LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Gov. Pete Ricketts is traveling back to Japan for another trade mission to promote trade with Nebraska.

Ricketts announced Thursday that he will visit the country in September along with state agricultural and economic development officials. He also encouraged farm and business representatives to considering joining the trip.

Japan is Nebraska’s leading foreign investor and its third-largest trading partner.

Ricketts made the announcement at a Kawasaki plant in Lincoln that just opened a new aerospace division.

The trade mission delegation will stop in Tokyo for the annual conference of the Midwest U.S.-Japan Association. The association is comprised of eight states, including Nebraska.

Ricketts led a similar trade mission to Japan in 2015.

A North Platte woman is facing felony drug charges after police found items consistent with meth use and sales in her home during the service of a search warrant.

According to Investigator John Deal, officers executed a search warrant on a home in the 400 block of East H Street at around 1:10 p.m., on May 15.

Deal said the warrant was obtained due to suspected drug activity at the home involving 32-year-old Marisa Foster.

Officers entered the home and found it to be unoccupied.  But, Deal says officers located numerous items consistent with meth use in the home, including, pipes, spoons and syringes.

Also located in the home were plastic baggies with meth residue, unused plastic baggies and a digital scale, along with prescription dextroamphetamine pills.

Deal said it was determined that there was probable cause to arrest Foster for possession of methamphetamine with the intent to deliver, and felony possession of the pills.

On May 17, officers located Foster at a residence in the 500 block of West 11th Street and placed her under arrest.

She was jailed at the Lincoln County Detention Center.

DETROIT (AP) — The Latest on the death of musician Chris Cornell in Detroit (all times local):

7:40 a.m.

Detroit police say the death of rocker Chris Cornell, the lead singer of the bands Soundgarden and later Audioslave, is being investigated as a possible suicide.

Police spokesman Michael Woody tells The Associated Press on Thursday morning that he can’t provide details on what led investigators to make that determination, but noted there were “basic things observed at the scene.”

Woody says Cornell died at the MGM Grand Detroit hotel. He says Cornell’s wife called a family friend and asked him to check on Cornell. Woody says the friend forced open a hotel room door and found Cornell on the bathroom floor.

The 52-year-old Cornell was on tour and performed Wednesday night in Detroit with Soundgarden.

The Wayne County Medical Examiner’s office will make an official determination about the cause of death.

___

3:30 a.m.

According to his representative, rocker Chris Cornell, who gained fame as the lead singer of Soundgarden and later Audioslave, has died at age 52.

In a statement to The Associated Press, Brian Bumbery says Cornell died Wednesday night in Detroit.

Bumbery called the death “sudden and unexpected” and said his wife and family were shocked by it. The statement said the family would be working closely with the medical examiner to determine the cause and asked for privacy.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers have rejected several attempts to override Gov. Pete Ricketts’ budget vetoes, citing concerns about the state’s finances despite warnings that the governor’s cuts would hurt vulnerable residents.

Senators fell three votes short Wednesday of the support needed to restore $32.4 million in proposed funding for groups that serve the elderly and people with developmental disabilities.

Alan Zavodny, the executive director of NorthStar Services, says the vote will probably force his nonprofit group out of business. NorthStar Services serves 200 residents and provides 500 jobs in northeast Nebraska.

Ricketts had vetoed $56.5 million from the two-year state budget. The Appropriations Committee had recommended that lawmakers try to restore $32.7 million of that funding, most of which went to Medicaid service providers.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers are one step closer to creating a new oversight committee to monitor the state’s prison system.

Members of the Executive Board voted 6-3 on Wednesday to send the measure to the full Legislature for debate.

The proposal by Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha would create a seven-member committee to examine problems in the state prisons and other agencies that work with criminal offenders. Lawmakers have created similar committees in the past.

The original proposal would have given the committee subpoena power to compel witness testimony, but that provision was stripped out through an amendment.

Sen. Laura Ebke of Crete, the chairwoman of the Judiciary Committee, is expected to lead the committee.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s prison system could face renewed scrutiny from lawmakers in the wake of a revolt that left two inmates dead and the murder of another by his cellmate.

Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha urged his colleagues Tuesday to create a new investigative committee to look into a recent spate of problems in the Department of Correctional Services.

Authorities say 39-year-old Patrick Schroeder killed his cellmate, 22-year-old Terry Berry, at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution in April. An autopsy says Berry was strangled.

The southeastern Nebraska prison has a history of deadly violence, including an inmate uprising in March that left eft two inmates dead. Two others killed in a May 2015 riot at the prison.

Corrections director Scott Frakes says lawmakers already have multiple oversight tools available.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Gov. Pete Ricketts is touting Nebraska’s trade relationship with Mexico as the Trump administration prepares for new talks with Mexico and Canada over the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Ricketts said Tuesday that NAFTA plays a crucial role for Nebraska’s corn producers and helps support an estimated 34,000 jobs in the state.

He made the comments during a news conference at the Capitol with a Mexican trade delegation and representatives of the U.S. Grains Council and the National Corn Growers Association.

Mexico is Nebraska’s largest export market for corn, providing $287 million in added value to the state economy. Ricketts says bilateral trade with the country has helped grow agriculture.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Elected officials and community leaders are applauding the passage of a Nebraska bill that will result in longer prison sentences for people who buy and sell sex.

Leaders gathered Tuesday at the Capitol after senators voted 48-0 to pass the bill. The measure’s sponsor, Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln, says it will stop people who commit horrific crimes from just getting probation.

The bill will allow prison sentences of up to 50 years for trafficking an adult and life for trafficking a child. Attorney General Doug Peterson says these penalties demonstrate Nebraska will not tolerate slavery.

Women’s Fund of Omaha Policy Director Traci Bruckner says the next step to combat trafficking is supporting female victims and potential victims.

The measure now heads to Gov. Pete Ricketts for approval.

CHADRON, Neb. (AP) — A 29-year-old man has been given 24 months of probation for the crash death of an Alliance woman.

Court records say Trevor Teichroeb, of Bayard, was sentenced Monday. He’d pleaded no contest in January to misdemeanor vehicular homicide.

The Nebraska State Patrol says 68-year-old Barbara Fritzler was fatally injured Oct. 18 last year while waiting for a pilot car at a construction site on U.S. Highway 26, about a mile and a half east (3 kilometers) of Minatare. The patrol says Teichroeb’s pickup truck rammed into the rear of Fritzler’s car, knocking it into a vehicle ahead of hers.