SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) — Officials in Scottsbluff plan to ask airlines to submit new bids to serve the Western Nebraska Regional Airport.

Bids are due by Jan. 27. The airport’s current contract with Great Lakes Aviation runs through next October.

Airport officials expect to receive bids from Boutique Air, of San Francisco; Aerodynamics Inc. of Kennesaw, Georgia; and Great Lakes Aviation, of Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The new contract will begin next November.

COZAD, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say two Iowa men died after two trucks crashed into each other this weekend.

The Nebraska State Patrol says the crash happened around 2:30 a.m. Sunday on Interstate 80 near Cozad.

Authorities say a semi-trailer truck tried to exit at a rest area, but couldn’t navigate the off ramp. So that truck merged back into traffic at a slow speed.

The State Patrol says another truck driven by 25-year-old Adrian Carrillo rear ended the semi as it re-entered the interstate.

Carrillo and his passenger, 48-year-old Roberto Garcia-Gonzales, both died in the crash. They were both from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The driver of the semi, 34-year-old Al-Jabba Hopkins of Wendell, North Carolina, and his passenger were not seriously hurt.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Federal Reserve Bank is encouraging families to assemble their important financial documents before they encounter a disaster, such as a storm or a fire.

The bank’s Kansas City branch put together a website with advice about what documents people would want to have available in a disaster.

The website offers a worksheet families can fill out, so they will have access to their key financial information in one place.

There is also a checklist of steps to take before a disaster that might force families to evacuate their homes.

More information is available online at http://bit.ly/1PYPNzR .

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Disputes over the Republican River continue to cost Nebraska millions in legal expenses despite a new promise of cooperation with fellow river states Kansas and Colorado.

The Nebraska attorney general’s office is seeking another $1.2 million from lawmakers to defend the state against a class-action lawsuit filed by farmers and to hire consultants for its ongoing settlement negotiations with Kansas.

The budget request to lawmakers reflects lingering costs for the state as it works to secure a long-term agreement with Kansas and meet its obligations under the Republican River Compact.

Farmers within the Frenchman Cambridge Irrigation District in southern Nebraska are seeking $219 million in damages for lost water that was diverted downstream to Kansas in order to comply with the river compact.

BAYARD, Neb. (AP) — Authorities are investigating a man’s death after a Western Nebraska farmer found his body sealed inside a 55-gallon barrel.

The farmer spotted the barrel floating in a creek about four miles east of Bayard on Friday afternoon. He called the Morrill County Sheriff’s office after opening the barrel and seeing the body inside.

Sheriff Milo Cardenas says there were no signs of trauma on the body, and it appears the man had been dead for only a couple days. An autopsy will be done Monday.

Morrill County Attorney Travis Rodak says it’s clear foul play was involved in the death because the lid was screwed on the barrel.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Department of Education’s new accountability system has named three public schools among 87 listed as the state’s lowest-performing that will receive state intervention.

Druid Hill Elementary School in Omaha, Loup County Public School in Taylor and a middle school on the Santee Reservation near Niobrara were named “priority” schools Friday. State teams will work with those schools to devise plans indicating what goals they must reach to be taken off the list.

A 2014 state law mandated the new Accountability of a Quality Education System Today and Tomorrow system, in which all of Nebraska’s 1,130 schools are classified as excellent, great, good or needs improvement.

Eighty percent fell into the two middle levels. Thirteen percent were classified as excellent.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Farmers and ranchers who want to learn about the federal Conservation Reserve Program may attend one of several meetings being held across the state later this month and into next year.

The meetings will give landowners information about the program and sign-up deadlines, as well as options for landowners with expiring CRP contracts.

The Conservation Reserve Program now keeps about 24 million acres of environmentally sensitive land nationwide from being farmed. As of October 2014, Nebraska had nearly 786,000 acres in the program, which creates habitat for quail, pheasant, prairie chickens and other wildlife and helps protect streams, lakes and rivers.

Farmers receive annual rental payments on 10-, 15- and 20-year contracts.

The meetings began Wednesday and will continue through the end of January.

BIG SPRINGS, Neb. (AP) — A prosecutor says the western Nebraska sheriff’s deputy injured in a shootout earlier this week that killed the suspect was shot four times as he stepped out of his cruiser.

Deuel County Attorney Joel Jay tells the Omaha World-Herald (http://bit.ly/1OFtgqr ) that Deputy Michael Hutchinson never fired his gun. Jay says the man Hutchinson had intended to arrest came out of his Big Springs front door shooting as Hutchinson and four other law enforcement officers pulled up to serve arrest warrants on him.

Sheriff Scott DeCoste returned fire, killing 66-year-old Neil Stretesky.

Hutchinson underwent surgery and is in serious condition at a hospital in Greeley, Colorado.

The warrants charged Stretesky with violating conditions of his bail for assault and attempted murder in Sedgwick County, Colorado, and a Keith County misdemeanor.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s governor says the state will stop trying to obtain lethal injection drugs until voters decide whether to keep capital punishment.

A statewide vote is scheduled for November 2016.

The state has been struggling to import two drugs that are required for its lethal injection protocol.

Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts said Friday that his administration will also wait to carry out executions. No executions had been scheduled.

Lawmakers abolished capital punishment in May over Ricketts’ veto, but a statewide petition drive gathered enough signatures to suspend that decision and put the issue on the ballot.

Nebraska bought $54,400 in foreign-made drugs from a distributor in India, but the federal government has said they can’t be imported legally.

Ricketts says he’s also talking with state officials about changing the drug protocol.

North Platte, NE—Creativity Unlimited Arts Council announces that it has been awarded a grant of $500 by the Nebraska Arts Council.

This grant supported the “Lewis and Clark” exhibit by IMPACT Nebraska Artists and the North Platte Treble Makers music at the preview party November 22, 2015 at the Prairie Arts Center – 5th and Jeffers, North Platte, NE. The Exhibit will be open through December 30th, Tuesday to Sat, 11:00 to 4:00.

In this show, Impact artists respond to the dramatic history of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Mediums include metal, ceramics, batik, as well as paintings and drawings. The works pay tribute to the lasting beauty of the Missouri River traversed by the Corps of Discovery, from reflections of morning sun to the dark at the cusp of evening. Tall grass prairie, trees in valleys, wild roses, eroded hoodoos on bluffs, all convey the magic of what is unchanged in the western landscape. There are also abstract interpretations of the landscape. In several pieces, the maps created by the explorers, as well as the words of their journals, are integrated into the artwork. There are portraits – Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea. This show, varied, surprising, and educational, offers an exciting new look at one of the great moments of American history.

Nebraska Arts Council’s Executive Director, Suzanne Wise, commended Creativity Unlimited Arts Council for its programs, noting that CUAC does an outstanding job of providing arts activities in North Platte. It is through fine organizations like this that Nebraska’s children receive a better education in the arts, and the quality of life is improved for all Nebraskans.

The Nebraska Arts Council grants monetary resources to Nebraska’s nonprofit organizations for arts projects and programs in communities throughout the state. This financial support is made possible by funds appropriated by the Nebraska Legislature, through competitive grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), a federal agency, and funds from the Nebraska Cultural Endowment (NCE). Nebraskans wishing to learn more about NEA grants or the NCE should visit the NAC website atwww.nebraskaartscouncil.org.