WEEK IN REVIEW:
City closes park where
homeless congregated
DINO DISCOVERY: JOSH BONDE, A 26-YEAR-OLD GRADUATE STUDENT FROM FALLON, LED A TEAM OF MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCHERS THAT FOUND AND DOCUMENTED THE FIRST FOSSILIZED DINOSAUR REMAINS EVER DISCOVERED IN NEVADA. PETRIFIED REMAINS OF AT LEAST FIVE TYPES OF DINOSAURS FROM THE CRETACEOUS PERIOD, INCLUDING THE FEMUR OF A 6-FOOT-LONG RAPTOR, WERE UNCOVERED AND RECORDED DURING A SERIES OF SHALLOW DIGS AND PROSPECTING VENTURES NORTHEAST OF THE LAS VEGAS VALLEY BEGINNING IN MARCH 2005 THROUGH THIS SUMMER. "THIS IS THE FIRST DINOSAUR STUFF DESCRIBED IN THE STATE OF NEVADA FROM A TIME PERIOD NOT WELL-KNOWN IN NORTH AMERICA," BONDE SAID LAST WEEK. ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID STROUD.
City officials on Monday closed Huntridge Circle Park -- the battlefield on which a number of controversial homeless issues have been waged in the past six months.
The closure, ordered by Las Vegas City Manager Doug Selby after the stabbing of a homeless man during a fight, will remain in effect until a solution can be found to crime at the park.
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"This has nothing to do with the homeless," Selby said. "I became aware of the stabbing over the weekend and felt compelled to take some action."
The city code allows the city manager to close a park if it poses a safety hazard. The provision has been in the city code since 1985. Selby said as far as he knows this is the first time that a city manager has used it.
The decision was met with derision by critics who said officials were merely pushing the problems of homelessness and poverty around the valley.
But for neighbors who say the park has become a blight on the area, the decision was met with relief.
"There have been so many problems in Circle Park, that if that was a home, they'd take it and say it was a nuisance property," said Bob Bellis, president of the John S. Park Neighborhood Association. "There's nothing but crimes and problems there."
MONDAY
Nurses strike looms as talks end
Negotiators pulled the plug on contract talks between the Service Employees International Union and the Valley Health System, with representatives failing to reach a labor agreement for nurses at two local hospitals.
The breakdown in talks set the stage for a strike involving 800 nurses to begin Monday at Valley Health's Valley and Desert Springs hospitals.
Nurses at both hospitals have worked since May without a labor contract. On Nov. 17, the hospitals submitted their final offers to the union's nurses.
Union officials said 98 percent of nurses voted to reject the proposals, and 95 percent authorized a work stoppage to protest the offers.
TUESDAY
Plea deal effort falls through
Kelly Ryan won't accept a plea deal requiring her to testify against Craig Titus, her husband and co-defendant in the murder case against the bodybuilder couple.
Ryan's defense lawyer, Greg Denue, said he had preliminary discussions with Clark County prosecutor Robert Daskas about the possibility of Ryan pleading guilty to lesser charges, but any plea deal would have required Ryan to testify against Titus.
WEDNESDAY
Raptor dinosaur fossils found
Researchers found the first fossilized dinosaur remains ever documented in Nevada northeast of the Las Vegas Valley, the Review-Journal reported.
Petrified remains of at least five types of dinosaurs from the Cretaceous Period were uncovered and recorded during a series of shallow digs and prospecting ventures beginning in March 2005 through this summer.
The fossils include a femur from a 6-foot-long, meat-eating dromaeosaur, commonly known as a raptor or running lizard of the genus Deinonychus; a tooth from a sauropod; a tooth from a tyrannosauroid, an ancestor of T-Rex; and teeth from an iguanodon, a plant-eating lizard.
THURSDAY
Police investigation of Gibbons ends
A four-week investigation found no evidence that Rep. Jim Gibbons assaulted a cocktail waitress at a parking garage in October, Las Vegas police said.
The Metropolitan Police Department announced the findings after wrapping up the investigation and submitting the results to the district attorney's office. Police recommended that no charges be filed against Gibbons, now governor-elect.
Detectives interviewed 44 people and spent more than 770 hours working on the investigation, which was prompted by accusations from Chrissy Mazzeo that Gibbons grabbed and threatened her Oct. 13, after a night of drinking at McCormick & Schmick's on Flamingo Road.
Gibbons said he grabbed Mazzeo's arm only to keep her from falling after she tripped.
FRIDAY
Students face math hurdle early
Nevada's high school students who graduate in 2009 will need four years of mathematics to be eligible for the Millennium Scholarship.
The decision by the Board of Regents puts in place the math requirement a year earlier than previously proposed.
"What's best for the kids is that they take four years of math," said Jane Nichols, vice chancellor for academic and student affairs.
