WEEK IN REVIEW: Top News
Twenty-one protesters were arrested peacefully Thursday after they sat in the middle of Las Vegas Boulevard and briefly blocked traffic during a national day of mass action to mark two months of Occupy Wall Street demonstrations that began in New York City.
The protesters were hauled away by police and given misdemeanor citations for blocking the street in front of the federal courthouse.
The protest and first mass arrest in Las Vegas stood in stark contrast to events in New York and Oakland, Calif., where protesters have faced strong police resistance and were forced from their camps with tear gas and pepper spray.
Las Vegas police said they were notified ahead of time about the protest. There were no injuries, and the road closure lasted about 15 minutes, police said.
On Friday, Clark County granted the protest group a 90-day extension that will allow members continue to camp on a paved lot between Swenson Street and Paradise Road until Feb. 20.
MONDAY
Splish splash
Developers held a groundbreaking ceremony for the 25-acre Splash Canyon Waterpark, set to be the first local water park since Wet 'n Wild on the Strip closed in 2004.
Scheduled to open by Memorial Day, the $18 million project in the southwest valley will include 20 slides, a surfable wave pool, a 1,000-foot lazy river, a water play structure, toddler pool, private cabanas and food outlets.
TUESDAY
No firefighter trap
North Las Vegas police determined a weekend arson fire was not set to hurt responding firefighters.
After two firefighters fell off a bannister-less staircase Saturday, the city fire department said the blaze had been intentionally set to injure firefighters.
But police found the home had been vacant for many months, perhaps as long as a year. Like many vacant homes in Southern Nevada, it had been stripped of anything of value, including the bannister.
WEDNESDAY
witness found beaten
David Amesbury, a Las Vegas lawyer who pleaded guilty last month in the high-profile federal investigation of homeowners associations, was found badly beaten in a gated Henderson neighborhood.
The FBI and local police were trying to determine what happened to him. The FBI said it had no evidence the beating was linked to the HOA investigation. The 57-year-old was the first lawyer to enter a felony plea in the federal investigation that has targeted lawyers, judges and former police officers.
THURSDAY
Tuition hike on table
If a proposal to raise student fees at Nevada's colleges and universities is approved next month, students will be paying twice as much next year as they were just six years ago.
The hike, which would affect undergraduate students only, would be made to counter state budget cuts that higher education leaders say have weakened the colleges and universities.
The Board of Regents will be asked to choose among fee increases of 5 percent, 8 percent and 13 percent or to reject them all.
FRIDAY
BLAZE threatens Reno
Firefighters and rescue helicopters battled multiple blazes on mountain roads as a sudden wildfire consumed the Sierra Nevada foothills and spread down to the valley floor on Reno's southern border.
A 74-year-old man died from a heart attack . Authorities said 16 people were injured and 25 homes were damaged or destroyed after the wind-whipped fire spread to 2,000 acres.
NUMBERS
81.5 percent
Drop in mortgage default notices in Nevada from September to October after a new state law imposed stricter requirements for filing the pre-foreclosure notices.
175
Number of tickets issued by North Las Vegas police during a crosswalk sting Tuesday on Craig Road, less than a month after a 6-year-old girl was killed in a crosswalk.
35
Number of state boards and commissions being reviewed for possible elimination or consolidation by a new legislative subcommittee.
500,000
The number of lights, at least, that now illuminate the three-acre Ethel M Chocolate Factory Cactus Garden in a holiday tradition 18 years in the making.
QUOTES
"You can do what I'm doing. I'm nothing special."
Sharon Pearson, a Miller Elementary schoolteacher speaking to students during a teleconference from a research ship in israel, where she is part of a scientific team exploring the ocean depths.
"It's our duty to be good ancestors."
Steven Reich, arguing against the Southern Nevada Water Authority's pipeline project during a state hearing that wrapped up Friday. Reich was speaking for The Long Now Foundation, a San Francisco-based group of intellectuals that wants to foster "the long view" in society by building a clock that will tick for 10,000 years, possibly inside a mountain in eastern Nevada.
"I feel so strongly about this (that) I think they should do an Occupy Sunrise Rock-type thing."
William McDonald, reacting with anger to the removal of a cross put up on Sunrise Rock in California's Mojave National Preserve, 75 miles southwest of Las Vegas. The Park Service took the cross down Tuesday because of a court order barring religious displays on the rock.
"Sweet 4 hands."
One of the services advertised by a Henderson massage business. New rules are being considered in Henderson and Las Vegas in an attempt to stamp out businesses that may be fronts for prostitution.
MULTIMEDIA
lvrj.com/multimedia
• VIDEO & SLIDE SHOW: Occupy Las Vegas
• SLIDE SHOW: Signs of the Times
• SLIDE SHOW: Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort opens on Mount Charleston
• SLIDE SHOWS: UNLV basketball games against UNR and Canisius
• SLIDE SHOW: River Mountains Trail
• SLIDE SHOW: Ethel M Chocolates Holiday Cactus Lighting
