LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s 18th annual Weatherfest and Central Plains Severe Weather Symposium is scheduled for April 7 at the Nebraska Innovation Campus Convention Center.

The free public event is part of the Weather Ready Nation Ambassador program organized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The program prepares communities for weather, water, and climate extremes.

Participants will be able to interact with emergency managers and government agencies.

More information on Weatherfest is available online .

SCHUYLER, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say one driver was killed and three other people were injured in an eastern Nebraska collision.

Officers and medics were dispatched a little before 8 p.m. Friday to the scene on U.S. Highway 30, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) east of Schuyler in Colfax County. An eastbound car crossed the center line and rammed into a westbound minivan.

Authorities say the car driver died at the scene. He was identified as 65-year-old Mark Connealy, who lived in Rogers. All three people in the minivan were injured, including the driver, 61-year-old Steven Marshall, of Octavia.

An autopsy was ordered on Connealy’s body.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Some Lincoln bicycle owners are changing their riding and parking habits and taking other steps to protect their bikes from thieves.

Lincoln police have investigated at least 35 bike thefts so far this year, compared with 39 thefts this time last year. About a third of the bikes stolen so far this year were reportedly locked, compared with a fourth of the bikes stolen this time last year.

Police have investigated the thefts to look for patterns but haven’t found anything to link the reports.

Cyclists in the area are being more vigilant when it comes to protecting their bikes. Many are being more careful with sharing ride route information so thieves can’t track them. Cyclists are also sharing information online about stolen bikes.

“What scares us is they’re becoming increasingly sophisticated with the way they’re stealing bikes,” said cyclist Sarah Knight.

Knight found eight bikes missing from her apartment’s communal garage in December, including two of her own. The thieves also stole valuable components from her and altogether she lost about $6,000, she said.

The thieves were able to break into the garage while avoiding security cameras, had the tools to cut the cables securing the bikes to the wall and had the transportation to take all the bikes away.

“The thing was, when that happened to me, it almost seemed inevitable,” Knight said. “I’ve had so many friends who also had bikes stolen.”

Knight knows eight cyclists who’ve lost higher-end bikes since 2016.

The Lincoln Police Department plans to meet with cycling groups to give tips about keeping bikes safe and to listen to their concerns, said Officer Angela Sands.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Several thousand people braved freezing wind chills and light snow Saturday to participate in the “March for Our Lives” rally near downtown Omaha.

Marian High School freshman Callie Cavanaugh says she’s tired of school gun violence across the country, noting that she has cousins who live close to Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14.

Also among the crowd was 14-year-old Melina Piperis, an eighth-grader at St. Vincent de Paul in Omaha, who said she wants to use her First Amendment right to call for gun control measures.

Westside Middle School student Aden Newmyer says “students have a voice, too,” and wants Congress to see that people are angry about lax gun laws.

Omaha’s was one of hundreds of marches planned Saturday in cities across the globe to protest gun violence and mass shootings.

PLAINVIEW, Neb. (AP) — Northeast Nebraska authorities say a man involved in a dispute at work ended up with rusty pliers lodged in his skull.

The assault occurred Wednesday afternoon at a business near Plainview. The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office says a deputy learned at Plainview Hospital that one handle of the pliers had penetrated the victim’s skull and poked into his brain. The man was flown to Omaha for surgery. His name hasn’t been released.

Nebraska State troopers arrested a 34-year-old suspect. Troopers say the suspect admitted that he and the other man had quarreled earlier in the day. The suspect says he threw the pliers at the other man.

Online court records don’t show that he’s been charged.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man has been charged in the crash death of an 8-year-old boy in Lincoln.

Court records show 22-year-old Brandon Valentine was charged Thursday with manslaughter. The records don’t list the name an attorney who could comment for him.

The boy was a passenger in his father’s car on March 16. Lincoln police say the car pulled into an intersection after stopping and was hit by a large pickup truck. Jesse King was thrown from his car, while his son, Camden King, was trapped inside the wreckage. Both were taken to a Lincoln hospital, where Camden was pronounced dead.

A court document says investigators reported that the pickup’s air bag module indicated Valentine’s truck was going 67 mph when it struck King’s car. Valentine has said he was going 45 mph.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln man accused of filing false federal tax returns says he’s a victim of politics.

Court records say a grand jury Tuesday indicted 62-year-old David Tarrence on four counts of filing a false tax return. A court document says Tarrence under-reported income from his Local Movers moving company for 2011 through 2014.

Tarrence said Friday that he never intended to under-report the income and has cooperated with the Internal Revenue Service. He blames government backlash for the prosecution, saying officials are getting even for his defiance in a Lincoln case.

Last month the city of Lincoln dropped its legal effort to recover lawsuit settlement money paid to Tarrence and Tamara Geis, who said police wrongly seized $224,000 in cash and coins from their home. The city lawsuit alleged Tarrence violated a confidentiality agreement.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An official for an Omaha homeless shelter says a casino proposed nearby in Iowa would be a problem for people the shelter serves.

The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska is moving toward opening a casino in Carter Lake, Iowa, which is about a mile from Open Door Mission.

Mission President and CEO Candace Gregory said studies show that homeless people are more likely to gamble than the general population. The community should consider the human cost of having the casino located so close to the shelter, she said.

“Open Door Mission has seen an increase in problem gambling since casinos came to the area in 1996,” Gregory said. “The costs of problem gambling have been, and will be, a growing burden on those vulnerable populations who can least afford the monetary and social losses.”

The casino will boost the area’s economy, said Tribe Chairman Larry Wright Jr.

“Both the courts and federal agencies of jurisdiction have affirmed the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska’s position that our tribal citizens have the ability, and more importantly the right, to develop our tribe’s sovereign land in a way that best serves our people and the community,” he said.

The National Indian Gaming Commission ruled in November that the tribe can construct the casino after a decade of lawsuits, appeals and legal reviews.

Council Bluffs City Attorney Richard Wade filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in December that challenged the gaming commission’s decision that the site qualifies as the tribe’s “restored lands.” The complaint also said a new casino would compete with existing state-licensed gambling facilities in Council Bluffs.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A study says a program in which Lincoln police refer people with mental illness for voluntary help has reduced the chance officers will need to take the same people into emergency protective custody.

The police department’s study looked into the department’s work with the Mental Health Association of Nebraska’s REAL program, which stands for respond, empower, advocate and listen. The program launched in 2011.

The partnership was created after a growing number of mental health investigations by Lincoln police and limited bed space at facilities for emergency protective custody, said Officer Luke Bonkiewicz.

More than 1,900 people had been referred to the program as of September, and 85 percent accepted services, according to the study. The study analyzed data from mental health calls made from 2008 and 2013. Those referred were 33 percent less likely to be taken into protective custody within two years, and 44 percent less likely after three years, the study found.

An officer can refer a person with an identified or suspected mental health issue to the association, Bonkiewicz said.

The association’s peer specialists then offer free, voluntary and non-clinical support. The trained staffers are typically people who have lived with mental illness themselves, he said.

The specialists listen to the person’s issues and help create a plan, which can include navigating legal processes, seeking grief counseling or figuring out financial issues, Bonkiewicz said. The program doesn’t always focus on medication, but aims to help someone struggling with mental illness before they’d need to be placed in involuntary treatment, he said.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A northeastern Nebraska attorney accused of misappropriating client funds has been disbarred after voluntarily surrendering his law license.

The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday accepted John D. Feller’s voluntary surrender of his license and found that he should be disbarred from practicing law in Nebraska, effective immediately.

Feller had a law practice in Beemer.

In response to a grievance filed against him, Feller stated that he knowingly chose not to contest the truth of the allegations made against him.

Feller did not immediately respond to a phone message left Friday at his Beemer office.