IN BRIEF

ABANDONED COPPER MINE

Company, EPA reach cleanup settlement

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports Atlantic Richfield Co. has agreed to spend $10.2 million for future and past cleanup efforts at an old copper mine in Yerington.

Under the settlement announced Wednesday, ARCO agreed to perform site cleanup estimated at $8 million and reimburse the EPA $2.2 million for past work.

EPA officials said the agency will use the recovered costs for further contamination containment efforts.

ARCO last year reimbursed the EPA $2.7 million.

The mine, 65 miles southeast of Reno, was the biggest producer of copper in the United States in the 1950s and into the 1960s before it was abandoned in 2000.

Processing of the copper produced a uranium byproduct, which contaminated the site along with arsenic and other heavy metals.

LONG BEACH SLAYING

Boy should be tried as adult, prosecutors say

Prosecutors want to try a 15-year-old boy as an adult on charges he robbed a man of his iPod in Long Beach, Calif., and fatally shot him when the victim tried to get it back.

The suspect, whose name was withheld because of his age, was arraigned Wednesday in juvenile court on murder and robbery charges.

He, with another suspect, are accused of stealing Garrett Norris' belongings as the 27-year-old engineer was playing basketball April 4 in a park. Police allege the pair shot Norris in an alley when he chased them down.

The boy is due back in court May 13 for a fitness hearing. The second suspect is at large.

If convicted, the teen could be sentenced to life without parole.

MOTORCYCLE ENTHUSIASTS

Laughlin River Run ready to roll this week

Thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts are expected in Laughlin for a weekend rally that in 2002 was marred by a biker gang shootout.

Authorities in Arizona and Nevada said Wednesday that they planned to send fewer officers to the 27th Laughlin River Run than they have in previous years. They cited a decline in crowds and arrests.

Las Vegas convention officials said 40,350 people attended last year.

Las Vegas police Sgt. John Loretto said that about half as many arrests were made last year as the year before, when more than 70,000 people attended.

Three people were killed and more than a dozen injured in the 2002 brawl and shootout between Hells Angels and rival Mongols at the Harrah's Laughlin casino.

NEVADA SENATE

Committee backs plan for funding schools

The Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday endorsed an Assembly-approved plan that would make a supplemental appropriation of $323 million to Nevada's Distributive School Account for K-12 schools.

Legislators aim to cover unanticipated revenue shortfalls this fiscal year.

Sen. Bernice Mathews, D-Reno, the committee co-chairwoman, said the amount in AB533 is $7 million more than what Gov. Jim Gibbons recommended.

The Republican governor's proposed budget for the next two fiscal years provides nearly $2.3 billion, 37 percent of the total budget, to K-12 schools.

Under the proposed budget, the state's per-pupil spending would drop from $5,098 this year to $4,945 next fiscal year, and increase by $1 to $4,946 in the second year of the upcoming budget cycle.

COLLEGE STUDENT'S DEATH

Defendants plead innocent in stabbing

An Oct. 5 trial date has been set for the son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and three other men accused in the stabbing death of a college student near San Diego State University.

All four defendants pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of murder, assault and vandalism. The last charge was added for accusations of puncturing the tire on a nearby trailer.

Esteban Nunez, Rafael Garcia, Ryan Jett and Leshanor Thomas are accused of killing 22-year-old Mesa College student Luis Santos during a fight Oct. 4. Defense attorneys have said their clients acted in self defense.

Each defendant faces more than 25 years in prison if convicted. Garcia and Esteban Nunez are out on bail, and Jett and Thomas remain in custody.

FATHER CHARGED

Gang member sought after son, 7, tattooed

Fresno, Calif., police were looking for a gang member they said held down his 7-year-old son while another man tattooed his belly with the group's dog paw insignia.

Investigators learned of the crime Tuesday when the boy's mother took him to the offices of a multi-agency gang task force to report it.

The father, identified as 26-year-old Enrique Gonzalez, faces six charges, including mayhem, child abuse, false imprisonment, battery, participating in a criminal street gang and committing a crime for the benefit of a gang.

Police arrested 20-year-old Travis Gorman, the alleged tattooer, on similar charges. He is being held in the Fresno County Jail.

The Bulldogs are Fresno's largest criminal street gang.