Doris French Elementary School is celebrating an important milestone — its 30th birthday. A lot has changed at the campus. For one thing, it used to be on the outskirts of town but is now an inner-city school with big city challenges.

Back in 1978, when Doris French first opened its doors — Jimmy Carter was the president, the average price of a new home was about $50,000, and gas cost only $.65 a gallon. But what hasn't changed is that Doris French is still an amazing school.

To get a sense of how much has changed in the past 30 years, Eyewitness News spent the morning with second-grade teacher Pam Monaco — who's been at Doris French Elementary since the day the school opened in 1978.

“There were no houses around here, it was just a dirt road on Hacienda,” said Mrs. Monaco.

Mrs. Monaco says the biggest change has been in technology — remember those purple ditto machines?

“You'd get it all over your clothes and hands, and you could always tell where all the teachers had been that day because of all the purple hand prints. Now we have copiers.”

And telephones, TVs, CD and DVD players and computers — right in the classroom. But in those 30 years — not all changes have been positive. Monaco says she's noticed the rising obesity rates and violence among students.

Last year, six weapons were confiscated from students and 17 violent acts resulted in discipline at the school, which is why school principal Amy Graham says Doris French emphasizes the importance of a bully-free environment.

“This visual helps kids remember that there are many ways to resolve conflict,” said Principal Graham.

“We really love each other and respect each other and that comes through to our students,” said Mrs. Monaco. “We're a family here.”

Which explains why so many of Mrs. Monaco's students call her Mrs. Mom-aco. “I'd have to say that when I became a parent, I became the best teacher I could be,” said Mrs. Monaco. “I teach from my heart. I am their mother, their counselor and their nurse.”

Monaco believes teaching is what she was born to do — and the fact she's chosen to teach for 30 years at the same school says a lot about her and Doris French Elementary.

“If you're in it for the money, then you're in the wrong occupation. It's all about the kids and their families,” said Mrs. Monaco.

Doris French has also achieved the rare exemplary designation under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The school is hosting a 30th birthday party celebration there from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday night on campus — the community is welcomed.

Email your comments to Reporter Alyson McCarthy.

 

The head of the biggest gaming company on the Strip says he’s in a fight to the finish with the teachers union. MGM-Mirage chairman and CEO Terry Lanni came out swinging Tuesday against the teachers proposal to boost the gaming tax, in order to pump more money into education.

Lanni sat down Las Vegas One’s Jeff Gillan. What has Terry Lanni and the rest of the gaming establishment seething is the teachers union proposal to boost the tax from 6.75, to 9.75-percent. That amounts to a 44-percent tax hike.

Lanni isn’t pleading poverty. But he does say the hike would cost MGM-Mirage around $90 million a year. Lanni calls it a “tax grab” and says that’s money that could go to hire more workers.

“We don’t make billions of dollars as a company. In 2006, we had a $648 million after-tax profit. In ‘07, it was much higher because we had a significant profit from the 50-percent sale of CityCenter. If you go back to comparative figures, it was about $700 million, if you exclude the profit in ‘07 from that,” he said.

“If you raise that tax $90 million, you’re going to have a lot less income. It’s a significant factor on the overall income of our company. And $90 million at $38,000 per person, the average salary equates to about 2,000 plus positions in value,” said Lanni.

The teachers union says the extra money would boost teacher salaries and be used to improve student performance. Lanni says the initiative comes with little accountability, but the teachers union says that’s not true. It says the measure requires school districts to account for every dollar.

Asked if there’s any room for compromise with the teachers union, Lanni said his focus right now is defeating the proposed initiative.

That initiative is facing two hurdles — teachers have to gather more than 58,000 signatures by May 20 to get it on the ballot, and they have to prevail at the Nevada Supreme Court, which is hearing an appeal by gaming on July 1.

Las Vegas is part of a six city tour highlighting the efforts to repeal, “Don't Ask, Don't Tell.” Right now, there are close to 7,000 gay and lesbian former or active service members in the Las Vegas area.

For the first time in 15 years, lawmakers are once again faced with the issue. James Davis was in the Air Force for 20 years. He served in Operation Desert Storm, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, fighting along other service men and woman.

James Davis is gay and now fighting another front — the fight for equality. The walls of James Davis' law office tell the story of this decorated war veteran. His last mission – Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“We told pilots where to drop their bombs and when they had authority to drop their bombs,” said Davis.

This former Air Force captain joined the military following in his father footsteps, a decorated general. But the military's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy kept him isolated.

“It doesn't allow you to live your life openly. If you tell your commander you are gay, you can be discharged,” said Davis.

Davis says when this happens, service men and women are given a form that by law they must present to future employers.

“And on the bottom of the form, it will say honorably discharged – homosexual,” said Davis.

Aubrey Sarvis is with the Service Members Legal Defense Network; a group who offers free legal service to active gay and lesbian military members.

“You have a key player here in the debate, and that's majority leader Harry Reid, and also Shelly Berkley. She is a co-sponsor of the bill to repeal “Don't Ask, Don't Tell,” said Sarvis.

But Davis says this is one battle that gay men and women in the service shouldn't have to fight.

“When we got called to duty and go to war – when we got called into combat, that's what we focus on and do our job. It doesn't matter who we wake up with,” said Davis.

And this is why Davis wants service members to have to stop living in two worlds while fighting for one country. A bill to repeal the policy is now working its way through Congress. Hearings are expected later this year.

Tuesday evening at the Gay and Lesbian Center, a town hall meeting is taking place to help gather support for the repeal here in Southern Nevada.

Email your comments to Reporter Chris Saldana.

A Utah man charged with a federal crime in a case involving ricin has pleaded not guilty. Thomas Tholen of Riverton made his first appearance in federal court Tuesday since he was indicted April 3. 

Authorities say the 54-year-old Tholen knew that ricin, a dangerous biological agent, was being produced by his cousin but failed to report it. He's charged with misprision of a felony.

The cousin, Roger Bergendorff, is charged in Las Vegas with possessing a biological toxin. He was in a hospital for two months after authorities suspect he was poisoned by ricin.

Federal agents say vials containing about 4 grams of “crude” powdered ricin were found in Bergendorff's Las Vegas motel room.  

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

A construction worker died over the weekend at Project CityCenter. He's been identified as 47-year-old Mark Wescoat.

The fire department says Wescoat fell about 20 feet early Saturday morning.

He was taken to UMC where he later died.

There's a new causality emerging in the massive plague of home foreclosures in Las Vegas — the pets. It seems that when families or renters are kicked out because the home goes into foreclosure, they are leaving their pets behind.

You walk down any street in Las Vegas and you are likely to see a 'for sale' sign. In many cases, the home is in foreclosure. A closer look at the empty house and you may hear the sounds of pets left behind to fend for themselves.

About 40-percent of dogs with Las Vegas rescue groups are foreclosure causalities.

Vegas K9 Rescue

It's hard to imagine anyone could abandon the precious faces, but it's happening every day in Las Vegas. It happened to both Blue and Princess Sara. Blue is the larger Weimaraner –Princess Sara is the small one. Both were causalities of the home foreclosure crisis in Las Vegas.

Jocelyn Arter, Weimaraner Rescue president said, ”The banks come and put a lock on the door. The dogs are stuck in the home, and the families have to flee. They cannot get their dogs back unfortunately.”

In other cases, a family will just leave the pet behind when they leave the house. Princess Sara was found abandoned in the backyard of her foreclosed home — locked in – without food or water.

“Right here, you could actually put your hand like this around her. She was that skinny. It was terrible,” said Arter.

For one month, she lived off the generosity of neighbors. They threw food and water over the fence.

“A neighbor had called animal control several times and was unable to get anyone to come out. She was very anorexic,” said Arter.

Finally, they called the rescue organization and Arter placed the Weimaraner with Ronna, a doggie foster mom. “It's taken a terrific toll because the dogs mourn the loss of their family,” said Ronna.

She is nursing Princess Sara back to health. She also helped with Blue, whose family lost their house and could not afford him any longer.

“I just give them lots of hugs, kisses, let them get up on the sofa with me and cuddle,” said Ronna.

“The sad part is not everybody is aware of the situation or are just so busy with their lives right now or so stressed out they don't even know that it is going on,” said Arter.

But it is. And the victim cannot speak up to say help me.

So Saturday, dog rescue groups all over the valley will hold a donation drive. It will be at the southeastern corner of Tropicana and Eastern from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. There will also be a cat adoption there, then a dog adoption May 3.

Email your comments to Reporter Edward Lawrence.

The federal government has finally found a buyer for the Crazy Horse Too strip club here in Las Vegas. The U.S. Marshals have refused to identify the buyers, but it's rumored that two South Carolina men paid $30 million for the club.

The men submitted an application for a liquor license last week.

Federal marshals seized the Crazy Horse Too last year to recoup $17 million in fines and settlements related to former owner Rick Rizzolo's plea deal with federal authorities.

Rizzolo just finished serving his one year sentence on tax charges.

Casinos are adamantly opposed to a proposal that would raise their tax rate by three points. They've already launched a court fight. Now MGM-Mirage is trying another strategy.

I-Team political analyst Jon Ralston says president Terry Lanni sent a letter to company employees asking them not to sign the initiative petition.

The Nevada State Education Association needs signatures of more than 58,000 voters to put the issue on the ballot.

The NSEA says the tax increase would raise millions for education.

Lanni calls the effort deceptive and would seriously damage the gaming industry.

To read the letter, click here.

The ELEMENT Hotels will be requiring all hotels brand-wide to attain the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED certification.

With its first hotel debuting this summer and more than 20 hotels set to open by the end of 2009, they will be the first major hotel brand to commit to LEED certification.

The key green features include energy efficient stainless steel appliances and lighting, water-efficient facets and fixtures and bins for paper, plastic and glass which make recycling easy.

Guest rooms will have filtered water as well as dispensers in the showers to reduce plastic bottle waste.

The first hotel will be opening in Lexington, MA in July of 2008, with more hotels to follow in New York, Chicago, Orlando — and Las Vegas.

A fugitive wanted in several states has been arrested here in Las Vegas. Leslie Raymond, 38, was taken into custody Monday at Palace Station after a tip from someone who saw him on “America's Most Wanted.”

Authorities say he impersonated a priest and stole from hospital patients and employees.

Raymond was wanted in California, South Dakota, Texas and Iowa on charges of fraud, burglary and forgery.