ConAgra Foods shareholders will gather in Omaha on Friday afternoon to hear an update on the company’s performance and ask top executives questions.

Investors should be in a good mood after the quarterly earnings report ConAgra released Thursday. The Omaha, Neb.-based maker of Orville Redenbacher, Healthy Choice, Banquet and other branded foods says its profit nearly tripled to $250 million in its first quarter.

ConAgra also announced plans to increase its dividend by a penny to 25 cents per share.

And the company now says predicts adjusted earnings of $2.03 to $2.06 per share, up from its previous forecast of $1.95 to $1.99 per share.

ConAgra’s shares gained more than 6 percent Thursday and set a new 52-week high at $27.75.

A 27-year-old man who’d been convicted of vehicular homicide has been sentenced to prison after violating terms of his probation.

Court records say Myles Virgil violated probation by using or Virgil originally was given six months in jail and five years of probation after he pleaded no contest and was convicted. Prosecutors say Virgil was driving an ATV that crashed in August 2009, killing 21-year-old Brenda Strizek and injuring two other people. The crash occurred near Valparaiso in eastern Nebraska.possessing alcohol or drugs in summer 2011 and again this past April. A news release from Saunders County Attorney Scott Tingelhoff says Virgil has been given four to five years in prison.

The planet Neptune, the moon and several clusters of stars will be on display Friday night at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Behlen Observatory near Mead.

If the sky is clear, visitors will be able to view a variety of objects with the observatory’s 30-inch telescope and with smaller telescopes set up outside from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Astronomers say that the ring nebula in the constellation Lyra is one of the highlights of the autumn sky. People can view those stars up close at this event Friday.

The event is free, and more information can be found on the observatory website at http://astro.unl.edu/observatory .

The observatory will also be open to the public on the evenings of Oct. 19 and Nov. 16.

A lawsuit filed by the city of Lincoln against Sprint PCS says Sprint hasn’t paid all the telecommunications occupation taxes the company owes.

The federal lawsuit was filed earlier this month. The lawsuit says an audit of taxes paid by Sprint between 2005 and 2009 shows occupation taxes have not been paid on “certain components of gross receipts.”

The lawsuit says total owed exceeds $100,000 but also that Lincoln can’t figure out exactly what Sprint owes because Sprint hasn’t provided all the applicable information.

Sprint spokesman John Taylor says the city has a much broader interpretation over what Sprint should be collecting the taxes on than does Sprint.

Prosecutors are expected to argue that they should get a notebook sent by the Colorado theater shooting suspect to a university psychiatrist because it wasn’t meant for therapy.

Prosecutors are to present their arguments and witnesses at a hearing Thursday in the James Holmes case.

Prosecutors suffered a setback Aug. 30 in obtaining the notebook that reportedly contains descriptions of an attack. A judge ruled that prosecutors could not disprove a doctor-patient relationship between Holmes and Dr. Lynne Fenton.

Holmes is charged with murder and attempted murder in the July 20 shooting that killed 12 and wounded 58 at an Aurora movie theater.

Prosecutors argued in court that the notebook wasn’t meant for therapy because Holmes planned to be dead or in prison.

The family of a seven-year-old boy who was crushed by a falling tree branch has reached a settlement with the city and other parties named in the family’s 2010 lawsuit.

The terms of the settlement are confidential, but an Omaha spokesman says the city is paying $5,000 to Jeremiah Williams’ family. It’s not known what the other parties in the lawsuit — the Omaha Housing Authority and Eden Tree and Landscape — are paying.

Jeremiah’s family had sought $3 million in its lawsuit filed in December 2010, seven months after Jeremiah died when a tree branch fell on his head.

The boy’s family said the city and housing authority should have warned residents about the dangerous conditions and inspected the tree.

Nebraska officials will have a chance to learn more about the potential cost of different electric power options at a conference.

State Sen. Ken Haar, of Lincoln, says the Energy Choices conference will be held Monday on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s East Campus.

Haar says he wants to make sure Nebraska’s public power districts consider all the potential costs of relying on coal, natural gas and nuclear fuels for most of the state’s electricity.

Haar says Nebraska utilities should consider doing more to develop wind energy in the state.

Authorities say an Illinois man has been fatally injured and an Omaha man hurt in a northeast Nebraska collision.

The accident occurred about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday on U.S. Highway 75 near Macy.

The Nebraska State Patrol says 62-year-old Robert Meiron, of Springfield, Ill., was driving south when his car crossed the center line and ran into a sport utility vehicle driven by 35-year-old Gary Collins, of Omaha.

The patrol says Meiron was pronounced dead later at Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City, Iowa, and that Collins was taken to Burgess Health Center in Onawa, Iowa, for treatment. The patrol says Collins suffered a rib injury and was in stable condition.

Authorities say a 22-year-old Omaha man has been sentenced to federal prison for selling crack cocaine.

A news release from the office of U.S. Attorney Deborah Gilg says Kaveh Ranson was sentenced to six years behind bars and must serve five years of supervised release after he leaves prison.

In June Ranson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine.

A 35-year-old Seward woman has changed her plea to guilty in a federal embezzlement case.

Crystal Lankford made the plea change on Wednesday. Prosecutors say she stole nearly $662,000 while working for H.B.E. Credit Union from 2006 to 2011.

Her sentencing is scheduled for January. Lankford faces up to 30 years in prison, but as part of plea deal she made with prosecutors she won’t have to face more embezzlement or bank fraud charges.