IN BRIEF
TROPICANA COMPLEX
20-year-old arrested in slaying of brother
Las Vegas police arrested a 20-year-old man early Sunday, alleging that he stabbed his brother to death at an apartment complex on Tropicana Avenue near Nellis Boulevard.
Police took Francisco Franco-Ordonez into custody a short distance from the Sonoma Hills apartment homes at 5100 Tropicana Ave., where he lived with his brother.
Police were called to the apartment complex about 2:30 a.m. and found the victim lying on a sidewalk outside his apartment. He had a stab wound to his upper chest and died at the apartment complex. Police withheld his name and age.
Witnesses told police that Franco-Ordonez stabbed his brother after the two got into an argument, police said.
Edwin Jovell, 26, who lives in the Sonoma Hills apartments, said someone killing a relative would be tragic at any time of the year, but "especially around Easter time, it's so sad."
ONE SURVIVOR
Two people killed in crash into wall
Two people died early Sunday when they were ejected from a pickup that hit a brick wall alongside Tropical Parkway near Decatur Boulevard in North Las Vegas, police said.
A third person who had been inside the 1996 Chevrolet truck, 26-year-old Barry Cooper of Las Vegas, suffered only minor injuries.
The people who died -- a man and a woman whose names, ages and hometowns were withheld by North Las Vegas police -- weren't wearing their seat belts, police said. Police also said that alcohol or drugs may have been factors in the wreck.
The truck had been eastbound on Tropical about 3 a.m. when the driver swerved to avoid hitting something that ran across the road, police said. The driver overreacted and lost control of the pickup. The truck slid through some rock landscaping and hit a brick wall near the entrance of a housing development.
The man and woman were thrown out the driver's side of the truck before it came to a stop. Police said they died at the scene.
LAMB BOULEVARD
Woman dies after being hit by pickup
A woman who was walking across Lamb Boulevard near Lake Mead Boulevard was killed Sunday night when she was struck by a pickup.
The woman was not in a crosswalk when she was hit by a northbound 1997 Ford F-150 pickup driven by a 60-year-old man about 8 p.m., Las Vegas police Sgt. Tracy McDonald said.
He said the driver did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol and was not driving at an unsafe speed.
ENGLISH-SPANISH TRIAL
School district to test language program
The Washoe County School District plans to launch a dual-language pilot program to help Spanish-speaking elementary school students.
Administrators cited a recent University of North Carolina study that found Spanish-speaking children become better adjusted in school if teachers speak some Spanish to them.
Depending on the availability of money, the English-Spanish program could start at one school or several in the 2008-09 year, district officials said.
Plans call for kindergarten and first-grade students to be involved at first, but the program would expand upward as students move from one grade to another.
