Associated Press
Vegas Doctor Gets 41 Months in Prison in Fentanyl Case
LAS VEGAS — A Nevada physician has been sentenced to 41 months in federal prison for illegally distributing the powerful opioid fentanyl in a case involving the overdose death of a Henderson municipal judge.
Steven Holper told a judge on Monday that as a pain patient himself he knew what he was doing and felt he was properly treating his patients.
Holper is 67. His guilty plea in December to criminal distribution of a controlled substance avoided trial, and prosecutors dropped 28 other charges against him.
U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey also sentenced him to three years’ supervision after prison. He’s due to surrender Nov. 25.
Holper said he stopped treating Judge Diana Hampton months before her death in March 2016 with fentanyl in her system.
Authorities ruled Hampton’s death an accident.
Body of Drowned Kayaker Pulled from Nevada’s Washoe Lake
RENO — Authorities have recovered the body of a kayaker who apparently drowned in Washoe Lake between Reno and Carson City.
Divers from the Washoe County Sheriff’s HASTY team and the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District found the body last Wednesday evening under water about 7 feet (2 meters) deep.
Witnesses reported a man in a kayak went under the surface and didn’t come up Wednesday afternoon.
Sheriff’s spokesman Bob Harmon says he wasn’t wearing a life jacket.
The Washoe County medical examiner’s office has identified the victim but his name is being withheld pending notification of family.
Republican Legislators File Lawsuit Over Tax, Fee Extensions
CARSON CITY — Eight Republican state senators are suing to challenge legislation extending a business payroll tax and a Motor Vehicle Division technology fee to provide approximately $100 million being mostly used to pay for school safety initiatives and teacher pay raises.
The lawsuit filed Friday in state District Court in Carson City contends majority Democrats needed two-thirds of lawmakers to vote in favor to extend the tax because state law requires a two-thirds vote to impose a tax.
Legislative lawyers disagreed, saying legislation to extend an existing tax didn’t trigger the two-thirds vote requirement.
Democrats said the extension of the payroll tax would put $72 million to teacher pay raises and add nearly $17 million to school safety funding, while Republicans said the state could use other money to provide that funding.
Army Veteran from San Francisco Bay Drowns at Lake Tahoe
RENO — Authorities have identified a 34-year-old San Francisco Bay Area man who drowned at Lake Tahoe as a U.S. Army veteran who worked as a correctional officer for the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.
The Douglas County sheriff’s office says bystanders pulled Andreiam Jeffrey Arqueza from the water at Zephyr Cove on Tahoe’s southeast shore at about 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Deputies began life-saving measures on the shore but he later was pronounced dead at a hospital in South Lake Tahoe, California.
The San Mateo County Code 30 Foundation says Arqueza — who went by “AJ” — served in Iraq and previously worked for the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.
US Air Force Warns Against Joke Event to ‘Storm Area 51’
LAS VEGAS — The U.S. Air Force has warned people against participating in an internet joke suggesting a large crowd of people “storm Area 51,” the top-secret Cold War test site in the Nevada desert.
A prank event on Facebook that’s attracted more than 1 million interested people suggests that a mass of people attempt to run into the mysterious site at 3 a.m. on Sept. 20.
The site is part of the vast Nevada Test and Training Range and has become the center of UFO conspiracy theories.
The Facebook event jokes “they can’t stop all of us” and “Let’s see them aliens.”
Nellis Air Force Base said in a statement that the Air Force is aware of the Facebook posting and says “any attempt to illegally access the area is highly discouraged.”
The Air Force says it does not discuss its security measures and that the test and training range provides “flexible, realistic and multidimensional battlespace” for testing and “advanced training in support of U.S. national interests.”
After decades of government officials refusing to acknowledge Area 51, the CIA released declassified documents in 2013 referring to the 8,000-square mile (20,700-sq. kilometer) installation by name and locating it on a map near the dry Groom Lake bed.
The base has been a testing ground for a host of top-secret aircraft, including the U-2 in the 1950s and later the B-2 stealth bomber.
But secrecy surrounding the site has fueled conspiracy theories among UFO enthusiasts and sprouted a small, alien-themed tourist industry in surrounding desert communities, including alien-themed cafes, an alien-themed motel and an alien-themed brothel.
Pilot Accused of Flying While Drunk in Nevada Crash
MESQUITE — Authorities say a pilot from Washington state was arrested on suspicion of flying while drunk after a private plane crash and fire at an airport in Nevada.
Police say 41-year-old Ryan Raymond Dashiell of Spokane escaped serious injury in the crash of the twin-engine Cessna 550 last Wednesday evening at Mesquite Municipal Airport.
Police Sgt. Wyatt Oliver says Dashiell was the only person aboard the aircraft. Firefighters doused flames and Dashiell was treated at a hospital and jailed pending an initial court appearance.
Jail records don’t reflect if Dashiell has an attorney.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor says the aircraft was traveling from Pasco, Washington, to Henderson Executive Airport near Las Vegas.
He says the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.
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