8 weekend stories you need to know about

Here’s your look at weekend stories people will be talking about Monday morning. Click the headline to read the full story.

Experts gauge hurdles of medical marijuana business

There are plenty of hurdles to getting into the medical marijuana business: there are application deadlines, zoning restrictions and moratoriums that stand in the way, not to mention that banks are avoiding the medical marijuana business altogether.

Last year, the Nevada Legislature overwhelmingly approved a bill that would allow for 66 medical marijuana business licenses, with 40 in Clark County. As many as 425 applications for services from growing facilities to dispensaries are expected.

Tarkanian released from Las Vegas hospital

Former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian is back home after spending 10 days in a Las Vegas hospital following a heart attack.

Danny Tarkanian said his 83-year-old father was “very tired” but “smiling” after being released Saturday from Valley Hospital Medical Center.

Nevada politicians fan the flames of Bundy-BLM clash

By the time Gov. Brian Sandoval criticized the Bureau of Land Management for creating an “atmosphere of intimidation” while rounding up Cliven Bundy’s cattle, the militias were already on their way to Bunkerville, ground zero for what turned into an armed confrontation between gun-toting citizens and federal officers.

Each time a public official or political candidate spoke out for or against the BLM or Bundy, the comments added fuel to an already hot-burning fire that quickly turned into a national inferno, pitting the romantic image of the cowboy rancher against the behemoth federal government that owns 85 percent of the Silver State.

For GOP, Las Vegas just makes sense

Longtime political and corporate pollster Frank Luntz is uncertain whether Las Vegas will land the 2016 Republican National Convention, but he has five reasons why it makes sense.

In a telephone interview, Luntz, who moved to Las Vegas late last year, listed his reasons. Here they are.

Western officials discuss taking land from feds

Officials from nine Western states say it’s time they take control of federal lands within their borders.

The lawmakers and county commissioners met at Utah’s Capitol on Friday to discuss their joint goal of wresting oil-, timber- and mineral-rich lands away from the feds.

The result of the meeting wasn’t clear. But at the news conference, Utah House Speaker Becky Lockhart said it was in the works before this month’s standoff between Southern Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management.

Feds order another Desai mental evaluation, this one for fraud case

Dr. Dipak Desai has been ordered transferred into federal custody so that a mental evaluation can be done to determine whether he is competent to accept a plea deal in his health care fraud case stemming from the 2007 hepatitis C outbreak.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported last month that lawyers for both Desai and his co-defendant in the case, his former clinic manager Tonya Rushing, were close to plea agreements. But Desai’s lead lawyer, Richard Wright, told Hicks last month that he was concerned strokes have left Desai unable to understand the deal.

Economic hope seen in North Las Vegas masterplanned community

North Las Vegas leaders first signed off on blueprints for the massive Park Highlands master planned community in 2006.

Eight years, two bankruptcies and one recession later, plans to break ground on the 2,600-acre community near Aliante Parkway and the Las Vegas Beltway are alive and well, if heavily revised.

The 15,000-home development counts as the largest master planned community set to visit the Las Vegas Valley since the start of the Great Recession.

Internet’s coolest grandma parties in Vegas for 103rd birthday

Seattle resident Hilda Evelyn Kottman took the Internet by storm last year when photos of her birthday escapades became popular on Reddit. She came to be known as the “Internet Grandma” after taking to Redditto talk about the life she’s lived.

Las Vegas officials arranged the arrival of a lifetime for Kottman, who was greeted at the airport by showgirls and dancers from Thunder Down Under. Kottman tweeted her arrival and birthday celebrations throughout this weekend using the handle @grannyvegas and posted photos of herself painting with dolphins at the Mirage and partying at a Thunder Down Under show on Facebook.

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