WEEK IN REVIEW: 14 white supremacists face federal charges

Federal authorities have taken out key members of a violent white-supremacist gang responsible for murder, bribing guards and trafficking drugs inside and outside Nevada prisons, officials announced Thursday.

Fourteen members or associates of the Aryan Warriors were indicted by federal authorities.

"It's obviously a serious problem both inside the prison and on the street," said David Staretz, supervisory special agent for the Las Vegas FBI.

The FBI began investigating the Aryan Warriors in January 2004, after the Nevada Department of Corrections asked for assistance, officials said.

Authorities said the gang's leader, 39-year-old Ronald "Joey" Sellers, controlled the organization from prison, including directing members outside prison, in Las Vegas, Henderson, Pahrump and Reno. Authorities alleged that the 14 indicted men recruited prison guards and women outside the prison to sell drugs in those cities.

The Aryan Warriors are accused of ruling the prisons with an iron fist.

Gang members bribed the guards to look the other way at illegal activities, the indictment stated. They also bribed guards for information on prisoners who were homosexual, informants or serving time for child molestation. They used the information to extort the inmates, the indictment stated, and extorted money from inmates' families.

MONDAY

Second gasoline pipeline planned

Southern Nevada may have found another way to slake its seemingly unquenchable demand for gasoline.

Holly Corp. and Holly Energy Partners announced they signed a memorandum of understanding with Sinclair Transportation Co. to build a second pipeline to carry gasoline and diesel fuel to Las Vegas. The $300 million, 400-mile pipeline from Salt Lake City will carry 62,000 barrels per day to terminals at North Las Vegas and Cedar City, Utah.

The Las Vegas area now relies almost entirely only on two Kinder Morgan pipelines that run from a terminal near San Bernardino, Calif.

TUESDAY

Analysis predicts monorail default

Looming financial default now "appears probable" for the Las Vegas Monorail, according to the bleakest financial assessment to date of the struggling rapid transit line.

The analysis by Fitch Ratings, a New York City-based credit rating firm, also plunged the monorail's bond rating further into "junk" status while predicting the monorail won't be able to pay its debts by 2010.

Officials at the Las Vegas Monorail Co. dismissed concern that either the monorail or a planned $500 million extension to McCarran International Airport are in jeopardy.

WEDNESDAY

Luxor changing Egyptian theme

Two years after acquiring Luxor as part of its $7.9 billion purchase of the Mandalay Resort Group, MGM Mirage is giving the 4,500-room hotel-casino a new look.

MGM Mirage and its joint venture partners in Luxor are investing about $300 million to remodel 80 percent of Luxor's public areas, removing much of the ancient Egyptian theme while adding trendy lounges, restaurants and a nightclub.

"We're not a British museum with ancient artifacts; we're a casino-resort," Luxor President and COO Felix Rappaport said.

THURSDAY

Boy Scouts set to sell camp

The nonprofit Boy Scouts of America Las Vegas Area Council is prepared to bring in more than $100 million selling its camp on Mount Potosi, property it got practically for free from the federal government 24 years ago.

The U.S. Forest Service is scrambling to find a way to buy the land back before the local Boy Scouts council sells it to one or more of some 16 interested land investment and development parties.

Managers of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, which surrounds the scouts' 1,120-acre tract, fear that wildfires will be a constant, costly problem for public agencies if developers acquire the land and build homes on it.

FRIDAY

County has first West Nile case

A Clark County man is Nevada's first case of West Nile virus this year, the Southern Nevada Health District reported.

The bite occurred somewhere in Southern Nevada, health officials say, but exactly where is still under investigation.

"The where is not that important because once West Nile is found, it is potentially everywhere in the county,'' said Brian Labus, chief epidemiologist for the Health District.

COMPILED BY MICHAEL SQUIRES

READ THE FULL STORIES ONLINE AT

www.reviewjournal.com/wir