WEEK IN REVIEW: Top news

Record rainfall drenched the valley Wednesday, snarling traffic, delaying flights out of McCarran International Airport and turning flood channels into raging - and in one case deadly - rivers.

Green Valley High School senior William Mootz, 17, drowned in the fast-moving Pittman Wash in Henderson late Wednesday morning. His body was recovered Friday more than three miles away.

The valley's official weather station at McCarran International Airport logged 1.65 inches of rainfall, a record for the date, but some areas saw much heavier downpours.

So much water flowed down the Las Vegas Wash and into Lake Las Vegas that it triggered the spillway there, creating the rare sight of a 100-foot waterfall below the man-made lake.

Before Wednesday's storm, about 1 inch of rain had been recorded in Las Vegas all year.

Monday

Man with sword shot

New details emerged in the case of a sword-wielding robber who was shot dead by a clerk at a Dairy Queen.

According to a police report on Sunday's incident, 36-year-old Bongkuk Pak unsheathed a samurai sword in front of the clerk and used it to slash the cash register several times.

That's when the clerk's brother emerged from the back with a handgun and shot Pak.

The former UNLV football player was found in the parking lot next to his sword. He died later at the hospital.

Tuesday

Too close to call

President Barack Obama holds a slim lead over Mitt Romney in Nevada, according to a new poll from the Las Vegas Review-Journal and KLAS-TV 8 NewsNow.

Obama leads Romney 47 percent to 45 percent, according to the survey of 869 likely voters unveiled just as the president arrived in Reno for a two-day campaign swing through the Silver State.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

Wednesday

Obama back to school

On his 13th trip to Nevada as president, Barack Obama fired up an enthusiastic crowd of more than 2,700 supporters at Canyon Springs High School in North Las Vegas.

Obama's campaign topic was education, but his message was an election-year plea to get out the vote as he faces a tight contest with GOP presidential challenger Mitt Romney.

"We need you!" Obama told the crowd. "If you're willing to stand with me and knock on some doors with me, and make some phone calls with me, this November we will win Nevada. We will win this election."

Thursday

Collins gives up gun

The cowboy commissioner has surrendered his sidearm.

Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins forfeited a handgun and pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of disturbing the peace and livestock at large following separate disturbances at his North Las Vegas home.

Collins paid $2,274 in fines and handed over a .40-caliber semi-automatic Sig Sauer, but he avoided any jail time.

The no contest pleas are not an admission of guilty but acknowledge that the prosecution has enough evidence to prove its case.

Friday

Reasonable doubt

Former Henderson City Councilwoman Kathleen Vermillion will not face criminal charges on allegations she tried to extort millions of dollars from ex-boyfriend Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak.

Sisolak accused Vermillion in January of trying to shake him down for $3.9 million. He also claimed his political career was threatened at a meeting with her then-lawyer Robert Martin and public relations handler Mark Fierro.

District Attorney Steve Wolfson called the behavior "certainly troubling" but decided criminal charges could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.