LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Smuggling a cellphone into a Nebraska prison could soon lead to a misdemeanor charge under a bill designed to help corrections officials, who confiscated more than 250 contraband phones last year.

Nebraska corrections director Scott Frakes told a legislative committee Wednesday that it’s a major concern for his department. His comments came in testimony on a bill by Sen. Justin Wayne, of Omaha, to formally ban most cellphones from state prisons.

A report last year from the Inspector General of the Nebraska Correctional System identified cellphones as a “significant safety concern” because inmates can use them to coordinate gang activity and communicate in secret with the outside world.

“Nothing good comes from contraband,” said James Davis III, a deputy ombudsman for correctional services.

Frakes said many phones are thrown over security fences in the middle of the night or smuggled inside by visitors and prison employees. At least two phones were sent to prisons through the state’s laundry system — one from a state-run psychiatric hospital in Lincoln and one from a state veterans’ home.

Davis said contraband cellphones can sell for $1,500 to $2,000 apiece in prison, creating a big incentive to smuggle them inside.

Last year, a former Nebraska State Penitentiary employee was sentenced to a year in jail for smuggling a cellphone to a prisoner in December 2016. She pleaded no contest to a charge of unlawful acts by a corrections employee. Another former staff member at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution was sentenced to probation for a similar breach in 2017.

Supporters of the bill said there’s no formal law in place for non-employees.

Frakes said he opposed an initial version of the bill because it restricted his authority to make exceptions, but pledged to work with Wayne to try to find a compromise.

“I believe we’ll be able to make some other adjustments and land in a place where we agree,” he said to the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee.

Wayne said he’s still working on the bill to decide who would be exempt. The original bill would have applied to county jails, raising concerns from defense attorneys who frequently meet with their clients behind bars. Wayne said he has crafted an amendment that would let jails set their own policies.

“Allowing inmates to have cellphones behind prison walls creates a dangerous situation,” he said.

He said he preferred to keep violations as a misdemeanor to account for inmates who are using contraband phones for non-nefarious purposes, such as calling a loved one.

CHICAGO (AP) — The Latest on a major snowstorm and frigid weather in the Midwest (all times local):

4 p.m.

The body of a University of Iowa student has been found on the campus in Iowa City, and officials say they believe his death was weather-related.

Television station KCRG reports that the body of 18-year-old Gerald Belz was found behind an academic hall just before 3 a.m. Wednesday by campus police. He was taken to a hospital, where he died. While officials believe his death was related to dangerously low temperatures at the time he was found, officials have not given a specific cause of death.

Belz’s family told KCRG that doctors did not find alcohol in his system.

The National Weather Service says the wind chill around 3 a.m. was negative 51 degrees (negative 46 Celsius).

The death is the eighth fatality linked to the extremely cold weather in the Midwest.

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3:25 p.m.

Freezing weather has prompted the cancellation of nearly 60 percent of flights scheduled for Wednesday at Chicago’s two main airports, O’Hare International and Midway International.

FlightAware monitoring service says the weather has forced the cancellation of 2,622 flights nationwide Wednesday.

Sub-zero temperatures are the biggest factor in travel to and from Chicago and other hubs in the Midwest.

United Airlines and Southwest Airlines canceled hundreds of Chicago flights before the coldest weather hit. Airlines routinely scrub flights ahead of storms because they know that runway conditions, de-icing of planes and other weather-related chores will cut the number of flights that an airport can handle.

A total of 1,359 flights are cancelled for Thursday, but conditions are expected to improve heading into the weekend.

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2:45 p.m.

A northern Indiana sheriff says a zebra has died at a farm due to the extreme cold gripping the region.

Carroll County Sheriff Tobe Leazenby says the zebra was found dead Wednesday morning at a farm outside Delphi, or about 65 miles (105 kilometers) northwest of Indianapolis. He says a second zebra there survived.

Leazenby tells WLFI-TV the farm met standards for adequate provisions of shelter, food, and water for animals kept outdoors.

Leazenby says it also has kangaroos, but they’re inside a shelter.

Leazenby says his department is investigating the incident further.

Temperatures across Indiana fell below zero Wednesday morning.

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1:55 p.m.

An 82-year-old central Illinois man has died in the cold weather after authorities say he was found several hours after he fell trying to get into his home.

Peoria County Coroner Jamie Harwood tells the (Peoria) Journal Star that a neighbor found the Marquette Heights man Tuesday afternoon. The neighbor called 911. Harwood says his office was called to a Peoria hospital, where the man was pronounced dead later Tuesday.

The man’s cause of death was related to cold exposure. He wasn’t immediately identified pending notification of family.

The high temperature in Peoria on Tuesday was 10 according to the National Weather Service. Wednesday temperatures plummeted in central Illinois to double-digit subzero readings amid a cold snap.

The death brings to seven the number of fatalities attributed to the extremely cold weather in the Midwest.

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12 p.m.

Police say at least two people in the Detroit area have died in the extremely cold weather , including a former member of the City Council in the town of Ecorse, Michigan.

Ecorse detective Tim Sassak tells TV station WDIV that the man was discovered Wednesday. Sassak says the man wasn’t wearing a hat or gloves and wasn’t dressed for below-zero temperatures.

Sassak says police believe the man was disoriented. He was found across the street, near a neighbor’s house.

Ecorse is about 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of Detroit.

In Detroit, a 70-year-old man was found dead in front of a neighbor’s home Wednesday. No names were released.

The deaths bring to at least six the number of fatalities linked to the extremely cold temperatures in the Midwest.

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11:35 a.m.

Temperatures in parts of the frigid Midwest are beating even the most frigid areas in the world.

The National Weather Service shows the temperature in Fargo, North Dakota, dropped Wednesday to negative 31 degrees (negative 35 Celsius). In Antarctica, the balmy forecast at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station was negative 25 degrees (negative 31.7 Celsius).

That’s also warmer than Minneapolis, where temperatures plunged to negative 27 degrees (negative 32 Celsius). In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the temperature hit minus 25 degrees (minus 31 Celsius), while Chicago and Milwaukee both recorded temperatures at or below negative 20 degrees (negative 28 Celsius).

The weather service shows that’s also colder than that the minus 5 degrees (negative 20 Celsius) recorded in Barrow, Alaska, the most northern town in the United States.

And that doesn’t include wind chill, which in northern Illinois made the air feel as cold as negative 57 degrees (negative 49.4 Celsius).

Meteorologists say warmer weather is on the way for the weekend.

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10:35 a.m.

More than 1,600 flights have been canceled at Chicago’s airports as double-digit subzero temperatures envelope parts of the Midwest.

About 1,300 of Wednesday’s canceled flights were at O’Hare International Airport, one of the nation’s busiest airports. The temperature at the airport early Wednesday was negative 23 degrees (negative 30.5 Celsius), but wind chills in northern Illinois made it feel as cold as negative 57 degrees (negative 49.4 Celsius).

United Airlines spokesman Charlie Hobart says “everything tends to slow down” during severely cold weather, including manpower, fueling and equipment. Hobart calls the temperatures “dangerous.” He says United is bringing in extra workers to help and has provided heated tents for employees.

Officials have warned against venturing outside amid the dangerously cold weather, which is also affecting train travel in the Chicago area. Amtrak has canceled all trains into and out of Chicago on Wednesday, as well as most services Thursday.

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9:10 a.m.

Duke Energy crews are working to restore power to thousands of central Indiana residents who lost power amid dangerously low temperatures.

About 4,000 Duke Energy customers were without power Wednesday morning on Indianapolis’ north side and adjacent areas of Hamilton County. The utility is investigating the cause of the outages, which come during the coldest weather in years in much of the Midwest.

The National Weather Service says the temperature fell to minus 11 degrees (negative 23 Celsius) shortly after sunrise Wednesday in Indianapolis, tying the record low for the date set in 1966.

The U.S. Postal Service has suspended mail delivery in parts or all of several Midwest states, including Indiana.

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7:45 a.m.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation pulled snowplows off the roads in nearly a dozen southeastern counties because of the extreme cold, while Wisconsin added state offices and agencies to its long list of closures.

Minnesota transportation officials say some snowplows were experiencing mechanical problems because of subzero temperatures Tuesday, so officials decided to idle all plows overnight. Officials say they didn’t want to put drivers in danger if the plows malfunctioned.

Operations resumed early Wednesday, after overnight temperatures in the area dropped to negative 29 degrees (negative 34 Celsius).

In Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers issued an executive order closing all non-essential state offices Wednesday, when the wind chill was forecast to be as cold as minus 55 degrees (negative 48 Celsius).

Scores of schools, courthouses and businesses are closed across the Midwest as a deadly arctic deep freeze envelopes the region.

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7 a.m.

Plummeting temperatures in Chicago are disrupting area transit as officials warn against venturing out into the dangerously cold weather.

The National Weather service says the temperature dropped early Wednesday to minus 19 degrees (negative 28 degrees Celsius). That breaks the previous record low for the day that was set in 1966.

But the weather service says temperatures are expected drop even more as the day progresses.

Extreme weather conditions have prompted Amtrak to cancel all trains into and out of Chicago on Wednesday and most services to or from Chicago on Thursday.

Some major Chicago attractions weren’t opening Wednesday and schools are closed due to the cold.

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6:30 a.m.

Among the things the arctic cold is freezing up temporarily in Illinois are the wheels of justice.

Along with numerous schools and businesses, many federal and state courthouses are closed in Illinois on Wednesday as dangerously cold weather hits parts of the Midwest.

Kane County courts are among those closing. The chief judge for the circuit courts in suburban Chicago cited the “dangerous cold” for the decision to close both Wednesday and Thursday.

The chief judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, home to Chicago, also ordered its courts closed both days. He says he wants to ensure “nobody is placed in danger while traveling to and from court” in “anticipated historic cold temperatures.”

The federal judicial district for northern Illinois is closing its courthouses in Chicago and Rockford on Wednesday.

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12 a.m.

A deadly arctic deep freeze has enveloped the Midwest, forcing widespread closure of schools, businesses, government offices, and prompting the U.S. Postal Service to take the rare step of suspending mail delivery to a wide swath of the region.

Many normal activities are shutting down and residents are huddled inside as the National Weather Service forecast plunging temperatures from one of the coldest air masses in years. The bitter cold is the result of a split in the polar vortex that allowed temperatures to plunge much further south in North America than normal.

Officials throughout the region are focused on protecting vulnerable people from the cold, including the homeless, seniors and those living in substandard housing.

At least four deaths have been linked to the weather system.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A legislative committee has advanced a measure to close a 143-year-old loophole in the Nebraska Constitution that allows people to be enslaved as punishment for a crime.

Members of the Judiciary Committee voted 7-0 on Wednesday to send the proposed constitutional amendment to the full Legislature.

The state 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 amendment would need support from at least 30 senators before it can appear on the 2020 general election ballot. Voters would then have to approve it.

A Paxton man is facing charges in Lincoln County after authorities say he was involved in numerous thefts.

On January 29, 2019, around 1:40 p.m., the owner of a 2004 GMC Pickup observed his vehicle parked on the southwest side of Sutherland, NE. The owner contacted Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office as the vehicle had been stolen and he had previously not known about it.

Deputies arrived and conducted an initial investigation. With the help of local citizens, a suspect was developed in the case and another case of a stolen vehicle from earlier in the week. Deputies made contact with 18-year-old Ricky Frederick. Frederick advised he had done nothing wrong.

After additional investigation, Frederick was arrested for Motor Vehicle Theft IIA Felony and Criminal Mischief for damaging the truck. Mr. Frederick was arrested for stealing a GEO Metro on January 26, 2019, as well.

While searching Mr. Frederick, Deputies located several credit and debit cards from a citizen in Sutherland, NE. The citizen was contacted and advised the cards were stolen. Mr. Frederick was additionally charged with Theft of the credit cards. Mr. Frederick was on probation for similar crimes he committed earlier in the year, he was incarcerated in the Lincoln County Detention Center. The investigation is ongoing.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A personal loan company in Nebraska is once again asking lawmakers to raise the maximum interest rate it can charge customers.

A representative for OneMain Financial spoke in favor of a bill Tuesday that would allow lenders to charge interest of up to 29 percent per annum. Current law lets lenders charge up to 24 percent per annum on principal amounts up to $1,000, and 21 percent per annum on any remaining unpaid balance.

The bill drew sharp criticism last year from some lawmakers. Sen. Ernie Chambers, of Omaha, said the measure would benefit “cutthroat gougers.”

Company officials say they face intense competitive pressure from online, out-of-state lenders that can charge higher rates on so-called installment loans. They say they’ve closed 11 branches in the last decade.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A deadly arctic deep freeze enveloped the Midwest with record-breaking temperatures on Wednesday, triggering widespread closures of schools and businesses, and the canceling of more than 1,600 flights from Chicago’s airports. The cold even prompted the U.S. Postal Service to suspend mail delivery to a wide swath of the region.

Hundreds of public schools and several large universities from North Dakota to Pennsylvania canceled classes, and residents huddled inside as the National Weather Service forecast plunging temperatures from one of the coldest air masses in years.

The bitter cold is the result of a split in the polar vortex that allowed temperatures to drop much farther south than normal.

In Chicago, temperatures were still dropping after plunging early Wednesday to minus 19 degrees (negative 28 Celsius), breaking the day’s previous record low set in 1966, though wind chills in northern Illinois made it feel as cold as negative 57 degrees (negative 49.4 Celsius).

Snowplows were idled overnight in southwestern Minnesota, where temperatures dropped to negative 29 degrees (negative 34 Celsius). And the temperature in Fargo, North Dakota, was 31 degrees below zero (negative 35 Celsius).

The National Weather Service warned that a wind chill of minus 25 (negative 32 Celsius) can freeze skin within 15 minutes, according to

Officials throughout the region were focused on protecting vulnerable people from the cold , including the homeless, seniors and those living in substandard housing. Some buses were turned into mobile warming shelters to help the homeless in Chicago.

About 1,300 of Wednesday’s canceled flights in Chicago were at O’Hare International Airport, one of the nation’s busiest airports. United Airlines spokesman Charlie Hobart said “everything tends to slow down” during severely cold weather, including manpower, fueling and equipment. Calling the temperatures “dangerous,” Hobart said United was bringing in extra workers and providing heated tents for employees.

A popular saying goes: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat …” will stop the mail from being delivered, but extreme cold did so Wednesday. The U.S. Postal Service has suspended mail delivery in parts or all of several Midwest states including North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.

Governors in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan declared emergencies as the worst of the cold threatened on Wednesday. In Chicago, major attractions closed because of the bitter cold, including the Lincoln Park Zoo, the Art Institute and the Field Museum.

“These (conditions) are actually a public health risk and you need to treat it appropriately,” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday. “They are life-threatening conditions and temperatures.”

In Michigan, homeless shelters in Lansing were becoming “overloaded,” Mayor Andy Schor said. They also were filling up in Detroit.

“People don’t want to be out there right now,” said Brennan Ellis, 53, who is staying at the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries.

At least four deaths were linked to the weather system Tuesday, including a man struck and killed by a snow plow in the Chicago area, a young couple whose SUV struck another on a snowy road in northern Indiana, and a Milwaukee man found frozen to death in a garage.

Hawaii native Charles Henry, 54, was staying at a shelter in St. Paul, Minnesota, and said he was grateful to have a place to stay out of the cold.

“That wind chill out there is not even a joke,” he said. “I feel sorry for anybody that has to stay outside.”

Chicago turned five buses into makeshift warming centers moving around the city, some with nurses aboard, to encourage the homeless to come in from the cold.

“We’re bringing the warming shelters to them, so they can stay near all of their stuff and still warm up,” said Cristina Villarreal, spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Family and Support Services.

Shelters, churches and city departments in Detroit worked together to help get vulnerable people out of the cold, offering the message to those who refused help that “you’re going to freeze or lose a limb,” said Terra DeFoe, a senior adviser to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.

American Indian tribes in the Upper Midwest were doing what they could to help members in need with heating supplies. The extreme cold was “a scary situation,” because much of the housing is of poor quality, said Chris Fairbanks, energy assistance program manager for the White Earth Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota.

The cold weather was even affecting beer deliveries, with a pair of western Wisconsin distributors saying they would delay or suspend shipments for fear that beer would freeze in their trucks.

But it wasn’t stopping one of America’s most formidable endurance tests: the three-day Arrowhead 135 was going on as scheduled in northeastern Minnesota. Competitors can cover the race route by bicycle, cross-country skis or just running.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Union Pacific sued an employee union over what the railroad says was its right to fire an engineer who defecated on a train car connection.

The railroad said in its filing last week in U.S. District Court in Omaha that an arbitrator exceeded his authority in overturning the January 2017 firing of Matthew Lebsack. Omaha-based Union Pacific wants the court to reverse the arbitrator’s finding that the firing was “excessive discipline” and that Lebsack should be reinstated.

The arbitrator said the railroad should have required Lebsack to undergo medical and psychological evaluations and then disciplined him if he were found fit for his work.

Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Lebsack and lawyers for Union Pacific and the Sheet Metal Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division union were unsuccessful.

Lebsack walked past the locomotive cab bathroom on Nov. 20, 2016, when the train was stopped, according to the lawsuit. He left the locomotive and then defecated on the metal knuckle that connected the locomotive to a trailing rail car. He wiped himself and tossed the soiled tissues out a locomotive window before raising a middle finger twice to a locomotive security camera, the lawsuit says.

It also says he later told his manager that he’d left a “present” for his co-workers.

Lebsack acknowledged at a January 2017 disciplinary hearing that what he’d done was unacceptable and that he was willing to accept responsibility for his actions, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit doesn’t say where the incident occurred.

Governor Pete Ricketts announced that Matt Mason of Omaha has been designated as Nebraska’s next State Poet. The selection process was led by the Nebraska Arts Council, Humanities Nebraska, and the Nebraska Library Commission, a group of state agencies and organizations that together presented finalists to the Governor for consideration. Mason will be installed as Nebraska State Poet 2019-2023 during a ceremony that will be announced at a later date.

“From Willa Cather to Ted Kooser, Nebraska has been home to many talented authors, artists, and poets,” said Governor Ricketts. “As our next State Poet, Matt will help celebrate Nebraska and bring our state together around our shared love of the Good Life.”

The Nebraska State Poet is selected based on artistic excellence and exemplary professionalism demonstrated by significant publications and special honors, an established history of community service in the advancement of poetry in Nebraska, and the ability to present poetry and interact effectively with a public audience.

Mason is executive director of the Nebraska Writers Collective, through which he has run the Louder Than a Bomb: Great Plains youth poetry festival each year since 2011. He is a former board president of the Nebraska Center for the Book and has served as the Nebraska State Coordinator for Poetry Out Loud, a Poetry Foundation/National Education Association program. He also edits PoetryMenu.com, a listing of every poetry event in the state of Nebraska.

Additionally, Mason has won a Pushcart Prize and two Nebraska Book Awards (for Poetry in 2007 and Anthology in 2006) for his own work. He represented Nebraska as a member of six teams at the National Poetry Slam, and he represented the United States as an organizer of the U.S. Department of State poetry programing in Romania, Nepal, Botswana, and Belarus.

“Poetry and poetry advocacy have been my life’s real project, so being honored like this is amazing and humbling,” Mason said. “I hope to get into communities around the state to do readings with authors there. I want to get to the different counties, to the Air Force Base, to different crowds and bring entertaining poetry as well as remind everyone of the poets already there in their communities.”

As Nebraska State Poet, Mason will serve a five-year renewable term as an advocate for poetry, literacy, and literature in Nebraska. His duties will include giving public presentations and readings, leading workshops and discussions, and providing other outreach in schools, libraries, literary festivals, and various venues in rural and urban communities throughout the state.

The position of Nebraska Poet Laureate was established in 1921 when John G. Neihardt, whose most famous work includes “Black Elk Speaks” and “Cycle of the West,” was appointed by the Legislature. In 1982, William Kloefkorn was appointed as Nebraska State Poet by Governor Charles Thone. Kloefkorn served as State Poet for 29 years until his death in May 2011. Twyla M. Hansen, winner of two Nebraska Book Awards and co-director of the website, “Poetry from the Plains: A Nebraska Perspective,” served from 2013-2018.

CAMBRIDGE, Neb. (AP) — A March 4 sentencing hearing is scheduled for two 18-year-olds accused of planning to attack a high school in south-central Nebraska.

Furnas County Court records say Joseph Williams, of Oxford, and Aron McMains, of North Platte, pleaded no contest Monday to misdemeanor attempted terroristic threats. Prosecutors had lowered the charges from felony counts.

Court records say Williams, McMains and two 17-year-old boys had been discussing an attack on Cambridge High School for months. When one student transferred to a different school, they tried to recruit another student.

One of the students told police he thought the plan was a joke but wasn’t sure whether the others felt that way.

Both 17-year-olds are seeking to be prosecuted as juveniles.

Troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol Bomb Squad have safely disposed of a grenade found in a dumpster in Talmage.

The grenade was found in a dumpster as a home was being cleaned out. The resident of the home had passed away. Those who found the grenade contacted the Otoe County Sheriff’s Office who contacted the NSP Bomb Squad for assistance.

NSP Hazardous Device Technicians safely removed the grenade from the area and destroyed it with a counter charge.

“If you ever find a grenade or other explosive device, call the authorities immediately and do not attempt to move it,” said Lt. Dain Hicks, Commander of the NSP Bomb Squad. “These devices can be extremely dangerous and must be handled by trained experts.”

NSP has Hazardous Device Technicians stationed throughout the state to work with local authorities for this type of situation.