LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Hunters may enter a lottery through the end of September to gain deer hunting access to Platte River Recreation Access lands in the central Platte River Valley.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission says 56 hunters will be chosen from a random drawing in early October and allowed to hunt deer on the designated lands Nov. 16-20.

Applications are limited to one per person and will be accepted by mail or in person at the Game and Parks service center in Kearney. Hunters may apply to hunt three areas but, if chosen, will receive permission for just one area. Lottery winners will be notified by Oct. 21.

More information and a map showing the available areas can be obtained at platteaccess.org, by calling 308-865-5338 or emailing ngpc.platteaccess@nebraska.gov.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A former University of Nebraska at Kearney professor has been sentenced to five years of probation for possessing child pornography.

U.S. Attorney Deborah Gilg says 56-year-old Joseph Benz was sentenced last week. Investigators found more than 20,000 images of child pornography on his computer in 2013.

Benz was also ordered to pay $9,999 restitution to victims that law enforcement identified in the images.

The case was part of a nationwide effort to reduce child sexual exploitation.

CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — The average price of gasoline in the U.S. is up four cents over the past three weeks to $2.21 a gallon for regular grade.

Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday that higher crude oil costs caused refiners and retailers to bump up their prices.

The average price is 23 cents lower than a year ago.

The Lundberg Survey found the average price of midgrade unleaded is $2.49 a gallon, and the average price of premium is $2.71 a gallon.

The highest average price for regular gas in the contiguous U.S. is $2.71 a gallon in San Francisco. The lowest is $1.91 in Jackson, Mississippi.

The U.S. average diesel price is $2.39 per gallon, up about four cents from three weeks ago.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Family of woman who died this summer in Whiteclay hope an investigation will yield answers about the circumstances of her death. Authorities have said Sherry Wounded Foot of Porcupine, South Dakota, died from head trauma.

Relatives say another family member died in 2012 in the Nebraska town that sells millions of cans of beer annually near South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Family members say they never learned what happened to Sanford Wounded Foot after his death in 2012.

Sherry Wounded Foot’s oldest son, Logan Lafferty, says he fears no one will ever be charged in his mother’s death either.

Sheridan County Attorney Jamian Simmons says the investigation into Wounded Foot’s death is active and ongoing.

VALENTINE, Neb. (AP) — Officials have delayed a boat ramp construction project at Merritt Reservoir State Recreation Area.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission says the water level did not drop low enough for construction to begin. Construction will be attempted again next year.

Plans call for a concrete boat ramp at the main landing area. The facility will provide better access for boat operators and for anglers for a longer duration during future summer reservoir drawdowns. The current boat ramp is often out of service by early July.

Merritt Reservoir sits 26 miles southwest of Valentine in Cherry County.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska state senator is asking the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct more long-term care meetings in his overwhelmingly rural district.

Sen. Al Davis of Hyannis sent a letter to the department asking for more meetings in District 43, an area that includes all of 12 western and northern Nebraska counties and part of Box Butte County.

Department CEO Courtney Phillips recently announced a statewide tour of meetings to discuss its long-term care plan with constituents.

Davis says his district is home to a large share of the state’s elderly population, and also has high levels of poverty and a large number of uninsured residents.

TECUMSEH, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska prisons officials are reporting another attack on prison staff by an inmate.

The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services says an inmate hit three staff members at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution on Friday as they tried to restrain him.

Officials say all three staff members were treated for minor injuries and released from the Johnson County Hospital.

A week earlier, on Sept. 2, the prison was placed on lockdown after officials received information that violent attacks on staff members had been planned.

There has been a rash of attacks on corrections officers and staff at various Nebraska prisons over several months, including one last month in Lincoln that officials say was carried about by a dozen inmates and left nine officers injured.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The University of Nebraska Board of Regents will consider a salary increase for the university system’s president to $510,400 this school year.

6.3 percent salary increase for Hank Bounds is recommended by the Board of Regents’ executive committee. The full board meets Sept. 16 on the UNL campus.

Bounds was hired early last year as president of the University of Nebraska — which oversees campuses in Lincoln, Omaha and Kearney, as well as the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture in Curtis. In December, the regents extended his contract through 2020.

Bounds also receives $20,000 a year in private funds from the University of Nebraska Foundation, along with perks that include a home, the use of a vehicle and a country club membership.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska landowners can apply now for money to help improve grasslands for wildlife habitat and grazing.

Money is available to cover up to 75 percent of the cost of qualifying conservation projects, but landowners must apply by Oct. 21.

Some of the practices that qualify include grazing management, resting rangeland, prescribed burns and brush management.

The money is available through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

More information is available online at www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/ne.

Governor Pete Ricketts announced that all U.S. and Nebraska flags are to be flown at half-staff on Patriot Day.  Flags will be flown at half-staff until sunset on September 11, 2016.

Governor Ricketts also issued the following statement in observance of Patriot Day:

“On Patriot Day, we remember the Americans killed in the largest terrorist attacks ever committed on American soil, and the brave law enforcement and firefighters who responded.  The stories of their sacrifices inspired Americans in the days following September 11, 2001, and their many acts of heroism helped us come together as a country and combat the evil of terrorism.  These stories continue to inspire us today as we wage war against Islamic extremism at home and abroad.  We will never forget.”

On Patriot Day, the Governor will attend the 9/11 Minute of Silence at Stinson Park in Omaha and the 9/11 Remembrance and Military Tribute in Papillion.