PONCA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska storytelling is the subject of an August conference at Ponca State Park in northeast Nebraska.

Registration has opened for “150 years of Nebraska Storytelling: a Conference Celebrating Nebraska History through Literature,” which is scheduled Aug. 6-8. Participants will explore Nebraska history and the art of storytelling through a series of educational experiences, including author presentations.

The conference fee is $85, with meals included. A 20 percent discount will be offered to students and educators commuting to the conference. Students and educators will get a 30 percent discount on park lodging.

Call the park at 402-755-2284 to register, reserve lodging or get more information. A park entry permit is required.

The park sits about a mile north of Ponca in Dixon County.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln man faces up to life in prison when he’s sentenced in August for abusing a 12-year-old girl and her two brothers.

A Lancaster County jury on Friday found Carlos Tucker guilty of first-degree child sexual assault and two other felonies.

The girl and her brothers — one younger and one older — each testified at Tucker’s trial that he abused them one afternoon in March 2016 while he was supposed to be watching them.

The three said Tucker initially introduced innocent games in which the winners would get candy. But the “games” later turned sexual, with Tucker ordering them to perform sex acts on each other. The girl said he forced her to perform a sex act on him.

Tucker denied the charges, but prosecutors presented DNA evidence along with the children’s testimony.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police are investigating an incident at a south Omaha bar that left one man dead and another injured.

Police say officers were called to JD’s Circle-In just before 3 a.m. Saturday. Officers arriving on the scene found 27-year-old Paul Gordon dead and 21-year-old Nikolas Gordon injured. Nikolas Gordon was taken to a hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening. It was not clear if or how the men were related.

Police did not release details about what had happened or how the injuries to the men occurred.

No arrests in the case have been reported. The investigation continued Saturday.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police say investigators have charged two men with murder in the 2015 shooting death of a woman who was found in a burning house.

The police homicide unit announced Friday that investigators had charged Marcus Short and Preston Pope with first-degree murder and use of a weapon to commit a felony in the death of Deprecia Neelon. Short and Pope, both of whom are 27, were already in custody to face charges in the 2015 death of Garion Johnson.

Neelon was found Aug. 6, 2015, after police and firefighters were called to a house on fire in northeast Omaha. The 23-year-old Neelon was pronounced dead at the scene.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln will be throwing a big party this fall, a spectacular finish to the state’s 150th birthday celebration.

The City Council this week agreed to use $25,000 from contingency funds to pay for the party, which will take place on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s homecoming weekend, Sept. 22-23.

Jeff Searcy, who leads Friends of the Nebraska 150 Foundation, says the weekend events will highlight the renovated Centennial Mall. On Sept. 22 the new fountains in the four courtyards will be dedicated, followed by fireworks and a light show.

Search told city leaders in an email that, “Simply put, this two-day Sesquicentennial Spectacular will be the Grand Finale and exclamation point celebrating the 150th Statehood anniversary in 2017!”

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Nebraska man has been found guilty of second-degree murder in northwest Iowa for the death of his estranged wife.

A Woodbury County jury was in its second day of deliberation when it found 29-year-old Rogelio Morales, of Hubbard, Nebraska, guilty Thursday afternoon.

Prosecutors say he killed 21-year-old Margarita Morales on April 19, 2015, in his car near a Sioux City residence.

Court documents say Morales told investigators a fight broke out when his wife told him she no longer wanted to be in a relationship and that she was seeing another man. Defense attorney Mike Williams said in his closing arguments that there’s no doubt Morales killed the woman but said Morales “is guilty of voluntary manslaughter, not murder.”

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Prosecutors have dropped charges of child sexual assault against a 46-year-old former Omaha schoolteacher but will still try him on other counts related to the case.

Daryl Clark was charged last year with three counts of child sexual assault.

But prosecutors dropped those charges Thursday after they were unable to show that the girl had been younger than 16, the age of sexual consent in Nebraska.

Douglas County prosecutors are now charging Clark with child enticement and sexual assault by electronic device, possession of child pornography and visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct.

Clark also has another case pending for improper conduct with a minor.

At the time of his arrest last year, Clark had been a business education teacher at Monroe Middle School and a girls’ softball coach in Papillion and Bellevue.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man has pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and a weapons count in the shooting death of a motorist in an Omaha road-rage incident.

Darwin Johnson pleaded no contest Thursday in the October death of 32-year-old Cristian Pastrana-Marin.

Johnson faces 21 years to life in prison when he is sentenced in August.

Police say Pastrana-Marin and Johnson’s 18-year-old girlfriend got into a dispute in which Pastrana-Marin honked at her after one car cut off the other on U.S. Highway 75 near downtown Omaha.

At a red light, Johnson got out of Green’s vehicle and fired seven times at Pastrana-Marin, hitting him once in the head. Pastrana-Marin died seven days later.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A man already in custody has been accused of killing another homeless man in Grand Island.

Police say 23-year-old Ahmed Said is charged with second-degree murder in the April 13 slaying of 41-year-old Abdulma Khamis. Police say Khamis was fatally struck with a blunt object April 13 and was found unresponsive a couple blocks west of Pier Park.

Said’s attorney in an unrelated assault case didn’t immediately respond to a message Wednesday from The Associated Press.

COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — A powerful thunderstorm has left a trail of downed trees and power lines in eastern Nebraska.

The storm struck around 8 p.m. Tuesday, packing winds reaching 75 mph at Columbus airport. Authorities say a semitrailer was blown over north of Columbus, near Humphrey.

Lightning set a Columbus house aflame and firefighters also responded to minor grass and tree fires just outside of town.

No injuries have been reported.

Tennis ball-size hail was reported north of Atkinson and on the west side of Hastings.