IN BRIEF

ANIMAL RIGHTS

Activists stage protest during Reno Rodeo

A small group of animal rights activists staged a protest Saturday of the annual Reno Rodeo.

Seven protesters carried signs during the demonstration across the street from the fairgrounds where the nine-day rodeo began Friday night.

Organizer Renee Cariglia of Citizens for Animal Rights said her group seeks an end to rodeos.

Rodeo officials have repeatedly maintained that they go out of their way to ensure the animals receive humane treatment.

The same group protested a Reno circus earlier this year and a Carson City pet store that sells puppies last year.

Earlier Saturday, thousands turned out for the annual Reno Rodeo Parade in the downtown.

More than 700 top professional cowboys and cowgirls are competing for more than $550,000 in prize money.

PRISON DEATH

Prison inmate found hanging in cell dies

A Douglas County jail inmate, who was found hanging in his cell from a bed sheet, has died at a hospital, authorities said.

Keith Truswell, 24, of Stateline, was pronounced dead late Thursday night after being taken off life support at Barton Memorial Hospital in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., El Dorado County, Calif., sheriff's deputies said.

Deputies at Douglas County's Stateline jail on June 14 found Truswell hanging from a bed sheet he had affixed to a wall-mounted televison shelf.

He was unconscious with a weak pulse, but deputies performed rescue procedures until paramedics arrived and took him to the hospital.

GUARD SLAIN

Inmates kill California federal prison guard

A guard was stabbed to death Friday by two inmates at a federal prison in Central California, officials said.

The guard, Jose Rivera, 22, was taken to Mercy Medical Center in Merced with stab wounds at about 3:30 p.m. and was declared dead soon after, said Merced County Sheriff and Coroner Mark Pazin.

A brief statement released by the U.S. Penitentiary in Atwater said the officer was stabbed by two inmates with homemade weapons.

Prison spokesman Jesse Gonzalez said he could release no further information.

Pazin said his department will conduct an autopsy while the FBI investigates the incident.

The prison is in the San Joaquin Valley about 65 miles northwest of Fresno.