IN BRIEF
HOME FIRE
Firefighters find woman dead in bed
A woman was found dead in the bedroom of a northwest valley home that caught fire Tuesday night.
Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman Tim Szymanski said a neighbor saw smoke and called emergency responders to the house at 7217 Grand Palace Ave., near Ann Road and U.S. Highway 95.
Firefighters arrived shortly after 7 p.m. and found the front door locked. They forced the door open and saw light smoke on the first floor, Szymanski said.
Heavier smoke was coming from a closed bedroom on the second floor. Firefighters quickly extinguished the flames and found the woman's body badly burned on the bed.
The woman's name has not been released. Investigators had not determined the cause of the fire, which was contained to the bedroom.
Detectives with the Las Vegas police homicide section were called to the scene, as is routine for fatal fires, Szymanski said.
U.S. DISTRICT COURT
Judge moving to Reno to fill Sandoval seat
U.S. District Judge Clive Jones will move from Las Vegas to Reno to assume the caseload of Judge Brian Sandoval after his resignation becomes effective Sept. 15.
Chief Judge Roger L. Hunt announced Sandoval's replacement on Monday.
Jones was a federal bankruptcy judge in Reno before being appointed a U.S. District Court judge by President George W. Bush in 2003.
Sandoval, former Nevada attorney general, state assemblyman and chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission, announced his resignation Aug. 14. A Republican and first Hispanic to win a statewide election in Nevada, he is viewed by many as a strong challenger to Gov. Jim Gibbons in next year's GOP primary.
Sandoval was recommended for the federal judiciary by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and took the bench in 2005.
DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY
Fire official faces drunken driving charge
California's top fire chief has been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving.
Del Walters disclosed his arrest in a statement Tuesday, four days after he was pulled over in Plumas County. He said he was off-duty and in his personal car.
A CalFire spokesman says Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger placed Walters on 120 days' probation. He will remain as fire chief.
Schwarzenegger appointed Walters to head the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in July 2008. He began his career as a firefighter in 1971.
Walters said he was sorry and knows his arrest contrasts with his professional duty to uphold public safety.
The union representing firefighters says it supports Walters.
CALIFORNIA HALL OF FAME
Harvey Milk, George Lucas among inductees
Slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk, "Star Wars" creator George Lucas and football commentator John Madden will be among the newest inductees to the California Hall of Fame.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and first lady Maria Shriver unveiled the list of 2009 inductees on Tuesday in Sacramento.
The others are entertainer Carol Burnett, former Intel chief executive Andrew Grove, former Gov. Hiram Johnson, decathlete and philanthropist Rafer Johnson, industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, philanthropist and peace activist Joan Kroc, artist Fritz Scholder, author Danielle Steel, bodybuilder and Schwarzenegger mentor Joe Weider and Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager.
Schwarzenegger last year vetoed a bill that would designate a day each year to honor Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in California. He was assassinated in 1978.
A nearly identical bill has passed the Senate. It would designate Milk's birthday, May 22, as a "day of special significance," but not an official holiday.
