News briefs for Dec. 11, 2002

Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2002 | 9:53 a.m.

Sentence suspended in baby drowning

The local woman accused of almost drowning her infant son by leaving him alone in a bathtub was sentenced Tuesday in District Court.

District Court Judge Michael Cherry sentenced Jennifer Brox to a six-month suspended sentence and one year of probation after she pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor child abuse and neglect charge.

As a result of her guilty plea, prosecutors dropped a felony child abuse and neglect charge, and Brox avoided a two- to 20-year prison sentence, Chief Deputy District Attorney Eric Jorgenson said.

Brox's 11-month old son, Logan, was found floating in the bathtub March 7. The child suffered brain damage as a result.

Police say Brox left the child in a tub with the water running for nearly 20 minutes while she talked on the telephone and watched "Survivor" on TV.

Guam typhoon's rain heads to LV

A super-typhoon that battered Guam Sunday with winds gusting to 180 mph could deliver rain showers to Southern Nevada by the weekend, the National Weather Service said.

The storm, which did not kill anyone, struck more than 6,000 miles away from Las Vegas, but could deliver some snow to the Spring Mountains.

For Wednesday and Thursday the Las Vegas Valley will be sunny with seasonal temperatures ranging from highs in the 50s to lows in the upper 30s.

Moisture moves into Southern Nevada Friday with a chance of rain showers and snow Friday night, Saturday and Sunday.

Gardens get new name

The Desert Demonstration Gardens operated by the Southern Nevada Water Authority has a new name.

The demonstration site where new residents can learn how to grow plants in the desert is now known as the Gardens at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve, Water Authority spokesman Jesse Davis said.

The gardens, started by a local Boy Scout troop almost 30 years ago, are located near Valley View Boulevard on Alta Drive on water authority property.

North of the gardens is Las Vegas Springs, the site of the first human habitat in the Las Vegas Valley. The springs are being preserved by the water authority.

In the next few months, brochures, stationery and information sheets will display the new name of the gardens, Davis said.

Coroner says drugs killed Entwistle

John Entwistle, bass player of The Who, died from taking cocaine, which stopped his heart from beating, a coroner ruled today.

Entwistle, 57, was found dead in his room at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas on June 27, a day before the band was to start a three-month nationwide tour.

The British verdict generally agreed with the analysis of Clark County Coroner Ron Flud, who attributed the death to a combination of cocaine and heart disease. Flud concluded that the cocaine caused a heart attack by constricting Entwistle's coronary arteries, but British experts thought the drug had fatally interfered with the heart rhythm.

"The amount of cocaine found to be present was not a huge amount but in someone with pre-existing and naturally occurring heart disease it could bring about a fatal stopping in the rhythm of the heart," said Cheltenham and district coroner Lester Maddrell, who presided at Tewkesbury Magistrates Court in southwestern England.

The British inquest was required because Entwistle's body was returned to his home country for burial.

George Stuart Yount

of Nevada was appointed by President Bush as the new U.S. representative on the governing board of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. Yount is currently the chairman and chief executive of the Fortifiber Corp. and serves on the board of directors at the Sierra Nevada College Board of Trustees at Incline Village in Nevada.