IN BRIEF

STABBING DEATH

Suspect arrested after failing to pay his tab

Police say a man suspected of fatally stabbing his mother last month is under arrest after trying to leave a San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf restaurant without paying.

Santa Rosa police had been looking for 41-year-old Christopher Lavis since his mother's stabbing death last month.

Restaurant workers on Friday grabbed Lavis as he tried to flee, and San Francisco police responded and learned Lavis was wanted.

Lavis is being held without bail in Sonoma County jail.

BUDGET WOES

Rural rail museum set to be closed in 2009

Despite spending $1.4 million in recent renovations on it, state officials have targeted a rural Nevada museum for closure because of the state's budget crunch.

Peter Barton, acting administrator of the Nevada Division of Museums and History, said Sunday that plans call for the East Ely Railroad Depot Museum in Ely to close July 1, 2009. The move is in response to Gov. Jim Gibbons' request for agencies to cut another 14 percent from their budgets for the coming two-year budget cycle, starting in July 2009.

There are no plans to close any of the six other state museums at this time, but the state will indefinitely delay the opening of the new Nevada State Museum in Las Vegas because of a lack of $5.8 million needed for its exhibits, he added.

CONSERVATION

Officials cut salmon fishing to boost species

A popular attraction is sitting idle this year at a Rancho Cordova, Calif., salmon festival over concern about a meager fall run for the embattled fish.

The fish ladder at the state-run Nimbus Hatchery is usually open each year for the American River Salmon Festival. The ladder guides spawning salmon into holding ponds before their eggs are harvested for the hatchery.

State wildlife biologists estimate the American River salmon run this year will number about 6,000 fish, compared to an average of 35,000.