Print edition for May 1, 1998

Columnist Muriel Stevens: Grape Street Cafe a tasty find: Grape Street's decor is inviting. It has the appeal of a French bistro, with used brick walls and custom wrought iron chairs and tables. A dining counter faces the open kitchen, offering a view of the chefs at work.

Margaret Springgate named to Mills Lane's seat: His last day was Thursday. Her first was Friday.

Child-care provider charged with failure to report abuse: Roda Rustomji was first charged with child abuse by the district attorney in August. The charge stemmed from an incident in which a 5-year-old girl in Rustomji's care allegedly had a two-inch square of hair yanked from her head.

Miller blasts DOE: The state agency that monitors the ongoing study of Yucca Mountain as a potential site for burial of the nation's high-level nuclear waste may have to shut down July 1 because of a funding crisis.

Cause for ... 'ACTION'!: Lisa Ferguson; It's the stuff Hollywood legends are made of: Being discovered by a filmmaker and handed a movie role on the spot.

NBA Most Improved Player Winners: 1987 - Dale Ellis, Seattle

IHL playoffs: (Best-of-5)

Columnist Scott Dickensheets: Artist takes a 'Chance' on meaning of Vegas: Scott Dickensheets; A pair of giant dice hangs from the ceiling of SITE Las Vegas, Mark Masuoka's wee alterna-space on the bottom floor of the Arts Factory. But otherwise, for this show of his sculpture (remarkably, his first solo exhibit in his decade here, opening tonight), he's rounded up none of the usual suspects. No Rat Pack, no neon, no poker hands, no razzmatazz; these pieces are awfully quiet for Vegas. Even his big dice fall short of being pure Vegas -- they're not fuzzy! (That's partly artistic intention, partly the high cost of fur.) Nonetheless, the show, "Chance," arises from living ...

Higher college student fees proposed: Jarvis told the board of regents of the University and Community College System of Nevada that he expects enrollments to increase by more than 6 percent a year in the 1999-2001 biennium.

Ponzi scheme suspect turns himself in: Brian Seals; A San Diego man wanted in an alleged Ponzi scheme perpetrated out of Las Vegas turned himself in to officials with the Nevada Attorney General's office Wednesday evening.

Guns in schools arouse memory for victim's family: Benjamin Grove; "It's difficult, you never really get over something like that," Christy Piggott said. "My children never got to know their grandfather."

CCSN to consider adding athletics: FALLON -- There's no unanimous agreement whether intercollegiate or intramural athletic programs should be started at the Community College of Southern Nevada. But most university officials favor a study.

Auto Racing standings and leaders through April 30, 1998: The 1998 NASCAR Winston Cup stock car racing schedule, winners in parenthesis, and driver point standings:

Conference planned on effects of perchlorate: Perchlorate, made as a rocket fuel booster at two plants near Henderson, has been traced in wells and other water supplies in three western states.

Perchlorate can persist for decades: Perchlorate salts are easily dissolved in water. They can persist for decades under typical groundwater and surface water conditions.

UNLV women upset second seeded San Jose State: Playing at the Mary Potishman Lard Tennis Center, the Lady Rebels took four of six singles points en route to a 5-3 upset of second-seeded San Diego State in the quarterfinals. At last year's tournament, SDSU eliminated then-top seeded UNLV by the same score in the same round.

Movie Guys: Spike and Denzel team up to win the 'Game': * Starring: Denzel Washington, Ray Allen, Milla Jovovich, Rosario Dawson, Hill Harper and Ned Beatty.

More Sunrise records seized: Art Nadler; FBI agents and investigators with the attorney general's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit began seizing financial records from the hospital Wednesday morning. The quantity of records removed required the use of a rented truck.

State trooper running for county commission: Jeff Schweers; "The commission is as splintered as it has ever been," the 24-year highway patrol veteran and Republican candidate said today. "As a result, Clark County government is at its lowest level of trust I've ever seen."

Supercross latest extreme in Las Vegas: When the AMA Supercross Series invades Sam Boyd Stadium Saturday night for its season finale, a crowd of 36,000 will mark the series' first sellout of the season.

University regents consider $178 million building plan: The regents of the University and Community College System of Nevada discussed the plan Friday while meeting at the local branch of Western Nevada Community College.

Gorman wins Sunset crown: Spencer Patterson; The Bishop Gorman baseball team saved its best for last.

Thursday's College Baseball Scores: Bridgewater, Mass. 8, Bentley 4

Stratosphere creditors coming out of the woodwork: Brian Seals; Claims registered against the bankrupt Stratosphere hotel-casino total a staggering $887 million.

Search underway for boy, 12: Cathy Scott; At presstime today, searchers were continuing a wide search -- many were going door-to-door -- in the area of Ann Road and Tenaya Way.

Animal activists lose bid to have Berosini assets overseen by receiver: U.S. District Judge Philip Pro ruled Wednesday that he does not have jurisdiction over Berosini's assets.

Stan Spencer gets OK to pitch: Steve Guiremand; All things considered, Stan Spencer was due for a little good news at the doctor's office.

NBA Draft Early Entries: Mike Bibby, sophomore, g, Arizona

Chiropractor gets records, bank accounts back: Detectives seized the items Jan. 21 in a fraud investigation into Hansen's claim to cure cancer with the bath, which injects the body with ionized oxygen atoms designed to attack cancerous cells.

Sheena Easton: For Her Eyes Only: Lisa Ferguson; Though the decade was very good to the songstress -- that's when the bulk of her hit tunes, including "For Your Eyes Only," "You Could Have Been With Me" and "Morning Train" topped the pop charts -- Easton, who performs at the Desert Inn tonight through Sunday, says she's glad those days are behind her.

Greenspun Junior High honors superintendent: Cram, superintendent of schools for the Clark County School District, will be presented with the award May 22 at 10 a.m. in the Henderson school's library during the Greenspun Media Fair featuring human-interest stories.

Lewis and News 'Doin' it All' for audience: Joe Delaney; The show is enhanced by a four-man horn section -- three saxes and a trumpet. Suffice to say, they are a worthy addition and musically, for what they played, it was a 9.5 performance, out of a possible ten. Decibel-wise, it was at least a 10 percent overkill. In fairness, no one left and no one complained.

Thursday's Prep Results: Bishop Gorman 7, Durango 5, 9 inn.

Columnist Joe Delaney: The Smothers Brothers are a funny pair of survivors: Joe Delaney; The Kingston Trio and the Limeliters led the way. ... Musically, the Smothers Brothers ranked right with them. ... Comedy came later, naturally, the sibling rivalry, "Mom always liked you best," became their "hook," the identifying catch phrase.

Insurance for long-term care seen as step toward solution: "We want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem," said Tammy McDermott, president of the Nevada Health Care Association and a member of the American Health Care Association's legislative subcommittee. "So we are taking a proactive approach. We want to say, as an industry, we recognize changes need to be made and we are working on solutions."

Miller names Voy to Family Court job: Bill Gang; He takes the bench May 11.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway 1998 Points Standings: Points Standings, as of April 27, 1998

Kentucky Derby stumbles to a start: Ralph Siraco; The 124th running of the Kentucky Derby may very well be remembered as the Derby of misses.

Walker quits as Carson finance chief: Also Thursday, Carson City Fire Chief Lou Buckley said he's looking for another job. He didn't say why he wanted to leave the fire department, and declined to discuss where he had applied for other positions.

Device credited with saving two lives: The fire was ruled accidental.

'Wilde': Antics That Had Victorians Only Half-Amused: Janet Maslin; As written by Julian Mitchell ("Another Country") and directed by Brian Gilbert ("Tom and Viv"), "Wilde" has a cursorily informative style that would be perfect for the classroom, if the film didn't also frankly depict Wilde's sexual affairs with fetching young men. As in "Tom and Viv," there is the sense that a literary legend has come alive, however tenderly, to teach the audience a sort of lesson.

Columnist Dean Juipe: Decision due on Thunder's future in LV: Dean Juipe; The givens: The team has a year left on its lease with the Thomas & Mack Center; it is very unhappy with its arrangement; team owner Ken Stickney is considering options ranging from reluctant acceptance, to moving the franchise to Sacramento, to going "dark" for a year before reviving the team in a still-as-yet-unannounced arena that will go up on the South end of the Strip; and, regardless of what Stickney decides, the IHL will keep a team in Las Vegas.

Box score: Redhawks 2, Stars 1: Oklahoma

Saturday at Golden Gate: 1st race 6 fur 3YO Mdn Clm

Group working to steer Medicaid from disaster: The hands of the clock are moving relentlessly closer to the hour in which Medicaid, a sibling of the federal Medicare program, will collapse under the weight of the heavy demand for long-term care as the nation's population continues to grow older.

Saturday at Aqueduct: 1st race 6 fur 3YO&up F&M Mdn

Weekend Update: Music, Theater, Etc.: KLEZMER CONCERT -- The Maxwell Street Klezmer Band will fill the Charleston Heights Arts Center Ballroom, 800 S. Brush St., with their mingling of ethnic melodies, theater songs and jazzy Yiddish pop music at 8 p.m. Saturday. Their high-energy performances have delighted audiences from Iowa to Austria. Tickets are $12, $10 for students, seniors and the disabled at the door.

Ex-San Diego utility buddies team up to engineer Nevada Power merger: When they called to congratulate each other about their respective appointments as top executives -- Niggli at Nevada Power Co. in Las Vegas and Malquist at Sierra Pacific Resources in Reno -- the first glimmer of what would be a blockbuster business deal first surfaced.

Special fund wasting away during US Med cleanup: Adrienne Packer; The bill to excavate the waste -- which ranged from plasticware to syringes -- is creeping toward $100,000 and the cleanup effort at US EnviroMedical, also known as US Med, is still underway.

Governor's wife calls for child-research institute at UNLV: "There is no statewide organization to speak for children," Sandy Miller told the board.

Las Vegas celebrates 'most exciting two minutes': Steve Carp; There isn't a superhorse like Secretariat to capture the public's fancy. But this year's Kentucky Derby, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of Big Red's triumph on his way to the Triple Crown, will be no different for Las Vegas than any other year.

Japan Asks: Who Will Fall On Sword for the Economy?: Cameron W. Barr; The result is a sense of gloom that reminds Minoru Morita, a silver-haired political analyst known for avoiding overstatement, of the days following Japan's defeat in World War II. "I was just a boy," he says, "but I felt that sort of feeling during those three months after August 1945."

Editorial: What happened to the 'new' Newt?: Unfortunately, it appears Gingrich has suffered a relapse. It started in earnest over the weekend as he praised Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., chairman of the House committee investigating campaign fund-raising. At a GOPAC dinner last week, Gingrich stood up for Burton, who had referred to the president as a "scumbag." That didn't seem to bother Gingrich. "I would rather stand next to an honest man who uses a clumsy word than an illegal man with five sharp spinners any day of my life," Gingrich replied.

Obituaries for May 1, 1998: He is survived by his wife, Mary; one son, Andrew Barrett, and one daughter, Julia Barrett, both of Las Vegas; one sister, Peggy Neal of Bluefield; and three brothers, James Barrett of Bluefield, Jack Barrett of Melbourne Beach, Fla., and Richard Barrett of Middlesboro, Ky.

Sparks faces tax hike or service cuts: It would take a 5 percent reduction in the budget or a 10-cent hike in property taxes to offset that. Increasing taxes 10 cents per each $100 worth of assessed valuation would cost somebody with a $100,000 home $35 dollars a year.

Europe's New Rival to Mighty Dollar: Peter Ford; At a summit this weekend in Brussels, European leaders are set to launch a common continental currency that will eventually do away with the French franc, the German mark, and nine other currencies.

People in the News for May 1, 1998: So happy together

Editorial: Playing hardball with soft money: Congress foolishly listened to Rep. Frank Wolf when it established the National Gambling Impact Study Commission.

University regents approve tentative $1 billion budget: Final approval of the budget will come in August at a board meeting in Elko. But the regents agreed on their priorities and directed the staff to start putting the final numbers in place.

Miller names Margaret Springgate as judge: Springgate was legal counsel to Miller from 1993 to 1995 and then became general counsel to the state Division of Industrial Relations. Since 1996, she has worked for the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.

Shoshones fight trespass notice: A hearing on their injunction request is scheduled before Magistrate Judge Roger Hunt. The Indians want BLM efforts to take their livestock halted until they can pursue further legal options to assert their ownership of about one-third of the land in Nevada.

Letter: Workers' comp fund succeeds on backs of injured workers: As a former chief of legal services for the SIIS in Las Vegas, I remember when the emphasis was on paying benefits when legitimately due under the law. Now, the focus is on saving money, even if it means that a legitimately injured worker does not receive needed medical care or disability compensation because of a procedural error or an honest mistake.

Friday's College Baseball Scores: Bentley 22, Babson 2

Albright Tries Slow Way To Democracy in China: Kevin Platt; Ms. Albright suggested that the angry cross-Pacific shouting matches that followed the Chinese army's 1989 attack on pro-democracy protesters are being transformed into a widening dialogue over how the US and China can work together.

Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Gordan plans all-out run in defense of Cal 500 title: Jeff Gordon hopes to run a less conservative race when NASCAR's Winston Cup Series returns to California Speedway this weekend.

Governor's wife seeks, regents establish Institute for Children at UNLV: "We have lots of children's advocates, but we have no centralized hub," Miller said. "Hopefully, we can build bridges and speak in one voice. We want the institute to be visionary enough to see what is coming next that affects children."

Pacific Coast League Stats through April 30, 1998: Through April 30

EPA wants meeting to discuss Corps' permit for casino: The EPA has asked Col. Harry Spear, commander of the Louisville district office of the corp, for a face-to-face meeting to discuss the project, said Mike McMullen, the EPA Region 5 staffer in Chicago who headed his agency's review of Caesars' permit.

Letter: Church-state debate revolves on context: Karen Frehner

State agency studying nuclear waste in limbo: The Energy Department concluded in an audit that the state agency improperly shared public information with other states about scientific findings at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Letter: Comparing governments' animal shelter costs: Joe Boteilho, Clark County animal control manager

Former councilman files complaint against counsel for Ethics Commission: Miller accused Ling of quashing evidence in a recent ethics case against Jones.

Cinco de Mayo comes a little early: Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of the victory by Mexico's ragtag army over what was the world's most powerful standing army, the French, at Puebla in 1862.

Pacific Coast League Standings through April 30, 1998: Midwest Division

Word From Kosovo: This Isn't Bosnia, 'It's More Dangerous': Jonathan S. Landay; But Kosovo could produce a conflict far deadlier than the strife that claimed some 200,000 lives in neighboring Bosnia and added the term "ethnic cleansing" to the lexicon of modern warfare, experts say.

Where I Stand -- Mike O'Callaghan: Mining claims holding land hostage not new in Nevada: Recent court action by the Del Webb builders shows that there are mining claims and local lands with questionable mineral assets being used to put pressure on people who have purchased the land for building. In the Webb case, the land in Henderson appears to have had mining claims made for the purpose of speculating that the area would sometime become valuable for the building of homes. This is exactly what the Arizona-based corporation intends to do, but those mining claims of no real value on this land are holding up their building project. Those mining-claim holders are now moving ...

Missing boy found safe: While police were continuing a wide search -- many were going door-to-door -- in the area of Ann Road and Tenaya Way, the boy was discovered at 10:15 a.m. staying at a friend's house in the northwest, a missing person's detail detective said.

Letter: Sports shows idiocy of affirmative action: But if we really must have affirmative action, President Clinton, let's apply it evenly.

Wheelchair-bound man dies after falling into Lake Mead: The man was transported by emergency medical helicopter to Valley Hospital in Las Vegas, where he was pronounced dead at 12:17 p.m.

Fernly recall petition falls short: Of 549 names needed to force a vote to recall Danny Lunsford, 466 were produced, The Fernley Leader-Dayton Courier reported on Wednesday. Chairman David Stix Jr. also would have been on the ballot with 549 signatures and 453 were turned in.

Woman's firing ruled appropriate: Edwards, who had been on the job for about 18 months, denied she mistreated the patients and suggested those who testified against her were jealous. But Graves said the employees and former employees who worked with Edwards, presented more credible testimony.