Casino giant MGM Mirage Inc. said Tuesday its first-quarter profit fell 30 percent, weighed down by resort opening costs and the Monte Carlo's temporary closure after a fire that resulted in 17 minor injuries.

The Las Vegas-based company said earnings dropped to $118.3 million, or 40 cents per share, compared with $168.2 million, or 57 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

Revenues for the world's second-largest casino company slipped 3 percent, to $1.88 billion from $1.93 billion, and fell short of expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. They forecast net income of 43 cents per share on revenue of $1.9 billion.

MGM Mirage owns several Las Vegas Strip resorts including the Bellagio, Mirage and Mandalay Bay, and opened a joint venture, the MGM Grand Macau, in December in the Chinese gambling enclave. The report on earnings for the quarter ending March 31 was released before the market opened Tuesday. MGM Mirage stock was trading at $50.45, up $1.83 in premarket trading after closing Monday at $48.62.

The results were partially hurt by a Jan. 25 fire at MGM's Monte Carlo property. The three-alarm fire forced thousands to evacuate and damaged the facade of the 32-story building. The resort did not reopen until mid-February.

Monte Carlo profits were down $20 million, at $14 million compared with $34 million in the same quarter of 2007. The company said one in five rooms and suites remained out of service at the end of the quarter.

Company chief executive Terry Lanni said in a statement that the company's resorts were still attracting wealthy customers and generating cash despite a weak economy.

In April, MGM Mirage laid off more than 400 middle-level corporate and property managers. Company officials said at the time that no further cuts were planned unless the economy worsened. The company is constructing an $8.1 billion multi-casino and hotel complex on the Las Vegas Strip in late 2009. The CityCenter project — which is expected to include six high-rise towers and 6,300 rooms is — a partnership with Dubai's government investment fund, Dubai World.

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

The case against a father accused of murdering his own 12 year old daughter will go to a trial. Monday just two witnesses took the stand in the preliminary hearing for William Redman.

William Redman sat in a daze in the courtroom. His defense attorney says he was heavily medicated by the jail doctor. As he sat with the blank stare, two eyewitnesses described a horrific murder scene.

The RV park manager where the Redmans lived was the first non-family member to see 12-year-old Gloria Redman. “She was half in the kitchen, half in the living room. He was sitting besides her cross legged. There was blood everywhere,” said Mary Schlenkrich.

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She told the judge Redman was a bad father, but she did not consider him a violent man. Police say at 11:50 a.m. on March 12, something snapped. The first paramedic on the scene examined Gloria, then treated Redman for cuts on his neck and arms. He was very talkative.

“The defendant looked at me and said, 'Oh I did it. I did it,' ” said Debra Dailey. She says she kept treating him, and he kept talking.

“He had seen God and that he had talked to God,” said Dailey. Dailey says Redman went on to describe the motive for the murder. She says Redman asked them not to move Gloria's body for three days.

“He had only said that this is God's way. He did not elaborate, and we did not ask,” she said.

Redman's attorney laid the groundwork for an insanity defense. The case will go forward.

Redman will be back in court on May 20 to enter his plea.

Email your comments to Reporter Edward Lawrence.

An unemployed graphic designer who spent two months in a hospital with symptoms of ricin poisoning pleaded not guilty Friday to federal possession of biological toxin and weapons charges.

Roger Bergendorff, 57, remained seated in a wheelchair and spoke only to answer U.S. District Magistrate Lawrence Leavitt, who asked if Bergendorff understood the charges in a three-count indictment handed up April 22.

“Yes,” Bergendorff responded in a raspy voice.

Leavitt also asked Bergendorff's lawyer, Paul Riddle, a deputy federal public defender, if Bergendorff was competent to help in his defense. Riddle said he was.

The judge set trial for June 17 in federal court in Las Vegas. The charges carry a possible penalty of 30 years in prison and a $750,000 fine.

Authorities say the case doesn't have any ties to terrorism, but that Bergendorff admitted keeping ricin for protection against unspecified personal enemies.

Bergendorff, dressed in tan jail scrubs and rubber slippers, declined to speak with a reporter before his brief arraignment. His lawyer declined comment afterward. Bail was not discussed, and Bergendorff remained in federal custody.

His cousin, Thomas Tholen, 54, of Riverton, Utah, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Salt Lake City to one felony count of knowing about a crime but failing to report it. Prosecutors say Tholen knew Bergendorff made ricin in Utah when he was staying with Tholen. If convicted, Tholen could get up to 3 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Bergendorff's demeanor Friday was more muted than during his initial hearing April 16, when he told another judge that he was not a criminal and never would have spread the toxin he is accused of possessing.

Authorities say about 4 grams of “crude” powdered ricin were found Feb. 28 in Bergendorff's extended-stay motel room several blocks off the Las Vegas Strip, along with illegal silencers for .22 caliber weapons.

Leavitt said the indictment contained a provision that would let the government confiscate the silencers.

Other items seized from the room included castor beans, two .25-caliber pistols, a .22-caliber rifle, a .22-caliber pistol and books with information about how to distill ricin from castor
beans, authorities said. 

Bergendorff was hospitalized at the time, unconscious in what police variously described as a coma and sedation. He had summoned an ambulance Feb. 14, complaining of breathing trouble. He also was treated for kidney failure. Because of the time lag, authorities have said they were unable to say for sure that his ailments stemmed from ricin exposure.

Cancer research is the only legal use for ricin, which can be lethal in minuscule amounts and has no antidote. Federal prosecutor Gregory Damm has said that he believed Bergendorff had enough of the substance to kill more than 500 people.

Investigators think Bergendorff first made ricin in San Diego in the late 1990s, and in the Reno and Salt Lake City areas before moving to Las Vegas. Police and homeland security officials said they found no ricin contamination in any place Bergendorff stayed.
  
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

Three months after an I-Team report involving alleged favoritism at the Clark County Business License department, the county has released the results of an internal investigation.

It began after a local business owner recorded a county employee apparently admitting some businesses were given preferential treatment.

I-Team reporter Mark Sayre first broke this story. The county says it did a top-to-bottom review of this particular case and the licensing process in general. The county's conclusion was that the licensing process has not been compromised.

Read a letter of the team's findings

But as you might imagine, the business owner who feels victimized by this process is not at all convinced.

Audiotape:
Derek Dubasik: “Put it this way — more than just the 40/40 club has been taken and processed about a month earlier than they would have been normally.”

Irma Aguirre: “So why?

Derek Dubasik: “Because I was asked to do it and I did it.”

An audiotape was captured in January inside an office at the Clark County Government Center.  Business owners George Harris and Irma Aguirre confronted then assistant manager of business license operations, Derek Dubasik.

They alleged Dubasik gave preferential treatment to the 40-40 club inside the Palazzo so it could open by New Year's Eve.

George Harris: “Did you put the 40/40 club — did you move their application up, yes or no?”

Derek Dubasik: “I personally did that myself.”

George Harris: “Under what authority, under what authority?

Derek Dubasik: “Under direction that I have received, under lawful authority that is all that I am saying.”

“The tape was an unauthorized taping of a conversation,” said Jacqueline Holloway, director of business license.

In an interview with the I-team in January, the county's director of business license made this promise.

“As a result of this, in order to alleviate any concerns that the community may have, we have put together a quality assurance review team. That means that we are going back to look at the process review all of the items to make sure that everything has been done appropriately,” said Holloway.

In a letter to the I-Team, Holloway says the review is now complete. ”The licensing process has 'not been compromised.'”

Eyewitness News showed the letter to George Harris whose Mexican restaurant called “La Madonna” now has its county business and liquor licenses and is open for business.

“For them to make a statement that the licensing process has not been compromised when the manager of that department said 'I was told to move someone in front of you' is a blatant lie! Harris said.

Harris says he lost $30,000 because he could not get a temporary license to open his business. While the letter does not specifically mention Harris' case, it does say even a “temporary” license can take up to 120 days to process.

“Well that's just not true. Because prior to this — this quote, unquote 'backup' — you could get a temporary license is a week-and-a-half to two weeks. So that is absolutely just blatantly false,” he said.

The business license department says new procedures are now in place to cut in half the time its takes to enter application information into a database and it will try to get more staff. Harris is not still not convinced.

“The culture hasn't changed. And that's the problem. This is going to take a cultural change. It's going to take these business to stand up to say, look, 'this isn't right.' Harris said.

As for Derek Dubasik, the employee caught on tape, he was placed on administrative leave immediately after this incident. As of March 25th, county officials say Dubasik was transferred to the county coroner's office.

His pay remains unchanged at just under $94,000 a year. Eyewitness News did reach Dubasik on the phone and he characterized his transfer to the coroner's office as “voluntary.”

Casino operator Wynn Resorts says its first-quarter profit fell 20 percent on an increase in operating costs.

The Las Vegas-based company says it earned $46.7 million, or 41 cents per share, compared with $58.4 million, or 54 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding items, Wynn says its income was 69 cents per share, compared with 67 cents per share in last year's first quarter.

Sales were up to $778.7 million from $635.3 million Analysts expected earnings of 70 cents per share on sales of $734.4 million.

Wynn says the revenue increase was primarily driven by sales at its Wynn Macau property. The company says operating costs rose 30 percent to $688.1 million.

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

The final table of the 2008 World Series of Poker will be played in November, four months after the nine players in the no-limit Texas Hold 'em game win their spots, organizers said Thursday.  

Organizers also plan to televise final table play the same day the winner is crowned. The changes are intended to heighten suspense and promotional hype of the world's best known and richest poker tournament.

In past years, the final table was played at the end of a two-week, $10,000 buy-in main event held in July at the Rio hotel-casino in Las Vegas.

The winner was reported immediately, but the tournament's TV partner, ESPN, did not air the final table until the fall.

The 39th annual World Series of Poker main event is scheduled to begin July 3, with the field whittled down to the final nine players on July 14.

The final table will begin Nov. 9 and likely award the championship bracelet in the early morning hours of Nov. 11. ESPN will air the final table competition at 9 p.m. EST on Nov. 11.

“I think the goal is to create a greater sense of anticipation for the outcome of our final table. We want people, as many people as possible around the world, talking about who's going to win,” said Jeffery Pollack, the tournament commissioner.

Organizers said they expect the nine final players to use the four-month break to secure sponsorships, study their opponents and capitalize on the publicity.

“Instead of being just one star who emerges from our main event, there will be nine stars,” Pollack said.

ESPN will air World Series of Poker programming Tuesdays from July 22 through Nov. 11, including a preview of the final game on Nov. 4.

California psychologist Jerry Yang won the 2007 World Series of Poker main event, taking home a $8.25 million payday after topping a field of 6,358 players. Besides the main event, last year's poker tournament featured 54 other events, including a $50,000 buy-in HORSE event.
   
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)