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RIFLE, Colo. (AP) — Many stores and restaurants are telling people not to bring their guns inside, but one western Colorado restaurant not only embraces the practice of packing heat, it encourages its customers to carry openly — and its waitresses do, too.

As she takes your order at Shooters Grill in the town of Rifle — yes, Rifle — waitress Ashlee Saenz carries a pad, pen and a loaded Ruger .357 Blackhawk revolver holstered on her leg, Old West style.

It's loaded, and she knows how to use it.

Colorado is among the states where openly carrying a gun in public is legal. The issue has made headlines after gun rights activists carrying loaded rifles gathered in Target stores in Texas, Alabama and North Carolina to demonstrate their support of "open carry" laws. On Wednesday, Target Corp. asked its customers "respectfully" to not bring firearms into stores, even where allowed by law.

But in Rifle, Saenz, her co-workers and her customers at Shooters Grill are encouraged to bring their holstered guns in the restaurant, The Glenwood Springs Post Independent reports (http://bit.ly/1nOVk8R ).

State law allows local governments and businesses to prohibit guns in their buildings, but a sign on Shooters' front door reads: "Guns are welcome on premises. Please keep all weapons holstered unless need arises. In such case, judicious marksmanship is appreciated."

Shooters also hosts training that qualifies customers for Colorado and Utah concealed weapon permits. The $75 price tag includes dinner.

Shooters owner Lauren Boebert said she's simply allowing customers and employees to exercise their constitutional right to bear arms.

"We encourage it, and the customers love that they can come here and express their rights," Boebert said.

She chose the restaurant's name last year as a nod to its gun policy.

"I consulted with my Christian friends and everyone said 'Shooters' sounded like a bar or a strip joint," Lauren Boebert said with a laugh. "But I thought, this is Rifle — it was founded around guns and the Old West. We called it Shooters and started throwing guns and Jesus all over the place."

The restaurant offers American and Mexican fare, and it doesn't serve alcohol.

Customers on a recent morning had no problem with the presence of firearms.

Wayne and Martha Greenwald, visiting from Grand Marais, Michigan, welcomed the restaurant's policy.

"We think it's just fine. We're very positive about it," Wayne Greenwald said. "We carry guns ourselves and own a rifle, shotgun and handguns. We live in a very small town and we take care of our own crime problems."

A group that supporters gun restrictions told the newspaper it favors concealed carry over open carry because that requires the person to have training and meet other requirements to obtain a permit. Other Colorado laws, including universal background checks for gun sales, a 15-round limit on firearm magazines and a ban on online-only concealed-carry training, continue to be topics of intense debate.

"We stand behind the Second Amendment, but we don't encourage people to carry guns as a public display in places like stores or restaurants," said Jennifer Hope, the Colorado chapter leader for the national Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

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Information from: Post Independent, http://www.postindependent.com/

Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks have agreed on what could be the final contract for the future Hall of Famer.

A person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press on Thursday that Nowitzki would get a three-year contract worth roughly $30 million. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been announced.

New contracts can't be signed until next Thursday.

The 36-year-old Nowitzki is taking a big pay cut with a contract similar in value and structure to the one Tim Duncan signed with San Antonio two years ago.

Duncan, who also took a much lower salary, is exercising a player option to return for the final season of his deal after helping the Spurs win their fifth title since 1999.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's military spokesman says the prime minister has removed the chief of the army's ground forces and the head of the federal police from their posts.

Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi says Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed the papers Saturday to retire Lt. Gen. Ali Ghaidan, commander of the army's ground forces, and Lt. Gen. Mohsen al-Kaabi, the federal police chief.

Al-Moussawi says both men leave their jobs with their pensions. No replacements have been named.

The dismissals are part of al-Maliki's shakeup of the security forces after their near collapse in the face of a sweeping militant offensive led by the Islamic State extremist group.

Last month, al-Maliki retired three generals who had been deployed in the north and ordered legal proceedings against them.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The storied former Las Vegas Hilton, famous for staging Liberace and more than 800 sold-out Elvis Presley concerts in the 1960s and 1970s, has a new name and owner.

Florida-based timeshare company Westgate Resorts announced it purchased the LVH hotel from Goldman Sachs and Gramercy Capital and would rename it Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino. About 200 of the nearly 3,000 rooms and suites will be converted to timeshare villas, while others will remain open to regular hotel guests.

"We will be providing the best of both worlds on our resort property," said new owner David Siegel, who was hoisted up by a crane Tuesday with a worker removing the letters "LVH" from the hotel's giant marquee. "We are very excited to be taking this important part of Vegas history and reinventing it for the next generation of Las Vegas visitors."

A full renovation is planned, according to company officials.

With 1,500 rooms, the property was the largest hotel in the world when billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian opened it as The International Hotel in 1969. Barbara Streisand performed an inaugural series of concerts there before Elvis Presley began a 58-show series that broke Las Vegas attendance records.

He later went on to set up his own penthouse in the hotel and generated millions in ticket sales in the years before his 1977 death.

The hotel was the site of the famous 1978 fight in which Leon Spinks defeated Muhammad Ali for the world heavyweight championship. It was also the site of an arson that killed eight people in 1981, just 90 days after a fire at the nearby MGM Grand casino that killed 85 people.

The hotel, which is located in a quieter area close to the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center and about a block east of the bustling Las Vegas Strip, has been expanded over the years. It was renamed the Las Vegas Hilton in 1971 and retained the name for 40 years before its licensing agreement with the Hilton hotel chain expired.

The property struggled through the recession, defaulting on a $252 million loan in 2010. It was christened the Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, or LVH, in 2012.

The acquisition will significantly enlarge Westgate's portfolio. Before the buy, Westgate owned about 10,000 rooms at 28 other resorts, including the Westgate Flamingo Bay Resort in Las Vegas and others in Orlando, Florida, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Branson, Missouri, and Park City, Utah.

Westgate CEO Siegel and his wife Jackie are known for their attempt to build a 90,000-square-foot Florida mansion modeled after the Palace of Versailles. The recession stalled construction on the house, which will be the largest in the U.S. if it's completed.

Their homebuilding effort was detailed in the 2012 documentary "Queen of Versailles," which screened at the Sundance Film Festival.