News briefs for December 20, 2001

Thursday, Dec. 20, 2001 | 9:52 a.m.

The North Las Vegas City Council unanimously decided Wednesday to use $200,000 in federal money for rental assistance for recently laid-off workers.

The money is expected to pay the rents of about 50 families for six months, said North Las Vegas Housing Authority officials, who will administer the fund.

City officials decided to set up the program because many residents lost their jobs as a result of the Sept. 11 attacks and face homelessness through eviction.

For information, call 649-2451.

LV man is indicted

A federal grand jury has indicted a Las Vegas man on charges of leaving a threat involving anthrax on a Missouri couple's voice mail.

Terrance Oliver, 21, was charged with one count of violating interstate communications laws and one count of threatening and harassing phone calls. He was arrested Wednesday night by FBI agents and has been jailed, said Gayle Jacobs, a spokeswoman for the bureau's Las Vegas office. She could not comment on any specifics of the investigation.

According to the indictment unsealed Wednesday, Oliver left the following message on the phone of Lisa and Toby Ragaini on Nov. 11: "Hello. Sorry, I won't be leaving my name and number or a message after the tone except for one thing, anthrax is real, you'll find out soon enough."

NLV approves federal funding

The North Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday unanimously agreed to give $320,000 in federal funds to a nonprofit organization to start developing a low-income senior housing complex near Tonopah Avenue and Yale Street.

The money will pay for legal, consulting and developer costs to get the 70-unit project started.

Community Development Programs Center of Nevada, which will develop the complex, paid the city $320,000 for the 6.69-acre site in September.

The organization received $499,791 in federal tax credits in May. That money will help for the land and refurbish a dilapidated, 1.86-acre park on the east side of Yale.

Construction of the project is expected to begin later this month or in January, with completion scheduled for fall or winter 2002, said North Las Vegas Housing Authority officials.

Local man hit with indictment

A Clark County grand jury has indicted a man on 63 counts of possessing child pornography and manufacturing and trafficking methamphetamine.

Rex Wayne Doyle kept pornographic pictures of teenage girls on his computer and in a photo album. He is expected to be arraigned next week.

The indictment was unsealed Wednesday.

Gibbons calls on union support

The Nevada State AFL-CIO should follow the example of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and withdraw from its parent organization to send a message of opposition to the proposed Yucca Mountain repository, Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said.

Gibbons, in a letter sent Wednesday to state AFL-CIO Executive Secretary Danny Thompson, said that uniting business and labor interests against a Yucca Mountain repository "will help our committed bipartisan delegation fight this deadly process," Gibbons said.

Thompson was unavailable for comment.

Robert Nard, secretary-treasurer of the Southern Nevada Building Trades Council, said the union was against a repository.

"We don't want a Yucca Mountain repository here any more than the next guy," he said.

18-year-old indicted in shooting

A Clark County grand jury has indicted an 18-year-old man on charges of shooting a 17-year-old to death.

The indictment alleges Rex Alvin Jimerson, who was 17 at the time, killed Moclanail Rogers in North Las Vegas after an argument over a bicycle. Rogers lived in Cleveland, Ohio, and was visiting local relatives.

Jimerson's attorney, John Momot, said his client would plead not guilty and said the shooting was accidental.

Sexual battery charges are filed

A prominent psychiatrist and author of New Age self-help books was arrested Wednesday in San Diego on charges he drugged and fondled female patients, including at least one from Las Vegas.

Dr. Harold H. Bloomfield, who specialized in meditation and other types of holistic medicine, is suspected of fondling women from four states who came to his home in the upscale suburb of Del Mar for counseling, said San Diego County Sheriff's Detective Sgt. Ron Morse.

Three of the women live in the San Diego area while the others came from Las Vegas, Atlanta and Fairfield, Conn.

Bloomfield, 57, was booked into the county jail in Vista on seven counts of unlawful drugging and three counts of sexual battery for incidents involving six victims, Morse said.