WEEK IN REVIEW: Top news
Henderson police wounded an armed robbery suspect during a shootout at a popular outdoor shopping mall late Monday.
A witness suggested the gunman, identified by police as 60-year-old Anthony Rogers, may have been trying to commit suicide by cop.
Scott Ricci, who runs the NDC Pharmacy on Horizon Ridge Parkway near Seven Hills Drive, said Rogers entered the drugstore, brandished a shotgun and made off with prescription painkillers.
A short time later at The District at Green Valley Ranch, Rogers opened fire on five officers and was wounded when the officers fired back.
Ricci said that during the hold up, Rogers told him he had cancer and that he expected to die that day.
MONDAY
GUN LEFT IN TOY BOX
An 11-year-old boy shot and killed his 5-year-old nephew with a real gun he found in a box of toys, Henderson police said.
The shooting occurred Sunday afternoon in a gated community in Henderson.
The 5-year-old boy, identified as Robert Martin IV, died at a hospital from a gunshot wound in his chest.
Police said the 11-year-old told investigators he thought the gun was a toy.
TUESDAY
ENROLLMENT FALLS
For the second time in three years, but just the third time in half a century, enrollment declined in the Clark County School District.
The district's official enrollment count this year came to 308,447 students, 1,446 fewer than last year, when enrollment bumped up slightly.
The student count dropped by more than 1,700 in 2009-10.
School officials saw this year's decline coming and scaled back teacher hiring for the school year. Still, the district's projection overestimated the number of students for 2011-12 by 1,033, Deputy Superintendent Pedro Martinez said.
The only other decline in the past 50 years came in 1983-84, when the district reported 424 fewer students than the previous year.
WEDNESDAY
FEDS BACK SOLAR PLANT
The largest solar project in Nevada was granted a $737 million federal loan guarantee that will assure its construction near Tonopah and grow the state's profile for renewable energy.
The government is getting behind the Crescent Dunes plant, which will use 17,500 mirror assemblies to heat molten salt flowing through a 653-foot tall tower, allowing the plant to generate electricity even when the sun is down.
The loan guarantee comes from the same program that left taxpayers holding the bag on a $535 million loan backing for California-based Solyndra LLC, which declared bankruptcy Sept. 6.
THURSDAY
DOCTOR, 87, INDICTED
Federal authorities announced the indictment of an 87-year-old physician, his assistant and a pharmacist on charges of conspiring to unlawfully distribute the prescription painkiller oxycodone.
Dr. Henri Wetselaar and David Litwin, 52, both of Las Vegas, and pharmacist Jason C. Smith, 43, of Michigan, were charged in a 23-count indictment that grew out of a joint law enforcement crackdown on prescription drug trafficking.
friday
landra battles cancer
Landra Reid, the wife of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has been diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer, the senator's office has confirmed.
Landra Reid, 71, is receiving treatment in Washington, D.C., which includes chemotherapy. She was diagnosed "recently," Reid spokesman Zac Petkanas said.
The news came the day before the start of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
NUMBERS
47-20-2
The UNLV coaching record of Tony Knap, who posted more wins than any other football coach in the program's history. Knap died Sept. 24 at age 96.
15,000
The approximate number of marijuana plants removed from the Spring Mountains in the last month and a half, including 9,400 seized Tuesday in Lovell Canyon.
11.9 percent
How much Nevada's median household income fell in 2010, according to U.S. Census data. That's the steepest such drop of any state in the nation.
3
Interceptions returned for touchdowns in Southern Utah University's 41-16 rout of UNLV in Las Vegas on Sept. 24. The loss may rank as the worst ever for the Rebels.
QUOTES
"He said, 'Today you're not going to die. Today is my day to die.' "
Scott Ricci, director of a Henderson pharmacy, recalling what a shotgun-wielding Robber said to him Monday before making off with stolen pain medications and getting wounded in a shootout with police.
"You can monitor it, you can quantify it, and in the end, you can lament it. But you can't fix it."
Paul Hejmanowski, attorney who represents the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at an ongoing state water hearing, talking about the potential damage from the Southern nevada Water Authority's plan to pump billions of gallons of groundwater from Spring Valley in White Pine County.
"I understand Las Vegas is a place that doesn't sleep at night. But I think they should lower the noise. People have to get up and go to work."
Denise Brockway, who lives in an extended-stay motel in the Fremont East area of downtown. She said she uses her television and air conditioner to drown out the noise from bars and nightclubs the city has encouraged to open in the area.
MULTIMEDIA
lvrj.com/multimedia
• VIDEO: Three charged with conspiracy to distribute oxycodone
• VIDEO: Justin Timberlake headlines Pro-Am at golf tournament in Las Vegas
• VIDEO: Movie Minute with Carol Cling 09/30/11
• SLIDE SHOW: Breast Cancer Awareness 2011
• VIDEO AND SLIDE SHOW: Las Vegas celebrities sell the Review-Journal pink paper edition
• VIDEO: USS Nevada ship's bell presented to Gov. Brian Sandoval for Nevada State Museum
