IN BRIEF

Coroner’s office identifies motorcyclist who died in crash

A motorcyclist who died Monday after he slammed into a car near Nellis Boulevard and Stewart Avenue was identified Tuesday as 27-year-old Preston Lee Weil by the Clark County coroner’s office.

Las Vegas police said Weil was driving north on Nellis at 5:33 p.m. Monday when he came to the intersection at Stewart.

An ambulance with its emergency lights and siren on entered the intersection.

Instead of yielding to the ambulance, the motorcyclist accelerated, police said.

Meanwhile, a Toyota Camry driven by 69-year-old Barbara Gentry was headed south on Nellis.

She was making a left turn to enter a private drive just north of Stewart, police said. Weil was unable to avoid Gentry’s Toyota and struck the car’s right side.

PLANS FOR FEDERAL STIMULUS MONEY

Great Basin College program seen as boon for Nye County

Great Basin College in Elko plans to use almost $7 million in federal stimulus funds to fill budget gaps and operate several programs through its Pahrump branch campus.

Institutional advancement director John Patrick Rice says the federal funds have helped maintain staffing levels while student enrollment has increased by 25 percent since 2007.

The college received $3.45 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding in the 2009-10 budget, and expects another $3.5 million in 2010-11.

One program teams with Valley Electric Association in Pahrump to train students to install and maintain solar hot water heating systems.

Rice says that program is projected to create 178 new jobs in Nye County, where the unemployment rate in September was 15.8 percent.