IN BRIEF
NATIONAL GUARD DUTY
Son serves with father at Afghan airfield
A father and son are pulling National Guard duty for the same squad in Afghanistan.
Lt. Col. Bartley O'Toole is on his 10th deployment in 25 years, but it's the first for Senior Airman Bartley O'Toole.
Both are from Reno, the home base of the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron. They are stationed at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, for several months.
The Department of Defense says it was the luck of the draw that father and son got deployed on the same rotation to the same destination.
The son says it's just like being at the squad's Reno headquarters, except his father keeps bugging him to call his mother.
BLACK ROCK DESERT
Burning Man founders look at buying ranch
Organizers of the Burning Man festival, a tradition in Nevada's Black Rock Desert for 25 years, are looking at buying a private ranch for conferences and events throughout the year.
Event founder Larry Harvey, 60, made the plans known in blog postings.
Harvey's communications manager, Andie Grace, says the talk about buying Fly Ranch is more wish than plan, and she's disappointed her boss decided to let the secret out.
Harvey and five other founders toured the Jaksick family's Fly Ranch earlier this month.
The festival's designated photographer, John Curley, wrote in his own blog posting that the family is willing to sell.
The land is not far from federal land in the Black Rock Desert where the weeklong festival is held.
80 POLICE OFFICERS
Gang task force arrests two dozen suspects
Two dozen suspected gang members are under arrest after a San Bernardino County gang task force sweep, police said.
The San Bernardino County Movement Against Street Hoodlums, or SMASH, operation on Friday included 80 police officers from several agencies, said Lt. Albert Ramirez of the Barstow Police Department.
The operation's target included suspected gang members and other high-risk criminals, Ramirez said.
Officers discovered a 41-plant marijuana grow when they went to one house to serve a warrant, Ramirez said.
The 24 arrested were sent to West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.
ADVANCE SCREENING
Michael Jackson film sells all 3,000 tickets
Michael Jackson is still playing to sellout crowds.
Advance screenings to the music documentary "Michael Jackson: This Is It" sold out within two hours early Sunday as fans who began lining up three days earlier snapped up all 3,000 tickets to the Los Angeles shows.
The documentary opens nationwide Oct. 28, but fans will get a sneak peek the night before in screenings at the new Regal Cinemas Stadium 14. For the theater's grand opening, the cinema will show "This Is It" on all 14 screens that night.
