WEEK IN REVIEW: Top news
A 65-year-old man police are calling a possible serial killer was booked Tuesday into the county jail in connection with the deaths of two women found strangled in West Las Vegas 16 years apart.
Nathan Burkett was extradited from Picayune, Miss., and faces two counts of murder and one count of sexual assault.
Police said Burkett has been tied to the slayings of three women in the Las Vegas Valley over the course of more than two decades, the first in 1978.
Burkett was arrested in October 2003 in the kidnapping and strangulation of Valetter Jean Bousley, 41. He was eventually convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Bousley's death and served six years in prison.
He is now being looked at in connection with other unsolved murders in the valley, and his arrest has sparked interest from police and prosecutors in Mississippi, where Burkett previously served time for killing his mother.
Monday
Taxman cometh again
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid refused to back down from his challenge to Mitt Romney over the GOP presidential contender's tax returns.
Reid created a political firestorm - and was accused of lying - last week when he said a source who invested in Bain Capital told him Romney hadn't paid taxes for 10 years.
At a news conference after he helped dedicate a new VA hospital in North Las Vegas, Reid stuck by his earlier remarks but dodged questions about his mysterious source, saying only that Romney could put the matter to rest by releasing the relevant returns.
Tuesday
McGraw-Hill booked
Country music's golden couple Tim McGraw and Faith Hill announced a 10-weekend, 40-performance run at The Venetian.
The "Soul2Soul" engagement in the comparatively intimate, 1,800-seat Venetian Theater begins Dec. 7 and runs through April.
Between them, the country superstars have sold 70 million albums and earned eight Grammy Awards, 14 Country Music Association Awards and dozens of other plaudits.
Wednesday
Dangling dummies
Billboards painted with slogans and decorated with dummies dangling from nooses greeted motorists during the morning commute.
One, off Interstate 15 near Bonanza Road, bore the words "Dying for work." Another, on Highland Drive, read "Hope you're happy Wall St." Mannequins dressed in dark suits dangled below each.
A third, similar display was discovered near U.S. Highway 95 and Sahara Avenue. Law enforcement officials called the incidents acts of vandalism, not advertisements, though it was not known who the culprits were or what message they were trying to send.
Thursday
More people, less take
Las Vegas visitor volume rose 2.1 percent in June, but statewide gambling revenues sank by 6 percent, according to the latest figures released by gaming and tourism officials.
Gaming revenues in Clark County declined 7.9 percent in June, including a 4.5 percent drop on the Strip, wiping out the 7 percent increase in revenue posted by Washoe County's casinos.
Friday
Desai, nurses indicted
A county grand jury indicted Dr. Dipak Desai and two nurse anesthetists on a second-degree murder charge in the death of Rodolfo Meana, a victim in the hepatitis C outbreak.
An Aug. 22 arraignment was set for Desai, 62, and the two nurse anesthetists, Keith Mathahs, 76, and Ronald Lakeman, 65. All three defendants are free on bail.
Second-degree murder, which does not involve premeditation, carries a 10-year-to-life prison sentence.
NUMBERS
$60 million
Amount in damages sought by Las Vegas Sands Corp. chairman and GOP donor Sheldon Adelson in a libel lawsuit against the National Jewish Democratic Council.
10.85
The percentage of Nevada mortgages considered delinquent. That's the second-highest percentage in the country and nearly twice the national average.
771
How many more days were needed to build the new Veterans Affairs Medical Center in North Las Vegas than the United States spent fighting in World War II.
$19,771
What an investment group paid for each of the 875 acres it bought at Lake Las Vegas. Land there was selling for more than $200,000 an acre just a few years ago.
QUOTES
"Some things need to come out."
Nathan Burkett, in a short, exclusive interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal from the county jail, where he is being held in connection with the deaths of two women. Police say he is a serial killer.
"Dying for work."
The slogan scrawled by a vandal on a billboard from which a dummy was left hanging from a noose along Interstate 15. A second dummy was hung from a billboard on Highland Drive beneath the words "Hope you're happy Wall St."
"As far as I'm concerned they should have got a rope and hung Dan Cook right off the (London) bridge and charged pay per view for anyone who wants to see it. I've got no qualms about that man dying."
Dan Gabler, talking about Dan Cook, his former neighbor in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., whom he saw laughing and drinking beer on his balcony after he tortured and murdered two men in his apartment. Cook was executed in Arizona on Wednesday.
"I joke with Bush it must have been in his proto-socialist stage."
President Bill Clinton, joking during a clean-energy summit in Las Vegas on Tuesday about President George W. Bush's work to promote wind energy development while he was governor of Texas.
MULTIMEDIA
lvrj.com/multimedia
VIDEO: Las Vegas police capture suspect in multiple slayings Nathan Burkett
SLIDE SHOW: National Clean Energy Summit 5.0
VIDEO: Biden speaks to disabled veterans
SLIDE SHOW: VA medical center is previewed
VIDEO: Mass wedding at Roller Derby convention
SLIDE SHOW: U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach
