The man accused of killing the ex-husband of a Sparks judge Dec. 1 made comments months before about his disdain for the victim, according to grand jury transcripts.

An employee's failure to follow procedures allowed three juveniles to escape last week, officials at the Northeastern Nevada Juvenile Detention Center said.

Junk food would be banned from student vending machines and school fund-raising efforts under a pilot program to be considered by Washoe County school trustees.

Nevada will make its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1985 when it faces No. 7 seed Michigan State on Thursday in Seattle.

Democratic conventions drew large turnouts in Nevada's two most populous counties over the weekend, and party leaders attribute the interest to disapproval of President Bush's policies.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein is pressing fire officials to come up with a wildfire protection plan for Lake Tahoe by August.

While his players embraced and Nevada's fans rushed the court, coach Trent Johnson calmly shook hands with UTEP's players and coaches. Then he whooped and trotted back to his bench, looking for somebody to hug.

John Kerry locked up the Democratic presidential nomination Saturday, reaching the magic number of delegates needed to become President Bush's chief rival in the general election, according to an Associated Press tally.

In a videotaped message, a man purporting to represent al-Qaida claims the terrorist network was behind bombings that killed 200 and wounded 1,500 in Madrid, the Spanish interior minister said early Sunday.

Investigators were searching for leads Saturday into a case involving a man found dead on a Reno street.

Complaints about aggressive dogs are prompting greater scrutiny of a popular north Lake Tahoe beach.

The governor of tourism-dependent Nevada joined Friday in a request by members of the state's congressional delegation for a Federal Trade Commission review of skyrocketing gasoline prices.

Roadside memorials for people killed in traffic accidents would be allowed to stand for only two years under a draft proposal by the state Department of Transportation.

The Nevada Supreme Court agreed Friday to let a condemned inmate withdraw an appeal that could help him avoid a lethal injection for strangling a woman at a downtown Reno motel.

New tests show extremely high levels of uranium in groundwater beneath an abandoned northern Nevada copper mine, and federal regulators say more tests are needed to determine if nearby wells could be contaminated.

The state Board of Medical Examiners unanimously rejected its own report recommending competency examinations for doctors Friday, saying such tests would be redundant and could have a chilling effect on keeping and recruiting physicians.

A January win of $882.1 million for Nevada casinos pushed their fiscal-year total to $5.71 billion - but Gov. Kenny Guinn said Thursday the total amounts to a "paltry" 1.8 percent gain from a year ago.

The parent company of Heavenly Ski Resort plans another $10 million worth of upgrades to its lone property outside Colorado.

A former tunnel worker at the nation's nuclear waste dump in the Nevada desert filed suit Thursday against Energy Department contractors, claiming the companies deliberately exposed employees to toxic dust at the Yucca Mountain project.

MTR Gaming Group Inc. is now the new owner of the legendary Binion's Horseshoe hotel-casino after a series of delays hung up the transaction.

Nevadans are less likely to have graduate or professional degrees than residents of any other state except Mississippi, according to newly released Census Bureau calculations.

Republican Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt says she'll run for governor in 2006, striving to be Nevada's first female governor.

Ten terrorist bombs tore through trains and stations along a commuter line at the height of Madrid's morning rush hour Thursday, killing more than 170 people and wounding at least 600 before this weekend's general elections.

Washoe County teachers will get a 4.5 percent pay increase over the life of a 2-year contract approved by trustees.

Research on Mars is helping scientists better understand the life cycles of deserts on Earth and the potential to tap aquifers deep beneath the ground, an expert said Wednesday.