WEEK IN REVIEW:
Sheriff sees 'more to life than just politics'
GOVERNOR HOPEFUL IN THE PINK: Melody Damayo files to run for Nevada governor on Friday, the last day candidates could file for the November election. The former porn star -- who said her campaign slogan is: "I'm bare and honest at all times" -- joined a smaller-than-usual field of candidates. Election officials estimated 35 percent fewer candidates filed this year than in past years. Photo by John Gurzinski.
CANDIDATES FOR SHERIFFCandidate for sheriff Larry Kepler, left, makes a circular motion around his ear in response to remarks by fellow candidate Earl W. Davis II at a Tuesday forum for candidates seeking to replace Sheriff Bill Young, who announced last week that he will not seek re-election. At the event, which drew five of the 19 candidates for sheriff, Kepler slammed his fist on the lectern and said, "I am a very violent person at times, but that's what we need." Photo by K.M. Cannon.
Sheriff Bill Young said on Tuesday that he'd had enough of the job.
His departure from a re-election race he was expected to easily win was accompanied by an endorsement of his second-in-command, Undersheriff Doug Gillespie, to succeed him.
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"I know there's more to life than just politics. And I want that. I want my life back," said Young, who is in the last year of his first four-year term. "I've been sheriff for the last few years. I've lost touch with a lot of my friends, guys I grew up with."
Young also noted he is troubled that Las Vegas has become a more violent place in recent years.
"The town's getting tougher, and it's not getting any easier," said the 50-year-old Young. "I think there's a lot of criminal element that has come here that has made the town a little harder-edged."
Some speculated that Young might accept a lucrative job with a casino. But the sheriff said he would not enter into any negotiations about his future while he is still serving.
Young's announcement was followed by a flurry of candidates filing for the job.
As of Friday's deadline, 19 potential replacements filed to run for the office. There had been 20, but one said he dropped out after learning the sheriff spent 75 percent of his day at work.
Before Young's announcement, there had been only seven candidates.
Among the late arrivals to the race was Bill Conger, who political observers believed could give Gillespie a race.
Young vowed to give his campaign money, totaling about $900,000, to Gillespie, as allowed by law.
"The county would be lucky to have him," Young said of his undersheriff. "You could add up the best qualities of the other candidates in this race, and they wouldn't be a pimple on Doug Gillespie's ass."
MONDAY
Three more with Nevada ties killed
Gov. Kenny Guinn called it "a dark day for our state" as word spread that several soldiers with ties to Nevada had been killed.
Two Army Reserve soldiers from Las Vegas, 1st Sgt. Carlos N. Saenz and Spc. Teodoro Torres Jr., were in a Humvee with a soldier from Wisconsin on May 5, when a roadside bomb exploded in Hillah, Iraq, 60 miles south of Baghdad, killing all three.
A third soldier from the Las Vegas Valley, 33-year-old Army Sgt. John Griffith of Henderson, died the same day in Afghanistan with nine comrades when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter tumbled down a mountainside and exploded in that country's Kunar Province, officials confirmed.
TUESDAY
Some big ideas for Union Park
Developers and Las Vegas officials unveiled for the Review-Journal a new master plan for Union Park, the long-vacant, former rail yard west of downtown.
The plan shows that upon completion in 2012, the neighborhood would feature 3,600 residential units, 2.3 million square feet of office space, 420,000 square feet of retail space and three hotel-casinos.
The area also would feature civic, entertainment, medical and residential districts connected by streets and parklike plazas.
Buildings would include high-rise towers, brownstones, lofts and walk-ups.
The Fremont Street Experience would be extended west, through the current site of the Plaza hotel and casino, to connect downtown's casinos with the new civic center.
"This place, I think, is going to be the center of the valley," said Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.
WEDNESDAY
General commands UNLV attention
The three-star general who leads West Point is in line to become the next president of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The UNLV presidential search committee unanimously endorsed Lt. Gen. Bill Lennox as the next president of the institution.
The six regents on the UNLV presidential search committee will bring the superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy before the 13-member Board of Regents on May 17 for approval.
Historically, the full board has followed the search committee's recommendation.
"What you need in a president is leadership, consensus-building and fairness," Regent Dorothy Gallagher said. "To me, we need this strength that Lennox brings."
THURSDAY
Hard Rock owner cashing in
Founder Peter Morton announced he sold his Hard Rock Hotel to a New York-based hotel group for $770 million.
The sale to Morgans Hotel Group, pending regulatory approval and other conditions, includes the 647-room hotel and 30,000-square-foot casino on 17 acres at Paradise Road and Harmon Avenue, 24 adjacent acres that were planned for a hotel-condo expansion and related intellectual property.
Morton said he will bow out of Las Vegas.
"I'm taking my chips off the table," Morton said. "Vegas is a great town. I've got great people working at my hotel, and the community has been phenomenal. We tried in our own small way to make a contribution. We brought some rock 'n' roll to town."
FRIDAY
Nanny gets prison for shaking baby
A nanny who shook and struck a baby in 2004 was sent to prison for two to eight years.
"I was not seeking to control the baby," Bethany Ford said of her abuse of 3-month-old Ryan Kuckler.
"I was not seeking to quiet the baby. I snapped. ... I just snapped," Ford said. "He did not deserve, in any way, shape or form to be treated the way he was. I am so sorry."
Ryan's parents, Paula Yakubik and Jason Kuckler, told District Judge Donald Mosley that Ford should go to prison for an attack on a defenseless child. Mosley promptly ordered Ford to the state penitentiary.
