In brief: Suspect arrested in casino killing

San Francisco – A man accused of killing the leader of the San Jose Hells Angels in a shootout at a Nevada casino has been arrested on a college campus in San Francisco, authorities said Friday.

Ernesto Manuel Gonzalez, an alleged member of the rival Vagos motorcycle gang, was taken into custody Thursday after a University of California, San Francisco police sergeant spotted him in a parked car just a block from campus police headquarters, UCSF Police Chief Pam Roskowski said Friday.

Gonzalez is being held in the San Francisco jail pending his extradition back to Sparks, Nev., where police accuse him of killing Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew, 51, of San Jose during a shootout inside John Ascuaga’s Nugget hotel and casino Sept. 23.

Immigration law faces challenge

Washington – The Obama administration is appealing a judge’s decision in Alabama that upheld key parts of the nation’s strictest state immigration law, including requirements for the police and school officials to question the status of persons, including children, who may be in the country illegally.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn cleared the way Wednesday for much of Alabama’s new law to take effect. School officials now face the task of determining the citizenship of newly enrolled students.

Late Friday, the Justice Department filed a motion asking for the judge’s decision to be put on hold temporarily so the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta can weigh the issue.

“Alabama has no authority to regulate in the area of immigration,” the department’s lawyers said.

Reid’s wife in chemotherapy

Las Vegas – The wife of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer and is receiving chemotherapy.

Landra Reid, 71, is expected to survive because the cancer was detected early. Reid’s office said he will be at his wife’s side throughout the treatment process, but that the diagnosis won’t affect his work.

The diagnosis comes more than a year after Landra Reid and her only daughter were in a violent car crash in Virginia that left her with a broken back, neck and nose. Doctors initially feared she would be paralyzed, but she recovered.