GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Those looking to show their prized farm animals at next year’s Nebraska State Fair will have to pony up a little more.

The Nebraska State Fair board voted Friday to institute a bedding fee to help defray the cost of bedding provided for livestock shown at the fair. The fees will help pay for the bedding and for its removal and disposal.

The fee will be $15 for beef cattle and dairy cattle for 4-H, FFA and open class. It will be $5 for sheep, goats and swine.

The board also approved a $3 per head fee for market animals for 4-H and FFA to help defray the cost of drug testing.

MINDEN, Neb. (AP) — A 37-year-old Minden man faces up to a year in jail for causing a crash that killed another Minden man earlier this year.

Jason Fiske pleaded no contest Thursday to misdemeanor vehicular homicide. A no contest plea is one in which the defendant neither admits nor denies guilty, but acknowledges that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict.

Prosecutors say Fiske was driving a pickup on June 8 when he rear-ended a car driven by 62-year-old Neil Jurgens on Highway 34 in Kearney County. The crash forced Jurgens’ car into oncoming traffic, where it was hit by another pickup. Jurgens was pronounced dead at the scene.

Fiske is set to be sentenced on Feb. 9.

DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government says automakers will end up recalling 42 million vehicles with potentially deadly air bag inflators made by Takata Corp.

The National Highway Safety Administration released a schedule for further recalls on Friday. It’s another step toward recalling about 69 million inflators that can potentially explode with too much force and spew shrapnel into people. Some cars will have both the driver side and passenger side air bags replaced.

Recalls are being phased in through the end of 2019.

Eleven people have been killed by Takata inflators in the U.S. and as many as 16 worldwide. The government says 180 people have been hurt in the U.S. alone.

Nineteen automakers are now affected by the recalls. So far only 12.5 million inflators have been replaced.

A 43-year-old North Platte woman has been accused of stealing money from a mentally disabled man.

According to Investigator John Deal, North Platte police began an investigation into the possible abuse of a vulnerable adult at Family Skill Building Services, 403 East C Street, on December 5.

It was reported by a 34-year-old male that a woman, identified as Ann Ponce, had convinced him to give her money on multiple occasions.  Deal says Ponce told the man she needed the money to help a friend.

The investigation revealed that Ponce would drive the man around and have him get cash advances.  The man reported that Ponce would have him take out a $500 loan each time, totaling over $3,000.

Deal says investigators learned that Ponce was not giving the money to a friend, but was instead using the money to pay off her own debts.

Deal said the victim has some mental disabilities and, as a result, it was determined that there was probable cause to charge Ponce with abuse of a vulnerable adult and theft, both felonies.

Officers made contact with Ponce and placed her under arrest.  She was jailed at the Lincoln County Detention Center.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Public Service Commission is allowing a cable company to stop delivering phone books to homes in the communities it serves statewide.

The state’s phone regulator gave CenturyLink permission on Tuesday to stop delivering the phone books. The books will still be available upon request.

The commission’s spokesman, Cullen Robbins, says the order sets a precedent that could soon be applied across Nebraska. The goal is to cut back on the environmental and material costs associated with printing stacks of hard copy phone books every year.

Other phone companies, such as Windstream in Lincoln, will have to separately apply if they want to drop their paper directories. A Windstream spokesman says the company doesn’t have current plans to do so.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An economic forecast report says low farm prices and a tightening labor market will limit Nebraska’s economic growth over the next three years.

The forecast report released Friday by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Bureau of Business Research says moderate economic growth is expected in Nebraska from 2017 through 2019. Employment is expected to rise by between 1 and 1.1 percent a year.

Eric Thompson is director of the bureau, and he says cattle prices and farm incomes are expected to remain at low levels over the next three years. He also says weakness in its agricultural sector “will cap growth in the Nebraska economy, despite strong growth in other sectors such as construction and business services.”

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Republican Party’s executive director has stepped down to take a new job.

Robert “Bud” Synhorst said Thursday he has accepted a position as executive director of the Alpaca Owners Association, a Lincoln-based national trade group.

Synhorst had served as the state GOP’s executive director since 2013. During his tenure, he developed a political strategic plan focused on legislative races and led a finance committee that raised more than $2 million.

The party has not yet replaced Synhorst but will discuss his job at a meeting this weekend.

Synhorst previously worked as executive director of two Nebraska nonprofits, the Mary Lanning Healthcare Foundation in Hastings and the Metropolitan Community College Foundation in Omaha. Synhorst also has served as athletic development officer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s presidential electors are getting deluged with messages trying to sway them before they vote for Republican Donald Trump this month, but state law has already tied their hands.

A law passed in 2014 requires at-large electors to pledge that they will support the statewide vote winner, and district electors to vote for the winning candidate in their districts. Those who refuse are automatically removed from the position, and Secretary of State John Gale is prohibited from accepting their ballot.

Despite the law, electors say they’ve been shocked to receive so many pleas urging them to vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton or even another Republican. Elector Craig Safranek of Merna says he received roughly 1,000 emails in a three-day period after his name was posted online.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The latest Census data raises new concerns about the brain drain in Nebraska because the state has been losing twice as many people who hold at least a bachelor’s degree in recent years.

Between 2011 and 2015, the state saw a net loss of 11,640 people with at least a bachelor’s degree. That’s up from 5,520 during the previous five-year period, which included the Great Recession.

David Drozd with the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Center for Public Affairs Research says the state now ranks 44th in the rate at which it is losing residents with college degrees. Between 2006 and 2010, Nebraska ranked 34th.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says the increase in people with degrees leaving the state is likely related to the economic recovery since 2009.