Health district prepares for smoking crackdown

Southern Nevada smokers who skirt the state's smoking ban by lighting up in bars and restaurants where smoking isn't allowed soon might face a justice of the peace and a $100 fine, the Review-Journal reported last week.

The Southern Nevada Health District is gearing up to issue citations to smokers violating the Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act, said its attorney, Stephen Minagil.

The health district has drafted a citation form for health inspectors to issue individuals caught smoking in businesses where the ban applies, but it does not have a system in place for the courts to handle the citations.

The health district was left with enforcement responsibility in Southern Nevada after a judge in December removed criminal penalties from the law, taking away any law enforcement role in ensuring compliance.

The district has been taking complaints about businesses, making inspections and in some cases trying to enforce the provisions of Question 5.

Minagil said the district has the authority to ask individual violators for identification "at every location where we find them violating the act."

MONDAY

Ex-teacher guilty of sexual abuse

A jury found a former Clark County elementary school teacher guilty of sexually abusing three students.

Six teenagers testified last week in District Judge Jackie Glass' courtroom that their teacher at Kesterson Elementary School, Mark Zana, had touched them inappropriately or urged them to stick their hands in his pockets to get candy. The jury acquitted Zana of charges involving three of the girls.

TUESDAY

Program may lose accreditation

A national commission has threatened to revoke the accreditation of UNLV's troubled orthodontics program over concerns about the quality of its education, the Review-Journal reported.

Too many students, too few faculty and a lack of clinical education led to conditions in which the "orthodontic education was shallow," a recent report from the Commission on Dental Accreditation stated.

Half of this year's graduating class had no experience with periodontics patients, or patients who have severe problems with their gums, and many other students lacked experience in basic areas such as headgear and functional appliances.

WEDNESDAY

Edwards pulling some staffers

John Edwards' presidential campaign in Nevada announced it was moving a few staffers to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., responded with a stern warning not to "ignore" his state. Other candidates rushed to declare their continued commitment to Nevada.

Edwards' campaign, however, said reports of a total pullout from Nevada were greatly exaggerated.

THURSDAY

Servitude charges dismissed

The federal government dismissed charges against three Chinese nationals accused of involuntary servitude in connection with a troupe of acrobats who claimed they were forced to perform and held against their will at a Las Vegas home.

Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre said a magistrate judge initially approved the July 2 complaint against You Zhi Li, 38; Yang Shen, 21; and Jun Hu, 43.

"The United States has determined that it has been unable to develop evidence sufficient to prove those charges beyond a reasonable doubt," Myhre said.

Under federal labor laws, the government would have had to prove the acrobats' performances were "obtained by threats of serious harm to, or physical restraint against the person(s), or by means of abuse or threatened abuse."

FRIDAY

Jobless rate hits 42-month high

The unemployment rate hit a 42-month high in July while job losses totaled nearly 12,000 statewide since June, a state agency reported.

A continued housing slump and the traditional summer decline in government employment that follows the end of the school year were cited as reasons for the unemployment rate increasing to 4.9 percent.

COMPILED BY MICHAEL SQUIRES

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