  Those who would like to participate in the event are asked to bring a box, which will be a representation of the living conditions of the homeless population of our country.  Come support your local homeless shelter and help us bring awareness to the crisis of homelessness that exists in our nation.

Today: Sunny, with a high near 52. North northeast wind 7 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.

Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 18. Northeast wind around 6 mph becoming south southeast after midnight.

Friday: Sunny, with a high near 56. Breezy, with a south wind 7 to 12 mph increasing to 16 to 21 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 29 mph.

The newly elected president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe is scheduled to speak at Chadron State College in Nebraska.

Bryan Brewer of Pine Ridge, S.D., will speak at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the Student Center ballroom. The event is free and open to the public.

Brewer narrowly defeated incumbent tribal president John Yellow Bird Steele in last week’s election.

Brewer was born and raised in Pine Ridge and graduated from Oglala Community School in 1965. He earned a degree from Black Hills State University in 1976, and served on a construction battalion in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War.

He is a former principal of Pine Ridge High School. Brewer also founded the Lakota National Invitational Tournament, which has become the nation’s largest Native American high school basketball tournament.

State officials say a hunter in north-central Nebraska has killed a mountain lion that circled in front of him while he was hunting for deer.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission reported Tuesday that the hunter killed the 150-pound male mountain lion on Saturday northeast of Ainsworth in Brown County. That was the opening day of the November firearm deer season.

The hunter left his hunting blind and noted the animal walking parallel to him, about 35 yards away. The mountain lion made eye contact with him and circled in front of the hunter, who then fired.

An investigation concluded the hunter was justified in killing the animal.

Nebraska law says someone can kill a mountain lion without a permit only if it stalks, attacks or “shows unprovoked aggression.”

Toyota Motor Corp. says it’s recalling 2.77 million vehicles around the world for a steering shaft defect that may result in faulty steering and a water pump problem.

Japan’s top automaker said no accidents have been reported related to these two problems announced Wednesday.

Some 1.51 million vehicles are being recalled for the steering defect in Japan and 1.25 million vehicles abroad, including 670,000 in the U.S.

Affected models include the Prius hybrid, Corolla, Wish and other models produced in Japan from 2000 to last year, and from 2000 to 2009 overseas.

Toyota is also recalling 630,000 vehicles spanning five hybrid models, including the Prius, for a defective water pump.

Last month, Toyota had a recall for faulty power-window switches.

Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 58. Light and variable wind becoming southwest 8 to 13 mph in the morning.

Tonight: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 25. Light and variable wind becoming north northwest 5 to 8 mph after midnight.

Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 51. North wind 7 to 11 mph.

Kids say the darndest things and sometimes they do things that make you want to chuck a coffee mug at them, which is a felony.

On November 10^th, sometime near 12:09 PM, Officers with the North Platte Police Department were called to the 100 block of West William Ave because of a disturbance.

The suspect, Michael Davis, told the officers that his teenager was ‘acting in an uncontrollable fashion’ which during an argument, allegedly struck Davis, leaving a minor injury.

The teen was interviewed and according to the NPPD, Davis allegedly threw a coffee cup at his teenager, which caused injury.

Authorities say that Davis threw the cup at the teen which followed by the teen striking Davis.

Michael Davis was arrested and booked into the Lincoln County Detention Center, charged with child abuse.

The teen was cited and released for being an uncontrollable juvenile and 3^rd degree assault.

Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 49. Calm wind becoming west northwest 5 to 9 mph in the afternoon.

Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 17. West northwest wind 5 to 7 mph.

Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 55. West southwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming calm in the afternoon.

The U.S. Forest Service has eased fire restrictions on land within the Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands.

Officials say the fire danger has been reduced by the arrival of shorter days and cooler weather, but people are still asked to be careful with fire.

Visitors to federal land are now allowed to have campfires again as long as they use developed campgrounds or improved sites.

Smoking is only allowed inside a vehicle or building or in an area that has been cleared of flammable vegetation within a 3-foot-wide circle.

Several wildfires burned large sections of the Nebraska Sandhills and Panhandle regions this summer. Drought created prime conditions for fires.