Investigators pleaded publicly Thursday for information about or a phone call from a missing 25-year-old California woman who walked out of a sheriff’s station 10 months ago in Malibu, Calif.

Los Angeles police Capt. Kevin McClure told reporters in Las Vegas that more than 70 waitresses, bartenders, security officers and others in Nevada and California have told investigators they think they’ve seen Mitrice Richardson.

A hacker has discovered a way to force ATMs to disgorge their cash by hijacking the computers inside them.

The attacks demonstrated on Wednesday targeted standalone ATMs. But they could potentially be used against the ATMs operated by mainstream banks.

Criminals have long known that ATMs aren’t tamperproof.

A dozen of the nation’s 372 metropolitan areas had unemployment rates in June of at least 15%, led by El Centro, Calif., where the jobless rate hit 27.6%, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Ten of them were in California.

At 26.4%, the jobless rate in Yuma, Ariz. was the second highest. It also notched the largest year-over-year increase, up 2.9 percentage points.

Nevada leaders remembered former Gov. Kenny Guinn at a public funeral Tuesday with a 21-gun salute, bagpipes and a Catholic Mass honoring the two-term moderate Republican whom colleagues say left a big footprint in the Silver State.

“Our state is sad but extremely grateful,” said longtime state Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, the Senate minority leader.

Pennsylvania collected more in taxes from commercial casinos than any other state last year, including the state that houses gambling mecca of Las Vegas.

Tax revenue figures collected by the Morning Call show Pennsylvania took in just short of $1.1 billion from its nine casinos in the 2009 fiscal year. That outpaces the $878 million collected by Indiana and the $831 million by Nevada.

A running gunbattle broke out when rival gangs clashed at a party in a gated southern Nevada neighborhood, wounding at least three people, police said Thursday.

“We don’t know what sparked the gunfire, but one person definitely had a high-powered semiautomatic rifle,” North Las Vegas police Sgt. Tim Bedwell said of the 2 a.m. shooting at a house near Ann Road and Decatur Boulevard.

Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra had a great time shooting for Siddharth Anand’s Anjaana Anjaani. The actors shot a major portion of the film in Vegas.

While Ranbir gambled his way into the casinos, Priyanka chose to spend her free time watching shows and going for dinner with friends. More >

A clerk clobbered a robber in the head with a metal baseball bat, foiling an early morning robbery attempt at a Nevada convenience store, police said Wednesday.

“He whacked the guy good,” North Las Vegas police Sgt. Tim Bedwell said.

The robber was knocked unconscious and hospitalized in critical condition with a serious head injury after the botched robbery just after 2 a.m., Bedwell said. He was not immediately identified.

A Las Vegas man who had already been shot by his ex-wife was shot again by police who said they had no choice but to open fire.

Dennis Lovelady, 27, was in stable condition Monday recovering from gunshot wounds from police and from his former wife, who had shot him in the leg during a domestic disturbance.

New New York Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudemire watched a portion of the Knicks-Detroit Pistons Vegas Summer League game.

Stoudemire is in Las Vegas for USA Basketball’s national team training camp, which begins Tuesdays and ends July 24.

“I just want to improve as a players, and this is the best opportunity to sharpen my skills, competing with the best players in the NBA,” Stoudemire said.