As of October 18, a federal judge has denied a plea agreement offered to Terry Jones Jr., the man charged with assault with a deadly weapon. In a rare instance of violence in the upper Elko Indian Colony, Jones stabbed another man repeatedly.

The next step is jury selection for his trial slated to take place this coming January.

In November of last year, Jones was involved in an incident in which his defense says the victim, Jared Conklin, started. At some point after exiting the altercation, Jones went back into his home and stabbed him multiple times. Under the circumstances,  the defense wants the assault charge replaced with a burglary charge as Jones admits to entering the home again without permission – the stabbing was allegedly in self-defense.

Jones’ defense also claims that the witnesses used to incriminate him are invalid.

The agreement pitched to the judge by Jones’ defense was that Jones would plead guilty to burglary and receive 18 months in prison, less the 11 months he’s already served in jail.

His trial will begin January 24 in Reno.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Halloween is just around the corner, and what would be a more fitting way to celebrate than touring a cemetery?

Historian Jan Petersen will be conducting the seventh annual Elko City Cemetery Tour on Halloween at 1 pm. The tour won’t be for spooks and frights, though. Petersen will be taking folks on an informative tour to enlighten them about many former residents that helped make Elko what it is today. They may reside in the cemetery now, but their contributions to the community live every day.

Those interested should meet Petersen at the Russell Mausoleum in the Masonic cemetery across from the former Elko HS gym. The tour will commence there, and all are invited to join in this stroll through time.

Popularity: 8% [?]

An angry Elko woman was arrested on battery and domestic violence charges after nailing her husband with a Jeep last Friday.

The husband got out of the car at a Maverick gas station to make a phone call on a pay phone. No sooner than he lifted the receiver, his wife, 27 year old Jennie Williams, got into the Jeep and tried to speed away. The husband ran back to the car as Williams proceeded to hit the accelerator and hit him, who was scooped up onto the hood.

The couple were separated at the time of the incident.

After hitting her husband, witnesses and the husband said Williams exited the station and ran into a parked truck. Williams went to the Louis Motel on Idaho Street, where police found her and took her into custody.

The man was not seriously hurt in the attack, however Williams claims hitting him was an accident. She was formally charged with battery with a deadly weapon relating to the use of the vehicle and second offense domestic violence. Police may tack on an extra charge of hit and run for swiping the parked truck as well.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Another drug bust to add to the litany of drug busts in the Elko area – this time, a local cop nabbed two for the price of one.

An Elko man was driving with the wrong person today – police pulled him over because the man he was with was wanted on a warrant.  Elko Officer Rich Genseal noticed the man in the car at 11:40 am in the area of South Ninth Street and pulled the car over. After arresting the fugitive, 30 year old Paul Cowles, he turned his sights on the driver, 25 year old Juan Jiminez.

He gave the officer permission to search him, thinking he wouldn’t find the 8.3 grams of methamphetamine in his pant leg.

He did.

Both men were booked, and Jiminez’ bail has been set at $50,000 for trafficking of a controlled substance.

Popularity: 39% [?]

The drug known as “spice” is one step closer to being banned in the city of Elko.

Elko City Council decided unanimously to ask the city attorney to make an ordinance to criminalize the sale and possession of spice. Spice is essentially a mix of herbs sprayed with a man made drug akin to marijuana – but claimed to be four to 100 times stronger than marijuana. The drug is currently a legal, marketable alternative to real weed, but the Council says the usage of spice has become an epidemic.

A major driving reason for the ban is the plethora of deaths attributed to spice, most occurring in the Midwest. Since the imitation weed is marketed to younger audiences, City Council essentially wants to protect the youth from the misuse of spice. Even more enticing is the high it gives, and the inability to detect it in drug tests.

If (and probably when) the draft of the ordinance is given at the next council meeting and no other hindrances occur, the ordinance will likely be law in December.

With the number of man made cannabinoids and imitation pot recipes on the streets, this bill may be futile. However, City Council has suggested changing the wording of the bill to put an outright ban on all cannabinoids to avoid loopholes.

Popularity: 46% [?]

The 27th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, will take place January 24-29, 2011, in Elko, Nevada. As part of its ongoing effort to build understanding among herding cultures worldwide, the Gathering will welcome horsemen, musicians and craftsmen from the Hungarian puszta, the largest contiguous grasslands in Europe, home to the legendary Hungarian horsemen, csikos, who have tended and defended their herds of grey longhorn Hungarian cattle since the Magyars first crossed into the area from the Carpathians a thousand years ago. Renowned for their horsemanship and animal husbandry, they have much in common with the American cowboy.

“We will explore common ground and new ground between these two herding cultures,” explains Charlie Seemann, Executive Director of the Western Folklife Center, which produces the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. “Through panel discussions, performances of pastoral music and poetry, workshops and an exhibition about Hungarian csikos, we hope to build a bridge between cultures that may seem very different on the surface, but that share profound similarities.”

The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is the nation’s largest annual celebration of cowboy culture. For six days the community of Elko will welcome thousands of cowboys and cowgirls, poets and musicians, artisans and scholars, rural and city people—all of whom share a love of the American West and the artistic traditions of ranching and cowboy culture. The Hungarians will join more than 60 poets and musicians from the U.S., Canada and Australia, who will perform on eight stages at five different venues throughout Elko. Highlights include a dinner theater production featuring Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, who will perform songs from his 2010 Grammy-award-winning recording of traditional blues music, and the youthful Marshall Ford Swing Band, featuring Emily Gimble (granddaughter of Texas fiddle legend Johnny Gimble). They will join many Gathering favorites, including Ian Tyson, Waddie Mitchell, Baxter Black, the Quebe Sisters, Wylie and the Wild West, Paul Zarzyski and Wallace McRae.

Tickets to the 27th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering can be purchased online at www.westernfolklife.org or by calling 775-738-7508 or toll-free at 888-880-5885. For more information about the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, visit www.westernfolklife.org.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Thunder Mountain Gold, Inc., a US-based exploration company focused on discovering and defining high grade, high quality precious and base metal resources is pleased to announce that the initial drilling program has begun on its 100 percent owned South Mountain Project located in Owyhee County, Idaho. The primary focus for this season’s drilling is the gold anomaly in the Intrusive Breccia target that covers an area approximately one mile long by nearly one-half a mile wide. The zone is located approximately 2,500 feet south of the historic South Mountain polymetallic mine area. Envirotech Drilling of Winnemucca, Nevada has been contracted to drill approximately 3,000 to 6,000 feet (925 to 1,850 meters) of reverse circulation drilling. The total drilled for this season will depend upon the weather conditions as the Project is located at elevations of up to 7,800 feet (2,400 meters) above sea level.

The initial round of drilling is to test the four main targets associated with the mile-plus long gold breccia zone. If time allows, additional drill holes are also being designed to test the down dip extensions of the Texas and DMEA 2 sulfide replacement ore zones in the main mine area. Although these two areas are being targeted separately, the Company believes that there is a relationship between them due to a common mineralizing event. Although the initial round of drilling will be completed by reverse circulation drilling, any favorable geology and mineralization results encountered will be either simultaneously core drilled or followed by core drilling.

Jim Collord, President of Thunder Mountain Gold, commented, “The Thunder Mountain Team is excited to begin drilling at the South Mountain Project to test the potential extent and grade of this large gold anomaly. The recent sample results taken from the road cuts were outstanding and as a result we believe the target has the potential to be more extensive than we initially expected. With our recently completed $1.2 million private placement we are well positioned to complete this drilling program at South Mountain starting this season and finishing early next year.”

Popularity: 9% [?]

It’s funny how the smallest, most trivial of things can cause chaos – this time, it’s a bird.

Yes, a crow landing on a power line left around 4,500 NV Energy customers without power in Spring Creek and also started two small fires when the line was downed.

The fires, which were responded to at 9:43 am, were somewhat innocuous as they were contained within two hours by fire crews. The fires burned up to a quarter of an acre, but an official area is as of yet unknown.

As a formality, a BLM helicopter was on the scene to provide support, but it was deemed unnecessary.

The blackout was from 9:45 to 11:30 am. Oh yeah, in case you’re wondering – the crow is dead.

Popularity: 5% [?]

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) generated $280,123 during its quarterly oil and gas competitive lease sale held in Reno on September 14, selling 21 parcels that comprised 42,762 acres. Of the total sale receipt amount, $212,928 is bonus bid revenue.

The BLM offered 72 parcels encompassing 153,237 acres. The highest bid per parcel was $29,610 and the highest bid per acre was $18.50, with both parcels located in Nye County. The highest bid per parcel came from Kirkwood Oil & Gas LLC of Casper, Wyoming, and the highest bid per acre came from Makoil Inc. of Las Vegas.

The leases are for a period of 10 years with annual rentals of $1.50 per acre for the first five years and $2 an acre after that until production begins. Once a lease is producing, a royalty of 12.5 percent is charged. Nearly half of the bid and rental receipts go to the state of Nevada.

The BLM received $68,586 in bonus bids in the June 2010 quarterly competitive sale with 23 parcels sold. The highest bid per parcel was $4,958 sold for a parcel located in Eureka County. All parcels sold received the minimum bid of $2 per acre.

A complete listing of the parcels offered and the winning bidders is available on-line at: www.blm.gov/nv/. The next sale is tentatively scheduled for March 8, 2011.

Popularity: 8% [?]

The Elko County unemployment rate is almost 6 points better than the state unemployment rate, and Nevada now has the highest unemployment in the USA, even more than Michigan.

Elko County has the good fortune, right now, of being big on mining, helping it to increase the number of jobs available. The mining industry has been affected less than other industries, but that situation may not be sustainable, because as the economy improves (assuming it does) mining usually drops off.

See the full story at Nevada jobless rate highest in nation

Popularity: 7% [?]