University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Harvey Perlman has scheduled his 13th State of the University speech.

This year’s version is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. on Sept. 11 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.

The speech usually includes university priorities for the upcoming year and recounts what the chancellor sees as major accomplishments during the previous academic year.

The address will be streamed live on the Internet at www.unl.edu and televised on NebSat 105, Campus Channel 4, Lincoln Cable Channel 21 and broadcast on KRNU Radio.

A University of Nebraska-Lincoln team has won a federal grant to develop a program that helps explain advances in biomedical research to the public.

The university is joining forces with children, science writers and multimedia developers to create the educational materials, which will be used nationwide. The project is funded by a five-year, $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Project leader Judy Diamond, the curator of the University of Nebraska Museum says the project aims to improve the public’s understanding of how the human body works.

A 53-year-old Omaha woman has been given 77 months in prison for selling methamphetamine.

Federal prosecutors say Julia Humphrey was convicted of conspiracy to distribute meth.

Humphrey must serve three years of supervised release after she leaves prison.

Prosecutors say she was arrested by Omaha police after she sold meth to a cooperating witness.

Officials say a cigarette smoked by a house sitter or the sitter’s guest started a fire that damaged a Lincoln house.

Firetrucks were dispatched a little after 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. Officials say firefighters had the fire under control in about 15 minutes, after they cut holes in the roof for ventilation and ripped down ceilings in their search for flames.

City Fire Inspector Roger Chapp says a house sitter was keeping watch at the house while the owners were in Mexico.

Chapp says the house sitter had a guest over to the house and that one of the two left a cigarette in an ashtray. Chapp says the cigarette was blown onto the back deck, where the fire began.

Homicide detectives have joined arson investigators at the scene of an Omaha blaze where firefighters found a body.

The body was pulled from a detached garage that caught fire in a neighborhood southwest of downtown. The fire was reported about 2:20 a.m. Thursday.

The body was found after the fire was put out. Police say the body was burned beyond recognition.

A man charged with killing a woman in Omaha in 1980 has been ordered held without bond.

Fifty-one-year-old Oscar Hernandez is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 29-year-old Vickie DeAnda. Her body was found in an Omaha apartment on Sept. 11, 1980.

Hernandez was taken into custody by U.S. border patrol agents earlier this month while he was trying to cross from Mexico along the New Mexico border. He was brought back to Nebraska on Tuesday.

Hernandez made his first court appearance on Wednesday, and a Douglas County judge ordered him held on no bond. A preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 17.

A Nebraska inmate has filed a contempt motion in federal court, saying state Department of Correctional Services officials have reneged on a settlement to accommodate the religious and cultural needs of Native American inmates.

In the 2005 settlement, signed by a federal judge, prison officials agree to allow Native American inmates time for religious education and worship ceremonies and use traditional, ceremonial foods such as fry bread, buffalo, corn and “berry dish” in their ceremonies.

The motion filed Monday by Michael Joseph Sims says state prison leaders have not allowed those ceremonial foods since the agreement was signed in 2005, among other things.

State Corrections Department spokeswoman Dawn-Renee Smith declined to comment on the motion or answer questions about whether Native American inmates are given ceremonial foods.

Nebraska is sending staff from the state emergency management agency and two National Guard helicopters to help firefighters with two wildfires burning in Dawes County in western Nebraska.

The U.S. Forest Service says both fires were started by lightning from a thunderstorm on Tuesday, and are burning on public and privately owned lands.

One fire is between Harrison and Crawford and has burned about 250 acres of timber in rough canyons and inaccessible areas. There are three homes in the area, but no evacuations have been ordered.

The other fire is about 15 miles southeast of Crawford and has burned about 150 acres in rough timber areas with rugged canyons and grass.

No injuries are reported.

A man has been sentenced to 40 to 65 years in prison for shooting a man who died from other gunshot wounds in Lincoln.

DeAnthony Love was sentenced for first-degree assault and using a firearm to commit a felony on Tuesday in Lancaster County District Court.

Love was accused of shooting Dwayne Greer at a party in July 2011. Officials say Jermaine Jackman shot Greer in the back. Jackman, Love and DaVaughn Johnson jumped in a car and started to flee. But they came back, and Love got out of the car and shot Greer in the hip area. Greer died at the hospital.

Jackman pleaded no contest to second-degree murder. Johnson pleaded no contest to accessory to murder.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Bob Kerrey is seeking to secure a date for a televised debate — with someone other than his Republican opponent.

Kerrey has for weeks taken GOP U.S. Senate candidate Deb Fischer to task for not accepting an invitation from Fox News for the two to debate. On Wednesday, Kerrey sent a letter to “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace offering to appear even if Fischer won’t. Kerrey proposes instead to debate anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, noting that Fischer has signed Norquist’s pledge to not raise taxes.

Fischer’s campaign spokesman, Daniel Keylin, responded he finds it interesting that Kerrey hasn’t criticized Sen. Ben Nelson for signing the same pledge, and that Kerrey “is clearly trying to deflect attention from his taxing record.”