Print edition for January 18, 2000

Man had history of violence against women, court records show: Since 1995, three women received a total of four temporary protective orders commanding Ronald W. Collins not to come within 50 feet of them.

U.S. Supreme Court rules against condemned Nevada inmate: The state's high court ruled against Libby in 1993, and refused in 1995 to grant him a rehearing in the case involving the September 1988 murders of Charles Beatty and James Robertson.

Atlantic City delays tied to cost concerns: ATLANTIC CITY -- Five years after announcing plans to build a huge resort casino in Atlantic City, Las Vegas-based Mirage Resorts Inc. has yet to substantially move on the project -- delays that analysts say are triggered by a desire to remain on budget.

Small businesses having trouble with workers' comp transition: CARSON CITY -- Small employers have had trouble getting workers' compensation insurance since the market was open to competition, a Nevada legislative committee was told Friday.

Las Vegas gaming executives join Canadian horse racing operation: David Strow; MGM Grand Inc. Chairman J. Terrence Lanni and Mandalay Resort Group President Glenn Schaeffer are participating in a Canadian automotive company's efforts to create one of North America's largest operators of horse racetracks.

Former Maxim operator wants bankruptcy hearings in Nevada: Gary Thompson; Former Maxim hotel-casino operator Ed Nigro has asked a federal judge in Texas to allow bankruptcy cases involving his company and the resort's owner to be heard in Nevada.

Firm expands services: RMI president Kevin Wallace said the subsidiary will employ 24 people, and target the growing number of single-family home communities across Las Vegas. David Krantz will serve as the new company's director of property management; both companies will be located at RMI's office at 4435 S. Eastern Ave.

UNLV ad for new chief cop drawing responses: UNLV has begun to receive responses to an advertisement on its website seeking a new public safety director to fill the position of the campus police chief the school fired in mid-November.

Gas additive considered problem in LV ground water: A national water protection organization called on President Clinton for immediate action to rid ground water, including sources in Las Vegas and Reno, of the gasoline additive MTBE or methyl tertiary butyl ether.

Gold Dust West resort in Reno to be sold: RENO -- A Colorado casino operator agreed to buy Reno's Gold Dust West casino for $26.5 million.

Y2K problems, fuel costs hurt Southwest's quarterly earnings: Southwest Airlines Co., the largest carrier at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas with 149 daily flights here, today reported lower profits in the last quarter of 1999 because of higher fuel costs and Y2K problems.

Mountain still without snow: Cloudy skies today and Monday brought just a trace of rain to the Las Vegas Valley and scattered showers to Mount Charleston, which is badly in need of snow for its winter activities.

Web companies sign with LV firm: Tom Breitling, Travelscape.com co-founder and chief operating officer, said today the company signed deals with Ask Jeeves, TravelNow.com and LastMinuteTravel.com.

Internet gambling no threat to Vegas casinos: Robert Macy; Internet gambling is "on the verge of exploding" with revenues expected to triple in two years, but the growth will not hurt Las Vegas or other casino cities, according to a new industry report.

Residents offer ideas for cleaning up valley: Citizens are concerned about the state of the environment in the Las Vegas Valley and have concrete suggestions on how to improve it, ranging from improving mass transit to better recycling of water and trash, a study released today says.

Russian ice-skating force to consult for Las Vegas production firm: Belousov, the creator of the Russian Ballet On Ice, has been directing ice shows since 1985.

On a mission: After 16 months in operation, a forced move from its original home and a name change to avoid confusion with a longtime local homeless shelter, the City Mission of Las Vegas is gaining acceptance among local agencies that help the poor.

Income study: Gap widens between rich, poor in Nevada: Benjamin Grove; WASHINGTON -- The gap between the richest and poorest Nevada families has widened in the past two decades, according to a new study released today.

Talking with the enemy: Martin Kuz; Gun manufacturers represented at this year's Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show think the litigation brought against the firearms industry in 1999 is a bunch of buckshot.

LV company to offer Internet travel service: TravelSwitch.com LLC, developed by former hotel executives Dan Reichartz and Dan Scott of Advanced Gaming Technology Inc., will offer Las Vegas reservations to a global audience from its Internet site 777lasvegas.com.

Commissioner: PBA to always remain strong in Las Vegas: Spencer Patterson; According to sources, the proposed sale of the Professional Bowlers Association to a group headed by former Microsoft executive Chris Peters is based on the following criteria being met by the new owners:

Company to offer abbreviated newspapers in Las Vegas: New York-based PressPoint distributed its portfolio of 25 international publications at the Consumer Electronics Show and Comdex.

Business park under construction: The 24-acre project is located at the southwest corner of Cheyenne Boulevard and Allen Road adjacent to the North Las Vegas Airport. At build-out, the project will consist of 10 multi-tenant office, showroom, warehouse and retail buildings totaling 350,000 square feet.

Silver State contract challenge for council: Erin Neff; The Las Vegas City Council will find itself again treading a delicate line between legitimate business and perceived conflicts of interest when it votes Wednesday on another contract extension for Silver State Disposal Services.

UNLV-New Mexico box score: UNLV (11-4, 2-1)

Affirmative action policies challenged: ATLANTIC CITY -- A former pit manager at the Atlantic City Tropicana has filed a class action lawsuit against the casino in an attempt to overturn its affirmative-action policies.

New division to coordinate e-commerce: J. Scott Kirby, currently the airline's vice president of revenue management, will head what has been called the e-business division as a vice president.

Gazette-Journal's Melton returns to Reno: Melton has held a number of positions with the newspaper and its parent company, Gannett, since 1957.

Columnist Susan Snyder: Mobile home days have flown away: Don Burns remembers when walking across Tropicana Avenue to peer over the McCarran International Airport fence was easy.

Manufacturers, dealers skeptical over new federal initiatives: Robert Macy; LAS VEGAS - James Maupin checked out the sight on a new Smith & Wesson handgun Tuesday and offered his assessment on President Clinton's newest gun legislation proposal.

Man allegedly kills self after shot by Reno police: Neither the dead man nor the police lieutenant who fired the shot at an apartment complex Monday afternoon has been identified.

Traveling health center starts road trip: Staffers won't do any actual examinations until the rig is licensed by the state. That's expected by early February, when the van arrives in Las Vegas.

King committee plans new home in proposed Agassi charter school: The Martin Luther King Day Committee has announced a partnership with the Andre Agassi Foundation -- a move the committee says will give it a new home in a yet-to-be-built West Las Vegas charter school.

Program to collect books for schools begins: The program, Building Opportunities for Our Kids in School, or BOOKS, kicks off this week at the Las Vegas Valley's 11 Pulte Homes communities and Borders bookstores.

Harrah's developing Indian casino in California: The casino, the first in California to be developed by a Strip casino operator, will be developed on the tribal land of the Rincon San Luiseno Band of Mission Indians. The tribal land is located about 30 minutes north of San Diego.

Two boys find dead body in ravine: Jace Radke; Two boys hiking around a desert area near their Green Valley homes came across a gruesome discovery Monday afternoon.

Ralph Siraco's horse racing notes: The Coast Resorts Casinos has a full slate of racing related events throughout the end of the current Santa Anita racing season.

Kambalian effort: Victoria Sun; ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Freshmen R.T. Guinn, Rafael Berumen and Marlon Parmer weren't the answers for the struggling New Mexico basketball team.

Court: Restudy scope of Equal Pay Act: Richard Carelli; WASHINGTON -- In a surprising move, the Supreme Court today ordered lower courts to restudy rulings that said states and their agencies must abide by a 1963 federal law requiring employers to give men and women equal pay for equal work.

Cassidy, Easton open 'At the Copa': Tickets are $58, which includes one drink, tax and gratuity.

Schmidt being moved to St. Louis: Indy Racing League driver Sam Schmidt of Henderson was scheduled to be transferred today to St. Louis to begin rehabilitation at a facility that specializes in spinal-cord injuries.

Neighbors save woman from blaze: Keith Paul; Two men crawled through dense, black smoke and pulled an elderly woman from her burning apartment Monday.

Letter: School Board has serious problems: After wasting about $100,000 in an aborted attempt to find a new superintendent of schools, they want to spend another $150,000 in another search with the same contractor. This apparent waste marathon seems to propagate itself without success or any accountability to the public.

Woman barely escapes, with hero's help: California Highway Patrol Sgt. Bob Jones said Owens pushed the woman to safety Monday when the huge truck slid out of control on an icy road.

Letter: Library should not allow youngsters access to Playboy: I had my first library card at the age of 10. I am now 52. I had access to books about the weather, photography, thoroughbred horses, beautiful flowers and yes, even Mozart.

Grande 'Dame': What: "Notre Dame de Paris."

Fallon will get its bulletproof vests: The vests cost $520 each, but the federal assistance means officers will have to pay only $261 out of their own pockets, Sgt. Vern Ulrich said.

Profits soar for big banks in Nevada: BancWest buys

Community news briefs for January 18, 2000: The Henderson Parks and Recreation Department is hosting a healthy-back workshop 12:30 p.m.-2 p.m. Saturday at the Silver Springs Recreation Center, 1951 Silver Springs Parkway.

Man suspected in two motel robberies: Thibodeau is accused of robbing the RestInn Suites Motel with a knife about 9 p.m. Friday, Police Chief La Don Murray said.

Internet class offerings on rise at Nevada colleges: Classes by computer started in 1998. Since then, UNR's online courses have increased steadily, with 22 on the latest list.

Blood bank draining rapidly in Reno: A person must be symptom-free for three days to be allowed to donate blood, she said. At one blood drive last week, half of the 15 donors were turned away because they were not healthy enough to contribute.

Arraignments in two murder cases scheduled: Alfonso Jackson, 30, is to be arraigned Friday. He is charged with murder and first-degree kidnapping in the death of 16-year-old Shavonne Graves. Her body was found in a burned out car in February 1998. A sophomore at Eldorado High School, she had been missing since July of 1997.

LV to get nonstop service from Albany, N.Y.: In a surprise announcement, Southwest said it would fly directly between Albany and Las Vegas, Baltimore and Orlando, Fla. Initially, the airline plans one round trip a day between McCarran International Airport and New York's capital.

Proposed fees could cripple small businesses using forest land, opponents say: Pauline Arrillaga; These days Rich is the guide, but the sweat is less sweet. It has been soured by yet another proposed governmental fee that would increase his cost of doing business in the forests his family has explored for three generations.

Letter: Some positive feedback for AMR: CONNIE E. BOEHM

Editorial: Military honors are least a nation can do: Still, Congress did the right thing last year when it mandated that all veterans' burials should receive honors if requested. In an encouraging sign, the Sun's Ed Koch reported Monday that Western region members of the National Cemetery Association, a branch of the Veterans Administration, say that the new requirement is being implemented smoothly. The new law is estimated to cost $75 million this year, but this is a small price to pay to honor those men and women who served this nation.

Editorial: Innovative cleanup of toxic waste: Despite the near unanimous agreement that the uranium tailings pile had to be moved in order to protect the environment and the public's safety, the agency responsible for its cleanup, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, decided that the wastes should be left where they were and simply capped by clay. This, of course, was a Band-Aid approach that was unacceptable. Requests to get the intervention of the Department of Energy, which had cleaned up other uranium tailings sites around the nation, didn't appear as if they would be answered.

Highest court denies Nevada death row inmate: Libby was convicted and sentenced to death in April 1990 for the 1988 murders of Charles Beatty and James Robertson, whose bodies were found in the desert near Winnemucca in Northern Nevada.

Karla Rodriguez still lost despite efforts: "We are still hoping she is alive and well someplace," said Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Lt. Tom Monahan.

McDonald hearing postponed: Erin Neff; An ethics hearing to determine whether Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald lied before a state board has been postponed.

Columnist Kate Maddox: Monks prepare for Las Vegas show: Kate Maddox; The Shaolin monks have been a part of Chinese culture and tradition for more than 1,500 years -- working in peaceful, spiritual harmony to become some of the greatest martial arts masters in the world, all the while rarely leaving their secluded monastery.

BLM spending $50 an acre to reseed burned Nevada rangeland: The BLM is spending about $50 per acre on the seeding contracts. That includes seed, seed storage, transportation of seed, testing of seed, contract preparation and administration and monitoring.

Columnist Dean Juipe: Perfect win lets Rebels fans revel: Dean Juipe; Certain games jump off a basketball team's schedule, and in UNLV's case those games this season are with Georgetown, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, Cincinnati, New Mexico and Utah.

Obituaries for January 18, 2000: Salvatore "Sam" Abene, 56, of Henderson died Thursday in Las Vegas. He was born July 21, 1943, in Chicago. A resident for 16 years, he was an automobile mechanic.

Some securities brokers try independent route: Phil Levine; Securities brokers in greater numbers are trading in the security and certitude of the nation's largest investment companies to forge their own financial future.

Nuclear waste hearings scheduled: The other will be Feb. 3 at the St. Tropez-All Suite Hotel in Las Vegas, at the same times.

Drunken fight may have led to death: The victim has been identified as William Leonard Allen, 50.

Forest fees at a glance: Processing fee

Employees Association stands against YMCA hiring: The union says a collective bargaining agreement provides that the city fill the jobs with union workers.

Community Health Centers stays open despite grant loss: Community Health Centers of Southern Nevada vowed Monday to keep the doors of its clinic for the poor open, despite the pending loss of a federal grant that in past years has provided two-thirds of its funding.

Housing to be supplied for HIV positive: Jeff Smith, director of Aid for AIDS of Nevada, says housing is one of the greatest problems facing the HIV community now. Lack of housing means no stability, no routine, and no way to obtain badly-needed medicine on a daily basis.

Where I Stand -- Brian Greenspun: A judicial door-to-door: "You will not go judge shopping in the state of Nevada."

Las Vegas pizza chain is in fight for its name: Grace Leong; Villa Holdings LLC of Morristown, N.J., is suing a popular Las Vegas pizza parlor chain over rights to the VILLA PIZZA name.

Transfer from Purdue expects to find a good fit with Rebels: Steve Guiremand; A few months ago, Larry Shyne was lining up each Saturday against teams such as Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan and Penn State as a member of the Purdue Boilermakers.

Columnist Ron Kantowski: Caesars has two heavyweights -- for now: It wasn't exactly as big as American Online downloading Time Warner, but the imminent merger of the race and sports book operations at Caesars Palace (and Caesars Tahoe) with those of the seven Park Place Entertainment parlors in Nevada will have some residual effects, not the least of which involves the figureheads of each group.

Jail results from poorly chosen throw: Deputy Kathy Harris suffered minor injuries to her face after approaching Martinez, who was holding a rock and trying to fight with another man, Chief Deputy Ken Barnes said.

MGM nixes hockey deal: Give the MGM Grand a two-minute penalty for spreading false hope among Las Vegas hockey fans.

We must 'leap' into year 2000: Many of the battery of routines to prove a system is "Y2K compliant" included checking for this unlikely error, but this is certainly something to be on the lookout for.