Week in Review: Top News

U.S. Sen. John Ensign made it official Friday, turning in his resignation and bringing an end to a once fast-tracked political career while further shaking up the electoral landscape in Nevada.

Ensign leaves office under the cloud of a persistent ethics investigation that stemmed from an extramarital affair he admitted to two years ago. The investigation will end once the Republican no longer is under the jurisdiction of the Senate.

The resignation will become effective May 3.

Gov. Brian Sandoval will appoint Ensign's replacement. The appointee is likely to be Rep. Dean Heller, the Republican running for the Senate in 2012 and who already has the governor's endorsement.

Ensign, 53, took a big hit to his reputation and struggled to regain his footing with colleagues and constituents after admitting in June 2009 to an affair with Cindy Hampton. She was his wife's best friend and the wife of Doug Hampton, a close friend and top Ensign aide in Washington.

Growing from the personal scandal were allegations that Ensign arranged for his parents to pay hush money to the Hamptons once the affair went public and that he smoothed over Doug Hampton's departure from his staff by setting him up as a lobbyist with access to his office and violating federal lobbying law in the process.

Monday

TRANSGENDER TRIUMPH

By a more than 2-to-1 margin, the Assembly backed a bill that would outlaw job discrimination against transgender people based on their gender identity or expression.

All 26 Democrats backed the bill, with three of the 16 Republicans.

The bill goes to the state Senate, where supporters think it will pass. Gov. Brian Sandoval hasn't indicated whether he will sign it.

Tuesday

POLICE GET THE PINCH

Facing its own budget shortfalls, the Clark County Commission set its sights on the Metropolitan Police Department's $84 million budget reserve.

Sheriff Doug Gillespie amassed the reserve in recent years through union pay concessions, position cuts and other cutbacks with the intention of using the savings to cover revenue shortages in coming years.

But some commissioners want the money to fill budget holes now.

Wednesday

COLE FAMILY FILES SUIT

The family of Trevon Cole filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police Department.

The lawsuit seeks more than $10 million in damages from the department and several officers, including Detective Bryan Yant, who shot the unarmed Cole during a drug raid.

Thursday

OBAMA BACK IN NEVADA

President Barack Obama made his first visit to Northern Nevada since winning the White House, stopping to again woo swing voters who will decide his fate in 2012.

The president talked up his economic program and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., a Las Vegas-based congresswoman running for the U.S. Senate and who needs to raise her profile up North.

Friday

UMC UNION

University Medical Center's union employees rejected a proposed 2 percent pay cut that would have saved the hospital $5.5 million.

About 3,300 UMC workers, who are members of the Service Employees International Union, rejected the pay cut by a nearly 3-to-1 margin.