News briefs for March 23, 2005

Wednesday, March 23, 2005 | 9:27 a.m.

Police to monitor LV intersections

Metro Police officers will be monitoring intersections with high incidents of accidents or drunken driving in downtown Las Vegas and southern Las Vegas today and Saturday, the department announced Tuesday.

The officers will be looking for specific traffic violations such as driving through red lights or following too closely at various intersections, said Metro Sgt. Chris Ankeny. A total of 11 officers will be involved in the enforcement, he said.

On Saturday from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m., 12 Metro officers will work in to crack down on suspected drunken drivers, he said.

The added police officers who will conduct the "DUI Saturation patrol" will be identifying and arresting individuals suspected of driving under the influence.

"We're doing this to decrease the amount of accidents in south central and downtown," Ankeny said.

Metro is not publicizing the exact intersections where the stepped-up traffic enforcement activities will take place.

Planned Parenthood opens third office

Planned Parenthood of Southern Nevada announced the addition of a third health center in the region with a facility in North Las Vegas.

Planned Parenthood already has two centers on the east and west side of Las Vegas, but it identified North Las Vegas as the best area for expansion because of its population growth and need for community services, said Liz Carrasco, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood.

The health center at the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Alexander Road is part of a expansion aimed at meeting the needs of uninsured clients, Carrasco said. Low-income residents unable to pay for services may be eligible for financial assistance, she said.

The center will open with a grant from the Pierre and Pamela Omidyar Fund at the Peninsula Community Foundation.

A man killed in a weekend crash

in Southern Nevada was from Arizona, authorities said. Charles S. McAllister, 44, of Glendale, Ariz., was a passenger in a van struck head-on Sunday night by a pickup truck that spun out of control and crossed a dirt median on U.S. 95 in Henderson, the Nevada Highway Patrol said. The drivers of the pickup and van were thrown from their vehicles, but survived the crash, the NHP said. Their names were not made public.