News briefs for July 30, 2004

Friday, July 30, 2004 | 9:35 a.m.

Suspects sought in truck robbery

Two men assaulted and robbed a truck driver with United Coin near a convenience store on Decatur Boulevard and Washington Avenue this morning, Metro police said.

According to police, the suspects approached the truck driver in the parking lot of an AM/PM convenience store at 865 N. Decatur Blvd., where the driver had been servicing slot machines.

The men then forced the victim to drive with them for several blocks to a building at the corner of Rancho Drive and Washington Avenue, Sgt. Gayland Hammack of Metro's robbery unit said.

After they arrived at the second location, the two men robbed the driver of a small amount of cash, Hammack said.

Fire displaces two families

Two families were displaced Thursday night after a fire ripped through a vacant apartment near Sands Avenue and Paradise Road.

The fire broke out in an upstairs apartment in the Central Park West Apartment complex, at the 3800 block of Central Park Circle, about 6:30 p.m., according to Captain Terry Johnson of the Clark County Fire Department.

Firefighters were able to contain the fire to the vacant apartment, but two nearby apartments sustained significant smoke damage, Johnson said. The American Red Cross provided overnight shelter to the two families.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, Johnson said.

Agency submits request for bill

The state agency charged with enforcing laws on discrimination in the workplace is submitting a request for a bill to the 2005 Legislature that will allow a complainant to obtain up to $25,000 in punitive damages, a remedy currently unavailable under state law, an official from that agency said Thursday.

If the bill is successful, it would make Nevada state law closer to federal law, a move that would be "more equitable," said Lynda Parven, administrator of the Nevada Equal Rights Commission, at the agency's quarterly meeting.

The request will be sent with two others: one that helps pave the way for the state agency to take over housing discrimination complaints, now handled by the federal government; and another that would raise the maximum fine for anyone who is deliberately uncooperative with a comission investigation from $500 to $5,000.

Officials to view print-out devices

Secretary of State Dean Heller is inviting national officials to Las Vegas on Aug. 28 to view the performance of the new print-out devices attached to the state's electronic voting machines.

Early voting in the primary election begins Aug. 21 and Nevada will be the only state in the nation to include the units that print out the selections of voter.

Heller said this will be the first election in the nation conducted with a paper trail on electronic voting machines and that many election officials have expressed interest in seeing how the units work.