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The $8.7 billion CityCenter development avoided a bankruptcy filing and potential shutdown Friday with a $200 million payment that allowed construction work to continue on the 76-acre Strip site.

MGM Mirage's payment included $100 million that was due to be paid by Dubai World, its partner in CityCenter.

On Monday, Dubai World, the investment arm of the Persian Gulf state, sued MGM Mirage over concerns about the project's viability.

Friday's payment puts on hold, for at least a month, discussion of bankruptcy for what has been billed as the most expensive commercial development in U.S. history.

A bankruptcy would have halted work on the complex, which employs some 8,500 construction workers and is expected to begin opening in October.

MONDAY

FIGHT MAY BE OVER

Mayor Oscar Goodman said it may be time for the city to drop its 12-year-old fight for several ordinances that sought to limit activities such as handbilling and business solicitation at the Fremont Street Experience.

The city is free to appeal a recent ruling against the ordinances, which were challenged on free speech grounds, but Goodman doesn't see much point.

"I'd just as soon put it to rest and not appeal it, but we'll follow our attorney's advice, of course," he said.

TUESDAY

THE DEATH OF DEATH?

A bill was debated in the Assembly that would halt executions until mid-2011 as the costs of capital punishment are studied.

Assemblyman Bernie Anderson, chief sponsor of the bill, said it's time to rethink the death penalty.

The measure would bar the state from carrying out executions during the moratorium, but prosecutors would still be free to seek death sentences.

WEDNESDAY

VICTIM FACES DRIVER

Porsche Hughes, who lost her legs after a pickup plowed into her at a bus stop, faced the man authorities allege was at fault in a Las Vegas courtroom.

With 44-year-old Steven Murray watching, Hughes, a mother of two, told the jury about the July 7 crash on Boulder Highway and her changed life since. The crash killed Patricia Hoff, 55.

Murray, who had four previous DUI convictions, could face 25 years to life in prison.

THURSDAY

PANEL CLEARS LOUX

By a 3-2 vote, the state Ethics Commission found former Agency for Nuclear Projects administrator Bob Loux did not break ethics laws by boosting his salary and that of his staff beyond levels approved by the Legislature.

Loux burst into tears at the decision, which the dissenting commissioners blamed on a technicality.

FRIDAY

GAY RIGHTS ARGUED

Gay men and women crowded into a legislative hearing room in Carson City to deliver emotional testimony in support of Senate Bill 283.

The bill would create a Nevada Domestic Partnership Act, largely giving same-sex couples the same legal rights as heterosexual couples.

Couples, gay or straight, could register as domestic partners with the secretary of state's office.

Opposition came from lobbyist Richard Ziser, who said the bill is a move to skirt a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.