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POPULATION GROWTH-SOUTHERN NEVADA
Clark Co. population rebounds from recession dip
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Clark County's population has bounced back from its recession dip and is now as high as it's ever been.
That's one of the findings published in the 34th annual Las Vegas Perspective, which reviews market trends and was officially unveiled Wednesday at a ceremony keynoted by Nevada first lady Kathleen Sandoval.
The county's population base hit 2.06 million in 2013, which is 2.7 percent higher than it was in 2012.
Henderson posted the highest annual population gain at 3.3 percent, while Las Vegas grew 2.1 percent and North Las Vegas grew 2.4 percent since 2012.
Report authors say the population growth signals southern Nevada's ability to move beyond the challenges of the recession, and is an important step toward more stability in the local economy.
PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS-OVERFLOWING ERS
Private hospitals may step in to ease ER crowding
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada officials are considering a partnering with private hospitals to ease emergency rooms crowded with psychiatric patients.
State health and human services chief Mike Willden tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal his agency talking with two or three hospitals interested in opening psychiatric wings. He declined to name the hospitals because the negotiations are ongoing.
The issue was among several discussed Monday and Tuesday at a meeting of Gov. Brian Sandoval's Behavioral Health and Wellness Council. The panel is trying to determine how to address a high number of mental patients taking up ER beds, a problem that forced several Las Vegas hospitals to turn away ambulances in February.
The group also discussed opening more triage centers, where psychiatric patients can be stabilized outside of an emergency room setting.
CONGRESS-INTERNET GAMBLING
Bills introduced to ban online gambling
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers from both parties are introducing legislation that would ban online gambling. The unveiling of the bills sets the stage for an uncertain battle in Congress.
The measures are aimed at reversing a 2011 decision by Attorney General Eric Holder that a 1961 law used in recent years to curb Internet gambling only barred sports betting. The bills introduced Wednesday would broaden the prohibition to where it stood before Holder's ruling.
Three states allow online gambling: Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who controls his chamber's agenda, is from Nevada and has supported legalizing online poker.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is the chief Senate sponsor. The House version is sponsored by Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz. Each bill has co-sponsors from both parties.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
Conservative group to pay fine in Nevada 2010 case
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — A conservative group that supports Republican candidates has agreed to pay a $40,000 civil penalty and disclose the source of funds used in 2010 ad campaign supporting Brian Sandoval in his inaugural bid for governor.
The settlement announced Wednesday ends a four-year legal battle between Democratic Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller and Alliance for America's Future, a Virginia-based nonprofit.
Reports filed with secretary of state's office lists one donation of $230,000 from the Republican Governor's Public Policy Committee. All of that was paid to Crossroads Media for the campaign ad.
Miller sued the alliance in 2010 for running ads spotlighting Sandoval in his gubernatorial bid without registering as a political action committee in Nevada.
JUDICIAL DISCIPLINE-NEVADA
Embattled Nevada judge facing new discipline case
(Information in the following story is from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas-area family court judge who is already suspended for a romantic relationship with a prosecutor who appeared before him is facing another Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline inquiry.
Clark County Family Court Judge Steven Jones has a month to respond to allegations that he was involved in illegal investment schemes, associated with ex-felons, improperly handled drug evidence and once had an intimate relationship with a law student who worked for him.
Commission Executive Director Paul Deyhle tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal (http://bit.ly/QgkdRX ) that the panel will consider any response before deciding whether to go forward with a complaint.
Jones' attorneys didn't immediately respond Wednesday to messages.
The case dates to 2006.
It's separate from sanctions that Jones received for his affair with the prosecutor who argued cases before him.
SUSPICIOUS DEATH-MURDER
1 arrested in stabbing death at Reno motel
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A man who called 911 from the Reno police department and was jailed for misusing the emergency system has been arrested for the stabbing death of another man at a downtown motel.
Reno police Wednesday said 45-year Tony Lee is charged with open murder in the death of 47-year-old Lorell Parnell. Parnell's body was found with multiple stab wounds Sunday in a room at the Flamingo Motel.
Officers say paperwork found in the room was linked to Lee, who showed up at the Reno Police Department with blood on his clothes March 9. Officers say Lee didn't provide any information about a crime or a victim. But he was jailed after calling 911 from the police station.
Investigators say subsequent testing of Lee's clothing revealed DNA from Parnell.
AIR BASE-HOMICIDE
Hearing begins for Nellis airman in wife slaying
NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) — A judge says she'll hear more evidence next week before deciding if a 33-year-old Nellis Air Force Base technical sergeant will stand trial in Nevada state court on a murder charge in the slaying of his wife.
Rickey Lee Massey Jr. remained in custody following the start of his preliminary hearing Wednesday in North Las Vegas Justice Court.
The hearing will continue April 2.
Massey is accused of killing 34-year-old Theresa Rivera during a family argument late Jan. 16.
The Clark County coroner determined Rivera was asphyxiated.
Police say Massey told them that he and his wife were getting a divorce after being married less than a year.
His public defender, Rafael Nones, says he plans to plead not guilty.
Massey deployed four times during his 13-year Air Force career.
JAYWALKING FATAL-VEGAS
Police: Pedestrian killed on Spring Mountain Road
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Police in Las Vegas say a woman who was struck and killed by a minivan on a busy thoroughfare was jaywalking, and wasn't in a marked crossing area.
Accident investigators say the woman was with a man crossing Spring Mountain Road about a block west of Decatur Boulevard when she was struck and fatally injured about 5:45 a.m. Wednesday.
The man wasn't hit.
Police say a 63-year-old woman driving the Toyota Sienna minivan and her 62-year-old passenger weren't physically injured.
Investigators say the driver isn't suspected of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
It was the 23rd fatal traffic accident in Las Vegas police jurisdiction in 2014.
HIGHWAY MURDER PLOT
Sentencing reset for highway murder plot figure
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Sentencing was reset to July 14 for a woman who pleaded guilty to conspiring to poison the husband of a woman convicted separately of plotting with her brother and her son to kill the man for his life insurance.
Clark County District Court Judge Carolyn Ellsworth postponed sentencing Courtney Smith on Wednesday because the brother and son are due for sentencing next month in their cases.
Smith is 21. She pleaded guilty last May to conspiracy to commit a felony and testified in November against Amy Denise Pearson Bessey.
Amy Bessey was convicted of seven felonies including conspiracy and attempted murder in the November 2012 wounding of Robert Bessey while driving on Interstate 15.
Smith was accused of conspiring with Amy Bessey to kill Robert Bessey on Father's Day 2012.
NATIONAL MONUMENTS
House votes to limit president on public monuments
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has approved a Republican bill to limit the president's ability to designate new national monuments, a step President Barack Obama and other presidents have taken to protect historic or ecologically significant sites.
The bill, sponsored by Utah Rep. Rob Bishop, would require an environmental review — including a public hearing — before designation of monuments larger than 5,000 acres. Only one monument per state could be created in a president's four-year term. The bill was approved Wednesday.
Bishop and other Republicans have complained that Obama has designated a half-dozen monuments in the past year without input from Congress.
Opponents said the bill was unnecessary, noting that presidents have had authority to create national monuments for more than a century.
The legislation is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate.
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