Nevada

Seven Marines were killed during a training exercise at a U.S. Army depot in western Nevada, Marine Corps officials said Tuesday. The explosion shortly before 10 p.m. Monday at Hawthorne Army Depot also injured several others from the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, N.C., according to a statement released to The Times by Marine Captain Binford R. Strickland. At least eight injured were in  Renown Medical Center in Reno, Nev., where they were listed in conditions from serious to fair, a spokeswoman told The Times.

Military officials have suspended the use of the 60-millimeter mortar rounds and ammunition similar to what was involved in an explosion that killed seven Marines and injured seven others during an exercise Monday night at the Hawthorne Army Depot in western Nevada, about 140 miles from Reno. “All High Explosive (HE) and Illumination rounds that are the same lots as those that were being fired at Hawthorne have been suspended and may not be used for training or in theater,” the Marines announced in a statement e-mailed to reporters.

HAWTHORNE, Nev. - As the U.S. has fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Marine Corps has considered the sprawling and remote Hawthorne Army Depot an invaluable site for realistic training - its wide-open spaces supporting live-fire exercises, its climate, elevation and terrain similar to much of Afghanistan. But with realism comes danger. On Monday night a 60-millimeter mortar round exploded at the facility outside Reno, killing at least seven Marines and injuring eight - seven Marines and a Navy corpsman.

The last Big East basketball tournament as we know it hits New York's stage this week at Madison Square Garden. What sportswriter Dan Wetzel recently described as "the most honest event in college sports" is breaking up after a messy divorce that will separate Syracuse from Georgetown and Seton Hall from Rutgers. That's like breaking peanut butter up from jelly. GRAPHIC: Pac-12 Conference Tournament Bracket It's all football's fault, and what a money-grubbing shame.

A woman found dead face down in the sand in Newport Beach faced prostitution charges in three states and gave birth shortly before a stint in jail earlier this year, according to public records and interviews. Tina Hoang, 20, had been arrested on suspicion of prostitution-related crimes in California, Nevada and Florida, court papers show. The Bellflower resident, whose death was listed as "suspicious" by police, was arrested as recently as December on suspicion of prostitution and had at least a dozen open cases against her in Orange and Los Angeles counties, her attorney said.

Five giant mortgage firms are shelling out $25 billion to settle claims of "robo-signing" and other foreclosure abuses - but putting anyone in jail is another matter. In one of only two known robo-signing prosecutions nationwide, a judge last week threw out an entire case, including more than 100 felony counts each against Gary Trafford and Geraldine Sheppard of Orange County. The Californians had worked as title officers for Lender Processing Services, a giant Jacksonville, Fla., firm that helps banks and mortgage servicers generate legal documents.

LAS VEGAS  - A national animal advocacy group excoriated the federal government, saying it misled the public about last week's removal of 11 wild mustangs that had coexisted for years with residents of a populated area outside Carson City, Nev. The Humane Society of the United States has called for the Bureau of Land Management to return the animals to the wild, rather than following through on plans to put them up for adoption. “The Humane Society of the United States denounces the Bureau of Land Management's decision to remove a small band of wild horses located just east of Carson City, Nev., in the Pine Nut Herd Management Area,” according to a statement released by the group Tuesday.

John Livermore, an exploration geologist whose discovery of minuscule but highly valuable particles of "invisible gold" in Nevada in the early 1960s set off a modern-day gold rush in the state, has died. He was 94. Livermore died Feb. 7 at his Reno home of cancer, said Andy Wallace, his longtime business partner. "He was probably the most successful exploration geologist in the last half of the 20th century," said Wallace, chief executive of Cordex, the company Livermore founded in 1970 for mine exploration.

LAS VEGAS -- Harvey Munford has heard a lot of talk about the dangers of texting while driving. Now the Nevada assemblyman wants to focus on what he considers an equally perilous scourge: texting while walking, especially across a busy street. Munford (D-Las Vegas) on Thursday introduced Assembly Bill 123, saying the new law could be applied not to just urban streets but to all state roads, even in residential neighborhoods. The penalty for offenders: a pricey ticket, including $250 for a third offense.

High-altitude dust blown thousands of miles across the Pacific from Asian and African deserts can make it rain and snow in the Sierra Nevada, according to new research that suggests tiny particles from afar play a role in California's water supply. The study, published Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science, grew out of researchers' questions about two similar Sierra storms in winter 2009. Even though the storm systems carried the same amount of water vapor, one produced 40% more precipitation than the other.