Driver takes deal in fatal accident
A 32-year-old Las Vegas man accused of causing an accident that killed a woman and seriously injured two other people has agreed to spend between six and 20 years in prison.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Gary Booker said Thomas Mannix pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of felony driving under the influence and one count of felony leaving the scene of an accident.
Mannix will be formally sentenced Oct. 21 by District Judge Nancy Saitta.
According to police, Mannix was driving a Buick Roadmaster erratically at a high rate of speed on when he drove through the intersection of Charleston Boulevard and Buffalo Drive, hitting two vehicles in July.
Mannix's passenger, Deborah Fornuto, 47, was killed.
Indictment issued in I-15 fatal crash
A 23-year-old man was indicted Tuesday in connection with an accident that left an 18-year-old woman and her unborn baby dead.
According to the indictment unsealed Wednesday, Luis Pulido-Valeriano faces two counts of leaving the scene of an accident and one count of involuntary manslaughter in the June 17 accident that left Chasity Banks dead.
Deputy District Attorney James Hartsell said Pulido-Valeriano was driving on Interstate 15 when landscaping equipment fell out of the back of his pickup truck, the tailgate of which had been left down.
Dana Hlavaty, 19, lost control of her vehicle while trying to avoid the equipment and was struck by a tractor-trailer on her passenger side, where Banks was sitting.
Banks, who was 18 to 20 weeks pregnant, died three days later.
Leaving the scene of an accident carries a two- to 15-year sentence, and involuntary manslaughter is punishable by one to four years in prison.
Pulido-Valeriano will be arraigned Sept. 26.
Assessment made on marina move
The National Park Service has issued an environmental assessment for moving the Las Vegas Bay Marina away from flows of mud pouring from Las Vegas Wash.
Marina operations, public safety and disruption of recreational services threatened by the delta's erosion in the wash prompted the Park Service to plan for an emergency relocation of the marina, said William Dickinson, superintendent at Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
Sediments have been discharged into the wash for the past 30 years. In that time 4.5 million cubic yards of material has been deposited in the delta.
Combined with a drop in Lake Mead's water level, the marina must vacate its current position in Las Vegas Bay within three months.
The environmental assessment lists as its preferred alternative site Ski Beach in Hemenway Harbor, Park Service spokeswoman Karla Norris said.
The assessment is available for public review until Sept. 23. All comments must be received by then and addressed to: Superintendent, Attention: Las Vegas Bay Marina, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, 601 Nevada Way, Boulder City, NV, 89005.
Copies of the document are available at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area website (www.nps.gov/lame/LVMarinaEA1.pdf).
State to buy insurance building
An office building in Carson City owned by the Employers Insurance Co. of Nevada and its predecessors for 44 years is being purchased by the state for $2.7 million.
State Lands Director Pamela Wilcox said Wednesday that details still need to be worked out in the sales contract but that she hopes to close escrow by Oct. 15 on the building two blocks east of the Capitol.
Employers Insurance, after it converted from a quasi-state agency to a private company, moved its headquarters to Reno more than two years ago. Some employees of the company continue to operate out of the three-story, 31,915-square-foot building.
Judge approves Lake Mead deal
A federal judge approved an agreement between the National Park Service and a San Franscisco-based environmental group Friday allowing personal watercraft to stay on Lake Mead.
The agreement with the Blue Water Network allows for unrestricted use at Lake Mead until Nov. 6. After that, the park service agreed to implement restrictions, closing sections of the lake and creating 200-foot wakeless zone extending from all shorelines, said National Park Service spokeswoman Karla Norris.
The ban was originally supposed to go into effect Sept. 15.
Restricted use will continue until Jan. 1, 2003, when personal watercraft will again be banned while the park service prepares new regulations governing their use, she said.
Lake Mead is the only national recreation area to receive the extension; the craft will be banned at the other affected recreation areas Nov. 6.
Officials at Lake Mead have not received the final settlement, Norris said.
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