The Agriculture Department is planning a series of four regional workshops in areas hard hit by the drought to make sure farmers know about resources available to help them.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack plans to attend the first workshop on Tuesday in Omaha, Neb. The other three workshops are being planned in Pueblo, Colo., Pine Bluff, Ark., and an undetermined town in Ohio.

This summer’s drought has been the worst one in decades. Experts at the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln say about one-fifth of the total land area in the lower 48 states remains in extreme or exceptional drought.

The USDA is working with the Commerce Department, the Small Business Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to plan these meetings.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln hopes to encourage high school students to study science in college with its daylong celebration of chemistry.

More than 100 high school juniors and seniors are expected to attend the event on Oct. 13 with their parents and teachers.

The students will have a chance to tour research labs, learn about opportunities for chemistry careers and try several hands-on activities.

The events will include using chromatography to make tie-dye t-shirts, a scavenger hunt and a chemistry quiz bowl.

Students can also register to win one of five scholarships. More details are available online at https://chemistry.unl.edu.

A special message of thanks will soon greet members of the Air Force flying into and out of Offutt Air Force Base.

Workers from area Walmart stores are again carving a giant thank you to the military into a soybean field that’s already been harvested.

The giant message designed to be read from the air will read: “Thank You For Freedom.”

Walmart manager Chris Shotton says each letter in freedom is 360-feet-tall and 240-feet-wide. Volunteers mark the letters on the ground with flour before a tractor plows them up.

Shotton says the message is a small gesture of thanks for the troops.

The Nebraska Supreme Court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit against a business attorney brought by an Omaha man convicted of investment fraud.

Bryan Behrens had sought to sue his former attorney, Christian Blunk, for more than $8 million owed to investors. Behrens has argued that Blunk gave him bad advice and was to blame for the securities fraud.

But a Douglas County District Court dismissed the lawsuit, saying the two-year statute of limitations had run out, among other things. On Friday, the Nebraska Supreme Court agreed.

Behrens was sentenced last year to five years in federal prison for securities fraud. Federal prosecutors said Behrens, who founded the Omaha-based 21st Century Financial Group, defrauded mostly elderly investors of millions of dollars to fund his lavish lifestyle.

A 21-year-old Norfolk man has been charged with injuring his 19-day-old daughter.

Court records say Justin Gore was arrested Wednesday and charged with intentional child abuse.

An affidavit filed by a Norfolk police detective says a doctor who examined the child earlier Wednesday reported bruising and cranial bleeding that the doctor said would be consistent with an infant being shaken or struck.

The affidavit says Gore told the detective about shaking the baby during the night of Sept. 27 or early morning of Sept. 28. The detective says Gore reported that he was frustrated because the baby wouldn’t stop crying.

A Madison County jailer said Gore remained in custody on Friday, pending $150,000 bail. Online court records don’t list the name of Gore’s attorney.

A 14-year-old student at Ralston High School has been arrested for allegedly threatening to shoot up the school.

Police say the boy was taken into custody on Tuesday on suspicion of making terroristic threats. Police found no evidence that he intended to carry out his threat. Officials found no weapons.

Ralston Superintendent Mark Adler says the student was acting up in class and made the comments after he was told to go to the office.

Adler declined to comment on the boy’s long-term status at the school.

Ralston is in the Omaha area.

Organizers of Nebraska’s annual Prescription Drug Take-Back day say they collected more than 6,200 pounds of medication this year.

The Saturday event was the fourth take-back day in Nebraska since May 2011. The events are coordinated by the office of Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, the Nebraska State Patrol and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Officials say they’ve collected nearly 21,000 pounds at various sites as part of the national event.

Nebraska State Patrol Superintendent David Sankey says the take-back days help keeps unwanted medications out of the wrong hands. Statewide, officials have gathered nearly 21,000 pounds of prescription drugs since the events began.

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning is warning state residents to be wary of a scam related to computer tech support.

Bruning says his office’s mediation center has received more than 10 reports this week regarding phone calls from those falsely claiming to represent Microsoft in order to gain access to sensitive information stored on victims’ computers.

Bruning says the caller claims a security threat has been detected on the resident’s computer and offers software available for download or to directly update the consumer’s current system.

Consumers are then routed to dummy websites that allow scammers to remotely access their computers.

Police have released the name of a man whose body was found in the rubble of a garage fire in southeast Omaha.

He was identified as 58-year-old John Schmid, of Omaha. His last known address was in southwest Omaha but he’d moved away.

Police say the investigation of the fire and his death are continuing.

The body was found Aug. 30 after firefighters extinguished the blaze.

Authorities say 59-year-old man has been fatally injured in a collision north of Stromsburg in eastern Nebraska.

The accident occurred just before 7 a.m. Thursday on Nebraska Highway 92.

The Nebraska state Patrol says 74-year-old Barney Nuget, of Antler, N.D., was driving east on the highway when his pickup left the roadway. The truck went out of control when it swerved back onto the pavement and collided with a westbound van.

The patrol says the van driver, Steven Woolsey, was fatally injured. Nuget received only minor injuries.

The accident is being investigated.