Top News

Muchas gracias, El Niño.

In just four days, a weather system boosted by the climatic phenomenon dropped more rain on the Las Vegas Valley than the area saw all of last year.

Thursday saw the worst of it as downpours confused motorists, closed intersections and delayed or canceled flights out of McCarran International Airport.

By the end of the day, the system had dumped 0.89 inches of water on the official measuring station at McCarran, a record for any individual day in January and more than double the old mark for Jan. 21.

All told, 1.7 inches of rainfall fell last week. The valley ended 2009 with only 1.59 inches of rain.

MONDAY

casino fire lawsuit

The first lawsuit associated with the 2008 fire at the Monte Carlo was filed by a Florida woman who claims permanent injuries from smoke inhalation associated with the rooftop blaze.

The Las Vegas-based attorney for Jean Bartoli said the Monte Carlo's alarm systems worked, but his client and others staying at the hotel were evacuated to an area of the hotel where they were subjected to smoke.

Bartoli, 62, who lives in Plantation, Fla., is seeking damages in excess of $50,000 from MGM Mirage, which owns the Monte Carlo.

TUESDAY

ENSIGN PROBE BEGINS

Sources say the FBI has begun investigating allegations of wrongdoing in the scandal surrounding Sen. John Ensign's extramarital affair and his efforts to find the woman's husband work as a lobbyist.

The FBI queries to Ensign associates have come via phone calls and not personal visits, suggesting it is not yet an urgent matter. There is little evidence to suggest it will become a full-blown criminal investigation, sources said.

WEDNESDAY

OUTBREAK CASE BUILDS

County prosecutors plan to take the hepatitis outbreak case before a grand jury in the "near future" to consider potential charges, District Attorney David Roger said.

Roger wouldn't identify possible targets of the grand jury, but Dr. Dipak Desai, who ran the clinics where as many as 115 people contracted hepatitis C because of unsafe injection practices, was at the center of the Las Vegas police investigation.

Prosecutors had not finalized the charges, but Roger said they could include patient neglect and insurance fraud.

THURSDAY

COUNTY SUES OVER RJC

Clark County filed a lawsuit in hopes of recovering some of the millions it shelled out after a messy government contract dispute with the builder of the problem-plagued Regional Justice Center.

The county sued Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., the company hired to provide oversight of construction at the justice center and other publicly funded projects.

The lawsuit accuses the company of mismanagement and being underqualified to oversee such a large project.

FRIDAY

JOBLESS RATE CLIMBS

New state data show that unemployment in Nevada hit 13 percent in December, even as the holiday hiring season kicked into full gear and the massive CityCenter megaresort opened with 12,000 employees.

Joblessness in Clark County jumped a full percentage point, going from 12.1 percent in November to 13.1 percent in December.

The jump follows two months of declines in unemployment.