WEEK IN REVIEW: Top news

The saga of estranged power couple County Commissioner Steve Sisolak and former Henderson City Councilwoman Kathleen Vermillion has added a new chapter in the form of search warrants.

Las Vegas police on Wednesday seized computer files, digital videotapes, documents, a cellphone and a prescription bottle from Vermillion's home and the offices of longtime publicist Mark Fierro and Vermillion's lawyer, Robert Martin.

The investigation, open since late January, has focused on a Jan. 22 meeting between Sisolak, Fierro and Martin.

Sisolak called it a shakedown for $3.9 million. Martin and Fierro called it a legal settlement conference to resolve the defamation lawsuit Vermillion filed against Sisolak and Clark County three days earlier in District Court.

Monday

Remembering Raggio

More than 1,200 people, including most of the state's political establishment, gathered in a Reno church to cry, laugh and pay tribute to Bill Raggio, who died Feb. 24 at age 85.

The longtime majority leader served a record 38 years as a Republican state senator from Reno. He retired from the Legislature in January 2011 and was elected to the Senate Hall of Fame in April.

Tuesday

Total windsanity

Wind gusts topping 60 mph wreaked havoc across Southern Nevada, delaying flights at McCarran International Airport, shutting down a construction project on Lake Mead and blowing solar panels off the new Las Vegas City Hall.

At one point Tuesday , the only two direct routes to Arizona, U.S. Highways 93 and 95, were shut down because of wind-related problems.

Wednesday

The parrot has landed

His songs make him sound like a lazy beach bum who eats badly and might have a drinking problem, but that didn't stop Jimmy Buffett from getting preliminary approval for a Nevada gaming license.

Buffett is getting ready to expand his Margaritaville empire, which includes a casino in the Flamingo and two stand-alone operations under construction on the Gulf Coast.

Thursday

That's Billion with a B

Thanks to a calendar change that caused the lucrative Chinese New Year celebration to fall in January, Nevada casinos collected more than $1.038 billion from gamblers during the month.

That was an 18.4 percent increase over January 2011 and the state's first billion-dollar month since September 2008, some 40 months ago.

On the Strip, casinos raked in more than $623.5 million from customers and saw their gaming revenues increase by more than 29 percent.

Friday

Nye still wants waste

With the federal government embarking on a new "consent-based" search for a place to dispose of nuclear waste, officials in Nye County offered up a novel idea: How about Yucca Mountain, which is in Nye County?

The county remains interested in working with the Department of Energy, even as the state has taken an official position against a Yucca repository . Officials in Esmeralda County also have expressed support. They see it as a way to bring industry, jobs and federal dollars to their rural economy.