Authorities are investigating three separate crashes that killed three people in northeast Nebraska.

All of the accidents happened between Friday morning and Sunday.

The Nebraska State Patrol says 20-year-old Joshua Lytle of Page died early Saturday when the vehicle he was riding in rolled over at a rural intersection west of Newman Grove. Two others in the vehicle were hurt.

A few hours later 33-year-old Samuel Hobbs of Ewing died after losing control of his vehicle. The vehicle rolled near a bridge over U.S. Highway 275 east of Ewing.

Brian Chase was killed Friday three miles west of Newcastle. The Dixon County Sheriff’s office says the 48-year-old Newcastle man was a passenger in a car that struck a tree. The driver was flown to a Sioux City hospital.

The president of Hastings College in south-central Nebraska has resigned after only 18 months on the job, and his replacement has already been selected.

Hastings radio station KHAS/KCIS reported that Dennis Trotter had stepped down, citing an emailed news release from the college.

The release also said the vice president for college advancement, Don Jackson, had been named to immediately succeed Trotter.

College communications manager Alicia O’Donnell said Monday that she didn’t know why Trotter had resigned and that, to her knowledge, his resignation letter didn’t give his reasons.

Trotter began his Hastings College work on July 1, 2011, replacing Phil Dudley.

Hastings College has about 1,200 students and is a private, four-year liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Residents of a small southeast Nebraska city are trying to save their only movie theater.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports the community of Crete is hosting a gala to help raise $85,000 for new digital projection equipment for the Isis Theatre. They’re trying to match a $43,000 development grant.

The Feb. 16 gala will be themed similar to the Emmy and Grammy awards. That includes limousines, a doorman and a red carpet. One limousine is being borrowed from a local funeral home. Search lights will fan the sky.

Organizers say a $100 ticket includes popcorn for life at the theater and a name tag on a seat.

The theatre is one of several venues across the country raising money to switch from 35mm film to digital format.

Officials expect it’ll be at least three years before Nebraska’s new 531 area code makes its debut.

The Lincoln Journal Star says the North American Numbering Plan Administration oversees national area codes and says the number will be phased in.

Joe Cocke with the administration says planning for the Nebraska phase-in began about 10 years ago.

There are 26 prefixes remaining to be used in the 402 area code. When that drops to 10, the 531 area code will be set up for new lines.

Last year Nebraska used up only six prefixes.

A bill that would allow Nebraska bars and liquor stores to accept out-of-state identification cards when selling alcohol has won first-round approval in the Legislature.

Lawmakers voted 30-0 on Friday to advance the measure. The bill was introduced by Sen. Colby Coash of Lincoln.

Current law allows sellers to accept a valid driver’s or operator’s license, a Nebraska state identification card, a military identification card, an alien registration card or a passport when confirming that a buyer is legally permitted to purchase alcohol. The current wording doesn’t allow for out-of-state identification cards.

The bill requires two more votes before it goes to the governor.

The Nebraska State Records Board has approved a two-year contract renewal with the manager of the state’s official website, Nebraska.gov.

Nebraska Interactive LLC manages the site and develops most online services for Nebraska state agencies. The contract keeps the state from having to invest in the needed infrastructure and personnel to provide similar services to various agencies.

The Nebraska State Records Board oversees and manages electronic access to state government information. This includes the authority to contract with a network manager for state government information and the authority to set reasonable fees for access to records.

The current contract with Nebraska Interactive LLC started in 2010 and was set to expire in January 2014.

Authorities say an 18-year-old Iowan has accidentally shot himself in a thigh.

Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker says the rifle discharged while the young man was cleaning it around 6:30 p.m. Thursday. The shooting occurred at a home near Old Lincoln Highway in Crescent.

The victim was flown for treatment at a hospital in Omaha, Neb. His condition was listed as serious.

Danker says “nothing appears suspicious about the shooting.”