It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas exploded at the Messer home. The halls of the nearly 5,000-square-foot house in North Las Vegas are decked from floor to ceiling with scores of snowmen,... | 7:53 a.m. Scott DeGraff, the em­battled co-owner of the N9NE Group with restaurants and nightclubs in Las Vegas, Chicago and... Continue reading →

Posted: May 25, 2012 | 2:09 a.m. Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center will eliminate 144 positions as the hospital deals with losses in revenue from a 26 percent increase in uncompensated care over the past year, a spokesman said Thursday.Spokesman Dan Davidson said fewer people have the resources to pay their medical bills, while fewer people are becoming patients at the hospital on South Maryland Parkway at East Vegas Valley Drive."Thirty percent of people are uninsured in Las Vegas, which is a very significant number," Davidson said. "We also saw a contraction in patient activity. A 2.6 percent decrease in 2011 compared with the year before in patient activity."He declined to discuss the hospital's finances."Sunrise has always provided uncompensated care, but this increase is having ... Continue reading →

A Twitter feud between Gov. Jerry Brown’s press secretary and writers from the Sacramento and Fresno Bee has found its way into the newspaper’s pages. Thursday’s paper included an item on the Tweeting exploits of Brown press secretary Gil Duran, including his sending a picture of a crying baby to the author of a critical Tweet and a personal tete-a-tete with Bee columnist Dan Walters. Walters started by riffing on a Brown remark that California was “not some tired country of Europe,”Tweeting to his 1,540 followers that “California may be a tired American state.” That earned a sharp response from Duran: “No, it’s just you that’s tired, Dan. Just you.” This dust-up followed a back-and-forth between the columnist and the Brown press shop earlier in ... Continue reading →

Posted: May 24, 2012 | 12:43 p.m. WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama has nominated an expert on nuclear waste to lead the federal agency that regulates the nation's nuclear power plants.She is Allison Macfarlane, who served on a presidential commission that studied new strategies to manage nuclear waste. Macfarlane wrote a book in 2006 that raised technical questions about a proposed nuclear waste dump at Nevada's Yucca Mountain. She is an associate professor at George Mason University.If confirmed by the Senate, Macfarlane would replace Gregory Jaczko as head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He announced his resignation this week after a tumultuous three-year tenure.Jaczko pushed for sweeping safety reforms but came under fire for an unyielding management style that fellow commissioners and agency employees described ... Continue reading →

After nearly six hours of talks held during an informal dinner, leaders said they were committed to Greece remaining in the eurozone, but it had to stick to its side of the bargain too, a commitment that will mean a heavy cost for Greeks."We want Greece to stay in the euro, but we insist that Greece sticks to commitments that it has agreed to," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters after yesterday's evening summit in Brussels dragged long into the night.Three officials told Reuters the instruction to have plans in place for a Greek exit was agreed on Monday during a teleconference of the Eurogroup Working Group (EWG) - experts who work for eurozone finance ministers.The Greek finance ministry denied there was any such agreement ... Continue reading →

Posted: May 24, 2012 | 7:55 a.m. U.S. officials say a former Bosnian Serb police commander who had a leading role in the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica has been deported from Las Vegas back to his native country.Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lori Haley says Dejan Radojkovic arrived Thursday in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, aboard a commercial airline flight from Las Vegas.The immigration and customs official says Radojkovic was accompanied by U.S. immigration agents who turned him over to Bosnia-Herzegovina law enforcement officials.Investigators say the 61-year-old Radojkovic moved to the United States in 1999 and lived in Las Vegas, where he was arrested in 2009.Prosecutors in Bosnia-Herzegovina say Radojkovic led a police brigade that rounded up about 200 Bosnian Muslim men for execution after Bosnian Serb ... Continue reading →

Mandatory random drug tests for Beverly Hills High School athletes will start next fall under a new policy passed Tuesday by the Beverly Hills Unified School District Board of Education. The policy, which was modified substantially during two hours of board discussion, states that parents be notified via certified mail if a student tests positive for illegal drugs or alcohol. The positive result—which would not be shared with the school district—triggers a mandatory second test some time within 60 days. If the student tests positive again or refuses a second test the school district would be notified. The student could then be suspended from his or her sport for one game and may be retested again. Athletes are being targeted because courts have ruled they ... Continue reading →

Posted: May 24, 2012 | 2:04 a.m. Physicians Medical Center said Wednesday it will merge with CareMore Medical Group, a medical organization and health plan. The new Las Vegas-based company will be known as CareMore Medical Group, Nevada.Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.Physicians Medical operates three facilities in Las Vegas, while CareMore has operated a network of health care services in Southern Nevada, including a Medicare Advantage Plan.Patients will not notice any changes, a company spokeswoman said.CareMore, based in Cerritos, Calif., is a subsidiary of CareMore Health Plan, which was founded in 1992. Contact reporter Chris Sieroty at csieroty@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Continue reading →