OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — In response to complaints about lack of room, Omaha Public Schools has announced it will move all of its high school graduation ceremonies next year — out of state.

All of the OPS graduation ceremonies will be held in the Mid-America Center across the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

The 7,000-seat arena will allow the district to allot six tickets per graduate to the graduate’s family, with an option to buy more.

This year, the district held graduations in the Sapp Fieldhouse on the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus. The smaller venue limited families to four tickets.

OPS plans to move graduations in 2016 and beyond to a new arena being built on the UNO campus.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Department of Veterans Affairs is hosting a town hall event in Lincoln.

The event is scheduled for Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Lincoln VA Regional Office. Veterans, their relatives and the public are invited to attend to give feedback and make recommendations for VA programs.

The town hall is one of many the VA is holding around the country in an effort to improve services and rebuild trust among veterans. The Lincoln meeting is open to the public and the media.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Salvation Army will host its second BaconFest Omaha next month at its Kroc Center in southeast Omaha.

The Sept. 7 afternoon festival is a fundraiser for the Kroc Center’s mission and activities. Funds raised from BaconFest Omaha will support Kroc Center programming and membership.

Activities include a Omaha area bands, vendor booths, a children’s play area and, of course, a cooking competition using bacon as a key ingredient. Each paid admission receives an all-day pass to the Kroc Center and $5 of “Bacon Bucks” vouchers to be used in voting for their favorite Farmland bacon cook-off creation.

Tickets are $25 for adults and $5 for children ages 5-17. Children 4 and under get in free.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Federal officials have banned a former president of Omaha State Bank from banking indefinitely.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says Michael Dahir, who served as the bank’s president and CEO from 1988 until 2012, breached his fiduciary duty to the bank and caused it to incur losses.

The FDIC hit the bank with a consent order in March 2012, after finding 20 areas in which it said the bank needed to improve management and/or supervision. The bank later merged with another Omaha bank, Centennial to form Core Bank.

In its order released Friday, the FDIC also ordered Dahir to pay a civil penalty of $70,000.

Dahir agreed to both the ban and the fine without admitting any wrongdoing.

PIERCE, Neb. (AP) — A Columbus man accused of killing a Norfolk teenager in 2011 has waived his right to a speedy trial in requesting that his pretrial hearing be pushed back to late October.

A public defender for 23-year-old Daniel Hofmann on Thursday requested a continuance to give her time to work with an expert in Lincoln.

Hofmann’s hearing is now set for Oct. 30, and his trial pushed back to Dec. 1.

Hofmann has pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter, making terroristic threats, using a weapon and tampering with evidence in the death of 18-year-old Wesley Kuester of Norfolk.

Prosecutors believe Hofmann shot Kuester with a shotgun in April 2011 while visiting friends in Pierce.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — An attorney for Tracy Morgan says the former “Saturday Night Live” actor is having a tough time recovering from a June accident on the New Jersey Turnpike that left a fellow comedian dead.

Attorney Benedict Morelli said  that Morgan relies on a wheelchair and it may be months before he can fully walk again. Morelli says Morgan appears to be making progress, but it will be a month before he is assessed “cognitively.”

Morgan broke his leg, nose and several ribs in a six-car accident involving his limo bus, and comedian James McNair was killed. The bus was struck by a Wal-Mart truck.

The truck driver has pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide and assault by auto.

Morgan accused Wal-Mart of negligence in a federal lawsuit.

MACY, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha Tribe of Nebraska and its utilities commission have reached a settlement with the federal government to improve the tribe’s drinking and wastewater systems as well as its trash collection program.

The settlement, announced Friday, requires the tribe to implement utilities improvements valued at about $1 million. They would also pay a civil penalty of $2,000.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency claims the tribe violated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Clean Water Act. The settlement resolves those claims.

The settlement is in the form of a judicial consent decree filed with the U.S. District Court of Nebraska. It addresses utilities serving the communities of Macy and Walthill, located on the Omaha Reservation.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha school board has placed a $421 million bond measure on the November ballot to repair old schools and eventually build more schools where student enrollment is increasing.

The board unanimously voted Thursday to put the issue on the November general election ballot. If the measure passes, it would raise property taxes in the school district by $90 on a home valued at $150,000.

Board members also say if the measure passes in November, they plan to put another bond issue of $377 million forward in May 2017. It’s part of a two-pronged plan to spread proposed construction costs.

The Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce’s board chairman has endorsed the measure. He says updating the schools aligns with the organization’s efforts toward growing the city.

NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — Two related companies in Norfolk have settled allegations regarding the production and sale of what federal regulators say are unregistered and misbranded pesticides.

The Environmental Protection Agency says Customer Feed Services Corp. and Earthworks Health will pay civil penalties totaling more than $74,500. The EPA says it learned after a 2011 state inspection that the companies were selling or producing diatomaceous earth and copper sulfate products. The EPA says such products have to be registered with the EPA and must be properly labeled to avoid causing unintentional harm to people or the environment.

Company owner Larry Smith said Friday the EPA has very strict regulations about what can be said in distributing these products, and “we omitted some of this terminology in the distribution of these safe and natural products.”

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A farm implement plant in Grand Island intends to cut nearly 240 more jobs.

CNH Industrial American on Thursday said the layoffs of 170 full-time company staffers and 68 agency employees assigned to the plant will be put on indefinite layoff. The layoffs are expected to begin in October and be completed in November.

CNH North America spokeswoman Kathleen Prause (prows) says the layoffs reflect the declining market demands for its equipment. In May the company said it would cut 200 third-party agency positions because of reductions in orders. The plant makes combine harvesters and self-propelled windrowers.

Prause said Friday that those 200 positions have not been restored. She declined to how many people will be employed at the plant after the fall layoffs are completed.