LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — University of Nebraska administrators, faculty members, students and their allies are imploring lawmakers to reject the state budget cuts proposed by Gov. Pete Ricketts.

Supporters of the university crowded into a legislative hearing Wednesday in hopes of sparing the university from the proposed $11 million cuts in the current budget year and $23 million in the next budget year.

University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds says the cuts would force the elimination of academic programs in geography, art history and electronics engineering. It also would force the closure of extension offices statewide and the Haskell Ag Lab in Concord.

Lawmakers face a projected $173 million state revenue shortfall that they need to balance this year.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska senator is proposing a bill that would require state and local law enforcement agencies to provide public notice before they agree to enforce federal immigration laws.

Sen. Tony Vargas of Omaha said Wednesday he introduced the measure following news that Dakota County’s sheriff had enrolled in a federal program to deputize local forces.

The bill would require agencies would to provide notice to their local government 30 days prior to entering an agreement so it can be discussed at the next meeting.

Supporters say the bill promotes communication and transparency. They say the programs could incur large costs to taxpayers and create distrust between immigrant communities and law enforcement, which could lead to decreased crime reporting.

Opponents say they want increased enforcement of immigration law.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A trial has been scheduled for a Missouri man accused of stopping an Amtrak train in Nebraska.

Court records say pleas of not guilty were entered Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Lincoln for Taylor Wilson, of St. Charles, Missouri. He’s charged with attempting to disable a train and attempting to interfere with an engineer or conductor. His trial is set to begin April 16.

Authorities say the charges stem from an Oct. 22 incident in which Wilson enabled an emergency brake as the eastbound California Zephyr train traveled through western Nebraska. The conductor and others subdued Wilson, then held him for sheriff’s deputies to arrive where the train stopped in Oxford, about 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Omaha.

Authorities say Wilson was armed with a revolver.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A report from a free market advocacy group is calling on Nebraska lawmakers to review regulations that it says are hindering the state economy.

The Platte Institute released a report Tuesday that discusses the impact of the state’s regulatory policies. Platte Institute Policy Director Nicole Fox says excessive regulations amount to a “hidden tax” from lost economic opportunities.

The group announced the report at a gathering with Libertarian state Sens. Laura Ebke of Crete, Democratic state Sen. Adam Morfeld of Lincoln and Republican Sen. John Murante of Gretna, who have each introduced measures aimed at reducing regulations.

The report identified health care services, nursing and residential care facilities, chemical manufacturing, hospitals, and food manufacturing as some of the most regulated industries.

MCGREW, Neb. (AP) — Several volunteers have spent two days assessing the health of Nebraska’s bighorn sheep population.

Nebraska Game and Parks staff members and volunteers created an inspection station Saturday in the Williams Gap Wildlife Management Area southwest of McGrew.

The sheep were captured with nets, blindfolded, placed in slings before getting a ride from a helicopter to the inspection site. The animals underwent a 28-step inspection, which included health checks and sampling, as well as being fitted with tracking collars. The wild sheep were inspected for about 10 minutes before being released back into the wild.

Nebraska Game and Parks staff, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, zoos in Omaha and Lincoln, area veterinarians, Chadron State College and South Dakota State University assisted with the evaluations.

“We have a conglomerate of folks, about 50 people,” said Todd Nordeen, Game and Parks’ big game research and disease program manager, who directed the weekend operations in Williams Gap and Fort Robinson. “We can process them quickly with that much help.”

Nebraska’s herds are at risk of being thinned by pasteurella pneumonia and other respiratory diseases.

“We’re trying to track the progression of the disease pathogen,” Nordeen said. “We’re doing better here in the Wildcat Hills than in the Pine Ridge.”

Experts believe pasteurella pneumonia killed half of the animals in the Pine Ridge herds in 2005 and 2007.

Sheep were reintroduced to the area nearly four decades ago after native herds were decimated by hunting. Western Nebraska now has several hundred sheep that can occasionally be viewed on public lands or from county roads.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska judge dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday that claimed the 2016 vote to reinstate the death penalty was invalid because Gov. Pete Ricketts helped bankroll the petition drive to place the issue on the ballot.

Lancaster County District Judge John Colborn rejected the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of eight of Nebraska’s 11 death-row inmates. The inmates also argued unsuccessfully that their sentences defaulted to life terms automatically when lawmakers voted to abolish capital punishment in 2015.

The lawsuit contended that Ricketts overstepped the Nebraska Constitution’s separation of powers clause because he financed and controlled the referendum that led voters to overturn the Legislature’s decision. It made similar claims about State Treasurer Don Stenberg, a fellow Republican, who traveled the state urging voters to reinstate the death penalty.

After lawmakers overrode his veto, Ricketts donated $300,000 of his own money to the Nebraskans for the Death Penalty campaign. It raised a total of $1.3 million for the effort but was outspent by a death penalty opposition group, which received nearly $2.7 million.

“Not all participation in the processes of another branch violates the constitution,” Colborn wrote in the 14-page opinion. The plaintiffs’ argument “would make a wide range of activity constitutionally suspect, like members of the executive and legislative branch endorsing one another for office, campaigning for one another, or donating to another’s campaign.”

The separation of powers clause bars anyone in any branch of state government from exercising powers over another branch. But Ricketts ordered or encouraged members of the executive branch and his allies in the Legislature and local governments to work for the referendum campaign or publicly support it, the complaint alleged.

The lawsuit named Ricketts, Stenberg, the prisons department and the petition drive’s sponsors as defendants. It sought a court order barring the state from carrying out any executions. No execution dates have been set for any of the 11 men.

Attorney General Doug Peterson, whose office defended the lawsuit, praised the decision in a statement as “a thorough analysis of important Nebraska case law supporting the dismissal of the ACLU’s claims.”

A spokesman for Ricketts said the attorney general’s comments also reflect the governor’s sentiments. Ricketts has described the ACLU as “a liberal advocacy group that has repeatedly worked to overturn the clear voice of the Nebraska people on the issue of capital punishment and waste taxpayer dollars with frivolous litigation.”

The ACLU of Nebraska said it plans to challenge the district court’s ruling. Nebraska’s last execution was in 1997, using the electric chair. The state has never executed an inmate using lethal injection drugs.

“The fact remains that Nebraska’s death penalty continues to be broken beyond repair,” said Danielle Conrad, the group’s executive director.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska state senator who left the Republican Party to mount a third-party campaign against Gov. Pete Ricketts has switched parties again and will challenge the GOP incumbent as a Democrat.

Sen. Bob Krist was slated to make an announcement Tuesday in a news conference with Lincoln’s Democratic mayor, but the Douglas County election commission confirmed the Omaha senator’s party change on Monday.

Krist had been a Republican who was appointed to the Legislature in 2009 by then-Gov. Dave Heineman. He clashed with the party repeatedly over the years and announced in September that he would run for governor as an independent candidate.

Krist encountered several legal hurdles because of the requirements the state imposes on independent candidates to qualify for the ballot.

“Voters are fed up with this kind of constant partisan politics from Governor Ricketts and his party bosses that divide us rather than unite us,” Krist said in a statement. “I pledge to bring all of us together and to focus on unity and problem-solving, not ideology, to move our great state forward.”

Krist was not immediately available and did not return a phone or text message. Nebraska Democratic Party Chairwoman Jane Kleeb said she plans to attend Krist’s event, but didn’t want to pre-empt his formal announcement.

Krist announced earlier this month that he would file a federal lawsuit to challenge a Nebraska state law that imposed the nation’s toughest requirements on independent candidates trying to get on the ballot. But he said he would leave open other options for getting on the ballot.

The Nebraska Republican Party seized on the switch in a news conference at the Capitol, trotting out a timeline that included Krist’s May 2017 statement that he would remain a Republican in a possible bid to challenge Ricketts in the primary.

“I think what we see today is more flopping around than a catfish on a sandbar,” said Republican National Committee member J.L. Spray, a former state party chairman.

Spray said Democratic voters should question whether Krist is truly committed to Democratic principles, given his recent party switch.

Two other candidates have already announced plans to seek the Democratic nomination for governor: community activist Vanessa Gayle Ward and University of Nebraska at Omaha professor Tyler Davis, both of Omaha.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A bill touted by Gov. Pete Ricketts’ administration as a way to improve transparency and accountability in the Nebraska State Patrol following several high-profile misconduct cases drew strong criticism Monday from the union that represents patrol troopers.

The measure presented to a legislative committee would prevent the union from bargaining on issues related to trooper discipline and internal investigations. It also would remove sergeants from the bargaining unit because of their role in handling internal investigations.

Nebraska Chief Human Resources Officer Jason Jackson said the bill would allow state oversight officials and the public to know when an officer has faced disciplinary action.

Jackson said sergeants should not be part of the bargaining unit because they often have to investigate fellow union members, a perceived conflict of interest.

“We didn’t arrive at these recommendations lightly,” Jackson said in testimony to the Legislature’s Business and Labor Committee.

Nebraska Crime Commission Director Darrell Fisher said the current union contract prohibits the patrol from releasing internal investigation files in many cases, which has prevented his agency from investigating eight claims against officers and potentially revoking their certifications. A second bill pending in the Legislature would give the commission the power to subpoena such records.

Gary Young, an attorney for the State Troopers Association of Nebraska, said the attempt to pull sergeants out of the unit was financially motivated and had been raised as an issue in previous negotiations. Young and several patrol employees argued that sergeants have more in common with rank-and-file troopers than managers.

“I think they see this as an opportunity to change the bargaining landscape because there are controversies,” Young said.

While lieutenants and higher-ranking officers work in offices, sergeants perform many of the same duties as troopers, said Nebraska State Patrol Sgt. J.J. Pedersen.

Pedersen said removing them could hurt recruiting and retention efforts, damage morale and make others less likely to seek the ranking. Pedersen said he took a pay cut when he became a sergeant because he knew he would receive longer-term benefits, and removing sergeants from the bargaining unit could eliminate those.

Several recent incidents have led to a shake-up at the agency. Former Superintendent Brad Rice was fired in July after a personnel investigation found that Nebraska State Patrol leaders tried to influence the outcome of at least four internal reviews, failed to disclose a dozen alleged cases of trooper misconduct and didn’t properly investigate sexual harassment accusations.

In December, the patrol’s new superintendent, Col. John Bolduc, announced that one trooper was fired, two officers stepped down and two others were punished following a probe into allegations that the agency mishandled internal investigations.

One incident involved a South Dakota man who was killed in Sheridan County when a trooper used a tactical maneuver to bump his vehicle during a high-speed chase. The other involved a trooper in Sioux County who was shown on video striking an intoxicated man in the head with a rifle butt after the man ignored orders to get on the ground.

Bolduc said the legislation would help ensure that the agency remains accountable to the public.

“I believe this is the right thing, not only for accountability and for our agency, but for our profession,” he said.

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SIDNEY, Neb. (AP) — A Sidney woman accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy has been given three years in prison.

Court records show 30-year-old Jennifer McKinsey was sentenced Wednesday in Cheyenne County District Court and credited for 77 days already served.

She’d pleaded no contest to intentional child abuse after prosecutors lowered the charge from sexual assault of a minor.

McKinsey was arrested after officers responded to an argument between her and the 14-year-old boy’s mother.