LAS VEGAS – Who put the dog out?

Little Jordan, an 8-month-old lab puppy, disappeared last month from weather reports on KVBC-TV, and now there’s a dispute over who took the popular dog off the air.

His owner and on-air partner, animal-loving KVBC weatherman John Fredericks, issued a statement last week saying it was the NBC affiliate’s decision to send L.J., as the pup is known, to the doghouse over a contract dispute.

The dog “was removed from the broadcast … pending the resolution of contractual terms for L.J.,” the statement said. Little Jordan had replaced Jordan, a golden retriever who long shared airtime with Fredericks and died last summer.

The station’s general manager, Lisa Howfield, said last month that L.J.’s disappearance was Fredericks’ decision. “It was John’s choice to take the dog off the air,” she said. “I would have liked us to keep the dog on the air.”

Fredericks said he “wants nothing more than for L.J. to return to the broadcast and believes that the contractual issues resulting in the current situation will soon by resolved.”

Howfield and Fredericks did not return requests for comment.

Police search for thieves of $24,000 worth of beer

MOUNT PLEASANT, Wis. – Talk about a beer binge: Authorities are searching for three men who stole about $24,000 worth of beer from a trucking company south of Milwaukee.

The suspects pulled up to the Hribar Trucking site at about 2 a.m. Monday in stolen semi tractors, Mount Pleasant police said.

They were trying to hook a trailer full of Miller Brewing Co. beer to the tractors when they were interrupted. The men then fled, taking a different tractor-trailer rig full of Miller beer, and a semi tractor with no load.

Officials from Schneider National, who own the rig, declined to comment on the theft and ongoing investigation.

Police are looking for a white semitrailer with blue lettering reading “Great Taste of a True Pilsner Beer” and a white Freightliner semi tractor. The village of Mount Pleasant is about 30 miles south of Milwaukee.