SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) — Scottsbluff police have been investigating reports that several children were injured when a school bus driver slammed on its brakes.

The incident occurred May 4 as around 20 students were being taken to Westmoor Elementary for an after-school program. Capt. Brian Wasson says there have been several reports the driver hit the brakes because he couldn’t get all the students to sit. Wasson said Friday that those reports haven’t been confirmed but also says investigators have obtained a digital and audio recording from inside the bus.

Wasson says several parents sought medical treatment for their children, but he doesn’t know of any student who required hospitalization.

A spokeswoman for the district’s bus service, First Student, says the driver is no longer employed. Wasson says no citations have been issued.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The commission that oversees Nebraska’s state tourism agency has suspended its executive director in the wake of a scathing state audit.

Kathy McKillip was ordered Friday to turn in her keys and files while the commission investigates financial mismanagement within the Nebraska Tourism Commission. McKillip will continue to be paid while on suspension.

The audit found that Nebraska tourism officials used state money to reimburse a marketing firm for alcohol and cigarettes, accepted meals from contractors and paid $44,000 in speaking fees for a 90-minute speech by a corporate executive.

Commission members met in closed session before voting 7-0 to impose the suspension. McKillip left the meeting without comment.

Commission Chairman John Chapo says he can’t discuss the decision because it’s a personnel matter.

DENVER (AP) — The Air Force has just two female four-star generals, and one is about to become the first woman to head a top-tier U.S. warfighting command, but that may not be the most remarkable thing about her.

Gen. Lori J. Robinson takes over the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command in Colorado on Friday. People who know Robinson describe her as the personification of a new generation of leaders, someone who understands the Air Force has a broad role in space, cyber security and drones, not just flying and fighting.

That’s what sets Robinson apart, not her gender, said Maria Carl, a retired Air Force colonel who knows her.

“Gen. Robinson reflects that change as much as anything else,” said Carl, who serves on the Military Affairs Council of the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce. Carl didn’t serve under Robinson but worked with her in her Chamber of Commerce role, when the general headed the Pacific Air Forces at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

“She has an ability to take all the different pieces of the picture and pull it together strategically,” Carl said.

Robinson wasn’t available for an interview before she officially started her new assignment at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs.

Her family has deep roots in the Air Force. Her husband, retired two-star Gen. David Robinson, was a pilot in the Thunderbirds demonstration team. David Robinson’s daughter, 2nd Lt. Taryn Ashley Robinson, graduated from the Air Force Academy in June 2005 but was fatally injured in a pilot-training crash that autumn. She died in January 2006, four weeks before her 23rd birthday.

Lori Robinson’s father, George Howard of Jackson, New Hampshire, was a 30-year Air Force veteran and a pilot in the Vietnam War.

“I have looked up to my father my entire life,” Robinson told senators at a confirmation hearing for her new job last month. He accompanied her to the hearing.

One of her new commands, the North American Aerospace Defense Command or NORAD, is a joint U.S.-Canada operation that defends the skies over both nations and monitors sea approaches. It’s best known for its Cold War-era control room deep inside Cheyenne Mountain — now used only as a backup — and for its wildly popular NORAD Tracks Santa operation on Christmas Eve, fielding calls from children asking for Santa’s whereabouts.

Her other command, Northern Command, is responsible for defending U.S. territory from attack and helping civilian authorities in emergencies. It was created after the Sep. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Northern Command is one of nine warfighting centers the Pentagon calls unified combatant commands. They combine elements of all the military services and have responsibility for geographic areas of the globe or specialized roles, such as special forces.

All the other combatant commands are led by men.

Robinson has an extensive background in command and control, the science of orchestrating military operations across a broad area. In her previous job, commander of Pacific Air Forces, her area of responsibility spanned more than half the globe.

“You’re dealing with a lot of countries, a lot of the air forces in the Pacific, China being one of them,” said Darryll Wong, a retired Air Force major general and Hawaii’s former adjutant general. “She had to be a fast learner.”

Wong said Robinson showed she has a compassionate side as well.

“I think it’s very reassuring that you have a strong leader and a compassionate leader,” he said. “It says a lot to the enlisted (personnel).”

Robinson joined the Air Force in 1982 through the ROTC program at the University of New Hampshire. She has been an air battle manager and tactics chief, and her commands have included an operations and training groups. She was also an Air Force fellow at the Brookings Institute.

She received her fourth star in October 2014. The only other female four-star general currently serving in the Air Force is Ellen M. Pawlikowski, who leads the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

SALINA, Utah (AP) — Utah state troopers say four members of a Nebraska family were killed and a fifth was injured after their pickup truck rolled several times and crashed on a highway in rural, central Utah.

Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Todd Royce says a husband and wife, their two daughters and an infant grandson were not wearing seatbelts and were thrown from the truck in the Thursday morning crash.

Royce says the baby, the 46-year-old husband and two of the adult women died at the crash site. A third female was flown to a Salt Lake City hospital in critical condition.

Royce says the family’s identities won’t be released until other family members are notified.

Investigators say fatigue may have caused the crash.

Night three of opening weekend brings the American rock band from San Francisco—Train, to perform at 8pm on Sunday, August 28.  Tickets are available at Etix.com or from the Heartland Events Center Box Office for $40 general admission and $70 for limited pit seating.

State Fair events and entertainment director, Chelsey Jungck said, “This is another music genre that our fans have wanted to see a lot more of. Train is known for delivering memorable songs that capture the imagination.  The eight-time Grammy nominees are heralded as the standard bearer for riveting, roots-based pop in the U.S. and around the world.”

Generational Anthems like, “Hey Soul Sister”, “50 Ways to Say Goodbye”, “Drops of Jupiter”, “Marry Me” and so many more have catapulted the group into selling ten million albums and thirty million tracks worldwide.  They’ve earned three Grammy Awards, two Billboard Music Awards and dozens of other honors and nominations.

Accolades aside, they fill concert venues based solely on the music that is unlike any other from a band that is unlike any other—Train.

Train

Date:   Sunday, August 28, 8pm

General Tickets: $40 plus gate and fees

Pit Tickets:   $70 plus gate and fees

Available:  Etix.com or at the Heartland Events Center Box Office.

NEW YORK (AP) — A new national report says the number of 3- and 4-year-olds in state-funded classrooms rose slightly during the 2014-15 school year.

The report from the National Institute for Early Education Research found a wide range in per-pupil spending and quality of programs. New Jersey spent $12,149 for each child enrolled in pre-K compared with $2,304 in Florida and $1,981 in South Carolina.

Total enrollment in 2014-15 increased by 37,167 from the previous year.

Enrollment in state-funded preschool dipped in several states, including Texas, Florida and Wisconsin.

The report tracks quality measures for state-funded preschool such as class sizes and teacher-training requirements. Several states including California, Florida and Texas don’t require preschool teachers to have a college degree.

The report’s authors cite the rapid expansion of pre-K in New York as a model.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The commission that oversees Nebraska’s state tourism agency has scheduled a meeting to discuss the job of its embattled director in the wake of a blistering state audit.

Commission members on Friday will hear the initial recommendations of a subcommittee that was formed to review the audit’s findings. The recommendations could include actions against Kathy McKillip, the commission’s executive director.

The audit revealed that Nebraska tourism officials used state money to reimburse a marketing firm for alcohol and cigarettes, went $4.4 million over budget on advertising contracts over three years and paid $44,000 in speaking fees for a 90-minute speech by a corporate executive.

Commission Chairman John Chapo called the audit “alarming” when members met last week.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A federal appeals court won’t reinstate a Nebraska businessman’s lawsuit against state banking regulators, but the judges said the regulators were wrong to target the financial adviser partly because of his criticism of President Barack Obama.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn an earlier decision that Bob Bennie Jr.’s rights weren’t violated.

Bennie, a Lincoln financial adviser and tea party activist, called Obama a “communist” and an “evil man” in a 2010 interview with the Lincoln Journal Star. Regulators cited those comments in emails to Bennie’s employer about his conduct.

The appeals court says it was “wholly inappropriate” for regulators to allow their views of Bennie’s political comments to influence how they treated him.