OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The annual Great Plains Disaster Behavioral Health Conference has been scheduled for July 29 at the downtown Hilton hotel in Omaha.

The University of Nebraska Public Policy Center says this year’s theme is “Mitigating Violence for Resilient Communities.”

Psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, public health officials, first responders and others are encouraged to attend. The conference will focus on assessing violence risk and threats.

Among the speakers will be Randy Otto, associate professor at the University of South Florida, who is an expert in forensic psychological assessment. He will explore the limits of assessing violence risk, given the tools available today.

Registration costs $75 before Friday and $85 after that. Go online at http://go.unl.edu/9mpx to register. Go online at http://go.unl.edu/pter for more information about the conference.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by an Omaha man seeking to ban the release of balloons at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.

U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp dismissed the case Friday. The judge found that the University of Nebraska was a state agency and, therefore, has sovereign immunity from such lawsuits.

In his lawsuit, Randall Krause sought an injunction to keep the university from promoting the balloon release, which marks the first score by Nebraska in a football game. The tradition has been a part of Cornhuskers’ football games since the late 1950s.

Krause said the mass release results in the open dumping, violating the 1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and puts endangered species at risk.

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) — A Scottsbluff man convicted of stomping another man to death has been sentenced to 16 to 20 years in prison.

33-year-old Chris Murrillo was sentenced Friday in Scotts Bluff County District Court for the November death of 36-year-old Abraham Crane of Scottsbluff.

Murrillo pleaded no contest last month to manslaughter in a deal with prosecutors, who had originally charged Murrillo with second-degree murder and assault in Crane’s death.

Scottsbluff police say Murrillo had been drinking when he attacked Crane after the two friends had argued. Police say Crane was severely beaten and kicked and found in an alley on Nov. 16. Crane died 13 days later at Regional West Medical Center.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts has called for all U.S. and state flags to fly at half-staff in honor of the victims of a deadly truck attack in Nice, France.

Ricketts’ order comes in accordance with a proclamation from President Barack Obama.

French authorities say 31-year-old Tunisian man, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, was behind the wheel as a truck crashed Thursday night into revelers celebrating Bastille Day, a French national holiday.

Flags will be flown at half-staff until sunset on Tuesday.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Hundreds of people have gathered at the steps of the Nebraska Capitol in Lincoln to protest the recent shootings of black men in Minnesota and Louisiana.

The protest seemed to draw nearly as many people as the more than 500 who gathered at a similar protest in Omaha on July 8.

In Lincoln, hundreds wore “Black Lives Matter” T-shirts and held signs. Speakers called on demonstrators to remember the black men who died in recent police shootings: 32-year-old Philando Castile of St. Paul, Minnesota, and 37-year-old Alton Sterling of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Police were highly visible at both of the protests, but the rallies were without incident for the most part. No one was arrested during the two-hour march and series of speeches in Lincoln. In Omaha, one person was arrested on a warrant.

TECUMSEH, Neb. (AP) — State officials say several inmates have been involved in an altercation at the prison in Tecumseh.

A Nebraska Correctional Services Department news release says two inmates involved Thursday were taken to a medical facility outside the prison for treatment. Prison spokeswoman Andrew Nystrom said Friday that one of them was treated and returned to the prison, and the other was taken to a Lincoln hospital for treatment. He couldn’t immediately say whether that prisoner had been returned to the prison as well.

Guards used pepper spray to break up the fight, and Nystrom says none of them was injured. He couldn’t say exactly how many inmates were involved.

The unit where the fight occurred is locked down.

• Matthew William Anderson, 34, North Platte and Ginia June Meissner, 31, North Platte

• Gerald Chase Schuett, 25, North Platte and Bradee Jo Manary, 22, North Platte

• Shawn Douglas Wallace, 27, North Platte and Michelle Dean Peal, 25, North Platte

• Joseph Anthony Lemburg Jr, 23, Brady and Charley Lee Schneider, 19, Brady

• Adam Lee Greenwood, 28, North Platte and Rachael Nicole Smidt, 27, North Platte

• Jason Shane Lienemann, 21, North Platte and Jackie Jean Erdman, 21, North Platte

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A former spokeswoman for Gov. Dave Heineman says she was illegally fired from a Nebraska state agency last year just before she was to go on maternity leave.

Jen Rae Wang says in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday that her $90,000-a-year communications and planning job was eliminated about a month after a new director starting working at the Department of Natural Resources.

Wang alleges in the lawsuit that Director Jeff Fassett treated her differently than non-pregnant employees. She says she submitted maternity leave paperwork on Sept. 11, and was told later that day that her job was being eliminated. According to the lawsuit, Fassett refused her request for a lower-paying job that was open.

The Department of Natural Resources did not immediately respond to a phone message.