WEEK IN REVIEW: Top news

Passengers on a Las Vegas-bound JetBlue flight were forced to subdue their deranged pilot after he tried to force his way back into the locked cockpit.

Capt. Clayton Osbon was taken down after he began banging on the door while screaming incoherently.

Six to eight men initially restrained Osbon. The plane made an emergency landing in Amarillo, Texas.

Two of the men who held Osbon down later described the pandemonium on the flight while waiting in McCarran's baggage claim area several hours after they were originally scheduled to arrive.

While Osbon suffered his breakdown, some passengers videotaped the incident. Other passengers were crying.

Osbon was taken to a hospital for treatment of what authorities called a "medical situation." He has since been charged with interfering with a flight crew.

Monday

Second attorney dead

A second attorney targeted in a federal investigation of fraud and corruption at homeowners associations has turned up dead in less than a week, creating unease among cooperating witnesses.

Las Vegas attorney David Amesbury was found dead by apparent hanging Sunday night, five days after attorney Nancy Quon was found dead in the bathtub of her Henderson home.

Authorities do not suspect foul play in either case and are initially treating the deaths as suicides.

Tuesday

Shooter drunk, jobless

A 25-year-old man who shot a North Las Vegas police officer Monday night was drunk and waving a shotgun when his family called police, his grandfather said.

Christopher Burcham was frustrated about being unemployed for more than five months, his grandfather said.

Four North Las Vegas patrol officers tried to enter the home through the garage, but Burcham immediately opened fire with a shotgun, police said.

Burcham surrendered and was arrested on several felony charges.

The wounded officer, Dwight Kuykendall, 36, would be released from the hospital Wednesday night.

Wednesday

Rebels lose local

The most heavily recruited basketball player in America goes to high school in Las Vegas, but he won't be attending college here.

Bishop Gorman senior Shabazz Muhammed announced that he had trimmed the list of colleges he is considering to three, none of them UNLV.

Muhammed said he has narrowed it down to UCLA, Kentucky or Duke and plans to announce his final choice on ESPN in two weeks.

Thursday

You didn't win

Thousands of people lined up for hours just across the Nevada-California border to buy into the longest of long shots: a 176 million-to-one chance at the world's largest lottery jackpot.

The Primm Valley Lotto Store reported selling an estimated 165,000 to 170,000 tickets per day during the run-up to Friday's Mega Millions drawing.

A cascade of last-minute ticket sales pushed the jackpot to $640 million.

Friday

Fossils not for sale

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced that it won't allow the auction of almost 11,000 acres of fossil-rich federal land at the valley's northern edge.

Tule Springs and the Upper Las Vegas Wash are dotted with ice age fossils and rare plants.

Conservationists hailed the decision as a first step in securing the area until it can be designated as a national monument.