News briefs for Feb. 2, 2004

Monday, Feb. 2, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.

Prison to return to normal

Operations were scheduled to return to normal today at High Desert State Prison near Indian Springs, where a one-day lockdown and six days of limited prisoner movement and services followed a Jan. 26 inmate stabbing, prison officials said.

An inmate was stabbed multiple times, taken to University Medical Center and returned to the prison infirmary, where he is recovering from "non-life-threatening injuries," Nevada Department of Prisons spokesman Howard Skolnik said.

The lockdown, or confinement to cells, and higher security restricted movement situations did not involve the youth offender program also is housed at the facility, Skolnik said.

Few details were released about the stabbing other than it was interrupted by prison staff and that more than one suspect has been taken into custody, Skolnik said. No charges have been filed. The investigation is continuing, he said.

The names of the suspects and the victim were not released.

Rain predicted throughout evening

The National Weather Service predicts widespread rain and a slight chance of thunderstorms tonight throughout the Las Vegas Valley.

The possibility of rain will increase throughout today, reaching 80 percent this evening and then "taper off tomorrow as the day goes on," meteorologist Steve Downs said.

Downs said he expects snow only in the higher elevations.

Ex-union leader gets probation

The former business manager and secretary-treasurer of the Bricklayers and Allied Crafts Local 3 in Las Vegas has been sentenced to two years' probation and four months' home confinement for making false statements in union records to hide more than $19,000 that had allegedly been stolen from the group.

Timothy J. Egan, 44, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Philip Pro Friday. Egan pleaded guilty in September to failure to maintain labor union records and making false statements in union reports.

Egan, who served as business manager for the union from January 1998 through March 2000, was also ordered to pay $19,363.40 in restitution.

Egan, who now lives in Manitowoc, Wis., allegedly made at least $10,000 in personal charges on union credit cards, including $7,927 in cash advances at casinos, officials with the U.S. attorney's office said.

Three members named to tax panel

Gov. Kenny Guinn has named three new members to the state Tax Commission, including Thomas Sheets, who is senior vice president and general counsel for Southwest Gas Corp. in Las Vegas.

Sheets, 53, succeeds Chuck Lenzie, also of Las Vegas, for a four-year term. Sheets is a former member and chairman of the state Ethics Commission.

Former Assemblyman Bob Barengo of Reno was selected to succeed Candace Evart, also of Reno. Barengo, 63, practices law in Reno. He served in the Assembly from 1973 to 1982. He was speaker of the Assembly in 1981.

Also named was Hank Vogler, 55 a rancher in Ely for 18 years. He is president of the Nevada Woolgrowers Association. He succeeds Dean Baker of Baker.