They are the eyes, ears and last line of defense for our airways – we trust air traffic controllers with our lives. But people are quitting or retiring in record numbers, and at McCarran, officials say safety often takes a back seat to the bottom line.

The summer travel season is well underway at McCarran, but for the people with their eyes on the skies working up there is no vacation.

“There is a concern that we don't have the safety margin that we used to,” said Troy Verville. He works at the McCarran FAA control tower. It's his job to get planes safely to the ground. Verville says that's now in jeopardy.

“They're cutting costs with their staffing numbers, and it's essentially reflecting into our safety,” said Verville.

They – are the FAA. Verville and his air traffic controller union point out the stark reality of jobs versus safety.

“We work with a skeleton crew everyday,” he said.

According the FAA's own statistics, the number of operator errors, like near collisions and runway issues, spiked last year to five. So far for 2008, there have already been two.

But the number of controllers has slowly gone down since 2004. An I-Team investigation crunched the numbers of takeoffs and landings at McCarran for the past four years and found that with dwindling numbers and more flights, each air traffic controller is handling nearly 4,000 more operations per year than they used to.

“We don't have any concerns about the number of controllers we have right now,” said Ian Gregor with the FAA. He admits that staffing numbers are down.

The tower is approved for 35 to 43 controllers. The FAA tells us they have 33. The union says 26.

“Approach control” is approved for 43 to 53 controllers. They have 41. Both towers are below normal staffing levels. That means more work.

“The people who volunteer for overtime are working six day work weeks. Even the people that aren't on the volunteer list work at least one overtime day per pay period,” said Verville.

Gregor admits the problem is only going to get worse. “We project that we're going to lose most of our controller workforce to retirements over the next decade.”

The I-Team uncovered an operator error just this past week at McCarran. On July 6, a Cessna was cleared for takeoff on an east-west runway – at the same time, a 737 was also cleared on a north-south runway. If the controller wouldn't have caught the mistake, the planes would have collided.

“The controller was basically working three positions due to staffing levels. We didn't have enough controllers to open the other positions,” said Verville.

The FAA explains the incident this way. They say the planes were more than 6,000 feet apart at the time, and staffing levels had nothing to do with the error. They didn't mention the error even happened until we asked about it.

“We are operating safely and efficiently,” said Gregor.

Verville disagrees and says he will keep pushing for better pay, less overtime and more eyes on the skies. “The fewer bodies that we have, the more errors that we have.”

The FAA plans to install new lighted paths on McCarran's runways to make landings easier. And to encourage more people to become air traffic controllers in New York, they have started recruiting high schoolers with $100,000 signing bonuses.

Email your comments to Investigative Reporter Jonathan Humbert.

There were reports of heavy smoke in a storage room at Bally's Las Vegas on the 20th floor.

The fire started from an AC motor in the employee break room. Broken motor materials created heavy smoke. Clark County Fire called out a second alarm because the fire was in a hotel.

Firefighters started to evacuate the 18, 19, 20, and 21 floor, but once they realized it was an AC motor, they cancelled the evacuation. There were no injuries.

The fire is under control. Firefighters are working to determine a cause.

Eyewitness News will have more at 6.

Casino mogul Steve Wynn says hiring will begin Sunday for 5,300 positions at his new Encore resort on the Las Vegas Strip.

Wynn tells The Associated Press he sees good and bad in the current economic slump, which he thinks is affecting other hotels and casinos more than his high-end Wynn Las Vegas resort.

Company officials say hiring is going to be handled online.

Wynn figures employees at other places might be reluctant to leave jobs to start a new job with a probationary period at the $2.1 billion Encore.

But he also says people who've been laid off might be looking to find work at what he calls “a joint that's pretty stable.”

Encore, with 2,034 rooms, is due to open by the end of the year adjacent to the Wynn Las Vegas resort on the Las Vegas Strip.
   
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

Mandy Hagen, 28, is behind bars after police say she robbed a store, led police on a car chase, took a woman hostage and shot at officers.

It all happened Sunday morning at a Pet Smart store in Henderson. Hagen robbed the store and fled in a car. She refused to pull over and came to a stop at a gas station near Vegas Valley and Nellis.

Police say she took a 70-year-old woman hostage. Officers were able to physically take down Hagen without hurting the hostage.

One of the parents accused of leaving eight children inside a hot van has been released from the Clark County Detention Center. The children were not hurt, but Metro arrested Sharon and Billy McGruder.

Sharon McGruder was released on her own recognizance just after 1:30 Friday afternoon.

McGruder walked out the back door of the jail, escorted by two friends. She covered her face and declined an interview.

Sharon and her husband Billy McGruder were arrested for child endangerment on Tuesday. Police say the couple left their eight young children and two dogs in their van while they shopped at Cricket Wireless and Vons.

The children were checked and found to be okay. They were left in the van for 11 minutes — the temperature that day read 110 degrees outside.

A witness nearby saw the children and called police.

Eyewitness News was told Billy McGruder will be transferred to the Henderson jail to serve out his outstanding warrants.

The children are with Child Protective Services. The two dogs are in the care of Animal Control.

Email your comments to Reporter Janet O.

The Regional Transportation Commission outlined a plan Thursday to improve and speed up bus service around the city. The idea is to capitalize on a spike in ridership since gas prices reached $4 a gallon.

There are new planned express transit stops – most of them two miles from where we live in the valley. Anyone can park for free at the stop and then take an express bus into what they call the core of the valley.

The numbers are staggering. From January until today, there have been one million more riders on public transportation than the same time last year. The RTC believes by adding express transit service from the edges of the valley, even more people will take advantage of public transportation.

How long it takes to get anywhere on the bus is the number one complaint according to the Regional Transportation Commission. So we decided to see exactly how long it would take from the Northwest to Downtown. The journey began at 10:40 a.m. on a bus at Ann Road and Tenaya.

This line goes from the northwest to the downtown transfer station. Ashton Howard takes it every day to work at Wynn Las Vegas.

“I kind of rode it sparingly prior to $4 a gallon — $4 a gallon was my mark,” he said.

The savings for Howard outweighs what can be a grueling bus trip. Today there was not much traffic. It took about 14 minutes to get to Cheyenne and Rancho. The bus stopped about every block down Rancho.

This is where we really started to see more passengers get on. At the light at Lake Mead, it has taken about 24 minutes on the bus. The proposed express transit service would by-pass the local roads using the highway to speed past this stop and go trip.

“For it to take even a shorter amount of time, it would be great,” said Howard.

The bus is right on schedule – approaching Martin Luther King on Bonanza. It has been about 40 minutes. In a car it would half that. The trip is almost over — with a few more stops before the final destination.

It has taken about 50 minutes to get downtown — 13 miles. The bus stopped more than a dozen times, taking on passengers and letting passengers off. The RTC wants to cut this trip down. The new express bus service is designed to do that.

Cutting down trip times from where people live to where most people work is a direct response to the research. The first express bus service will start in the fall of 2009. The buses will use the HOV lane on 95.

The rest of the stops will be created over the next several years.

Email your comments to Reporter Edward Lawrence.

Bail was set at half a million dollars Thursday morning for the man who crashed his truck into a bus stop — killing a woman.

If Stephen Murray gets out on bail, he'll be on house arrest and will have to wear an electronic monitoring device to make sure he doesn't go anywhere.

Eyewitness News learned in court that 44-year-old Stephen Murray has had his driver's license suspended seven times. The judge wants to make sure that doesn't happen again. Because this time while he was behind the wheel someone died.

Robin Wynkoop's mother, Patricia Hoff, was killed on Monday. “She was all I had out here, that was my family. I don't have that to go home to. He gets to call home and talk to them. The only thing I have left of her is on my message to call her at work right before she died, and that was on Sunday night.”

She cried in court while she waited to see Stephen Murray — the man accused of crashing into the bus stop where her mom was waiting.

According to police he admitted to using valium, oxycontin and percocet. Attorneys argued over bail for Murray — the prosecutor pointed out that he has had four DUI's in Texas, one a felony DUI. But blood tests for the presence of drugs are not done and neither is the criminal complaint, so the judge ordered the half million dollar bail.

“Mr. Murray presents a danger to society based upon his history and that he may very well constitute a flight risk,” said Judge Karen Bennett-Haron.

“I just don't think he should be out on bail. This has happened more than once. I know how house arrest works. He can still get in a car, he can still be out on the street. He can still sit at home with his family,” said Wynkoop.

She says she blames his family for letting him out on the road. Murray faces 25 years to life if convicted under the new vehicular manslaughter law.

The prosecution is taking a while to get together the criminal complaint together. Apparently testing for those kinds of drugs can take up to 30 days. The prosecutor has asked to expedite the tests, but they still won't be ready until Tuesday and the D.A. doesn't feel comfortable filing the vehicular manslaughter charges until that's complete.

Email your comments to Reporter Ky Plaskon.

Eyewitness News now knows the name of one of the parents accused of leaving seven children locked in a hot van. Her name is Sharon McGruder.

She and the children's father could face seven felony charges each for each of the children left in harms way. The children and two dogs were locked in the van in the valley's sweltering heat while the parents were shopping.

Eyewitness News was the only crew there to capture police officers getting the children out of the van.

Eyewitnesses say the parents were shopping in two stores near Maryland Parkway and Tropicana.

Delivery driver Jay Wahaab saw the whole thing unfold in front of him. “The cop car pulled up behind the van and got the guy out of the van and put him in handcuffs. The lady came running through the parking lot. She had grocery and diapers under her arms. The cops told her to drop it and put handcuffs on her,” said Wahaab.

The children were checked out by paramedics and will be okay. They are now in the care of relatives.

A woman who died waiting at a valley bus stop has been identified. Metro says 51-year-old was killed when a pick up crashed into a bus stop on Boulder Highway near Flamingo Monday.

Another woman 26-year-old Porshe Hughes was seriously injured in the crash. She's hospitalized at Sunrise Hospital in critical condition.

The driver — 44-year-old Steven Murray — was arrested and charges with felony DUI — death and felony DUI — substantial bodily harm. Murray is scheduled to make his first court appearance Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile a memorial is growing at the site of the crash. People are leaving flowers and well wishes for the victims and their families.

That bus stop crash has brought attention to just how close bus shelters are to the street. Many riders say vehicles are getting too close, putting their lives in jeopardy.

Monday's crash was the 25th time this year a vehicle has come into contact with a bus shelter. The Regional Transportation Commission says they have about 2000 bus stops all over the valley — many in need of some big changes.

Their best solution right now is to move the bus shelters back behind the sidewalk. Under new legislation, the RTC is able to place bus shelters on utility easements, which are usually set back from the sidewalk.

In the last year, they have moved 86 of these shelters back a few feet. Though it may not seem like much, the RTC says that extra space does help and will hopefully prevent another injury, giving pedestrians and drivers enough time to avoid each other. The RTC is working to get this done at shelters throughout Las Vegas.

“We need to work with the private or public property owner to get their permission to move this onto their property or we can use the law in our favor. We don't want to force things. We want to work as cooperatively as possible,” said Jacob Snow of RTC.

You may have noticed some bus turn-outs around town. That keeps bus shelters away from moving traffic and gives buses their own lanes.

The RTC says those are ideal but not always feasible. Even though you'll see them in new parts of town, retro-fitting older parts of Las Vegas would require buying land from private property owners — which can be very expensive.

For now, the RTC says they are working to push back most of the shelters. They're are also designing some new shelters that would provide more shade. They hope to have those up by the end of the year.

Email your comments to Reporter Melissa Duran.

The Utah man accused of failing to report that deadly ricin was being made in his basement is working out a plea bargain with federal prosecutors.

A federal judge postponed a Monday trial for Thomas Tholen, 54, after his defense attorney filed court papers saying a plea agreement was at hand.

Tholen faces on a felony count of knowing about a crime but failing to report it. His cousin, Roger Bergendorff of Las Vegas, is accused of cooking up the ricin in the basement of Tholen's house in the Salt Lake City suburb of Riverton.

A trial for the 57-year-old Bergendorff - charged with possession of a biological toxin and weapons violations — also has been postponed. His lawyer says there have been talks about a plea bargain.

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