News briefs for Oct. 25, 2002

Friday, Oct. 25, 2002 | 9:59 a.m.

Weekend expected to be cool, wet

At last Southern Nevada's weather is going to feel like fall.

While today's high temperature was expected in the 70s, increasing clouds and a chance for showers or an isolated thunderstorm arrives tonight, the National Weather Service forecast says.

The chance for scattered showers and thunderstorms continues through Saturday with highs expected in the mid 60s and lows around 50 degrees.

The chilly storm system is expected to leave Southern Nevada on Sunday with a return to highs in the lower 70s.

Final bell rings for talk show host

Radio talk show host Art Bell, whose overnight talk of UFO sightings and conspiracy theories made him famous, has announced his retirement.

Bell, 57, said on Wednesday night's show that he will retire because of ongoing back problems.

Regular guest host George Noory will replace Bell on Jan. 1.

Barbara Simpson will host on weekends.

"Coast to Coast AM" will continue its current broadcast schedule until Dec. 31. Bell hosts three nights a week, Noory hosts three nights and Simpson one night.

Bell, who broadcasts from his home studio in Pahrump, 60 miles west of Las Vegas, plans to be an occasional guest host for Noory.

Bell, who created the show in 1993, had resigned in April 2000 because of ongoing torment he said his family had suffered since his son was kidnapped and raped in 1997 by a substitute teacher.

NHP heightens freeway presence

Nevada Highway Patrol troopers will be stepping up patrols of portions of U.S. 95 and Interstate 215 today through Thursday, Trooper Jim Olschlager said.

The areas targeted for extra patrols are U.S. 95 from Lake Mead Boulevard to Russell Road, and I-215 from Rainbow Boulevard to Gibson Road. Extra troopers will patrol from 6 a.m to midnight.

Troopers will be looking for any infractions, especially unsafe lane changing, following too closely, speeding and driving under the influence.

Man convicted in shooting

After just over three hours of deliberations, a Clark County jury Thursday convicted a 42-year-old Oregon resident of attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon for shooting his former girlfriend last year.

John Spisak faces a maximum sentence of four to 40 years when he is sentenced by District Judge Joseph Bonaventure Dec. 5.

Spisak, 42, was accused of beating and shooting his former girlfriend Diane Norte in the neck outside a Las Vegas Boulevard South bar in July 2001.

Norte survived despite spending five weeks in a coma.

Spisak's defense attorney, Christopher Oram, tried unsuccessfully to show that a key witness in the case gave several conflicting statements to the authorities and shouldn't be believed.

Spisak's first trial last week ended in a mistrial when a detective accidentally told the jurors something they shouldn't have heard.