Fellow pilots search

Crews searched in vain last week for adventurer Steve Fossett, who disappeared on Monday after taking off from a remote ranch in Northern Nevada.

Despite a massive rescue effort, the other-worldly terrain of northwestern Nevada bedeviled crews that hunted around the clock since the world-renowned adventurer disappeared, The Associated Press reported.

"When you stare down at the desert long enough, you'll know it when you see something that doesn't look normal," said veteran pilot Jim Herd. "But you can be fooled. Even a broken beer bottle will sparkle when the light is just right."

The skies over the search area -- more than 10,000 square miles, or an expanse the size of Massachusetts -- had swarmed with aircraft since Fossett was reported missing Monday from a ranch owned by hotel mogul Barron Hilton.

Because Fossett didn't file a flight plan, search crews had been guessing where the record-setting aviator might be.

"There are a lot of ravines that are hard to search ... a lot of nooks and crannies we have to look at," said Nevada Civil Air Patrol Maj. Cynthia Ryan.

MONDAY

State wins battle in Yucca fight

State officials were pleased to learn that Nevada had won a significant battle in its 20-year war with the federal government over the Department of Energy's plans to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

The victory came in a decision Aug. 31 by U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt to deny Justice Department attorneys an emergency motion. The motion was aimed at blocking the state engineer's order that DOE stop using Nevada's water for drilling boreholes near the mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

TUESDAY

Strikers may use $80 million

More than 12,000 Nevada casino workers, including employees at nearly every casino in downtown Las Vegas, will have access to $80 million to sustain them in the event of a strike.

Union officials said the money will be powerful leverage for workers during negotiations with casino owners who are trying to keep costs down, especially in struggling markets such as downtown Las Vegas.

The fund is the largest of its kind in the history of Culinary Local 226 and Bartenders Local 165.

A strike vote for the Southern Nevada employees is scheduled for Wednesday.

WEDNESDAY

Ex-commissioner not indigent

Former Clark County Commissioner Lynette Boggs doesn't qualify as an indigent defendant entitled to free representation.

At her arraignment before Hearing Master Kevin Williams, Boggs' private and high-profile defense attorney, Bill Terry, announced that Boggs had opted to have the public defender's office represent her.

Williams, a former public defender, said Boggs did not qualify and he could not justify the public expense.

"I understand that you may be upside-down on your income at the very moment, but I can't appoint a public defender for you," Williams told her, declining to disclose the details.

Boggs' finances are "definitely well above what it should be" to merit a public defender, Williams said.

THURSDAY

Prosecutors get hospital evidence

Las Vegas police have finished a nine-month investigation into allegations the former head of University Medical Center funneled hospital contracts to friends who did little or no work for the money they received.

Detectives handed a 60-page report to Clark County prosecutors detailing their case against Lacy Thomas, who was fired in January for misleading county commissioners about skyrocketing financial losses at the public hospital.

"We do feel there is enough evidence to go forward with a criminal prosecution," said Deputy Chief Kathy Suey, who heads the Metropolitan Police Department's Homeland Security Division. FRIDAY

Panel ignores power plant foes

A petition from seven environmental organizations that sought to stop three companies from constructing coal-fired power plants unless they control carbon dioxide emissions was rejected by the Nevada Environmental Commission.

But commissioners then voted 7-0 to require the state Division of Environmental Protection to draw up "memorandums of understanding" requiring the companies to capture carbon dioxide once the technology becomes commercially available.

"It is our desire to add this technology once it is economically feasible," said Tony Sanchez, a Sierra Pacific Resources vice president.

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