LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The University of Nebraska regents this week likely will decide how much students will contribute in higher tuition to help close a university budget gap.

The board meets Thursday in Lincoln to consider the university’s operating budget for the next year.

University administrators have been struggling with an expected $50 million budget gap. The university had sought $583 million a year in state support for each of the next two school years — the amount it received for 2016-17. But the Legislature and governor approved $570 million for the 2017-18 school year and $580 million for 2018-19.

University President Hank Bounds has told lawmakers that the loss of state aid comes as the university system is hit with increases in costs tied to health care, utilities and union agreements.

HOLDREGE, Neb. (AP) — Eighteen new townhomes are set to be constructed this year on the former Washington Elementary School property in Holdrege.

The development comes thanks to an agreement signed this week between Phelps County Development Corp. and Flat River Enterprises. The development corporation had purchased the school property from the city of Holdrege in February. Flat River plans a $2.25 million residential development as the first step of a three-phase project on the property.

The units will be built as single-story multiplexes. Each two-bedroom, two-bath unit will be about 1,100 square feet.

The townhomes are expected to fill a need for housing for professionals such as teachers, nurses and other hospital staffers.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is planning boat inspections on public waters this summer as part of its effort to stem the tide of invasive species.

The commission says the inspections will include surveys about operators’ recent boating activities, followed by examinations of their watercrafts. They’ll also be given information on ways to prevent the spread of such species as zebra mussels.

State regulations say boaters are not allowed to launch or leave boat ramps with any water present in the watercrafts unless it is from a domestic water source. Boaters also are required to drain all lake or river water from their vessels and remove any vegetation or mud from their boats and trailers before leaving boat ramps.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A new state law allows students at Nebraska’s for-profit colleges to be protected financially if those schools suddenly close.

Under the law signed Tuesday, student records from for-profit schools that close will be sent to the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. Students can also recover lost tuition and fees if a school closes midterm.

Those colleges must also reimburse the state if government-subsidized students are unable to finish an academic term because of a closure.

The measure is in response to last year’s ITT Technical Institute shutdown, which affected about 43,000 students nationwide and 340 at its Omaha campus. The lack of a plan left students scrambling to obtain transcripts.

___

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Creighton University plans to cut about 60 nonteaching positions at the Omaha Jesuit institution.

The university president, the Rev. Daniel Hendrickson, informed college workers via a letter sent earlier this week. Some of the cutbacks will come from elimination of open positions, but Hendrickson also said most of the reduction will come from dismissals.

The cuts are expected to begin early next month. After the cuts are realized, the nonfaculty workforce will number more than 1,300.

Hendrickson says the university must reduce expenses to ensure Creighton’s long-term stability.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Financial documents show Cabela’s had been trying to sell itself months before an investor declared its big stake and publicly pushed for the sale.

Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week detail the yearlong process to sell the Nebraska-based outdoor gear retailer.

Filings show Cabela’s management privately discussed selling the company as early as June 2015.

Elliott Management, a New York-based hedge fund, declared an 11 percent stake in October 2015, saying it would press for a sale. Elliott was in contact with Cabela’s before its declaration.

Bass Pro Shops announced in October 2016 it would buy Cabela’s for $5.5 billion, consolidating headquarters in Springfield, Missouri. Cabela’s is currently headquartered in Sidney, a city west of Omaha.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Most of the fastest growing cities in Nebraska are located near the state’s biggest cities of Lincoln and Omaha.

U.S. Census estimates released Thursday show that the town of Hickman just south of Lincoln had the fastest growth rate between 2010 and 2016 at 29 percent. Hickman had 2,109 residents last July.

The next biggest population gain was recorded in the Omaha suburb of Ralston, which grew 23 percent to 7,329.

The state’s largest city of Omaha grew 9.3 percent to 446,970 between 2010 and 2016. Lincoln grew 8.5 percent to 280,364.

Kearney is the only fast-growing city in the state that isn’t near Lincoln or Omaha. Kearney grew 8.9 percent to 33,520.

Nebraska’s population grew 4.4 percent to top 1.9 million last year for the first time.

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — Staff and residents from a Nebraska center for people with developmental disabilities have been visiting a local cemetery around Memorial Day for two decades to ensure former residents are remembered.

A dozen staff members and six residents from Beatrice State Developmental Center visited Evergreen Home Cemetery on Wednesday.

They planted wooden crosses in front of headstones in a section known as Block 47, where more than 200 of the center’s former residents have been buried over the past century.

Dr. Robert Schalock says the facility stopped imprinting patients’ names on their headstones in 1935, and he fears families will forget them.

The center’s active treatment program manager, Tammy Weichel, says decorating graves is a way to make sure nobody is forgotten.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Officials say a deadly uprising at a Nebraska prison began because inmates were angry that prison staffers had confiscated 150 pounds (68 kilograms) of homemade alcohol from them.

Corrections officials said Thursday that the inmates made the alcohol using bread, fruit and sugar from the prison’s kitchen and stored it in watertight footlockers under their beds.

Officials say inmates also were angry about what they perceived as a correctional officer’s assault on a prisoner at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution. Warden Brad Hansen says security footage shows the officer bumped into the inmate unintentionally on a narrow walkway.

Hansen says both incidents contributed to the March 2 uprising that left two inmates dead.

Corrections director Scott Frakes says officials have made improvements in response to an outside consultant’s review.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska telecommunications regulator has resigned following criticism that he worked part-time for a telecommunications consulting firm.

Jeff Pursley will step down as the Nebraska Public Service Commission’s executive director. Pursley has drawn scrutiny for his position with Parrish, Blessing and Associates, but the Nebraska attorney general’s office has said he didn’t violate state law. The commission announced Pursley’s resignation in a statement Thursday.

Pursley has said the commission’s five elected members knew about his part-time work when they hired him two years ago. He says he kept the job because it offered health insurance vital to his family.

The commission regulates oil pipelines, telecommunications, natural gas utilities, grain dealers, taxies, manufactured homes and recreational vehicles.

Commission chairman Tim Schram says Pursley is a nationally recognized expert in his field.