WEEK IN REVIEW:
Galardi gets 30-month sentence in scheme
FAN FRIENDLY: UNLV basketball coach Lon Kruger shakes hands Wednesday with fans in the Thomas & Mack Center parking lot. About 80 people were there to send off the Runnin' Rebels as they headed to Chicago to play Georgia Tech in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. UNLV won 67-63, the team's first NCAA Tournament victory in 16 years. Photo by Jeff Scheid.
A Clark County Fire Department vehicle is stationed between a wildfire that raged Tuesday in the Clark County Wetlands Park and an adjacent housing development. The fire charred more than 150 acres of the southeast valley park and forced a short-lived evacuation of some nearby homes. Photo by Craig L. Moran.
Former strip club entrepreneur Michael Galardi was "shocked and stunned" Monday after a federal judge gave him a 30-month sentence despite Galardi's four years of cooperating with investigators and prosecutors, his lawyer said.
U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks also imposed a $100,000 fine, the most allowed under the law, and ordered Galardi to pay Las Vegas and Clark County $200,000 each in restitution. Galardi requested to be sent to a federal prison in Taft, Calif., which is southwest of Bakersfield. The 45-year-old must start serving his sentence by June 22.
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Hicks said Galardi was the leader of a scheme to bribe Clark County commissioners for votes that benefited his multimillion-dollar strip club empire.
"None of it would have happened ... but for Mr. Galardi paying the money," Hicks said.
In 2003, Galardi signed a plea deal that put a five-year cap on his potential sentence if he provided substantial help to the government.
Hicks acknowledged that Galardi's testimony played a significant role in the May convictions of former Clark County Commissioners Dario Herrera and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey. But Hicks was reluctant to be too lenient because he agreed with the government's argument that Galardi played a leadership role in the scheme.
MONDAY
Nevada health insurer accepts buyout offer
Nevada's biggest managed-care health insurer has accepted a buyout offer from a major national company.
Officials of Sierra Health Services announced a deal to sell the Las Vegas company to UnitedHealth Group of Minnesota. UnitedHealth would pay $2.6 billion to acquire Sierra Health.
With more than 850,000 members, Sierra Health is the state's top health insurer.
TUESDAY
Stardust implosion makes way for project
The Stardust was felled by 428 pounds of dynamite shortly after 2:30 a.m., following a four-minute fireworks display.
"We had a lot of good memories at the Stardust," said Sherie Johnson, who along with thousands of other tourists and Las Vegans watched the implosion of the 32-story hotel tower.
Boyd Gaming Corp. executive Robert Boughner said company executives realized last year that the tower had to be removed to make way for the planned $4.4 billion Echelon project, a 5,000-room complex with five hotels, a 140,000-square-foot casino, along with retail, convention, dining and entertainment amenities.
WEDNESDAY
Bailout might tap capital projects fund
More than half of Clark County's fund to build parks, community centers and other discretionary building projects would be wiped out by a record $60 million bailout recommended for University Medical Center.
Southern Nevada's struggling public hospital needs $25 million to sustain operations through July and $35 million to pay down a portion of its swelling debt, UMC's new executives will report to Clark County commissioners this week.
UMC's new finance chief has recommended funding the bailout by pulling more than half of the cash from the county's capital projects fund supporting construction of parks and other discretionary spending projects funded by county budget surpluses.
THURSDAY
Water authority buy includes livestock
The wholesale water supplier for the Las Vegas Valley soon will own about $3.3 million worth of livestock as part of its latest acquisition in Spring Valley, the White Pine County watershed at the northern end of a proposed pipeline to Las Vegas.
The authority board approved more than $43.5 million to buy the 11,800-acre El Tejon ranch and the 1,560-acre Huntsman ranch. The two spreads about 250 miles north of Las Vegas come with 1,881 cattle and 4,290 sheep.
FRIDAY
Report details impact of immigrants in state
Hispanic immigrants contribute millions of dollars to Nevada's economy and make up an inextricable part of the work force, according to a new report commissioned by a local group.
The report, which didn't examine the costs associated with immigration, seeks to refocus the immigration debate by studying the economic benefits of Hispanic immigration, both legal and illegal. Hispanic immigrants paid $1.6 billion in state and local taxes in Nevada in 2005, the report found.
"We want to re-frame the way that Nevadans view immigration and immigrants," said Bob Fulkerson of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, which commissioned the report.
