Another worker is recovering after being injured on a construction site. This accident comes just as new numbers were released showing that, nationwide at least, the number of people killed on the job is at a historic low.

Despite that, falls on the job are at a record high — more than 800 people were killed last year in the U.S.

Construction accidents here in the valley have claimed 17 lives in the last 12 months. Wednesday morning, part of an air conditioning unit fell on a construction worker at CityCenter. It weighed 200 to 300 pounds. Fortunately, the man was not seriously hurt.

Meantime, workers are training to avoid becoming a statistic.

Erin Sparks is getting strapped in to his harness at this worker safety training program. His job in entertainment lighting takes him to high places, and Sparks takes safety seriously.

Patti Redd is owner of Desert Specialty Rigging Supply, “Be very careful and avoid swing fall so you control your rescue.”

Her lessons for those who work in extreme heights can mean the difference between life and death, “If you don't have the training, you don't have the knowledge and the base. You're a disaster looking to happen, and that's why there's rules and regulations out there.”

Rickey Evanoff calls himself the “Extreme Window Maintenance Technician.” He spends eight hours a day sky high above the Strip washing windows, “First thing, safety. Always make sure you're tied off correctly. Can't afford a mistake in this game.”

With the number of fatal falls on the job at record levels, and construction accidents in the valley killing 17 the last year, workers like Mark Kline know the more people trained, the safer sites are.

“If you're not properly trained and you go up to a height, you have no idea what you're getting into,” he said.

Kline says some workers take shortcuts, “It slows down a guy ten seconds, 15 seconds.”

But the proper training may be a life saver for a dangerous job.

“We want to see them come home. At the end of the day, we want to see everybody's smiling face,” said Redd.

Overall, construction continued to have the most deaths of any private sector industry with just over 1,100 nationwide last year alone. According to the government study, structural iron and steel workers have the fourth most dangerous job in the country.

Email your comments to Reporter Aaron Drawhorn

A 16-year-old driver is dead and a passenger ran away after a deadly crash early this morning in southeast Las Vegas.

Police say the dead teen was killed when he was thrown from a Toyota 4-Runner that ran a red light just after midnight at Eastern and Reno avenues. The driver of a Ford pickup truck says he didn't have time to stop before the crash.

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

One day of negotiations solved a year-and-a-half old problem at the Tropicana. The Culinary Union and the property met Wednesday and were able to agree on a contract.

About 750 workers at the Tropicana had been operating under an extended contract since May 31, 2007.

Casino workers will vote on the tentative agreement Friday.

Culinary president D Taylor will talk about the negotiations Thursday on “Face-to-Face with Jon Ralston.” That's on our sister station, Las Vegas ONE, Channel 19.

The only remaining co-defendant with O.J. Simpson is making a last ditch effort to postpone the start of the armed robbery and kidnapping trial.

Clarence Stewart's lawyer filed a motion asking for a delay until the Nevada Supreme Court considers his request for a separate trial.

Justices haven't scheduled discussions on Robert Lucherini's appeal seeking a separate trial.

Judge Jackie Glass has repeatedly promised not to delay the high profile trial.

Stewart say Simpson's notoriety will prevent Stewart from getting a fair trial.

Metro will be hosting a landlord and tenant issues class at their Southeast Area Command on Wednesday, Aug. 27.

They have found that as larger rental properties tighten their tenant criteria, some undesirable tenants have begun looking elsewhere. They have found that the inexperienced single family home owner who doesn't know how to screen applicants or set up a rental agreement is an easy target.

To that end, this class will provide basic information on how to do both of those things. To reserve a seat, you can email Crime Prevention Specialist Ed Daley at w8003d@lvmpd.com — seating is limited.

The class will be held at 7 p.m. at the Southeast Area Command, located at 3675 E. Harmon Avenue.

A posh condo and hotel is coming under fire again for operating without a proper license. But now comes allegations of a manager breaking into a closed unit — and the getaway is caught on tape.

The condo is already catching heat for operating the hotel without the proper licenses. Now one owner says the Meridian isn't paying up the rent money and the manager is even caught on camera apparently taking property out of the owner's condo.

Meridian condo manager Rebecca Desmet is helping, hoisting and smiling for the camera after allegedly entering a sealed unit and taking property out. It's a “gotcha” that the unit's owner, Gary Brudner, says goes beyond common decency and the law.

“As in the wild, wild west — I think she still thinks Nevada in 1880 or something,” said Brudner.

Brudner is an investor in New York. His third floor condo was converted into a hotel rental. It is still available when he's in town but can be rented out to make extra money.

This summer, the county found out Meridian never had the proper licenses to act as a hotel and rent out the condos. When that happened, the rent money from Meridian stopped.

“Sure enough, rent didn't come the following month. We waited a month, rent didn't come – no communication. We tried calling, nobody answers,” said Brudner.

Last week, Brudner had enough fighting and in anger, he had constables evict the renter and seal the condo by court order. He even took pictures to document what happened. “I had the door sealed. Constable put a seal on the door,” said Brudner.

Brudner came back the next day to tie up some loose ends and he saw something was wrong. “I go up — my unit's been broken into. Everything was taken out that was the tenants',” he said.

Someone had broken the orange seal, but the locks had been changed. It happened from inside. “I never dreamed someone was going to break in through the window,” said Brudner.

So Brudner started asking questions. “I wonder if there's any security tapes?”

He watched the video to find proof of his suspicions — in of all places — the elevator. “If somebody's going to steal something, they're going to use that elevator. And voila! There ya go. All the stuff coming from my apartment into that elevator,” he said.

Brudner says Rebecca Desmet and a number of bell hops hauled out items from his condo. “Ya know, little pirate booty,” he said.

Desmet can be seen laughing and even waving at the camera during the move-out — caught, but not caring. “She could have easily just stuck her middle finger up at us. I mean, it would have been the same thing,” he said.

Tuesday, Desmet was in court to answer misdemeanor charges about the lack of licenses to run the hotel. She says she was just an employee, following orders.

As far as entering Brudner's condo, she confirmed it was her on camera, but had no other comment leaving court.

Brudner was told the renter was only sub-leasing and that Desmet and Meridian were the tenants — trying to get the property back. Now Brudner is trying to get the attention of police and wave good-bye to his problems with Meridian.

Brudner did contact Metro. They told him breaking and entering and opening the sealed condo was a civil matter for the constables. The constables tell us, no, breaking the seal is criminal contempt of court.

Gary Brudner just wants answers and some justice. Nothing of serious value of his property was taken from the condo — only the renter's belongings. Even so, he feels violated and taken advantage of.

Desmet will be back in court next week for another hearing on the license violations.

A red-light runner is dead after crashing his motorcycle into a small car Tuesday morning. It happened at Durango and Peace Way.

Detectives say the motorcyclist was going southbound on Durango when he ran a red light and slammed into a Toyota Corolla that was turning onto Durango.

The motorcyclist died at the scene.

Across the valley, police say a drunk driver caused another deadly car crash. This accident happened around 11 p.m. Monday at Boulder Highway and Flamingo.

Police say the driver of a SUV rear-ended a Hyundai, killing the driver.

Nevada has quickly made a name for itself in clean energy circles and now the eyes of the nation are focused on the Silver State. An clean energy summit started Monday in Las Vegas.

Leaders believe Nevada can lead the world in renewable energy like wind and solar power, and former President Bill Clinton added his voice to the urgency of the matter, “Cost for ordinary Americans are soaring for energy, for food, for healthcare. Increasingly they have financed those costs with flats waged through debt which has contributed, we all know, to the home mortgage crisis and many other debt crunches I think are still going to come at us in waves over the next couple of years.”

The first solar thermal power manufacturing company in North America is right here in our backyard. While Nevada has been leading the way in creating renewable energy, experts and policy makers said more needs to be done here and in the rest of the country.

Mary Easwarm is among the dozens of community members here who are fed up with high gas prices and America's slow shift to cleaner energy sources, “I want to make sure our children and grandchildren will still have a planet.”

Nevada is at the center of debate on how the U.S. can create more wind farms and solar plants.

Nevada Senator Harry Reid, a long time champion of renewable energy, says the purpose of the summit is so lawmakers and industry experts can come up with a policy to accelerate change in America.

“Energy is at the heart of the three greatest challenges U.S. faces today,” said Clinton. He added that the U.S. could “rock the world” when it comes to clean energy.

The former president says a clean energy economy will be cheaper for American's in the long run and create more jobs. He adds that everything is in place to make this happen, but first Congress needs to open the gateway for renewable energy companies.

“The president made it clear. It's not a question of money, it's allowing the great free enterprises to work. All we have to do in Washington is make tax credits renewable,” said Senator Reid.

Easwarm believes that change is tangible. She's been trying to reduce her carbon footprint, adding that every little bit helps, “I try to do simple things like turning off lights and making sure we have energy efficient appliances.”

Clinton says the tax credits given to renewable energy companies needs to be extended from three years to a minimum of six.

And here's an interesting fact: Enough sunlight falls on 100 square miles of Nevada to power the entire U.S. electrical system. So the resources are definitely here at home, they just need to be better developed.

Email your comments to Reporter Janet O

The Excalibur poker room is the first Las Vegas casino to go high-tech by having a poker room that is entirely electronic.

The casino resort is remodeling its poker room and plans to replace its current tables with  electronic tables that have computer screens instead of dealers, cards and chips. The new poker room will open Aug. 21. 

Local poker experts say it is still unclear what will become of the poker dealers. Many of them have worked at the property since it opened in 1990.

It will be an adjustment for some poker players used to playing with a dealer and other players.

“Experienced poker players want to play poker with real tables and real poker cards and real chips. But Excalibur has always had a reputation of being a poker room that was geared to novice poker players or beginner poker players and they really carved out a niche in the Las Vegas poker landscape for catering to beginner players,” said Clark Walton, Allvegaspoker.com.

Political leaders and clean energy experts from all over country are in Las Vegas for an energy summit.

The summit will take place at UNLV on Monday, August 18 with discussion on how to shift to a clean energy economy that creates less expensive energy and more efficient energy.

Senator Harry Reid believes Nevada can lead the revolution to transform the country into the renewable energy mecca.

It is hoped that the summit will result in a plan to help the United States to kick their oil addiction and begin using cleaner energy sources; like solar power and wind.

Las Vegan Chris Brooks' company installed solar panels at UNLV. He says Nevada spends about $9 billion  a year importing energy from other states. He says if elected officials would stop partisan bickering and pass legislation giving tax credits for renewable energy — the local economy would boom.

Brooks says, “We've seen tax credits and production credits make the industry explode. Creating jobs and pumping money into the economy and it all came to a halt as a result of tax credits not being renewed.”

Brooks says enough sun falls in a small section of Nevada to power the entire nation for a year. He believes if there was strong federal leadership behind clean renewable energy, Nevada could export energy to several states. That money could be used to fix the budget deficit and to help fund education.

President Bill Clinton will speak when the Summit opens on Tuesday. The governors of Colorado and Arizona and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Also attending is oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens who wants to build the largest wind farm in the country.

Senator Reid and clean energy experts are hoping to hammer out a plan at this week's clean energy summit and present that information to both political parties at their national conventions.  

You can watch live coverage of the summit starting at 5 p.m. on Monday on Las Vegas ONE, Channel 19. The summit will also be live streamed on LasVegasNOW.com.