Nevada AP News Digest

Here are the top Nevada stories in sight at this hour for AMs of Sunday May 12. If you have questions about stories, call News Editor Tom Tait in Las Vegas at (702) 382-7440. For reruns, contact the AP Service Desk at (212) 621-1595.

HEADLINES:

Accused bomber fretted over impounded guitar

State Democrats meet, but lack strong candidate for governor

Western Shoshone protest Yucca Mountain project

Female teacher who fled with student to Vegas shows problem

Majority of Nevadans don't car pool, use public transit

MAILBOX BOMBS:

Accused bomber fretted over impounded guitar

RENO, Nev. - The college art student who faces the possibility of life in prison on charges he planted pipe bombs in mailboxes across the Midwest and into Texas is concerned about his guitar. Luke Helder, who turned 21 last Sunday, played in a garage band called Apathy and worshipped the Seattle grunge band Nirvana. "He was mostly worried about his guitar," Washoe County Sheriff Dennis Balaam said. "I said we would get it to him wherever he was."

BC-NV--Mailbox Bombs-Nevada. 485 words.

By Tom Gardner.

POLITICS:

State Democrats meet, but lack strong candidate for governor

LAS VEGAS - Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman gave the welcome remarks at the state Democratic Party's 2002 convention, but didn't have any welcome news for the party. He's still not running for governor.

BC-NV--Democrats-Nevada. Developing.

By Angie Wagner.

AROUND THE STATE:

Western Shoshone protest Yucca Mountain project

MERCURY, Nev. - Members of the Western Shoshone tribe gathered at the entrance to the Nevada Test Site Saturday to protest the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain.

BC-NV--Yucca Mountain Protest. 250 words.

ALSO MOVING:

Female teacher who fled with student to Vegas shows problem

LAS VEGAS - On his first trip to Las Vegas, Richard Pena says his high school science teacher took him to three hotel-casinos for three days of sex. The 15-year-old boy and his 33-year-old teacher at Cajon High School in San Bernardino, Calif., ran away together April 29. Besides the high-profile case of suburban Seattle schoolteacher Mary Kay Letourneau, experts say sexual relationships between female teachers and male students either don't get as much attention or aren't reported. "We don't think it's terrible for a 13-year-old boy to have sex with a 35-year-old teacher," says Stephen Rubin, a psychology professor at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., who co-authored a book on teacher-student sex. "If it's a female teacher, we say, well, lucky kid." For Tyler Crowley, 20, it was more like lucky in love when he had a yearlong sexual relationship with Diane Flanary, his former English teacher at Sparks High School outside Reno. "I don't know how it really happened," he says. "I didn't consider myself being a victim."

BC-NV--Teacher-Student Sex. 940 words.

By Angie Wagner.

Also moved in advance.

AP Photos VG101-102.

LAS VEGAS - In keeping with the spirit of the West, most Nevadans like to go it alone - in their vehicles, that is. "People don't like to feel stranded or dependent on someone else," said Fred Harmon, human resources director for the new Palms hotel-casino just west of the Las Vegas Strip. "And with my job now, I work different hours every day so carpooling wouldn't work." Newly released census figures show that while Harmon is by himself in his car, he is not alone. Nearly three out of four Nevadans reported that they commuted to work solo in 2000.

BC-NV--Census-Commute. 615 words.

By Lisa Snedeker.

Moving in advance for release Monday May 12, and thereafter.

With BC-NV--Census-Commute-Glance.

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