IN BRIEF

SHOOTING DEATH

Fired employee sought in store slaying

Las Vegas police are looking for a former employee of a convenience store who is suspected of shooting and killing a store employee Wednesday morning.

Vicente Alvinez, 26, was fired the night before from the Guru Express Mini Mart, 6698 Sky Pointe Drive, at Cimarron Drive, police said.

About 8 a.m. Wednesday, a male employee was shot multiple times at the store. The victim's identity has not been released.

Alvinez was last seen driving a white 1987 Mazda RX-7 with Nevada license plate 220 VJV.

Those with information can call Crime Stoppers at 385-5555.

MISSING ADVENTURER

Searchers for Fossett find airplane door

Searchers found a plane door while hunting this week for missing adventurer Steve Fossett, but they say it doesn't appear to be from the small plane he was flying when he disappeared last year.

Search team spokesman Keith Szlater said the door isn't made of the same material used on the fabric-and-aluminum-frame plane Fossett was flying. No other aircraft debris was found.

The door was found by searchers, led by Canadian geologist and adventure racer Simon Donato, near Mount Patterson, at 11,673 feet the highest peak in the Sweetwater Mountains on the Nevada-California border. It will be given to authorities.

Fossett was declared legally dead in February, five months after taking off from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton.

The search team is focusing on remote canyons and wooded areas in the Sweetwaters and nearby Bodie Hills, near where Fossett was last seen.

The area, about 110 miles south of Reno, could conceal wreckage not visible to the many private and military planes that searched last year.

The 10 team members, elite athletes and expert mountaineers, are paying their own way. They'll continue looking through today and possibly Saturday, covering 15 to 20 miles a day depending on the terrain.

SAN FRANCISCO VOTE

Bush sewage plant measure on ballot

A measure to put President Bush's name on a San Francisco sewage plant has qualified for the November ballot. The measure certified Thursday would rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.

Supporters say the idea is to commemorate the mess they claim Bush has left behind by actions such as the war in Iraq. Republicans say the plan stinks and will oppose it.

CALIFORNIA DIOCESE

Catholic priest sought in abuse investigation

U.S. and Mexican authorities are searching for a Catholic priest they believe fled the country after learning he was accused of sexually abusing several minors in San Diego two decades ago.

The Rev. Jose Chavarin, 59, is believed to have left San Francisco last month, days after officials with the Archdiocese of San Francisco, where he has worked for 11 years, confronted him about the allegations.

The Diocese of San Diego on June 20 notified authorities of claims of sexual abuse.

Diocese spokesman Maurice Healy said Chavarin denied the accusations and was placed on administrative leave.

Healy said officials got two phone calls saying Chavarin was in Mexico, one saying he was killed in a car crash.