Print edition for June 1, 2005

Religious group boycotting company over gay issues: "From redefining family to include homosexual marriage, to giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to support homosexual groups and their agenda, to forcing managers to attend diversity training on how to promote the acceptance of homosexuality... Ford leads the way," American Family Association chairman Donald Wildmon said in a statement.

51s' Jackson has nothing to say for himself: Nick Christensen; Maybe it was the seven-day layoff between starts, or maybe he was shaken when the Dodgers looked right past him and promoted pitcher Derek Thompson from Double-A for a couple of starts.

Obituaries for June 1, 2005: William James Baugh, 65, of Las Vegas died Friday. He was born Nov. 9, 1939, in Arizona. He was an automobile mechanic, an Air Force veteran and a member of the V-8 Car Club and Model A Car Club.

Legislative briefs for June 1, 2005: The Senate on Tuesday agreed with Assembly amendments on Senate Bill 234 that will now require a candidate for the Nevada Supreme Court to have practiced law for at least for 15 years, of which two years would be in Nevada.

Man charged with killing son won't represent himself in October retrial: By Matt Pordum; A man charged with killing his 2-year-old son in 1997 no longer has a puncher's chance to have his retrial delayed again and will not be allowed to represent himself, a judge ruled Tuesday.

MGM Mirage Paradise breaks ground on project: The MGM Grand Macau is scheduled to open in the second half of 2007 and will include 600 hotel rooms in a 28-floor resort, with 300 table games and 1,000 slot machines. It will be located along the waterfront in Macau's central Nam Van gaming district.

UNLV, cities target childhood obesity: UNLV is teaming up with Las Vegas and Henderson to reduce the growing rate of childhood obesity.

Driver who hit young bicyclist pleads guilty to DUI causing death: By Matt Pordum; A 30-year-old woman accused of being under the influence of drugs when she drove her car into an 8-year-old bicyclist pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of driving under the influence causing death in exchange for two other charges being dropped.

Deadwood dealt windfall: Joe Kafka; By Joe Kafka ASSOCIATED PRESS

Company sells interest in Nova Scotia properties: Great Canadian Gaming Corp. acquired Caesars' 95 percent stake in Metropolitan Entertainment Group, which owns and operates casinos in the Canadian province's towns of Halifax and Sydney, Caesars said today in a statement.

Editorial: Poor record needs review: Today the yet-to-open building stands in downtown Las Vegas as a monument to failure. The county fired the contractor last month. Both the contractor and the county blame each other for the long list of problems with the building -- including $15 million in cost overruns -- that has rendered an opening date impossible to predict. The county's goal is to open the building by October. But we remember the spring of 2002, when the county's goal was to have it opened by September 2003.

Letter: Arrogant policies, dreadful results: This president has changed the image of the United States from a most-admired nation to a most-detested nation. One only has to look at the protests during Laura Bush's trip to the Middle East and those during the president's recent visit to Europe to realize how much our nation is now detested by much of the rest of the world.

Letter: Bush's leadership good for country in many ways: Bush's tax cuts for everyone who pays federal income tax helped pull us out of the recession that started before the end of President Clinton's last term. Consequently, the U.S. gross domestic product has grown 4.4 percent since 2002. Employment is up to 94.8 percent. Interest rates are still at or near historic lows and inflation is still very low.

Candidates' drive for funds continues: Two-term North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon, facing a challenger who has the backing of the state Democratic Party, has raised more than $318,000 in the last 60 days, bringing his campaign total since 2002 to more than $670,000.

Slots plan suffers a blow: The plan, the signature initiative of Gov. Edward G. Rendell, called for using revenues from as many as 61,000 slot machines -- the most of any state east of Nevada -- to be used largely to reduce property taxes. It would also make it more difficult for participating school boards to enact future property-tax increases.

Business leader Roberts dies at 86: Roberts, the mother of former Henderson Councilman Dale Roberts, who served from 1963 to 1967 and died in 1998, was appointed to the Henderson Planning Commission in August 1973.

Gillins, Ross both spend $300,000: Dan Kulin; The two candidates for the Ward 6 seat on the Las Vegas City Council have both spent about $300,000 on their campaigns, according to campaign finance reports released Tuesday.

News briefs for June 1, 2005: A medical examiner determined that a woman found dead in the same apartment complex where another woman was strangled to death also had been strangled.

Guest columnist Ryan Keeney: Team is rested and ready to play: Friday was a long day. Traveling to the East Coast is no fun. Saturday, we thought we were only going to play a few holes, nine holes because there was going to be a thunderstorm, according to the freshman over here (as I write this, I'm motioning toward Jarred Texter), but the thunderstorm never came and we played 18 at Columbia Country Club. They hosted the U.S. Junior Championship, so that was pretty nice.

Tabish seeks return of items: By Matt Pordum; Rick Tabish's attorney said Tuesday that $3,100, a Mercedes and other personal items seized by police officers when Tabish was arrested for looting Ted Binion's silver vault in Pahrump should be returned to Tabish because he was acquitted of both killing Binion and stealing from Binion's home.

Lawmakers approve compromise on casino tax: The proposal is a compromise between the nine casinos and Gov. Rod Blagojevich's office to bring down a tax rate that tops out at 70 percent for the largest, most lucrative riverboats. The rate was raised from 50 percent two years ago to funnel more money into struggling state coffers.

Thursday's horse racing entries: Post Time 1:20 p.m.

Couple in court to withdraw plea agreement: By Matt Pordum; A married couple who recently pleaded guilty to lesser charges to avoid the possibility of the death penalty in the killing of a 73-year-old Las Vegas man in 2002 want to withdraw their pleas.

Company's U.S. auto sales fall: Sales of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep-brand models fell 2.5 percent to 214,575, and sales of Mercedes-Benz fell 1.8 percent to 17,811. General Motors and Ford Motor Co., with combined U.S. market share of more than 40 percent, are expected to post declines in car and light truck sales later today, according to each of five forecasters surveyed by Bloomberg.

Ex-head of FBI's LV office recalls talks with Felt: Dean Elson, former FBI special agent in charge of the Las Vegas office, said he knew from the beginning that W. Mark Felt was "Deep Throat," the anonymous source that helped link an office burglary to the Nixon White House.

Guinn signs 46 bills: CARSON CITY -- Gov. Kenny Guinn Tuesday signed 46 bills into law Tuesday including one that makes permanent educational benefits to members of Nevada National Guard attending the university.

Children's care center officials confident of reaching funding deal: Michelle Swafford; The Las Vegas Valley's only skilled-nursing home for children said recently its doors would likely stay open even though it has already closed one wing and is losing money.

State officials agree on budget: Kirsten Searer and Cy Ryan; CARSON CITY -- Legislative leaders agreed on the state budget Tuesday after several additional hours of closed-door wrangling.

EEOC settles case involving Pakistani worker at LV site: Alana Roberts; The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has reached a $200,000 settlement in a federal lawsuit it filed against K.C. Asphalt for not preventing the harassment of a Pakistani employee at its Las Vegas facility.

School district's new digs turn some heads: By Emily Richmond; A 90-minute tour of the Clark County School District's $14.5 million new office building Tuesday revealed a handsome lobby with marble flooring, spacious offices with private bathrooms and an "executive suite" featuring leopard-print carpeting.

LV speller gets it right, eliminated anyway: Benjamin Grove; WASHINGTON -- Sue Ann P. Yap of Las Vegas, 13, had a strategy for the moment when she finally reached the microphone for the first time at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Columnist Peter Benton: Silva's 4-under-par wins Parr Memorial: Peter Benton; The eagerly awaited 2005 Aaron Parr Memorial Pro-Am last week at the Las Vegas Country Club was, as always, a keenly competitive event. (Parr, possibly one of the most popular young club professionals this city has ever had, was tragically killed in a freak auto accident five years ago, and to this day he is still sorely missed -- hence this tournament in his memory.)

Columnist Ron Kantowski: Tiny local sponsor gets big play at Indy 500: Moments before the start of Sunday's Indy 500, Mark Hale was starting to feel the electricity that most fans at the venerable Brickyard do -- especially those experiencing the Greatest Spectacle in Racing for the first time, as Hale was.

Senate panel sets 3.0 GPA for Millennium Scholars: CARSON CITY -- Millennium Scholars may have to burn more of the midnight oil to keep the money flowing.

Ford to help wild horses: Jeff Donaldson; More than 2,000 wild horses from Nevada's open ranges will be relocated to sanctuaries and Indian reservations in a new public-private partnership between Ford Motor Company and the Bureau of Land Management.

Teen who beat medical expectations mourned: In his only time at bat in organized baseball, Las Vegas High School senior James "Fuj" Dalrymple struck out.

Sports briefs for June 1, 2005: Fourteen-year-old Asia Muhammad, star pupil of the Team Agassi youth tennis program, will be one of six girls representing the United States this weekend against Australia in the 19th Bonne Bell Maureen Connolly Brinker Cup tournament in Burlingame, Calif.

Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Crash at Indy 500 takes Junqueira out of title chase: Bruno Junqueira's quest for his first Champ Car World Series championship ended 77 laps into Sunday's Indianapolis 500.

Residents urge action on grocery store: Alana Roberts; Since a Vons closed at Owens Avenue and J Street last year, residents such as Deborah Jackson said they have had to drive 20 to 30 minutes out of their way to find an adequate grocery store.

New laws relating to open meetings approved: Changes to open meeting laws, including making personnel sessions involving chief executives of government agencies open to the public, headed to Gov. Kenny Guinn on Tuesday for his signature.

Manufacturing expands at slower-than-expected pace: While manufacturing activity expanded in May for the 24th consecutive month, the rate has slowed in each of the last six months, and May's reading was the lowest since June 2003, according to the Institute for Supply Management.

HealthSouth, Hangar clinic gives amputees more options: Michelle Swafford; HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Las Vegas is teaming up with Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics Inc. to offer patients with amputated limbs, fingers and toes continuous care in one location.

Tourism Alliance names Heffner as CEO: The Nevada Tourism Alliance is a nonprofit trade association that works as an advocate for tourism, the economy and jobs in Nevada. The group works to protect the interests of hotel and gaming companies, vendors, suppliers and other businesses and organizations.

Nevada's research institutions get boost from $9 million grant: Nevada's research institutions are ramping up their work with a new $9 million National Science Foundation grant.

Packers coach tells Favre not to come to minicamp: Green Bay Packers coach Mike Sherman is excusing quarterback Brett Favre from the team's voluntary minicamp that started today, saying he wants Favre to be raring to go for the start of training camp in July.

Columnist Jeff German: Amodei's judgment questioned: There's the do-the-right-thing standard followed by Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, who abstained from voting on the neighborhood casino bill Friday night because his law firm lobbied for it.

Officers shoot dogs in backyard: Officer Bill Cassell said the officers responded to a call shortly before 1 p.m. on Linn Lane near Washington Avenue when as part of their investigation they needed to enter a backyard.

Report filed against comedian: The incident occurred about 9:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Riverside. The alleged victim, a 40-year-old man, was seated in the front row, center stage, when he ordered a beverage from a cocktail waitress, according to the police report.

Bergeron's mother to keep rights: By Matt Pordum; A family court judge ruled this morning not to terminate the parental rights of the mother of 13-year-old stabbing victim Brittney Bergeron.

Depth has Rebels thinking of title: Adam Candee; The improvement of the group playing in the second through fifth spots in the UNLV men's golf lineup has been vital to the team's success, as evidenced in lower stroke averages:

Editorial: At what cost progress?: From strictly efficiency and environmental perspectives, fixed-guideway systems are ideal for urban areas. Taking the shape of electric light-rail cars, diesel passenger trains, electric rubber-tire trains or Metro Area Express (MAX) rapid-transit buses, fixed-guideway systems get people to their destinations more quickly and keep the air much cleaner by reducing traffic.

Columnist Elizabeth Foyt: League sets records with Heritage fundraiser: Elizabeth Foyt; Hosted at Caesars Palace by the Anti-Defamation League's Nevada Regional Office, the glittering event honored Las Vegas Sun Publisher Barbara Greenspun with ADL's Americanism Award, in recognition of her lifetime efforts. Elie Wiesel, 1986 Nobel Prize for Peace winner and friend of the Greenspun family since the 1950s, was keynote speaker for the dinner.

Student briefs for June 1, 2005: The Public Education Foundation will present $456,350 in scholarships to 144 students Thursday during a ceremony and luncheon at The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel.

Red Cross offers tips for the heat: For more information, call Tammy McMahan at 369-2428.

Columnist Muriel Stevens: Dad doesn't like to be tied down: Consider gift certificates to day spas, golf courses and trendy men's shops. Make certain that any gift cards you buy do not charge a fee if the card isn't used by a certain date. There ought to be a law against such legal, but shady, practices.

County sending animals to Lied: The move means animals once sent to the Dewey Animal Care Center, one of several shelters once contracted by the county to keep found animals, will now be going to the Animal Foundation's Lied Animal Shelter in the 600 block of North Mojave Road.

Flood warning in effect along Humboldt from Rye Patch to Elko: AP; A flood warning also was in effect for small creeks and streams in Pershing, Humboldt and Elko counties and in northern Lander and Eureka counties.

Ground is broken for Spring Preserve project: The project will include a history museum, a venue for outdoor concerts and events, an interpretive trail system and an 8-acre botanical garden featuring regional plants. Officials including Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Clark County Commissioners Chip Maxfield and Bruce Woodbury used shovels to formally turn the earth and inaugurate the project, which is scheduled to open in early 2007.

Community briefs for June 1, 2005: Former and current cancer patients, their families, businesses, civic organizations, and the general public are invited to take part in The Relay For Life event 6 p.m. Saturday until 6 a.m. Sunday at the University of Southern Nevada, 11 Sunset Way.