WEEK IN REVIEW: Top news

An international drugmaker agreed to pay $285 million to settle 120 lawsuits stemming from Southern Nevada's hepatitis C outbreak.

The settlement closes a major chapter in the long legal battle for about 150 former patients at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada and its sister clinics.

County health officials linked nine hepatitis C cases to the facilities run by Dr. Dipak Desai and said another 106 cases were "possibly linked."

Teva Pharmaceuticals, an Israel-based generic drug firm, had lost three trials against it and faced paying nearly $800 million dollars in compensatory and punitive damages.

The confidential settlement encompassed the last large group of plaintiffs with active lawsuits and leaves 15 open lawsuits against Teva.

MONDAY

LAS VEGAS UNOCCUPIED

The local chapter of the Occupy Wall Street movement vacated the tiny parking lot on Paradise Road near McCarran International Airport, part of the condition of its agreement with the county.

Clark County officials had allowed Occupy Las Vegas protesters to camp there to peacefully protest corporate greed and influence in politics.

TUESDAY

FOES BLAST WATER RATES

A conservative political advocacy group took aim at the Southern Nevada Water Authority's plans to raise rates, using robo-calls to more than 1,000 customers.

The automated call attacked the timing and scale of the increase and criticized the regional water wholesaler for frivolous spending.

Authority board members will vote next week on rate proposals that could increase homeowners bills about $5 to $10 a month and are designed to generate almost $260 million.

WEDNESDAY

MUSLIM SITE BURNS

An early morning fire destroyed the construction site of a Muslim funeral home and cemetery in northeast Las Vegas.

The $1.5 million project, which would have been the first mortuary to specifically serve Las Vegas' Muslim community, was about half completed.

Because of the possibility of a hate crime, federal officials joined the investigation by Clark County fire officials.

THURSDAY

WOMAN FINED IN DEATH

During an emotional hearing in North Las Vegas Municipal Court, a 78-year-old Henderson woman was fined $5,000 and lost her driving privileges for two years in connection with a car crash that killed a 6-year-old girl and severely injured two others.

Alice Alava pleaded no contest to five misdemeanor traffic charges after hitting the three girls in a crosswalk in October.

The girls were on their way back from a park when they crossed the busy roadway at a marked crosswalk.

One vehicle stopped for the girls, but the vehicle driven by Alava did not.

Amelia "Mia" Decker, 6, died three days after the accident. Two other girls were hospitalized .

FRIDAY

POLITICAL ICON PASSES

Former state Sen. Bill Raggio, a political icon who served in the upper house for nearly four decades, died at the age of 85.

Raggio's daughter said her father died of complications from pneumonia at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, Australia.

A moderate Republican, he had served as majority and minority leader in the Senate.

Although he was widely respected, Raggio upset some conservative Republicans by backing major compromise tax increase packages to pay for education and other government programs as Nevada rapidly grew.