IN BRIEF
FATAL SHOOTING
Boy killed when pistol grabbed, police say
A teenager was fatally shot Tuesday afternoon on North Sandhill Road.
The deceased, a 15-year-old boy, was shot when a 17-year-old boy grabbed a pistol the victim was holding, police said. The gun discharged, striking the victim in the lower abdomen.
Police received a 911 call at 4:25 p.m. about the incident, near Owens Avenue. The wounded teen was taken to University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 5:25 p.m.
The 17-year-old was not arrested.
STATE SPENDING REDUCTIONS
Buckley urges measure on health care funding
Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley on Wednesday called on Nevada's five members of Congress to enact legislation to ensure that Nevada receives funds to provide better health care, particularly for poor children.
In a letter, Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said Gov. Jim Gibbons' plan to cut state spending by 4.5 percent will cost the Department of Health and Human Services $78 million.
The cuts threaten the state's ability to secure matching grants from the federal government for Medicaid, Nevada Check Up and foster care programs.
Buckley said she is optimistic that all of Nevada's federal lawmakers will work together with state and local officials to solve the problem.
ELKO COUNTY PRISON CAMP
Tattooed escapee recaptured in Reno
A prison camp escapee who has the words "convict" and "guilty" tattooed on his head and neck was recaptured in Reno after a week on the run, authorities said Wednesday.
Erik Houser, 28, walked away Feb. 6 from a low-security prison camp in Elko County. Another camp inmate, Lee Duckett, 23, fled with Houser and remains at large.
Department of Corrections spokesman Greg Smith said Houser, picked up Tuesday night by Reno police, will face a felony escape charge, which can bring a sentence of one to six years, running consecutively to an inmate's original sentence.
Houser had been serving time for convictions in Washoe County for possession of a stolen vehicle and of a firearm by a felon.
JUDGE SAFETY
Officials developing death threat policy
Washoe County officials are working on a policy to deal with threats against judicial officers.
Chief Judge Connie Steinheimer said the effort follows not only the 2006 shooting of Family Court Judge Chuck Weller but an overall increase in death threats against judges and judicial officers.
Since Jan. 1, Steinheimer said, six threats against six different judicial officers have occurred.
Some threats were written, and others came over the telephone, through third parties or during conversations with law enforcement agencies.
BASEBALL IN RENO
Commissioners OK bond sale for stadium
Washoe County commissioners have approved temporary backing of a private bond sale to help finance the downtown Reno baseball stadium.
Officials said the subprime mortgage crisis has made it impossible to finance the project through a traditional municipal bond sale.
Commissioners approved issuing a senior revenue bond for $22 million to be placed with a private lender and a $11 million subordinate bond issue that would be sold to SK Baseball and Nevada Land LLCs, the baseball park developers.
A countywide 2 percent car rental tax on tourists would be used to pay the bond debt.
SK Baseball bought the Tucson Sidewinders last year and plans to bring the team to Reno.
SCHOOL INCIDENT
Shooting victim declared brain dead
A 15-year-old boy who was shot in the head at an Oxnard, Calif., school was declared brain dead Wednesday but was kept on a ventilator for possible organ donation, a medical examiner said.
Eighth-grader Lawrence King, who was shot Tuesday during a class at E.O. Green Junior High, was pronounced brain dead at 2 p.m. at St. John's Regional Medical Center after examination by two neurosurgeons, Ventura County Senior Deputy Medical Examiner Craig Stevens said.
King was clinically dead but was kept on a ventilator pending a family decision on whether to donate his organs, Stevens said.
An unidentified 14-year-old classmate arrested near the school after the shooting was booked in the case on Tuesday.
ALASKA SEX ABUSE CASES
Bishop says diocese will file for bankruptcy
The Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska, will file for bankruptcy after negotiations to settle sexual abuse claims failed, its top official said Wednesday.
Bishop Donald Kettler said he anticipates filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection within five weeks.
More than 150 claims were filed against the church for alleged crimes at the hands of clergy or church workers between the 1950s and 1980s. The plaintiffs' lawyer, Anchorage attorney Ken Roosa, says 135 of those cases are still pending.
Negotiations have been ongoing with lawyers in the remaining cases since last summer, Kettler said in a prepared statement.
However, he said settlement talks have failed because its insurance carrier has not participated meaningfully in the process. The insurance carrier was not named.
