Today: Sunny, with a high near 88. Southwest wind 6 to 11 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 32. Breezy, with a north northeast wind 20 to 29 mph, with gusts as high as 38 mph.
Tuesday: Partly sunny, with a high near 50. North northeast wind 8 to 16 mph becoming east in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph.
Tuesday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 28. East wind 9 to 13 mph.
Wednesday: Partly sunny, with a high near 63. Southeast wind 8 to 15 mph becoming south southwest in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 22 mph.
Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 34.
Thursday: A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 58.

NEW YORK (AP) — “Cinderella” is the belle of the box office, where Disney’s live-action fairy tale debuted with $70.1 million over the weekend at North American theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The box office-topping opening added to a string of recent live-action successes for Disney like “Maleficent” and “Alice in Wonderland.” Interest in “Cinderella,” directed by Kenneth Branagh, was also boosted by a “Frozen” short that played before the feature.

The Liam Neeson, Ed Harris thriller “Run All Night” didn’t have much gas at the box office. It opened with $11 million for Warner Bros., the weakest debut for Neeson as an action film star.

Last week’s top film, the sci-fi thriller “Chappie,” slid to fifth with $5.8 million.

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A new program will help provide job training to parolees and minimum-security inmates to help reduce the chances of them returning to prison.

The state recently awarded $6.2 million in grants to eight organizations across Nebraska to provide training to nearly 1,500 felons.

The Center for People in Need in Lincoln plans to put them to work running forklifts in the warehouse and in the kitchen of a food service program.

About 27 percent of the Nebraska prisoners released in 2011 had returned to prison by June 30, 2014. Corrections Department spokeswoman Dawn-Renee Smith says she hopes the program shrinks that number.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers will debate a bill to create a set of statewide standards for county-issued permits for livestock operations.

Sen. Dan Watermeier of Syracuse designated the measure his priority bill after a committee voted 5-2 last week to advance the bill to the full Legislature.

The bill would create a spreadsheet of scientific standards to be used by a board appointed by the governor as criteria to review county permit decisions.

Advocates say the bill prevents county boards from blocking operations based on bias. Opponents say the measure strips control from local authorities who have a better gauge on the needs of the county.

Opponent Sen. Dave Bloomfield of Hoskins says he will block the bill in debate if necessary.

ELWOOD, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska authorities are trying to determine what caused a fatal house fire in the town of Elwood over the weekend.

The Gosper County Sheriff’s office says 55-year-old Gary Beck died in the fire at his home early Saturday morning.

Firefighters were called to the home around 2:15 a.m. Saturday, but it was engulfed in flames when they arrived. The home was destroyed.

The Nebraska State Fire Marshall’s office is investigating the fire.

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts is set to travel the state as part of a National Ag Week tour.

Ricketts will visit Omaha, Broken Bow North Platte and Seward on Monday for various events.

The tour includes stops at commodity-processing facility in Omaha; a lunch with farmers, ranchers and agribusiness representatives in Broken Bow; his monthly call-in show in North Platte; and an agriculture banquet in Seward.

Ricketts will travel with Department of Agriculture Director Greg Ibach, Sen. Jerry Johnson, chairman of the Agriculture Committee, and Nebraska Farm Bureau President Steve Nelson.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The newly hired superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol was at the center of a gender discrimination lawsuit against the agency in which a female trooper was awarded damages eight years ago.

On Thursday, Gov. Pete Ricketts announced that Bradley Rice will assume the helm of the patrol. Rice retired from the patrol as a commander in 2011.

Rice was a patrol captain in Norfolk in 2004 and served on a job interview panel that twice denied trooper Carla Schreiber a promotion.

Schrieber sued and won in 2007. She was awarded $70,000 in back wages and damages, plus an additional $172,000 in attorneys’ fees.

 

GERING, Neb. (AP) — A Scottsbluff man has been sentenced to a year jail for a misdemeanor sexual assault conviction involving a preschool-aged girl.

22-year-old Howard Red Bear Jr. was convicted after pleading no contest to sexual assault without consent in the third degree. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors reduced the felony third-degree sexual assault Red Bear had faced.

According to an arrest affidavit, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services received a child abuse report involving a 4-year-old girl in October 2014.

The girl told authorities that Red Bear had touched her inappropriately.

Red Bear will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from jail.

CHAPPELL, Neb. (AP) — Repair work on Nebraska Highway 27 in the southern Panhandle is expected to slow traffic in the area.

The work is scheduled to begin Monday. The Nebraska Roads Department says work will include repairs on the highway bridge over Interstate 80 and on a bridge about a mile south of the interstate.

There will be lane closures and width restrictions. The work is expected to be finished sometime this summer.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Republican U.S. Senator Deb Fischer will chair a field hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in Lincoln.

The hearing 10:00 a.m. Saturday will focus on the impact on Nebraska of a proposed federal Environmental Protection Agency rule regarding navigable waters.

The EPA says the rule will clarify which streams and waterways are shielded from development under the Clean Water Act. Opponents worry it will let the federal government dictate what people can do with their own land and strip away state authority.

Fischer has led a number of efforts in the Senate to enhance public input on the rule, has repeatedly urged EPA officials to scrap the rule and has co-sponsored legislation to withdraw it.