A Grand Island animal shelter is caring for nearly 50 malnourished chickens after a police officer discovered them in the back of an SUV during a traffic stop.

The officer discovered nearly 100 chickens in the back of the vehicle around 1 a.m. Friday. Half of them were dead.

Grand Island Police Sgt., Bud Edwards, says he stopped the SUV because it was driving in the dark without headlights. The driver, 36-year-old Luis Motola-Palacio of Grand Island, was arrested on suspicion of second offense DUI.

The live birds were taken to the Central Nebraska Humane Society, where officials determined the birds weren’t being fed properly and that many are missing feathers.

Officials are weighing whether to charge Motola-Palacio with animal cruelty.

A Saturday, February 1, crash involving a car and semi on Interstate 80 near the Utica exit in Seward County has claimed three lives.

The crash occurred just after 8:00 a.m., when a westbound 1995 Honda Civic traveling too fast for icy road conditions crossed the median and struck an eastbound semi-trailer truck.

The driver of the Honda, Ranulfo Martinez Lopez, 42, Lincoln, his wife, Maria Fernandez, 39, Lincoln, and their six-year old daughter, Amy Lopez, Lincoln, were killed in the crash.

The driver of the semi, Yves LaTour, 60, Quebec, Canada, was not injured.

The eastbound lanes of I-80 between Utica and Beaver Crossing were closed for more than five hours during the crash investigation and clean-up. Westbound lanes were closed for approximately two hours.

The Nebraska State Patrol was assisted by the Nebraska Department of Roads, Sheriff’s Offices in Seward and Hall Counties, Rescue Squads from Seward and Utica and the Seward County Attorney.

A crash involving a car and a semi truck on Interstate 80 near the Utica exit in Seward County claimed three lives.

The crash occurred just after 8:00 a.m., Saturday, February 1, when the driver of a westbound 1995 Honda Civic, lost control of vehicle. The vehicle crossed the median and was struck by an eastbound semi-trailer truck.

Two adults and a juvenile passenger in the Honda were killed. Their names are being withheld pending notification of relatives. The driver of the semi was not injured.

The crash closed a three mile stretched of I-80 between Utica and Beaver Crossing. Westbound lanes were re-opened after two hours.  Eastbound lanes remained closed as of 11:45 a.m., Saturday.

The investigation into the crash continues.

(AP) — A 39-year-old northeast Nebraska man has been sentenced to prison for ramming his tractor into a state trooper’s car.

Online court records say Aaron White, of Plainview, was sentenced on Wednesday in Antelope County District Court. He was given 25 to 30 years for assaulting an officer and 20 months to five years for criminal mischief. He’d pleaded no contest to both charges after prosecutors dropped two more counts of criminal mischief. The two sentences are to be served at the same time.

Authorities say White created several disturbances on Dec. 18, 2012, in Plainview. When law enforcement officers confronted him, White tried to ram a deputy’s car with his tractor before hitting a trooper’s car and hurting him.

Another officer shot White.

(AP) — Efforts to fly more Nebraska veterans to Washington, D.C., to visit the Korean War and other memorials have taken an $80,000 hit.

Bill Williams, of Patriotic Productions in Omaha, says a donor has reduced his pledge to $20,000 from $100,000. So Williams is issuing another call for donations to help around 440 veterans make the trip.

Williams has chartered three jets to carry the vets, family members and volunteer guardians to the nation’s capital on March 25. They’ll visit the memorials and take in other sights on their all-expenses-paid journey, returning that evening to a hero’s welcome in Omaha. He organized a similar trip in October for 135 veterans.

The total cost is about $471,000. Williams says the planes are paid for, but the $80,000 is needed for other expenses.

(AP) — Officials say a 29-year-old California man has been arrested in Nebraska after more than $934,000 in suspected drug money was found inside a vehicle he was driving.

Court records say Ryan Perich, of Woodbridge, Calif., was arrested last week after he’d been pulled over for a traffic violation on Interstate 80 in Lancaster County.

An affidavit by Homeland Security agent Mark Lee says officers found the money inside vacuum-sealed bags in the vehicle after Perich gave permission for a search.

State charges were dropped after federal authorities stepped in. Perich is held on a charge of interstate travel in aid of racketeering enterprises. Lee says he thinks Perich is a money courier for California-based marijuana traffickers.

Perich’s attorney didn’t immediately return a call Friday from The Associated Press.

(AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has ruled that a former day care operator cleared of charges in a baby’s death deserves to have her lawsuit against a pathologist in the case heard by a jury.

Friday’s decision is the second time the state’s high court has reversed a lower court ruling dismissing the lawsuit.

The high court found that Lancaster County District Judge Paul Merritt Jr. was wrong to grant pathologist Matthias Okoye’s request for summary judgment.

Carla Jean McKinney was charged with the 2007 death of a 4-month-old baby in her care, based in part on the autopsy Okoye performed.

Charges against McKinney were later dropped after two other pathologists cleared her of wrongdoing, and she sued Okoye and his corporation for nearly $275,000.

(AP) — The chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln says the university community must find ways to overcome an expected budget shortfall for the next school year.

Chancellor Harvey Perlman shared the financial news with university staff in an email on Thursday.

The amount of the shortfall is still being evaluated, but Perlman says the increase in spring enrollment didn’t provide the revenue numbers administrators were seeking.

A university spokesman says enrollment was up 1.2 percent this spring, compared with spring 2013.

(AP) — The lingering effects of drought across the Great Plains in recent years have led to another decrease in the U.S. cattle herd.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service reports that the U.S. inventory of cattle and calves totaled 87.7 million animals as of Jan. 1. That was down by about 1.6 million cattle, or 2 percent, compared with this time last year.

The agency says this is the lowest January inventory since 1951.

A bright spot was a 2 percent increase in young, female cattle retained for breeding. One expert says that factor could allow the herd’s seven-year contraction to stabilize.

Totals in Texas, the nation’s leading cattle producer, decreased 4 percent.

The January report had been anxiously awaited because the agency didn’t issue a report in July due to sequestration.

(AP) — A natural gas utility is warning its customers in Nebraska about a phone scam.

Black Hills Energy says fraudulent callers are contacting customers and telling them they have a small window of time to pay an outstanding bill. They threaten to discontinue service within a half hour.

The company says the callers are targeting certain communities and customers who may not fully understand traditional billing and marketing practices.

Black Hills Energy serves 197,000 natural gas customers in Nebraska. It is a subsidiary of Black Hills Corp., an energy company based in Rapid City, S.D. Aside from Nebraska it has customers in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming.