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FLAVOR FLAV-FELONY CHARGES
Flavor Flav taking plea deal in Vegas battery case
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Entertainer Flavor Flav is poised to take a plea deal that would avoid trial in a Las Vegas domestic violence case.
A prosecutor and defense attorneys say the 55-year-old former rapper and reality TV star, whose real name is William Jonathan Drayton Jr., is scheduled to enter a plea Monday in Clark County District Court. Neither side provided details of the deal.
He is accused of chasing and threatening his longtime girlfriend's 17-year-old son with a butcher knife during an October 2012 argument.
He was facing trial April 28 on felony assault and child endangerment with a weapon charges that carry the possibility of up to 12 years in prison.
Flavor Flav was inducted last year with the rap group Public Enemy into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
RANGE SHOWDOWN
Feds to pursue effort to end dispute with rancher
A day after blinking in a showdown on the range, federal land managers pledged to pursue efforts to resolve a conflict with a southern Nevada rancher who has refused to pay grazing fees for 20 years.
Bureau of Land Management spokesman Craig Leff said Sunday "the door isn't closed" to resolving the matter involving rancher Cliven Bundy "administratively and judicially."
The fight between Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management widened into a debate about states' rights and federal land-use policy. The bureau revoked Bundy's grazing rights after he stopped paying grazing fees and disregarded federal court orders to remove his animals. The dispute that ultimately triggered the roundup dates to 1993, when the bureau cited concern for the federally protected tortoise in the region.
On Saturday, the bureau released about 400 head of cattle it had seized from Bundy back to the range only hours after announcing a premature halt to the court-authorized roundup because of safety concerns.
THEFT CHARGES-GAMBLING PROBLEM
AG: Gambling habit leads to $250K theft
(Information in the following story is from: Nevada Appeal, http://www.nevadaappeal.com)
FALLON, Nev. (AP) — A Nevada Department of Transportation employee in Fallon has been charged with using a state credit card to support his gambling habit.
Tal Pierre Smith is accused of using the card to buy some $250,000 worth of items he later pawned or sold to pay for the activity.
The Nevada Appeal reports a six-count indictment was filed against Smith this week in New River Township Justice Court in Fallon.
According to the complaint, Smith made repeated illegal purchases over a three-year period ending last December and concealed them by altering receipts and other records.
He was charged Tuesday with four counts of theft and one count each of misconduct by a public officer and fraudulent appropriation of property, all felonies.
It wasn't clear if he had an attorney.
BAKER THERMOMETER
Landmark thermometer to be renovated, relit
(Information in the following story is from: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, http://www.dailybulletin.com)
BAKER, Calif. (AP) — A giant thermometer rising from the Southern California desert will once again be a beacon for tourists headed to and from Las Vegas.
The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reports the family of the late Willis Herron, the original owner of the 134-foot roadside attraction, plan to relight the thermometer this year.
Herron's widow, Barbara, says it made her sad to see the Baker landmark — billed as the "World's Largest Thermometer" — fall into disrepair in recent years.
Her family took it over again with the purpose of making its 5,000 light bulbs glow once more by early summer.
Baker, which considers itself the gateway to Death Valley, is located on Interstate 15.
The tower's height was selected because of the 134-degree record set in Death Valley in 1913.
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