LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Just over half of surveyed students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln said they want red balloons to keep soaring over Memorial Stadium after touchdowns, despite protests about the environmental impact.

Almost 52 percent of the roughly 3,800 students surveyed indicated they wanted to keep the tradition alive, the Lincoln Journal Star reported. Almost 43 percent argued the practice should end, while 6 percent said they didn’t care.

The tradition to launch balloons after the football team’s first touchdown began in the 1940s. The university now uses thousands of biodegradable balloons tied with cotton string to minimize the environmental impact.

Sophomore Brittni McGuire is president of Sustain UNL, a student-led environmental sustainability organization that led an education campaign about the balloon issue.

McGuire said the balloons still take years to decompose and are a threat to wildlife.

“If we take away the balloons, we’ll still be celebrating touchdowns,” she said. “We don’t change the game, but we do save the water and the wildlife.”

McGuire said the survey was part of a broader conversation about what students can do to address issues about the environment and climate change.

“We’ve grown up with the science, and we see it as a huge threat and something we have to deal with,” she said. “My generation is thinking more about the future and the impact of our decisions now.”

McGuire said that although students seemed in favor of the balloon tradition, two-thirds of survey respondents indicated a desire to ban plastic bags from campus vendors.

There have been other attempts to end the tradition, including a billboard campaign last year launched by Balloons Blow, a Florida nonprofit, which equated the tradition to littering. An Omaha man in 2016 sued the university to stop the balloon release.

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. – One hundred and twenty mule deer does are wearing GPS monitoring devices for the second year of a research study designed to aid in the management of mule deer populations in high- and low-density areas of Nebraska.

A crew of about 15 people, consisting of graduate students, faculty, and collaborators from the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), along with Nebraska Game and Parks Commission (NGPC) staff, equipped the deer with monitoring devices after a helicopter capture crew caught them in four study areas last week; two in the northwest and two in the southwest.

The GPS devices will allow for remote monitoring via satellite and provide valuable data on movements and habitat use while still allowing researchers to locate the deer on the ground to investigate possible mortalities and other important events.

The study is being conducted by UNL professor Dr. John Benson and his team including crew leader Emma Kring. Data from this study will help determine survival rates and factors influencing mortality, habitat use, home range size and movements of adult female and fawn mule deer.

“Our research in southwest and northwest Nebraska is an amazing opportunity to obtain intensive data on mule deer in areas in close proximity at different densities and experiencing different environmental conditions,” said Benson. “This information will allow us to understand the population dynamics and habitat relationships that result in these different densities, which will have important implications for management of mule deer in Nebraska and should contribute broadly to understanding factors that limit mule deer populations across their range.”

Once captured, the mule deer does underwent DNA sampling, blood draws, weighing and other measurements; an ultrasound was used to determine body condition and whether the does were pregnant. The does will be closely monitored this spring and early summer so newborn fawns can be captured and collared soon after they are born.

Lance Hastings, southwest district manager-wildlife division with the Commission said the capture project and other research could not happen without the support of landowners who provide access for the captures and monitoring.

Video of the mule deer capture is available on the NGPC YouTube channel.

Video of the mule deer capture is available for download via Dropbox.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A prison inmate has been given more time behind bars for attacking two prison employees nearly a year ago at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln.

Lancaster County District Court records say 21-year-old Jordan Baker was sentenced Thursday to four to six years. He’d pleaded no contest to one assault charge after prosecutors dropped the second. The records don’t contain details about what happened.

Baker has been serving consecutive sentences of 10 to 20 years for assault and five to 10 years for using a weapon in a Lincoln County case. Court records say he used a kitchen knife in July 2013 to attack two staffers at Nebraska Youth Center in North Platte. He was 16 at the time.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Gov. Pete Ricketts has signed a bill to prevent Nebraska cities from banning short-term home rentals such as Airbnb, Home Away and VBRO.

The measure approved Thursday was one 43 bills signed by the governor. It comes at a time when major cities such as Los Angeles, New York City and Paris have passed restrictions or outright bans on such rentals.

The Nebraska bill by state Sen. Adam Morfeld, of Lincoln, still allows cities to tax short-term rentals and regulate them for health and public safety purposes.

It also gives online short-term rental companies to enter into an agreement with the state to collect and pay sales taxes that are owed.

Ricketts says the new law gives Nebraska property owners the opportunity to embrace the “sharing economy.”

SIDNEY, Neb. (AP) – Bass Pro Shops intends to close its Cabela’s distribution center in Sidney, cutting more jobs from the western Nebraska city.

Bass Pro Shops said Thursday that the closure “is being taken as a result of an extensive review of all Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s operations, including independent analysis by global logistics experts and shipping companies.” The analysis showed the 77-year-old Sidney facility handled less volume than all of its other distribution centers.

The Cabela’s merchandise return center in Oshkosh also is being closed.

Closing the Sidney center will result in the loss of 121 jobs, while 41 jobs will be eliminated at the Oshkosh facility.

Cabela’s once employed around 2,000 people in Sidney before it was bought by Bass Pro Shops, which is based in Springfield, Missouri. The deal was completed in September 2017.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Prosecutors say a man accused of providing to companies workers in the U.S. illegally has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Lincoln.

Forty-year-old Juan Pablo Sanchez-Delgado, of Mexico, entered the plea Tuesday to conspiring to harbor aliens. His sentencing is scheduled for May 31.

He was among more than a dozen business owners and managers indicted for fraud and money laundering in August raids at Nebraska and Minnesota businesses and plants.

Sanchez-Delgado agreed in his plea deal to forfeit four Las Vegas residences and bank accounts and cash totaling more than $178,000. Prosecutors say the real estate and cash were proceeds of the harboring conspiracy.

Sanchez-Delgado admitted he conspired with supervisors at several agricultural corporations between January 2015 and July 2017 to supply those companies with workers who were not authorized to work or remain in the United States.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Nebraska voters will get the chance in 2020 to repeal a state constitutional amendment that allows people to be enslaved as punishment for a crime.

The measure won final approval from lawmakers Thursday on a 44-0 vote.

Nebraska’s Constitution has banned slavery and involuntary servitude since 1875, except as punishment for a crime. Supporters say that provision hasn’t been used in recent history, but was once invoked to force former slaves back into unpaid labor for private parties, a system known as convict leasing.

The measure will appear on the November 2020 general election ballot. Its sponsor, Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha, says the amendment sends an important message about Nebraska’s values.

Some senators have voiced worries about the message that would be sent if voters reject the repeal measure.