LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Efforts to repair Nebraska’s crumbling county bridges and complete the state’s unfinished expressway system will get a funding boost from a new law backed by Gov. Pete Ricketts.

Ricketts signed a measure Monday to create a $450 million dollar state fund for highway construction projects.

The bill by Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion would create what’s known as an infrastructure bank to finance the work through 2033, drawing $50 million from the state’s cash reserve and using additional revenue from a gas tax increase approved last year.

Ricketts says safe and efficient infrastructure is essential to growing tourism, agriculture and manufacturing.

The League of Nebraska Municipalities, Nebraska Association of County Officials and Nebraska business and community leaders have all praised the measure as vital for economic development.

On Friday, April 15, the Nebraska State Patrol conducted alcohol compliance checks at 10 retail outlets in Red Willow County.

During the effort, two businesses checked, Schmick’s Market and Hi Times Liquor Mart 1, were found to be non-compliant after selling alcohol to a minor. The retail outlets checked included convenience, liquor and grocery stores, as well as restaurants and bars.

Law enforcement performs compliance checks to ensure that businesses are complying with the state’s alcohol laws and to decrease youth access to alcohol.

The compliance checks were conducted thanks in part to a grant from Region II Human Services.

A North Platte man has been arrested, accused of assaulting his live-in girlfriend over a period of two weeks.

On April 17, at around 8:32 p.m., North Platte police responded to the report of a prior domestic disturbance in the 1400 block of Rodeo Road.

Officers met with a 41-year-old female, who alleged that her boyfriend, Antonio Morales, had assaulted her on numerous occasions during the previous two weeks.

The officers reported that the female had “bruises all over her body.”

The victim also alleged that Morales refused to let her leave the apartment and, at one point, had brandished a knife and threatened to kill her.  She was able to escape the residence when Morales left, at which time she contacted police.

Police were able to locate Morales and place him under arrest. He was jailed on charges of use of a weapon to commit a felony, felony false imprisonment, felony terroristic threats and 3rd-degree domestic assault.

Additionally, Morales was also suspected of stealing a flat-screen television from Walmart on April 16.

According to Investigator John Deal, Morales was also charged with that crime as well, and the television was recovered.

Officers also recovered the knife Morales allegedly used to threaten the victim.

Morales is being held at the Lincoln County Detention Center.

MCCOOK, Neb. (AP) — A McCook man has taken a plea deal in a child abuse case involving his girlfriend’s young son.

Online court records say 39-year-old James Clermont is scheduled to be sentenced June 6 in Red Willow County District Court. He’d pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of negligent child abuse, no injury. Prosecutors had lowered the charge from felony intentional child abuse, no injury.

Clermont was accused after his girlfriend’s 5-year-old boy was found to have bruises and abrasions on his back. Authorities say the injuries resulted from Clermont punishing the boy for wetting his pants.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A task force is seeking help for two research projects in the Nebraska Sandhills.

The Sandhills Task Force is conducting a landscape, ranch management and wildlife habitat survey and a trumpeter swan study.

The group says some landowners in the region have received requests to complete a mail survey from a University of Nebraska-Lincoln researcher. The survey results will be shared with participating ranchers as well as in extension and research publications. Responses will be kept anonymous.

The group is also seeking help for a study of trumpeter swans. The number of young swans produced each year appears to have stagnated over the last decade.

Researchers are asking landowners to contact them if they see the birds on their property. The phone number is 402-471-1729 and the email is [email protected].

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nearly three years after state prison officials ended the practice of allowing inmates to drive state-owned vehicles on public streets, the department has found itself again answering questions about the practice.

Inmates have been regularly driving a state-owned truck between the Nebraska State Penitentiary and Cornhusker State Industries, across a public road from the prison.

The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services confirmed as much Friday. Spokesman Andrew Nystrom says state prisons director Scott Frakes only recently learned of the practice, and has halted it pending a review.

In 2013, the department shut down its inmate driving program after inmate Jeremy Dobbe — who had several driving-related convictions on his record — killed a Lincoln woman while driving a state-owned van.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The University of Nebraska Medical School in Omaha has received a renewal of a $1.25 million national grant to help strengthen the math and science curriculum among Native American youth in Nebraska and South Dakota.

The grant has been renewed for another five years through the National Institutes of Health.

Since 2005 when it was initially funded, 280 middle school students and 83 teachers who teach science on reservation schools have participated in the program. The Science Education Partnership Award program has funded summer science camps, teacher workshops and site visits for six reservations in the two states.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska prison officials say they’re investigating two more assaults on staff members this week, adding to a string of physical violence against employees over the past two months.

Two staff members at Tecumseh State Correctional Institute were attacked by inmates Friday following a religious service. Both were taken to an outside medical facility for treatment.

Three staff members at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln were assaulted Thursday while trying to break up a fight between inmates. All three were hospitalized for non-life-threatening injuries and released.

Corrections department spokesman Andrew Nystrom says the units where the assaults took place are on lockdown and investigations into the incidents are under way.