Week in Review: Top News

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After getting UNLV’s basketball program singing again, Lon Kruger is headed to where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain.

Kruger has accepted a long-term contract to become the head coach at Oklahoma.

News of the deal leaked Friday, less than 24 hours after Kruger told the Review-Journal he would be back to coach the Rebels next year.

Kruger met with his players in Las Vegas Friday night.

The 58-year-old coach amassed a 161-71 record in seven seasons at UNLV, and guided the Rebels to the NCAA Tournament four times in the last five years.

His high point here came in 2007, when UNLV went 30-7 and reached the Sweet 16.

MONDAY

The average visitor

Marketers and movie makers portray Las Vegas as a 24-hour party place for the young and single, but the average tourist is a bit more, well, average.

Nearly 80 percent of visitors are married and the average age is 49, according to the newly released 2010 visitors profile commissioned by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Average nongaming spending per person, per trip, rose from $590 in 2009 to $645 last year, partially offset by a decline in gambling.

The authority’s visitor profiles come from interviews with 3,600 people on the last day of their Vegas vacations.

TUESDAY

20th century prices

Home values in Las Vegas have fallen below January 2000 levels with no end in sight, according to a new report.

Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index shows price declines in 19 cities from December to January.

Eleven of them are at their lowest level since the housing bust, in 2006 and 2007. The index fell for the sixth straight month.

Atlanta, Detroit and Cleveland also saw housing prices sink to their lowest levels of the 21st century.

WEDNESDAY

Second doctor probed

A second urologist is under investigation for reusing single-use medical devices during prostate biopsy procedures.

Dr. Lawrence Newman reported himself to the Nevada State Medical Board and began notifying his patients after he learned that state and federal health officials had sanctioned Dr. Michael Kaplan in early March for the same practice.

Doug Cooper, executive director of the state medical board, said Newman apparently performed 150 prostate biopsies over three years during which single-use needle guides were reused.

THURSDAY

That dump won’t die

Momentum may be building in Washington to revive the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

Citing the nuclear catastrophe in Japan, leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced that they will investigate the decision to terminate the project.

The news came the same day it was disclosed that a second House panel also is examining Yucca Mountain and an unreleased federal safety report on the project.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., repeatedly has declared the project "dead."

FRIDAY

Prosecutor resigns

A Clark County prosecutor accused of possession of rock cocaine has resigned.

David Schubert, a low-key chief deputy district attorney who handled several high-profile drug prosecutions involving celebrities, was arrested March 19 and charged with possession of a controlled substance and conspiracy, both felonies.