MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, Wyo. (AP) — Rangers in Yellowstone National Park have rescued a New York tourist who stumbled backward into a canyon while trying to take a picture.

A statement released Monday says the 71-year-old man tumbled about 25 feet on May 10 before he stopped his fall by bracing his body and feet against a small crevice in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Two park rangers threw the man a rope that they secured to a tree and a sign. A park rescue team then pulled the man back to the rim using ropes and pulleys.

Officials say the man was extremely lucky that he stopped in the crevice because he was at the top of a 200-foot drop.

The man, whose name has not been released, was treated for a possible hip injury.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Farmers and ranchers in the West’s worst-hit drought regions will receive an additional $21 million to help them save water and soil despite the long dry spell.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the aid Monday. The assistance will go to areas of the West that are rated in the highest categories of drought. That includes parts of California, Kansas, Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Utah.

The aid is meant to help farms and grazing pastures cope with drought through better irrigation, cover crops and other measures.

The money comes from the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service. The conservation agency says it has spent more than $1.5 billion on water-conservation measures for agriculture since 2012.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Eastern Nebraska officials hope the federal government will chip in $10 million to help repair levees that protect an Air Force Base and the surrounding community from Missouri River flooding.

Leaders of the Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District recently approved a draft proposal under which the district would repair and maintain 19 miles of levee and fix ailing storm sewers.

They plan to request Air Force officials $10 million in funding for the project, which is expected to cost at least $25 million. The district also is planning to apply for $10 million from a state water fund.

A district official and the Bellevue mayor are flying to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to pitch the proposal to federal officials.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The developer of a solar energy project planned for land just west of Lincoln has decided to seek federal certification instead of state approval.

Coronal Developmental Services officials hope to speed up the 5-megawatt project by getting self-certification through the Federal Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act. Coronal attorney Nelson Teague says the group has completed the self-certification process with many projects and is familiar with it.

Executive director Tim Texel of the Nebraska Power Review Board says it’s common for renewable generation facilities with 80-megawatt capacity or less to seek self-certification.

Lincoln Electric System has a 20-year contract to buy power from the project.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man who wants to open a strip club near Grand Island in south-central Nebraska has sued opponents to his plan and the Hall County Board of Supervisors.

Attorneys for Shane Harrington, of Lincoln, filed the lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court in Lincoln. He’s seeking $110 million from the board, several named individuals and everyone who signed petitions against his proposal.

Hall County Attorney Jack Zitterkopf had no immediate response Sunday, saying he hadn’t seen the lawsuit.

Harrington’s lawsuit includes allegations of defamation, interference with business relationships, antitrust violations and constitutional violations regarding free speech, equal protection and due process.

Harrington also wants a judgment against restrictions for sexual-oriented businesses in the Hall County zoning resolutions.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A motorcyclist has been killed after an accident in Grand Island.

Police say the motorcycle was traveling south on Webb Road on Sunday afternoon when an SUV turning into the parking lot of Skate Island park collided with it. The Grand Island Fire Department said it used the Jaws of Life to remove the motorcyclist from the wreckage.

The motorcyclist’s name has not been released.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Narcan is not just for police and first responders anymore.

New York and a handful of other states are helping to make the life-saving heroin antidote available to regular folks, hoping to increase the odds it will be there when needed in an emergency.

State health officials say New York has trained 10,000 laypeople in the last six months alone, sending them home with a rescue kit containing Narcan and a nasal atomizer used to spray it in an overdose victim’s nose. The training was helped by a law change last year that allowed prescribers to issue general, rather than patient-specific, prescriptions.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says California, Illinois, New Mexico and Washington have similarly changed regulations.

 

NICKERSON, Neb. (AP) — A Nickerson farm dedicated to caring for discarded animals will open to the public this weekend.

Admission to The Poor Farm on Sunday is free, but it will accept animal care donations.

The Poor Farm is a nonprofit, no-kill animal sanctuary just north of Fremont. It provides long-term care for disfigured and disabled animals.

Ducks, donkeys and dogs have found a refuge at the farm. So have peacocks, goats, Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs, horses, sheep and other animals and birds.

One of the farm’s permanent residents is a zebu — a southeastern Asian bovine — named Mona who came to the farm 15 years ago. Wary of humans, Mona spends her days at the farm playing with baby goats.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Hall County Sheriff Jerry Watson is looking to the Nebraska Legislature to ease the expense of serving civil process papers that cost taxpayers in his county at least $10 for every hand delivery.

Watson said the Legislature sets the amount charged to serve papers, and the amount is not keeping up with actual costs.

Watson says that for every paper served in 2012 cost the county $34.55, but the county is only allowed to collect $24. 36. In all, he says, serving papers cost taxpayers nearly $100,000 in 2012.

Watson says the cost has likely only grown.

It’s been years since the Legislature has increased the amount that can be charged to serve papers. Watson believes the amount should be reviewed each year.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A woman who faked an anti-gay hate crime has been sentenced to 90 days in jail for violating probation, but she can apply to serve the time on house arrest.

36-year-old Charlie Rogers was sentenced Friday in Lancaster County Court.

She had faced up to a year after acknowledging in March that she violated her probation by not reporting to jail on Jan. 15 to finish her original 90-day jail sentence.

Rogers, a former University of Nebraska-Lincoln basketball player, was convicted of lying to police about being attacked by masked men and having anti-gay slurs carved into her skin.

Prosecutors say Rogers faked the attack because she thought it would inspire change in the treatment of gay people.