LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Three events in Lincoln and Omaha next year will receive a boost from grants the Nebraska Tourism Commission awarded.

The events were chosen to share $220,000 in grant money because they all have the potential to attract a significant number of out-of-state visitors.

The Omaha Sports Commission will receive $100,000 to help promote the 2016 U.S. Olympic swim team trials.

In Lincoln, the local USBC bowling association will receive $70,000 to promote the World Tenpin Youth Bowling Championships next year.

And the Omaha Equestrian Foundation will get $50,000 to promote the 2016 International Omaha event and prepare for the 2017 World Cup equestrian finals in Omaha.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — With Nebraska expected to see millions in new state funding for roads next year, lawmakers are looking for ways to accelerate work on a decades-old backlog of highway projects.

Members of the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee have spent the summer traveling the state to examine Nebraska’s highway and bridge repair needs as they prepare legislation for next year’s session.

Lawmakers voted in May to increase the state fuel tax to 31.6 cents per gallon by 2019, eventually generating an extra $25 million in annual roads funding for the state and $51 million for cities and counties.

Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion, the committee chairman, says lawmakers are trying to find ways to generate more money up front so work can start sooner on road and bridge projects.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — It’s that time of year, when deer are more active, and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is asking motorists to keep a wary eye out for the animals.

Wildlife officials say deer are breeding, making bucks bolder and more susceptible to collisions with vehicles. Deer tend to move more at dawn and dusk.

Officials recommend drivers wear their seat belts, use caution driving near shelterbelts, wood lots and creeks and honk and flash their lights if you see a deer in the roadway.

Officials say that a driver may take possession of a struck deer, but must contact a Game and Parks conservation officer within 24 hours to obtain a salvage tag.

The news came at a Nebraska Game and Parks Commission meeting Friday in Fairbury.

Carnivore program manager Same Wilson says that results of a cougar research project in the state will dictate whether biologists recommend a future hunting season for the big cat.

Nebraska’s first and only mountain lion-hunting season occurred in 2014. Hunters killed five cats.

The commission decided not to permit hunting this year because of the high number of females killed in 2014. In addition to the five killed by hunters, 11 others died from illegal hunting, traps and being hit by vehicles. Ten of the 16 killed were females.

Sen. Tyson Larson, of O’Neill, took the policy to task Friday during a legislative hearing on the matter.

Larson says while students 21 and older are prohibited from drinking in university dorms, NU administrators apply for hundreds of liquor licenses each year for various events on campus — including some in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s chancellor’s office.

But UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman countered before the General Affairs Committee that alcohol use among students is already a serious problem. He says granting the small percentage of student 21 and over living on campus the right to drink could create more problems.

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) — Western Nebraska authorities say a truck driver was rescued from his big rig after it ran off Interstate 80 into a pond.

Firefighters and Nebraska State Patrol troopers were sent to the scene about two miles west of the Maxwell exit around 6:30 p.m. Thursday. The patrol says most of the truck cab was submerged.

Rescuers deployed a boat to reach the cab. They used a Jaws of Life to cut a hole in the cab because the cab doors couldn’t be opened and the driver couldn’t escape through any of its windows. The driver was taken to a North Platte hospital after he was freed and reached dry ground.

The accident cause is being investigated.

A 12-year-old North Platte boy was injured when he was struck by a vehicle on Thursday afternoon.

According to North Platte Police, an officer responded to a car/pedestrian accident in the 1200 block of McDonald Avenue at around 3:16 p.m.

It was reported that a boy had been struck by a vehicle near Adams Middle School.

Witnesses say a green 2004 Ford Freestar minivan, driven by Shaney Ripple, of North Platte, was traveling southbound when it collided with the boy in the roadway.

The boy, witnesses said, exited a parked car and immediately attempted to cross the street before he was struck.

Investigator John Deal says the boy was transported by ambulance to Great Plains Health with a non-life threatening head injury.

Deal said the driver of the minivan was not injured and will not face any charges in the incident.

The boy’s condition is unknown at this time.

ARAPAHOE, Neb. (AP) — A 58-year-old woman has died in a rollover car crash in southern Nebraska’s Furnas County.

The accident occurred Tuesday on a county road seven miles south and four miles west of Arapahoe. The Sheriff’s Office reports that Maria Clemente was ejected after the car driven by Mario Corzo went out of control and rolled into a ditch.

Clemente was pronounced dead at the scene. It’s unclear whether Corzo was injured.

BROKEN BOW, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska prosecutors have dropped their case involving an unlicensed midwife who was charged with manslaughter and other crimes in the 2011 death of a newborn.

Sixty-eight-year-old Judy Jones, of Irene, South Dakota, also was charged with practicing without a license and criminal impersonation. Authorities say Jones helped deliver a baby in a rural Custer County home in September 2011, defying orders prohibiting her from practicing as a midwife in Nebraska and South Dakota. The infant died shortly after birth.

After several delays, Jones was scheduled to go on trial beginning April 19 next year. Custer County Attorney Steven Bowers says the case was dropped because the parties involved didn’t want to proceed. But Bowers also says the state could refile charges later if the parties were to change their minds.