IN BRIEF

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Report says Nevada should gain 4th seat

A new report says Nevada's slowing growth shouldn't prevent the state from gaining a fourth seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Nevada fell from first to eighth in growth in recent U.S. Census Bureau population estimates after being among the top four over the past 23 years. But Election Data Services of Virginia, which has tracked congressional apportionment for more than two decades, says Nevada still is on pace to go from three House seats to four after the 2010 apportionment.

The Constitution requires the Census Bureau to count the population every 10 years. The results are used to allocate House seats as well as electoral votes.

According to the latest figures, Nevada's population grew by 1.8 percent over a one-year period ending in July.

HOMELESS INCIDENT

Panhandler dies after man pushes him

A man is under arrest on suspicion of murder after police said he pushed a panhandler away from his car at a gas station, resulting in a fatal head injury.

Police in Salinas, Calif., said Orion Christopher Moore, 29, was at the Pilot Truck Stop gas station on Friday when an unidentified homeless man offered to wash his windows.

Moore declined the offer, but the homeless man, about 60, began washing the windshield anyway.

Police said Moore pushed the man away from his car, causing him to fall and hit his head on the pavement.

The man died at a hospital.

ELDERLY WOMAN CLAIMS CASH

Family discovers $10,000 in cracker box

The box of crackers Debra Rogoff bought from the grocery store had some crackerjack in it, an envelope stuffed with $10,000.

Yet the Irvine, Calif., woman was more curious than ecstatic about her daughter's find. After all, who would leave money in such a place?

The family called police and was initially told the money could be part of a drug drop.

Police later heard from store managers at Whole Foods in Tustin, Calif., that an elderly woman had come in a few days earlier, hysterical because she had mistakenly returned a box of crackers with her life savings inside. In a mix-up, the store restocked the box. The unidentified woman had lost faith in her bank and decided the box would be a safer place for the money.