Top News

A comment made in a private conversation during the 2008 presidential campaign exploded last week into a national brouhaha that seemed to threaten the already wobbly future of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

In a new book on the campaign, Reid was quoted saying he thought Barack Obama had a chance to win because he is "light-skinned" and has "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."

Already faced with sagging poll numbers, the Democrat from Searchlight immediately apologized to Obama for his choice of words, then set to work trying to change the subject while his minority backers rallied around him.

But the noise has been slow to die down, thanks to a massive media blitz, loud calls from GOP leaders for Reid to resign his post as majority leader, and widespread mocking of the senator's gaffe by everyone from Jay Leno to Stephen Colbert.

MONDAY

TRAGEDY STRIKES FAMILY

Two members of a family involved in a high-profile immigration case in 2005 were identified as the victims of an apparent murder-suicide.

Anoush Sarkisian, 50, and her daughter, Mariam, in her early 20s, were shot and killed in their home Sunday by Gregg Thomas, Mariam's boyfriend. Thomas, 23, then went outside and turned the gun on himself, police said.

Five years ago, Mariam and her sister, Emma, then teenagers, were saved from deportation to Armenia when Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev, intervened on their behalf.

TUESDAY

GAMING WIN INCHES UP

After almost two years of declines, statewide gaming revenues finally ticked up in November, state regulators reported.

The 4.4 percent increase over November 2008 may signal a start to the casino industry's recovery from the recession.

Nevada casinos collected $873.2 million from customers in November.

WEDNESDAY

A TEACHING HOSPITAL?

Clark County and higher-education leaders said they will explore turning the troubled University Medical Center into a full-fledged research and teaching hospital in hopes of drawing more private funding and more paying patients.

Former Chancellor Jim Rogers will spearhead the effort at the request of Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid.

Rogers will study the issue for 90 days and report to the commission.

It could be years before any changes are made.

THURSDAY

DEANE GETS PROBATION

Former Clark County Recorder Frances Deane was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay $54,000 after pleading guilty to corruption charges.

She was initially charged in June 2006 in connection with accepting more than $40,000 to illegally sell copies of information she was supposed to store for the public. Deane was removed from office by a district judge in September 2006 for malfeasance.

FRIDAY

HAITI RELIEF UNDER WAY

As some valley families frantically tried to contact loved ones lost in the rubble and chaos of Haiti, a North Las Vegas-based air carrier began shuttling rescue workers and emergency supplies to the earthquake-ravaged Caribbean nation.

Vision Airlines has made a handful of flights into and out of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince since Tuesday's 7.0 temblor.

One of the flights out carried Americans, some of them injured, to Miami from the U.S. Consulate in Haiti.