IN BRIEF

EX-KNIGHT RIDDER OFFICIAL

UNR names dean of journalism school

Jerry Ceppos, the former vice president for news at the former Knight Ridder newspaper company, has been named dean of the University of Nevada, Reno's journalism school.

Ceppos will assume the job in early 2008 at the Donald W. Reynolds School of Journalism and Advanced Media Studies. He'll succeed Cole Campbell, who was killed in a January 2007 traffic accident in Reno.

Ceppos is an adjunct professor at San Jose State University.

Ceppos was Knight Ridder's vice president for news from 1999 to 2005. He previously was executive editor at the San Jose Mercury News from 1995-99 and before that spent 23 years working at the Mercury News and The Miami Herald.

RESORTS REJOICE

Snowfall in Sierras measures up to 3 feet

Skiers and snowboarders rejoiced but motorists cursed after a storm dumped as much as 3 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada.

Resort operators, who had relied on man-made snow to cover the slopes before the snowfall began Thursday, said the storm changed conditions overnight.

"We saw people going from hiking and mountain biking one day to skiing and snowboarding the next," Alpine Meadows spokeswoman Rachael Woods said Saturday.

ANGLERS WARNED

Elevated mercury levels found in trout

Idaho health officials are urging anglers at reservoirs near the Idaho-Nevada border to limit consumption of rainbow trout caught there after a recent federal study found elevated levels of mercury.

Elevated mercury levels were documented in fish from Lake Billy Shaw, Sheep Creek Reservoir and Mountain View Reservoir on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation that spans the Idaho-Nevada border, as well as the Wildhorse Reservoir, located in Northern Nevada.

High amounts of mercury can damage the human nervous system.