Print edition for October 29, 2001

Community briefs for October 29, 2001: The Las Vegas Performing and Visual Arts College Fair will be 7-9 p.m. Tuesday at the Las Vegas Academy, 315 S. Seventh St., for students interested in continuing their education in the areas of music, dance, theater, visual arts, graphic design and other related fields.

Letter: This war is not about politics: And Mr. Willis makes it sound like drilling for oil in Alaska is a good thing. As for Social Security, Bush wants to privatize it. Does this mean turn it over to a for-profit company so it can go the way of HMOs?

Letter: Museum curator should not have been released: This belief is shared by local and noted artists from around the country and by museum members, volunteers and docents who worked alongside Mann to make the museum a success, as well as by many perceptive and knowledgeable board members. The adjectives which were used in the article to describe the present executive director -- "big, executive, professional" -- should be applied to Mann, as there would not be a Las Vegas Art Museum today without this "big, executive, professional, executive" curator.

Invasion of the DVDs: Discs offer higher quality than dated VHS: Kirk Baird; Identical to a compact disc in appearance and size, the DVD (an abbreviation for digital versatile disc or digital video disc, depending on preference) was to be to the videocassette what CDs were to cassettes and albums, and cassettes were to 8-tracks:

Birth announcements for October 29, 2001: Oct. 16:

Trends for October 29, 2001: Lisa Ferguson; It's almost Halloween, and you know what that means: more safety tips than you can shake one of those glow-in-the-dark sticks at.

Cancellation details revealed: AT&T Wireless announced Tuesday it would phase out the service because of its heavy capital requirements and because it was not consistent with its core business strategy. The service uses a fixed antenna in the home, rather than traditional phone lines, to deliver local and long distance telephone service, as well as high-speed Internet access.

Southern Nevada growth may be slowing: For most of the past two decades, Southern Nevada has had the fastest growing urban population in the country.

Kerr-McGee faces fine of $100 million: A Henderson company could be hit with one of the largest fines in Southern Nevada history for exceeding federal air pollution standards unless the Environmental Protection Agency gives the company credit for progress it has made to control emissions.

CART Honda Indy 500 results: Lap length: 2.75-mile temporary road course

Report: Owner near release from Aladdin obligations: The publication cited no sources, saying only that LCI "is thought to be close to an agreement with its banks that would allow it to sever obligations to Aladdin." It said a deal could be announced within a week.

Company gets patent: The patent received by Station covers the "award(ing) of a personal bonus, specific to each customer and increasing in amount with each customer's continued play ... based on the outcome of any casino game." The company said it plans to roll these features into Boarding Pass, the slot players card that can be used at five of Station's Las Vegas-area properties.

Concrete firm fined in Henderson accident: A monthlong investigation by a regional branch of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration determined that construction forms built to hold and shape a 55-foot concrete entryway beam had not been built to withstand the load of 182,000 pounds of wet concrete.

Letter: Son paying for sins of father: Instead of completing the destruction of Saddam Hussein and his war machine, he counseled with Colin Powell and Dick Cheney, then decided not to go after Iraq's military, chemical, biological or nuclear arsenal.

Low Comdex room rates reflect industry weakness: David Strow; Not even Comdex, historically Las Vegas' largest convention, appears to have the power to revive slumping midweek business trends for the city's casino hotels.

NASCAR Winston Cup Checker 500 results: 1. (3) Jeff Burton, Ford, 312, $213,491.

ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals results: Las Vegas

Writers reflect on attacks' effects: By Timothy Pratt; Before landing in Las Vegas last year, African writers Wole Soyinka and Syl Cheney-Coker had traveled the world for decades, fleeing the same sort of terrorism and violence in their home countries that Americans are facing for the first time.

Faster 'Net phones offered: Cingular Wireless Internet Express technology, known as "2.5G," is a step below the long-touted "3G" or third generation technology that will bring more data and movie-style graphics to mobile phones.

Explosions rock firing range for police, FBI: Clark County Fire Department spokesman Bob Leinbach said today that inspectors have not been able to get to the scene to determine the cause of at least three explosions that shook area homes near Lake Mead and Hollywood boulevards, at about 1 p.m.

Revenue soars for riverboat operator: Ameristar today reported quarterly sales of $162.7 million versus $85 million in the year-ago quarter. The increase is attributed to Ameristar's purchase of two Missouri riverboats from Station Casinos Inc. Ameristar also sold its Reserve property in Henderson to Station.

Bomb scare turns out to be hoax after evacuations: An employee of a medical facility at 2861 N. Tenaya Way, arriving at work at 7:17 a.m., found a plastic bag with wires and called authorities, police said.

UNLV analysis: Quick start made difference: Steve Guiremand; First Quarter: UNLV 27-3

Building defects lawsuits overload courts: Kim Smith; So many construction defects lawsuits have been filed over the past three years that the Clark County District Court is bringing in extra judges and renting additional courtrooms.

Editorial: Public's need is paramount: It's obvious that Lincoln County, which only has about 5,000 residents, has no use for the water. The company that Lincoln County has partnered with certainly would try to turn right around and sell the water to the Las Vegas Valley Water District -- for a profit. If that were to happen, we can be guaranteed that this middleman would gouge us, a prospect that wouldn't happen if our local government's water officials had the rights to that same source of water.

Blimps may be banned at show: Airship companies are awaiting word from federal aviation regulators over whether their flying billboards will be allowed to cruise over Comdex venues in Las Vegas next month.

Race Rock auction planned: Diana Sahagun; The downtown Race Rock Cafe plans to auction off a majority of its assets in January, an auction that coincides with a recent confidential court settlement with Martin-Harris Construction, which alleged the restaurant owed the company $1 million in unpaid construction fees.

Men's soccer team loses home finale: Men's soccer team loses home finale

Vegas company buys Reno software firm: The companies did not disclose the purchase price.

2001 prep football, volleyball and cross country playoff schedule, results: FOOTBALL

Soldier kills himself after shooting wife: Angela Soo and Ed Koch; A Texas soldier shot himself to death Sunday after wounding his wife at her parents' Las Vegas home, Metro Police said.

Venetian employment level may not recover: David Strow; Though employees' hours have been rising at the Venetian as business recovers, they are unlikely to ever return to the levels seen before Sept. 11, executives with the hotel-casino's parent company said Friday.

County commissioners defend outlays for park-opening parties: Adrienne Packer; Clark County commissioners enacted a hiring freeze because of slowing revenues and scoffed at state legislators' perception that Clark County is a fat cat.

Obituaries for October 29, 2001: Josh Anderson, 19, of Las Vegas died Saturday in a local hospital. He was born Aug. 8, 1982, in Las Vegas. He was a university student.

Court decision could hurt union talks: Mathis Winkler; A jury verdict awarding almost $180,000 in lost wages to 16 North Las Vegas jail supervisors is likely to complicate negotiations for a new contract scheduled for spring 2002, a lawyer for the North Las Vegas police union said.

State official seeks increased diversification of economy: Daniela Mohor; Diversifying the local economy is critical importance, particularly in light of the terrorist attacks, Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt said Sunday.

Foreign travelers take terror personally: For Ken Morimoto, getting Japan Airlines Flight 25 ready for departure last Tuesday morning was easy compared with preparing the airline's employees for the company's abrupt departure from the Las Vegas market that day.

Columnist Ralph Siraco: Breeders' Cup resembles a 'world' series: Ralph Siraco; When the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and the Breeders' Cup announced they were changing the name of the sport's premier day of racing to the World Thoroughbred Championships, many racing leaders from outside the United States may have though it a little presumptuous.

Checker Auto Parts 500 Notebook: Busch settles for 22nd after a run-in with Spencer: AVONDALE, Ariz. -- For three-quarters of Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, Kurt Busch was having one of his strongest runs of his NASCAR Winston Cup rookie season.

Venetian wins ruling on domain names: The United Nation's World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center (WIPO), in a decision issued Sept. 14, ordered London-based International Services to transfer its domain names "venetiancasino.com," "venetiancasino.org," and "venetiancasino.net" to the Venetian because these names were "registered and used in bad faith."

Call them the Rushin' Rebels: Steve Guiremand; UNLV's sports information department has made it a point to emphasize to the media covering John Robinson's football squad that the team's nickname is the Rebels.

Owner of Dish Network to buy DirectTv: Ed Garsten; DETROIT -- The company that runs the Dish Network is poised to become the nation's leading provider of home satellite TV service after reaching a deal to acquire rival DirecTV from General Motors Corp.

Burton roars to second win: AVONDALE, Ariz. -- It would have been easy for Jeff Burton to throw in the towel midway through the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup season.

Russell takes Top Fuel crown: Steve Addy; Darrell Russell had begun to worry that his first NHRA Top Fuel victory might also be his last.

Rookie Snyder wins PBR championship: Victoria Sun; All year long 19-year-old Luke Snyder coveted one thing: a victory in a Professional Bull Riders event.

International travel to LV plunges 40 percent: Airline traffic to Las Vegas from Japan and Mexico were the hardest hit by the downturn following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, McCarran International Airport statistics show.

Columnist Dean Juipe: Collapse ruins Rams' record, aura: Dean Juipe; Fans and bettors alike are well aware of how dramatically things can change in the National Football League from week to week.

Columnist Larry Dixon: Prudhomme's team has second-round letdown: Larry Dixon; Well, unfortunately for all of us on Don Prudhomme's Miller Lite Top Fuel Dragster team, we found ourselves out of the running at the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals a little sooner than we would have liked on Sunday.