federal court

Former City of Angels 2 pot club owner Gennaro "Gino" DiMatteo of South Lake Tahoe was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller.

DiMatteo had pled guilty to a felony for marijuana trafficking on Jan. 9. As part of his plea agreement, DiMatteo agreed to forfeit more than $40,000 to the United States.

UPDATE 7:17PM: Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said the two suspects captured after this morning's Wells Fargo bank robbery may be tied to a Nevada State Bank robbery in Reno. The two men, Kenneth Wayne Young, 44, and Michael Lee Smith, 36, are leaving Carson City Jail and will be booked and arraigned in federal court.
The following is a statement from the Carson City Sheriff's Office regarding the robberies:

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar on Wednesday announced the designation of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad McKeen Motor Car #70 based in Carson City as one of 27 national historic landmarks.
Calling the McKeen Motor Car #70, Virginia & Truckee Railway Motor Car #22, "the best surviving example of the first commercially viable application of internal combustion power in a self-propelled railroad car" the designation possess exceptional value and quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States, Salazar said.

CARSON CITY – The Nevada Attorney General’s Office has reached two separate agreements this week, one with a pharmaceutical firm over the marketing of anti-psychotic drugs and another with three book publishers over e-book price-fixing allegations.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency announced that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a favorable ruling on Shorezone litigation between TRPA and the League to Save Lake Tahoe, allowing the agency discretion on how to determine its baseline measurement of buoys on Lake Tahoe.

The Homewood Mountain Resort project, which cleared the strictest of environmental hurdles at Lake Tahoe, is now being sued by a consortium of groups including the Sierra Club who, among other things, wish to stop promised environmental improvements, job creation and economic revitalization to the ailing west shore Sierra community.
The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, which oversees development and environmental protection at Lake Tahoe, was told it was being sued on Thursday because of its recent approval of the Homewood Mountain Resort Ski Area Master Plan project.
EarthJustice, on behalf of the Sierra Club and Friends of the West Shore, lists both TRPA and Placer County as defendants in the lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court of Eastern California. Absent from the suit is the League to Save Lake Tahoe, which implied that it likely wouldn't sue when the project was unanimously approved last month by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's Governing Board.

NEWS RELEASE — With recent success guiding the approval process for major projects at Lake Tahoe, the accomplishments of law firm Feldman McLaughlin Thiel reflect a rising correlation in the spectacular mountain community between a healthy environment and a healthy economy.

CARSON CITY – Racial gerrymandering, fracturing, packing, nesting – a three-hour hearing today in Carson City District Court over how to draw Nevada’s new political boundaries was full of arcane concepts and obscure terminology.
The much anticipated ruling from Judge James Todd Russell on guidelines for drawing those new districts will have major ramifications, however, for the state’s voters and its two major political parties.

By Sean Whaley
CARSON CITY – The state’s largest physician advocacy group has sent a letter to Gov. Brian Sandoval and all 63 lawmakers saying that 15 percent cuts in Medicaid reimbursements will make it even more difficult for some Nevadans to receive proper medical care.

By Sean Whaley
CARSON CITY – Oral arguments in the ongoing legal challenge of the national health care law by 26 states including Nevada are set for June 8 before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Ga.

CARSON CITY – The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a first-of-its-kind economic study today identifying stalled energy projects – including 10 in Nevada – that are costing billions of dollars in lost gross domestic product.
The study says the delays are costing the state’s economy $66.9 billion in GDP and that 86,700 jobs a year could be created in Nevada during the construction phase of the projects.

By Andrew Dougman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Nevadans denied health insurance for pre-existing conditions are now guaranteed coverage via a federally funded health insurance program.
In the past, it’s been either costly or impossible to find coverage if someone has a health condition requiring frequent or expensive treatment.

CARSON CITY – Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval said today he is pleased with the ruling by a federal judge in Virginia finding a key element of the new national health care law unconstitutional.

The Las Vegas Sun reports today that a federal court has declined to reconsider its decision that upholds a Nevada law that bans brothel advertising.

RENO – The three Republican candidates vying to become the next governor of Nevada engaged in a spirited discussion Friday on issues ranging from taxes and public education to the future of Yucca Mountain.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) this morning voted to overturn the U.S. Atomic Energy Safety and Licensing Board’s order to suspend the Yucca Mountain administrative hearings.
The NRC has ordered the licensing board to make a decision on the Department of Energy’s (DOE) motion to withdraw the license for Yucca Mountain with prejudice by June 1.

According to the executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, Bruce Breslow, this week saw some unexpected and interesting new developments in the ongoing litigation process related to the Yucca Mountain License application.
“The matter is becoming increasingly complicated,” said Breslow.
Nevada had been in the middle of the Yucca Mountain License Application hearing process when on March 3, 2010, the Department of Energy (DOE) made a motion to withdraw the license with prejudice.

CARSON CITY – A federal judge has dismissed seven of the 10 claims filed against Gov. Jim Gibbons and his budget director by an employee who believes she lost her job after leaking information about the governor’s excessive use of calls on his state cell phone to a female friend. Read more by clicking here: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/mar/30/judge-dismisses-7-claims-gibbons-texting-case/

CARSON CITY – Five members of Congress representing the states of Washington and South Carolina have sent a letter to U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu protesting a decision to reallocate $115 million budgeted for work on Yucca Mountain and discontinue licensing of the site as a nuclear waste repository.

Faced with the prospects of massive teacher layoffs, more state worker pink slips and shorter paychecks for those who stay, slashed services for the poor, the sick and the elderly, and the closure

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Claiming that the BLM is traumatizing horses, even inadvertently killing some, animal rights groups have filed suit in federal court to try to stop blm’s big gathering of w