LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is seeking access for anglers and hunters to private land.

The commission’s Open Fields and Waters Program provides landowners additional income for allowing walk-in hunting, trapping and/or fishing access on their properties. More than 700 private landowners participated last year.

Landowners receive annual payments that vary from 50 cents to $15 an acre. They also are protected from liability under the Nebraska Recreation Liability Act.

Landowners can contact Game and Parks district offices for more information: Alliance (308-763-2940), Lincoln (402-471-0641), Norfolk (402-370-3374) or North Platte (308-535-8025).

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lawmakers are racing to pass legislation before the session ends that would address Nebraska’s prison overcrowding and a looming deadline to reduce the inmate population.

Debate on a corrections package is expected to begin this week. With just 12 working days left in the session, lawmakers say they believe it’s still possible to take action this year.

The state’s inmate population must drop from nearly 160 percent of design capacity to 140 percent by 2020 to avoid a deadline that would force officials to consider paroling all eligible inmates.

The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services has faced criticism for several years because of overcrowding, understaffing, deadly riots and inmate escapes.

Sen. Laura Ebke, of Crete, said the measures are designed to pass without controversy.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The number of employed workers rose in Nebraska last month as the unemployment rate dropped to 2.8 percent, according to a state report issued Friday.

The Nebraska Labor Department said the preliminary February rate was one-tenth of a point under the 2.9 percent of January and December and was down two-tenths of a point from the 3 percent of February 2017. This February’s rate also remained well below the U.S. rate, which was unchanged at 4.1 percent.

“The labor force and number of employed workers both increased again in February, and nearly 55,000 jobs with Nebraska employers were listed on NEworks.nebraska.gov,” said state Labor Commissioner John Albin.

Vermont joined Nebraska at 2.8 percent. New Hampshire and North Dakota recorded rates of 2.6 percent, and Hawaii’s 2.1 percent was the nation’s lowest rate last month.

Nebraska’s nonfarm employment for February was 1,006,857. The private industries with the most growth over the month were education and health services, up 1,087; leisure and hospitality, up 674; and other services, up 438.

The preliminary Omaha-area rate dropped to 3.1 percent from 3.2 percent in January. Lincoln’s preliminary rate dropped one-tenth to hit 2.6 percent, compared with 2.7 percent in January. Grand Island’s preliminary rate plummeted to 3.2 percent from 4.8 percent in January.

The unemployment rates for Grand Island, Lincoln and Omaha have not been seasonally adjusted, so they cannot be directly compared with the state unemployment rate.

Here are preliminary area labor market unemployment rates for February, followed by the January rates:

— Beatrice: 3.6, 3.8

— Columbus: 2.6, 2.7

— Fremont: 2.8, 3.1

— Hastings: 3.0, 3.4

— Kearney: 2.2, 2.3

— Lexington: 3.0, 3.0

— Norfolk: 2.8, 2.9

— North Platte: 3.2, 3.3

— Red Willow: 2.4, 2.4

— Scottsbluff: 3.2, 3.3

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) — A western Nebraska zoo that took in two orphaned grizzly cubs last year has announced the names of the bears.

The Riverside Discovery Center in Scottsbluff says zoo visitors selected “Smokey” and “Bandit.”

Those names garnered the most votes in a monthlong contest that allowed zoo visitors to cast votes on the names.

The cubs were orphaned last spring when a Wyoming black bear hunter illegally killed their mother. Wildlife officials had hoped the cubs would survive in the wild without their mother, but it became clear after several months they would not. Officials then captured the cubs to find them a new home.

As National Ag Week comes to a close, the Nebraska State Patrol (NSP) is reminding drivers to watch for agriculture producers working near and traveling on Nebraska’s roads.

“Agriculture is Nebraska’s number one industry for a reason: the hard-working men and women around our state who have dedicated their lives to farming and ranching,” said Colonel John Bolduc, Superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol. “We salute Nebraska’s Ag producers and encourage other drivers to be aware that there will more equipment on the roads for the next several months.”

As planting season gets into full swing in many parts of the state, drivers should be aware that it is legal for farm machinery to travel on public roads to move from field to field. Drivers should use caution around this equipment because it is often slow-moving and its size may limit the operator’s visibility.

Drivers should always be alert, but use extra caution on roads they may share with agriculture implements. With the potential combination of a fast-moving vehicle and slow-moving farm equipment, it is critical that drivers avoid distractions.

Ag producers are also encouraged to voluntarily comply with traffic safety laws, display warning signs on machinery, use flashing yellow caution lights when traveling, and be aware of vehicles that may be attempting to pass.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska State Patrol says its bomb squad has disposed of a live grenade and several old railroad explosives.

The patrol says the grenade was found Wednesday in McCook. The bomb squad determined it was live and had been modified. It was taken to the McCook Police Department shooting range, where it was safely destroyed.

On Thursday, nine old railroad torpedoes were found in Crete. The torpedoes attach to the rail and create a loud sound to warn railroad engineers of a hazard ahead. Officials say the explosive material becomes unstable and more dangerous as the torpedoes age.

The bomb squad safely destroyed the torpedoes with counter charges.

By MARGERY A. BECK , Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Federal officials are saying little about how they chose a Nebraska startup to build an $11 million section of border wall in California, including whether they knew of the company’s connections to a construction firm flagged in a government audit for “many potential fraud indicators.”

The top Democrat on the House Committee on National Security is seeking answers from the Department of Homeland Security on what vetting was used last year to select SWF Constructors of Omaha for the job. The company, founded last year with only one employee, is an offshoot of Edgewood, New York-based Coastal Environmental Group, which has been repeatedly sued for underpaying or failing to pay subcontractors.

“It seems DHS has awarded a contract to a brand new company with questionable connections and without the proper prior performance,” Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson said in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. “In the rush to build President (Donald) Trump’s wall, a portion of it may be built by a company with a history of mismanaging and wasting taxpayer funds.”

Thompson’s office said it had not received a reply to its request by Friday.

A wall along the Mexico-U.S. border was a central promise of Trump’s campaign. The contract with SWF is for just a fraction of the larger project, about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) of post-style barriers at the border at Calexico, California.

A 2016 Interior Department internal audit report obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request found that Coastal had cash flow problems and violated federal requirements to promptly pay workers. Those problems were cited even before it was hired in 2013 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to clean up two wildlife refuges following Superstorm Sandy.

If government officials had identified some of those issues, the report said, “it likely would not have contracted with (Coastal), thereby avoiding the numerous problems that occurred on these contracts.”

The report also noted that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had flagged Coastal Environmental as a problem company on an earlier Superstorm Sandy cleanup contract, including underpaying or failing to pay some of 400 workers. A Corps contracting officer interviewed for the report told auditors “his advice was to never contract with (Coastal).”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Fort Worth, which bid the border wall project and hired SWF, said in written responses to questions from the AP that “performance and relevant experience were considered in making the selection.” But it declined to answer questions about how performance and relevant experience were applied to a company created only nine months before it was selected, saying that information is “procurement sensitive information and not releasable.”

The Corps used the same language in refusing to answer questions about how many other firms bid for the project and whether any offered a lower-cost bid than SWF. It said it has revisited its documentation on the contract “which confirms the awardee’s status as a responsible offeror.”

Coastal has been sued in federal court a dozen times, and at least three times by the federal government for failing to pay subcontractors on government jobs. The Interior Department’s audit found $2 million in questionable spending by Coastal in the Sandy cleanup. The company later agreed to repay $200,000 to the government.

Coastal has an office in Omaha — a repurposed house in an industrial district south of downtown, the same address listed on federal documents for SWF Constructors. While a Coastal sign appears on the building, there is no sign indicating it is home to SWF Constructors.

The president of Coastal and main contact for SWF, Richard Silva, has not returned repeated phone and email messages seeking comment.

A pair of North Platte men is facing numerous charges after a police investigation connected them to numerous thefts.

During the early morning hours of 3/20/18, a citizen called in reporting two male subjects were attempting to enter his home in the 1100 block of Tanner Ct.  It was reported that both the front and rear doors to the home were locked but the subjects were turning the doorknob and attempting to enter.  An officer arrived very quickly and saw the two males at the door.  They ran and a foot chase ensued but both subjects eventually got away.  It was found in this case that the citizen’s detached unlocked garage had been entered and rummaged through but nothing was missing.  Later in the morning officers took several reports of thefts from unlocked garages and unlocked vehicles in the southwest part of town (Clearwater CT, Marko CT, Dixie Ave, Sherman CT).  In one of the instances the suspects forced entry into a garage and in another instance, the suspects entered an unlocked attached garage and entered the occupied home.

BRADY, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a western Nebraska rancher was injured when his utility vehicle crashed while he was herding cattle.

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office says 29-year-old Ryan Sanger called 911 about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday to report that he was pinned under the vehicle. Deputies and medics moved it off Sanger after finding him in a pasture.

Sanger was taken to a North Platte hospital. Authorities say he’d suffered a broken leg.