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Local News

  • Businessman gets land for lower price

    Local businessman Ray Herrera had agreed to pay the city $22,800 for a lot in the industrial park earlier this year.

    But after a new appraisal, he will only have to pay $17,000. The council has approved the lot’s sale to Herrera.

    During a City Council meeting in February, then-Councilman Cruz Roybal objected that Herrera had to pay $22,800 for the land. Roybal said he had driven by the land in the Dee Bibb Industrial Park and determined that Herrera, who owns Ray’s Auto Sales, would have to do much work to make it useful.

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  • ONLINE STORY: Delay in Gallegos sentencing

    SANTA FE — Final resolution in the Michael Gallegos case will have to wait a while longer.

    Gallegos, 19, had been scheduled for sentencing Friday morning in a Santa Fe district courtroom for his role in the August 2008 Robertson football hazing scandal. But a reported bout with kidney stones prevented Gallegos’ lead attorney, Billy Blackburn, from attending the hearing, and a postponement was ordered by Judge Mark Macaron.

    Both sides acknowledged that the delay was necessary, albeit an inconvenience to participants.

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  • East warns more cuts on way

    Las Vegas City Schools officials say more state budget cuts will mean they’ll have to further trim local spending.

    Among the possibilities for reductions are closing a school and cutting travel for athletics, they said.

    Some officials also said they wished local state legislators would have attended a school board meeting this week about the budget cuts. They said they invited the lawmakers.

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  • Mayor says he won't run again

    Las Vegas Mayor Alfonso Ortiz says he won’t run for a second term.

    Ortiz, the San Miguel County treasurer and a former city councilman, won a two-year term in March. But he said he never intended to serve more than two years.

    “I want to get the city moving in a positive direction,”  he said.

    Ortiz, 70, said he was hoping that someone younger and more dynamic would run for mayor in 2012.

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  • City to consider trash rate hike

    The Las Vegas City Council will be asked to raise trash rates by 43 percent at its meeting today.

    Under the city staff’s proposal, residents’ bills would be increased from $14 a month to $20. Additionally, the rate structure would include automatic 5 percent yearly increases from 2012 to 2015.

    That’s too much at once, Councilman David Romero said this week.

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  • Regent objects to use of buildings

    A Highlands University official says the university’s practice of renting out its facilities for private events needs to stop.

    Last week, Regent Jesus Lopez told the finance and administration committee that he chairs that he would like to see an outright ban on the practice.

    “The risks are incredible,” said Lopez, a Las Vegas lawyer.

    The matter of renting out campus space came before the finance committee in the form of an updated policy and price list.

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  • Bar defends itself

    Leger's Liquors disputes allegations that repeat DWI offenders were at the local bar beforehand.

    Last week, Starkie Montaño, 60, of Las Vegas was charged with his 12th DWI on Collins Drive, state police said.

    According to a criminal complaint, Montaño told officers that he had had three beers at Leger’s bar, 2404 Seventh St., before the state police stopped him on Collins, which is near Leger’s and Montaño’s home.

    Evelyn Ortega, Leger’s co-owner, said it wasn’t true that Montaño had been at her bar.

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  • Las Vegas man arrested in stabbing

    A Las Vegas man is accused of stabbing another at an east-side house.

    Larry Saiz, 48, 1208 Pecos St., was arrested in the stabbing of Joseph Herrera, 43, of Las Vegas.

    According to city police, Saiz and Herrera were at Saiz’s house drinking with others Saturday night. Saiz is married to the mother of Herrera’s girlfriend, police said.

    Tensions were building between Herrera and Saiz, who was allegedly making  sexual advances toward Herrera’s girlfriend, Police Chief Gary Gold said.

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  • City staff: Return money to HU

    The city of Las Vegas’ staff is recommending that the city return more than $600,000 to Highlands because of overcharges on natural gas bills.

    The City Council will take up the issue at its meeting today.

    In its documentation, the staff doesn’t say how the city would pay back the money. But Mayor Alfonso Ortiz said Monday that it wouldn’t be in a lump-sum payment.

    “The city can’t afford that kind of money,” he said. “We’ll work out something, making a payment arrangement.”

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  • Two schools get new principal

    Martha Johnsen has been named the new principal at Sierra Vista and Los Niños elementary schools.

    She will be leaving her post as a West Las Vegas principal to take the job on the other side of the river with the Las Vegas City Schools.

    Johnsen is currently the principal at the Family Partnership School, West’s alternative school, and Don Cecilio Elementary. She has been with West for a decade.

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