Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Reno Friday evening on the eve of a busy day of appearances that also will take him to two other Western battleground states - Arizona and New Mexico,

Nevada death row inmate Terry Jess Dennis can waive his appeals and be executed Aug. 12 for strangling a woman in Reno in March 1999, a federal appeals court said Friday.

The leaders of the Sept. 11 commission implored Congress to move quickly to reform the nation's intelligence structure, warning Friday that failure to act would leave America vulnerable to another devastating terrorist attack.

Gov. Kenny Guinn rejected a call Friday for a special session to deal with a cap on property taxes, saying it can be addressed at the beginning of the 2005 legislative session.

Prominent scientists have shifted their stance on a key element of a national nuclear waste dump in Nevada, saying they no longer fear one type of corrosion would quickly weaken casks designed to contain radioactivity.

Sen. John Kerry challenged President Bush's Iraq policy in blunt, biting terms Thursday night and promised cheering Democratic National Convention delegates, "I will be a commander in chief who will never mislead us into war."

Nevada's upcoming primary election will mark the first use by a state of touch-screen voting machines that print paper receipts - and officials say the state's getting a lot of national attention as a result.

Gov. Kenny Guinn is "strongly leaning" toward letting the 2005 Legislature deal with a cap on property tax increases rather than calling a special session on the issue now, a spokesman said Thursday.

Seventeen homes were lost in the Waterfall fire, two more than had previously been reported, according to a new damage assessment report on the 8,700-acre blaze on the west edge of Nevada's capital.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry launched the final phase of his campaign for the White House on Thursday with a prime-time Democratic National Convention acceptance speech and a biographical video pitched to voters who will pick a president come fall.

Preliminary test results indicate a third Nevadan has contracted the West Nile Virus, the state Health Division said Wednesday.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada and supporters of a failed proposal to ease the state's marijuana laws have filed a federal lawsuit that seeks to revive the measure in time for this year's general election.

A suicide car bomb tore through a downtown street Wednesday, killing 68 Iraqis and turning a bustling area of shops and fruit stalls into charred corpses, twisted metal and burning cars — the deadliest attack in the month since U.S. authorities handed sovereignty to an interim government.

The state Board of Examiners plans a special meeting Friday to vote on an emergency $2 million appropriation for a temporary 30-bed psychiatric hospital in Las Vegas to handle mentally ill people now crowding hospital emergency rooms.

A fire started by teenagers playing with fireworks on a dry hillside destroyed three homes on the north side of Reno Tuesday night, but scores of firefighters quickly snuffed out the blaze and no one was hurt, fire officials said.

Two Nevada lawmakers who opposed tax increases favored by Gov. Kenny Guinn in 2003 have made a long-odds request that the governor call a special session to cap property tax increases.

A state prison guard union plans to rally at the Nevada Capitol on Monday to call attention to its complants that prison staffing levels are dangerously low.

A report on damage caused a wildland fire that destroyed 15 homes in Nevada's capital city will be presented at an "open house" meeting Tuesday.

While horse owners can vaccinate their livestock against West Nile Virus for around $20, the state's 18,000 wild horses are on their own.

Keeping national security at the front of the presidential campaign, John Kerry called Tuesday for extending the life of the Sept. 11 commission to help ensure that its recommendations are enacted as soon as possible. "The stakes are too high," he said.

A federal appeals court was urged Monday to let a Reno lawyer intervene on a next-friend basis in an effort to block the scheduled Aug. 12 execution of Terry Jess Dennis for strangling a woman in Reno in March 1999.

Petitioners trying to repeal a record $833 million Nevada tax increase and bar government workers from serving in the Legislature passed an initial test in efforts to get on the November ballot, Secretary of State Dean Heller said Tuesday.

Three dead birds found in the Reno area have tested positive for the West Nile virus, health officials said Monday.

Little Leaguers rounded the bases on a chalked infield and backers of the Sierra Nevada Baseball group gobbled peanuts and Cracker Jack near the Sparks Marina Monday where plans for a Triple A minor league ballpark are moving closer to reality.

Unified and hungry for a return to the White House, Democrats opened their 44th national convention on Monday while John Kerry told Republicans and independents to "stop and think" before casting their votes this fall.