LINCOLN, Neb. – A new mobile device application for fishing, hunting and wildlife viewing is available through the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

The app features places to fish and hunt, regulations, maps, species guides, state records and the latest news and calendar events. It also allows the user to purchase permits.

The free app, as well as Game and Parks’ state parks app, may be downloaded for Apple or Android by visiting http://outdoornebraska.ne.gov/multimedia.asp#mobileApps.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A former University of Nebraska-Lincoln student is facing federal criminal charges because prosecutors say he hacked into a database of more than 650,000 student, alumni and employee records last spring.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that 22-year-old Daniel Stratman made his initial court appearance last week.

Prosecutors say Stratman, who was studying computer science and math, accessed a protected computer without permission. The database that was broken into held records from the University of Nebraska’s campuses and the Nebraska State College System, which includes Chadron State College.

Officials have said they don’t believe any of the sensitive information in the database was downloaded.

Stratman faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if he is convicted.

Two Democratic congressmen have written to the head of the Department of Interior’s Office of Indian Affairs to question why the government has not yet held a summit about Native American children in foster care in South Dakota.

Ed Markey from Massachusetts and Ben Ray Lujan from New Mexico wrote a letter Friday to Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn about the department’s failure to hold the summit during the early part of this year as promised.

Federal officials had said they would hold a summit on the Indian Child Welfare Act following a story 2009 by National Public Radio that said South Dakota routinely breaks the law by taking too many Native American children out of their homes and placing them in foster care with non-Indian families

A new report issued last month and approved by South Dakota’s Indian Child Welfare Act said the state has violated federal law by removing too many American Indian children from their homes and placing them in foster care with non-Indian families.

The Indian Child Welfare Act requires that Native American children removed from homes be placed with relatives or put in foster care with other Native American families except in unusual circumstances.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A University of Nebraska Medical Center study has found that Nebraska lacks primary care doctors throughout the state, and the shortage is worse in rural areas.

The study comes as Nebraska lawmakers prepare for debate next session over whether to extend Medicaid coverage to more residents.

Medical professionals say more people will seek medical care once they become insured, increasing the workload on doctors. Regardless, doctors say it’s critical to extend coverage to keep people healthy and lower medical costs.

The study found Nebraska has 1,410 primary care physicians. One of the study’s authors says the state will need 1,685 to meet the increased demand created by the federal health care law in 2014.

The study found that 11 of Nebraska’s 93 counties do not have any primary care physicians.

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) — Old-fashioned mail carriers are delivering hundreds of letters to Santa Claus by horseback this year.

The Nebraska division of the Pony Express recently carried more than 500 letters from Gothenburg to Cozad to help deliver the letters to the North Pole.

Rider Wayne Gronewold says the Pony Express group gives Gothenburg residents the chance to send their Santa letters via horseback.

RAPID CITY, S.D.  .(AP) — A Rapid City woman accused of stealing from the bank where she worked has been sentenced to two years in federal prison.

Authorities say 20-year-old Krissa Shewey stole checks from mailboxes late last year and early this year and cashed them at the bank. She pleaded guilty in June to an embezzlement charge.

U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson says Shewey was ordered to pay $3,300 in restitution.