IN BRIEF
NEW ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT
Parking rules relaxed for downtown area
Parking rules are being eased in the East Fremont Entertainment District starting Monday because of requests by business owners.
In an area bordered by Las Vegas Boulevard, Ogden Avenue, Carson Avenue and Eighth Street, parking meters will operate from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Free parking will be available Sundays and holidays.
The meters now operate until 8 p.m.
Also, 10-minute parking will be allowed in loading zones, which have been "no parking" areas. And the street sweeping schedule has been moved to 5-6 a.m., to accommodate wee-hour party-goers.
Las Vegas spent $5.5 million recently on landscaping, wider sidewalks, lighting and new neon signs for the new entertainment district. Business owners asked the city to switch off the parking meters earlier to encourage people to visit nightclubs and restaurants in the evening.
SINGLE-VEHICLE WRECK
Las Vegas resident killed in U.S. 93 crash
A 39-year-old Las Vegas man was killed early Thursday morning in a single-vehicle crash on U.S. Highway 93, approximately 50 miles north of Las Vegas. He was not wearing his seat belt.
An investigation indicated the driver of the 2007 Ford Mustang was heading southbound on U.S. 93 at 3:50 a.m. when the car drifted off the roadway into a ditch and overturned.
The man was ejected from his seat and was pronounced dead at the scene, said Kevin Honea, spokesman for the Nevada Highway Patrol.
The woman driving the car was taken to University Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries, he said. She consented to a drug and alcohol test, and results are pending, Honea said.
GRAND CANYON TOUR
Collision with eagle forces copter to land
A tour helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing Thursday, after a midair run-in with an eagle shattered the aircraft's front windshield.
Seven passengers were on a Grand Canyon helicopter tour when the windshield broke 20 minutes after departure, said John Buck, vice president of sales and marketing for the Las Vegas travel company Maverick Inc.
One passenger was taken by Mercy AIR to University Medical Center for scrapes on her face but later was released, he said.
Two of the company's other helicopters came to retrieve the remaining passengers at a former military airstrip near Pierce Ferry Boat Anchorage on Lake Mead, some 12 miles north of Meadview, Ariz.
Four passengers continued on to the Grand Canyon, and two opted to return to Las Vegas, Buck said.
"There have been other bird strikes, but we've never had one break a window," Buck said.
FATAL FIGHT
Jury acquits Arizonan in January 2006 killing
A Bullhead City, Ariz., man was set free Thursday after his acquittal on second-degree murder charges in Kingman.
A Mohave County jury deliberated about an hour before returning a not-guilty verdict in the case against Richard Shropshire, 22.
No one disputed that a rock controlled by Shropshire smashed the skull of Rodney Barrington, 44, and caused his death during a January, 2006 confrontation.
Defense attorney Rick Williams argued that the diminutive Shropshire feared for his life in the altercation with the much larger man, who brandished a large flashlight.
"We feel that this young man was justified in protecting himself and his brother's life," the jury foreman said.
Shropshire's brother Lance, 20, pleaded guilty to a charge of rioting and was given a two-year prison term for instigating the fatal fight.
