Saturday, July 1, 2000 | 3:36 a.m.
1946 -- Hank and Barbara Greenspun arrive in Las Vegas. He starts printing Las Vegas Life (5 cents a copy) to cover the city's growing entertainment scene. A "Fabulous Flamingo" Hotel ad graces the back cover. That leads to a job as publicist for Benjamin Siegel's struggling hotel. Hank buys part interest in radio station KRAM.
June 29, 1947 -- Flamingo owner Siegel is slain in Beverly Hills. Hank quits his public relations post.
1948 -- Hank Greenspun plunders an inactive naval depot in Hawaii for its surplus WWII weapons. He seizes a private yacht at gunpoint near Wilmington, Calif., and poses in Mexico as a confidential agent of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Chinese government. He ultimately delivers 6,000 tons of weapons and ammunition to Israel, which was fighting for its independence.
1949 -- The Las Vegas Evening Review is bought by Donald W. Reynolds. It then becomes the Review-Journal. He installs new equipment, eliminating jobs. The pressmen, locked out by the publisher, start their own tri-weekly, the Las Vegas Free Press.
1950 -- The Desert Inn finally opens. Hank, doing its publicity, divests his minority ownership and quits when founder Wilbur Clark is pushed aside by the new owners led by Las Vegas power broker and underworld figure Moe Dalitz. Hank borrows $1,000 and puts it down toward the $104,000 purchase of the Free Press.
June 21, 1950 -- Hank publishes the first edition of the Free Press.
July 1, 1950 -- The Free Press is renamed. It becomes the Las Vegas Morning Sun. It goes from publishing three days a week to five days a week and eventually six days a week. The column, "Where I Stand" makes its Sun debut, with Hank welcoming readers to his new paper. The column becomes a staple of the Sun and continues to this day.
July 10, 1950 -- Hank pleads guilty to violating the federal Neutrality Act. He holds off his plea in a Los Angeles courtroom until afternoon, so the Review-Journal cannot get the story first. He is fined $10,000 and loses the right to vote.
Nov. 15, 1950 -- Sen. Estes Kefauver of Tennessee opens a five-month probe of organized crime in Nevada and California, with hearings in Las Vegas.
Jan. 27, 1951 -- Nevada Test Site conducts its first nuclear test, code-named "Able." The atomic bomb was dropped from a plane over the Test Site's Frenchman Flat. It packed a nuclear punch of 10 kilotons, the equivalent of 10,000 tons of TNT. The Hiroshima bomb yielded 13 kilotons. Until the dangers of radioactivity became understood, blasts were quite the spectator sport in Las Vegas. A favorite place to watch was from Angel's Peak in the Spring Mountains, north of Mount Charleston.
1951 -- The Sun starts opposing the political clout of Sen. Pat McCarran, D-Nev. The first feud is over an immigration reform bill. The feud continues until the senator's death in 1954.
1952 -- The paper is renamed the Las Vegas Sun. Showing its trademark backbone, the Sun backs an unknown U.S. Senate candidate, Thomas B. Mechling, in the primary against McCarran's pick, two-term Nevada Attorney General Alan Bible. Bible loses by 475 votes, and incumbent Sen. George "Molly" Malone beats Mechling in the general election.
October 1952 -- McCarran sends Sen. Joe McCarthy, R-Wis., to Las Vegas to bait Hank Greenspun. In a public speech, McCarthy calls Hank an "ex-communist." He refers to the Sun as "The Daily Worker." Hank chases him off the podium.
March 24, 1953 -- At the obvious urging of Nevada political kingpin McCarran, 12 hotels and casinos cancel ads with the Sun. The Showboat refuses to join the ad boycott. In appreciation, Hank runs a one-column Showboat ad at the bottom of Page 1 until the Sun's redesign in the 1970s.
1954 -- With other investors, Hank starts KLAS Channel 8, the city's first commercial TV station.
February 1954 - The Sun begins a seven-part series titled, "Is Senator McCarthy a Secret Communist?" The U.S. postmaster general is asked to yank the Sun's second-class mailing permit. Hank is indicted for "tending to incite murder or assassination" of McCarthy. Later in the year he is acquitted.
April 28, 1954 -- Federal agents raid Roxie's, a bordello off Boulder Highway. Later, during a sheriff's raid, some of the prostitutes shield themselves from photographers using Sun newspapers bannering the federal raid. A photo of prostitutes using the Sun -- with its headline (ital)Roxie's Raided(end ital) -- to cover themselves becomes famous. Hank later charges Sheriff Glen Jones with having a financial interest in Roxie's. The sheriff sues. (See August 1955.)
Sept. 28, 1954 -- Sen. McCarran drops dead at a Democratic rally in Hawthorne. Three months later Alan Bible, winning election in November, takes a U.S. Senate seat just after the Senate censures McCarthy.
July 1955 -- Attorney George Franklin, accused by the Sun of running a baby-selling business, sues Hank for libel. A jury finds in Franklin's favor and awards the attorney $80,000. The story, nevertheless, leads to reforms in state adoption procedures.
1955 -- The Riviera Hotel opens. At nine stories, it is the tallest building in town.
August 1955 -- This month's issue of "True" magazine ("The Man's Magazine") sports a cover story about Hank Greenspun's hiring of a New York investigator (Pierre LaFitte) in August 1954. LaFitte posed in Las Vegas as "Louis Tabet" while flashing cash and meeting with crooked power brokers. The story recounts how Tabet pulled off a sting operation centered around Roxie's brothel and how the Sun scored one bombshell story after another as the result. Among the stories: Proof is obtained of Sheriff Glen Jones' kickback scheme at Roxie's; Jones loses his libel suit against Greenspun. Written by James Phelan and headlined "The man who took Las Vegas," the story in True says Greenspun's hiring of the investigator "rocked Las Vegas and the entire state of Nevada like an A-bomb set off at Yucca Flat."
Fall 1955 -- The Sun starts its annual Youth Forum, in which high school students debate world, national and local issues. Their comments are published over year-end holidays. Attendees over the years include future U.S. senators, governors, and others who become prominent.
May 1956 -- Fremont Hotel opens in downtown Las Vegas, and with 12 stories becomes the area's tallest building.
1959 -- The Sun is sued by Sunrise Hospital over a story on construction code violations. The suit is ultimately not pursued.
1960 -- Blacks threaten sit-ins at Strip hotels unless the hotels agree to accept them as guests. An accord -- arranged by Hank, Gov. Grant Sawyer and local NAACP officials -- ends Las Vegas' reputation as "the Mississippi of the West."
June 17, 1960 -- The El Rancho Vegas, at the corner of Sahara Avenue and the Strip, burns. Sun photographer Ken Jones and his son provide early-morning photographs.
Oct. 18, 1961 -- President John F. Kennedy pardons Hank on his July 10, 1950, conviction of violating the federal Neutrality Act, in connection with helping to supply arms to Israel. Hank regains his civil rights, including the right to vote. Also this day, housing developer and New York Yankees owner Del Webb buys the Mint Casino in downtown Las Vegas. Webb adds a 24-story tower, making it the tallest building in Nevada.
1962 -- Hank runs for governor, losing in the GOP primary to retail store owner Oran Gragson, who loses in the general election to Democrat Grant Sawyer, who serves a second term.
Nov. 20, 1963 -- The Sun building at 900 S. Main St. burns. The Review-Journal helps out the first few days with printing, but charges Hank overtime wages. Hank arranges to have the paper printed in California and flown in. He calls it "the longest paper route in the world."
Nov. 22, 1963 -- President Kennedy is slain in Dallas. Despite the fire, the Sun has full coverage and never misses an edition.
1965 -- New presses are installed at the Sun building on South Highland Drive.
Nov. 19, 1965 -- In a cab's back seat on Fremont Street, Hank talks a suicidal gambler into surrendering his shotgun.
August 1966 -- The state holds casino skimming hearings in the wake of a Chicago newspaper's stories, based on leaks from the FBI. Among those grilled: The company that sold the Sun its newsroom desks. The Chicago paper reports $5 million a year from casinos is going to the mob. Gov. Sawyer goes to the White House to protest "a siege of the state of Nevada." He says federal wiretapping activities broke Nevada laws. Federal agents later admit in a Denver courtroom that they bugged telephones of Las Vegas casinos.
1966 -- Howard Hughes' arrival in Las Vegas is partly inspired by Hank's front-page editorial inviting him after Boston reporters hounded Hughes from his hotel there. Hughes goes on a casino-buying spree with money from the sale of his Trans World Airlines. Jay Sarno opens Caesars Palace.
1966 -- Steve Wynn becomes a 3 percent investor in the New Frontier hotel-casino, his first step in Nevada gaming. Another name change is in store for this hotel as groundbreaking begins at the site across from the Desert Inn. The hotel first opened in 1946 as the Last Frontier. Its name changed in 1955 to New Frontier. This latest groundbreaking results in a 1967 opening as the Frontier. The hotel becomes New Frontier again in February 1998 when Kansas industrialist Phil Ruffin buys it at the end of a six-year Culinary Union strike.
1967 -- Hughes buys the Frontier for $14 million. He now owns four properties -- the Frontier, the Desert Inn, the Sands and the Silver Slipper. He later buys Harold's Club in Reno and the Landmark and Castaways hotels in Las Vegas. Also this year, a federal grand jury in Los Angeles probes rigged gin rummy games at the exclusive Friars Club in Beverly Hills. The take: About $1 million. Victims included Hank, comedian Phil Silvers, singer Tony Martin and Debbie Reynolds' husband, Harry Karl. The guy doing the signals to the cheaters from overhead was mob ambassador Johnny Roselli, who years later was found stuffed in a barrel off Florida. The Sun newsroom staff moves from 900 S. Commerce to new quarters on South Highland, next to the presses installed in 1965.
1969 -- Kirk Kerkorian opens the International Hotel (now the Las Vegas Hilton), which was then the world's largest hotel. Barbara Streisand is the opening star and performs for four weeks. Elvis Presley then has a long run.
1970 -- The Sun starts its ongoing Camp Fund, so kids whose families can't afford it may go to summer camp.
1971 -- Hank prints a series of handwritten Hughes memos on Page 1, some detailing his plans for a super airport to replace McCarran International Airport. Hughes fires aide Robert Maheu.
1972 -- Watergate figures break into Hank's office, apparently hoping to find in his safe incriminating files against Democrats or hoping to recover documents incriminating President Nixon. They peel the front off the safe but are unsuccessful cracking it. Maheu sues Hughes for defamation of character. His award of $2.8 million is tempered when the IRS hits him for $3.2 million in back taxes.
October 1972 -- The Sun begins its transformation from "hot type," installing a "cold type" Pacesetter machine.
1974 -- A Sun series rips the silver certificate scheme of James Ray Houston's Western Pacific Gold and Silver Exchange. It costs investors $3 million. Houston this year runs for governor on the Independent American Party ticket. He finishes a distant third to incumbent Mike O'Callaghan, who received 68 percent of the vote. Houston is convicted in 1983 of mail fraud (unconnected with the Western Pacific case). In 1987 he moves to Atlanta, where he enters the telemarketing business.
1975 -- The Sun continues to make technological progress, installing an Alpha Super Scanner, which scans reporters' copy from electric typewriters and reproduces it on photographic paper, which is then cut up and pasted onto pages that in turn are burned onto plates for the press. The Sun's Linotype machines are sold and the paper enters the computer age when a Dymo computer is installed.
Aug. 30, 1975 -- The Sun publishes its 25th anniversary edition.
Feb. 19, 1976 -- Seven computer terminals for news and another one for classified ads are ready to make their debut, which is delayed when hurricane-force winds black out the city. Newsroom staffers wait out the storm and the computers are successful when the power comes back on.
Feb. 24, 1977 -- Culinary Local 226 boss Al Bramlet disappears. His body is found in the desert March 17. Local labor organizer Tom Hanley and his son, Andrew Gramby Hanley, were later convicted of Bramlet's murder and sentenced to life. Tom Hanley died in prison. Ben Schmoutey replaced Bramlet at Culinary.
1977 -- Northern Nevada brothel owner Joe Conforte sentenced to prison for tax invasion. Conforte flees to Brazil to avoid serving time. Texas jury finds against Schmoutey in a Nevada gold mine scam. Judgments require him to pay $125,000 to a group of Houston businessmen who were defrauded by Schmoutey and his partner, Louis Pihakis.
1978 -- The FBI serves 83 search warrants, some targeting Tony Spilotro, the reputed Chicago mob overseer in Las Vegas. Stardust executive Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal is also subpoenaed.
Sept. 1, 1978 -- Noted Las Vegas defense attorney Harry Claiborne is sworn in as a federal judge.
1979 -- Claiborne angers federal prosecutors by accusing them of going after "little fish" in a racketeering case. His comments escalate into a full-scale war between Nevada federal judges and the Justice Department, which quietly opens a criminal probe of Claiborne.
Nov. 30, 1979 -- New owners of Argent Corp. (which included the Fremont and Stardust hotels), take over after Argent President Allen Glick is fined $500,000 in a slot-skimming scheme. Slot machine coins from those hotels were trucked to the Marina Hotel, where the scales to weigh them were rigged.
Dec. 2, 1979 -- The Sun begins a long series titled, "The Sun Audits the IRS." Sun subscribers were offered free legal and reportorial aid if they were called in for a tax audit.
1980 -- Claiborne calls the Justice Department's Las Vegas Organized Crime Strike Force "rotten bastards" and "a bunch of crooks."
January 1980 -- Joe Yablonsky takes charge of the Las Vegas FBI office and escalates the investigation of Claiborne. Yablonsky seeks a deal with Conforte, a fugitive in Brazil at the time, to forgive millions in back taxes in return for his testimony that he had bribed Claiborne.
1980 -- James Ray Houston opens his Great Western Penny Exchange in Las Vegas, another stock scheme. Federal Judge Roger Foley, who must accept the jury's finding that Houston is innocent, calls Houston "a plain and simple crook" during a hearing in which the Securities and Exchange Commission requests that Houston be held in contempt of court.
Nov. 21, 1980 -- The MGM Grand at Flamingo Road and the Strip burns, killing 84 people and injuring more than 500. The resulting Sun series helped get fire codes rewritten nationally.
Feb. 10, 1981 -- An arson fire at the Las Vegas Hilton claims eight lives and damages 600 rooms.
July 4, 1981 -- On a tip from an FBI informant, the Hole in the Wall gang is arrested while breaking into Bertha's Home Furnishings on East Sahara Avenue. The gang of burglars, which included a former Metro Police detective, was run by Frank Cullotta, who reported directly to his childhood chum, Anthony Spilotro.
Summer 1981 -- Four men are convicted in Kansas City of skimming at the Tropicana Hotel.
1982 -- Sun wins top award from Nevada Press Association for seven-part series exposing Justice Department misconduct as it investigated Judge Claiborne. The series focused on the attempts to persuade Conforte to return to the country and accuse Claiborne of taking bribes and to disparage Gerald Swanson, the Nevada IRS director who was opposed to striking a deal with Conforte.
1981-83 -- Yablonsky, determined to break up Nevada's good old boy system, launches undercover political corruption investigation, dubbed "Operation Yobo." Investigation results in indictments of several prominent politicians, including then state Sen. Floyd Lamb, D-Las Vegas.
1982 -- Frank Cullotta becomes a federally protected witness after Anthony Spilotro ordered him killed. The FBI and state Gaming Control Board reach a "memorandum of understanding" on swapping information. The Sun installs a reconditioned press, bought from the Orlando Sentinel because its old press couldn't keep up with growing circulation.
Jan. 20, 1983 -- A former investment adviser to the Central States Health and Welfare Pension Fund of the Teamsters Union, Allen Dorfman, is gunned down in Chicago while awaiting sentencing for attempting to bribe Sen. Howard Cannon, D-Nev. The pension fund poured millions of dollars into building Las Vegas casinos, hospitals and golf courses from 1959 to the early 1970s. Syndicated Sun columnist Victor Riesel says the mob might have been worried Dorfman would spill the beans about Jimmy Hoffa's killers.
September 1983 -- A Kansas City indictment charges 15 men, including Spilotro, with seizing control of Argent Corp. from Glick and skimming $2 million from its casinos.
1984 -- Yablonsky calls Sen. Paul Laxalt, R-Nev., a former Nevada governor, "a tool of organized crime."
March 28, 1984 -- Trial begins for Claiborne in federal court in Reno. He is charged with filing false tax returns and taking bribes from Conforte. Judge Walter Hoffman orders a Sun newsrack outside the courthouse seized because of its "sensational headlines" about the trial. Hank had accused Hoffman of "kissing the pimp's (Conforte) backside" to obtain Conforte's testimony against Claiborne. Nevada Supreme Court Justice Elmer Gunderson testifies he was with Claiborne when Conforte's alleged bribe attempt was said to have occurred.
Aug. 11, 1984 -- After the first trial ended with a hung jury, Claiborne is convicted of filing false income tax returns. Conforte bribery charges were dropped before the start of this second trial.
Jan. 14, 1986 -- Trial begins for mobster Anthony Spilotro.
April 27, 1986 -- The U.S. House of Representatives votes to impeach Claiborne.
June 21, 1986 -- The bodies of Spilotro and his brother Michael are found in an Indiana cornfield. They were beaten to death, apparently because of Tony's high visibility in Las Vegas because of his legal problems.
Oct. 9, 1986 -- Following impeachment, the U.S. Senate convicts Claiborne of "high crimes and misdemeanors" stemming from his 1984 conviction for tax fraud. Claiborne is ordered removed from the bench and serves a two-year prison term.
February 1987 -- Sun breaks the story that Liberace is dying of AIDs. His handlers strongly deny the report and say the famed entertainer's weight loss is the result of a "watermelon diet." Ten days later, however, Liberace dies, and the Riverside County, Calif., coroner rules his death is the result of complications of AIDS. The story leads to a heightened AIDS awareness throughout the country.
1987 -- Masao Nangaku buys the Dunes Hotel and goes broke. Margaret Elardi, who bought the Silver Slipper from Hughes, buys the Dunes at a bankruptcy auction for $157 million. Her purchase of the Frontier Hotel is a prelude to one of the longest strikes (Culinary Union) in the nation's history.
May 22, 1987 -- The Sun reports federal court documents revealing that Arco plotted to eliminate its own franchise dealers by tripling and quadrupling rents and controlling gasoline prices so they could replace them with company-operated stations. That story and other Sun accounts of predatory practices by major oil companies inspires the Legislature to pass the gasoline divorcement law protecting small gasoline retailers.
1987 -- Ben Schmoutey and reputed crime figure Joey Cusumano are convicted of conspiracy to scam $315,000 from the life insurance fund of National Western Life Insurance Co. Cusumano is sentenced to four years in prison and fined $10,000. Schmoutey is sentenced to five years in prison.
Dec. 23, 1987 -- Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, D-La., singles out Yucca Mountain -- 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas -- as the only site in the nation for the Department of Energy to study for a high-level nuclear waste repository. He had slipped the legislation into a massive budget bill. Former Rep. James Bilbray, D-Nev., dubs it the "Screw Nevada Bill" because it sets a deadline of 1998 for a repository to be built and operating at Yucca. The Sun has covered Yucca Mountain from all perspectives for more than 15 years.
May 4, 1988 -- A series of explosions level Pacific Engineering and Production Co. of Nevada, a longtime Henderson chemical plant. Two people are killed and 300 injured. PEPCON, as it was known, produced ammonium perchlorate to boost the performance of rocket fuel.
May 18, 1988 -- The Nevada Supreme Court says former Judge Claiborne may resume his Nevada law practice. The justices criticize federal investigators and prosecutors for "questionable investigative and prosecutorial motivations, as well as anomalous and arguably unfair practices (which) pervade the record of this matter since its inception."
1988 -- The Horseshoe buys the adjoining Mint Hotel.
Aug. 10, 1988 -- Spectacular magnesium explosions at Titanium Metals Corp. send sparks and flames into the night sky over Henderson. Similar explosions occur again 10 years later, on Aug. 4, 1998.
July 22, 1989 -- Hank Greenspun dies.
July 31, 1989 -- In the true tradition of its late publisher, the Sun reports the existence of an aborted IRS bookmaking sting, dubbed "Project Layoff," that ended up costing taxpayers more than $600,000 without returning any indictments. A House IRS oversight committee launches an investigation into the failed sting, which had targeted underworld figures.
June 1990 -- The Sun discloses that Ron Hollis, acting chief of enforcement for the Gaming Control Board, stages a phony raid on the bookmaking operations of Matis Marcus. The raid is conducted to prevent the public from learning that Marcus was an informant for the board. Hollis is forced to resign, and a criminal investigation of the gaming agents who dealt with Marcus is launched. It later is learned that Marcus was the main informant in Project Layoff. A new series of congressional investigations take place.
June 30, 1990 -- The Sun is printed on its own presses for the last time. A federally approved Joint Operating Agreement under the Newspaper Preservation Act sees the Review-Journal take over the Sun's advertising, printing and circulation functions. The editorial departments remain separate and highly competitive, preserving Las Vegas as a two-newspaper town.
July 1, 1990 -- Under the JOA, the Review-Journal switches to morning publication and the Sun to afternoon.
1990-1993 -- UNLV is hit with internal strife over efforts by President Bob Maxson to force popular basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian to resign. In-depth, award-winning Sun reports include coverage of ultimate departures of Tarkanian and Maxson.
May 5, 1991 -- Pioneer Chlor Alkali spews a green cloud of noxious chlorine gas along Boulder Highway. Investigators discover that a rag got caught in a pipe in the Henderson plant.
Sept. 21, 1991 -- Claiming they were being shortchanged on health benefits and wages, workers at the Frontier begin what becomes one of the longest labor strikes in U.S. history. Strike lasts six years, four months and 10 days, ending Feb. 1, 1998. Sun plays major role in ending the strike with a series of stories exposing dirty tricks against the strikers on the part of Frontier management.
Oct. 16, 1991 -- Following a month-long libel trial, a District Court jury takes about four hours to find that the Sun did not defame Yellow-Checker Cab Co. owner Milton Schwartz in a series of mid-1980s columns and stories that led to city officials ordering him to remove a dangerous 30,000-gallon propane tank that was used to refuel taxis in a downtown area that was surrounded by businesses and residences.
1992 -- Kirk Kerkorian opens the world's largest hotel, the MGM Grand, with 5,000 rooms.
April 30, 1992 -- Riots break out in West Las Vegas in response to the verdict in the Rodney King trial. A Sun reporter is stitched up at University Medical Center, a photographer's car is totaled and another photographer's truck is hit with bullets as mayhem rules the night. Continuous coverage includes the valley-wide effort to reverse the long neglect of West Las Vegas.
May 9, 1993 -- Sun begins multiple award-winning "Community Threads" project, which extends through the year and offers in-depth looks at the "threads" holding the community together. Issues covered included transportation, health care and public safety.
July 27, 1993 -- Sun breaks story that Kevyn Wynn, daughter of Mirage Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn, was kidnapped the previous night from her Spanish Trail home. Kidnappers release her within hours, after receiving $1.5 million in ransom arranged through Mirage Resorts. Detailed reporting about the arrest of the suspects and their convictions continues for months.
August 1993 -- Reporting about a "House of Horrors" on Dunkirk Avenue leads to a two-year series called Neighborhood Nightmares. Series wins awards and leads to changes in building and neighborhood codes as well as enforcement procedures.
August 17, 1994 -- Sun breaks story that former top UNLV officials secretly gave basketball coach Rollie Massimino a supplemental contract guaranteeing him $375,000 a year over and above his $511,000 salary approved by the Board of Regents. Story leads to the coach's resignation.
April 2, 1995 -- The Sun begins a series calling into question a 20-year-old policy of holding individuals up to eight days in the Clark County Detention Center before they are able to see a judge for the first time. A federal judge in Las Vegas subsequently determines that the policy is unconstitutional and orders the county to release individuals if they are not brought before a judge within 48 hours of their arrests.
May 6, 1996 -- The Sun pulls onto the information super highway, launching its website.
Jan. 19, 1997 -- Sun begins a seven-part series on the Clark County Family Court system. Series leads to voluminous feedback from the public, legislative subcommittee hearings and proposed changes in state law.
Nov. 4, 1997 -- The Sun breaks a story about a state probe of the Harley L. Harmon Mortgage Co., in which hundreds of Las Vegans reported losing millions of dollars on questionable investments through the company run by a former state assemblyman. The newspaper writes follow-up stories that expose a virtually total lack of protection for consumers caught up in certain construction loan investments. The state Legislature subsequently passes laws that strengthen consumer protection in this area.
Nov. 30, 1997 -- The Sun begins a weeklong series on Clark County's child protective services system that exposes a severe lack of funds and staffing to care for abused and neglected children. The flaws include an unusual two-tiered government operation in which the county handles the front end of the system and then passes the child to the state's foster care system, creating gaping holes in the process. A special state legislative panel continues looking at issues first reported in the Sun series.
Sept. 17, 1998 -- Colorful gaming figure Ted Binion is found dead at his home. Sun reporting leads to murder charges against Binion's girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, and Murphy's lover, Rick Tabish. After extensive daily Sun coverage drawing international attention, Murphy and Tabish are convicted on May 19, 2000, of killing Binion and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years.
Nov. 15, 1998 -- The Sun writes a story about an effort to release Reginald Hayes of Las Vegas from prison, where he had been incarcerated for 13 years on a murder conviction. The newspaper performs additional research showing that a key prosecution witness against Hayes repeatedly changed her story. Hayes, who is black, also was brought before the all-white jury in shackles and had a judge who had a nervous breakdown in the middle of the trial. Hayes, who professed his innocence, had also cooperated with police at the crime scene, a fact that was downplayed during his trial. Within a week of the story a Clark County district judge released Hayes from prison, and he was pardoned by the state last year.
May 16, 1999 -- Sun begins seven-part series titled "Story of a Fourth Grade Class." Series wins state and national awards.
June 3, 1999 -- Sun reporters converge on scene of random shooting at an Albertson's grocery store. Four people are killed and one is wounded. Zane Floyd, a 23-year-old bar bouncer, is charged with the crime.
July 8, 1999 -- Sustained, heavy rains cause severe flooding, causing $20.5 million worth of property damage. Southern Nevada is declared a disaster area by President Clinton.
March 27, 2000 -- Sun announces plans to move to new headquarters in Green Valley by the end of this year.
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