May 4, 1988
An explosion at the PEPCON plant in the southeast Valley kills two people.
October 2001
Specialists from the Las Vegas FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction team assist with a probe in a letter mailed from Malaysia that apparently contains anthrax.
November 2001
U.S. Postal Service officials say it’s unlikely that anthrax will be detected at Las Vegas’ main mail-sorting facility that is tested for the deadly bacteria.
November 2004
Local outbreak of Norovirus. A total of 1,252 employees and guests of the Flamingo Las Vegas suffer symptoms of the vomit- and diarrhea-inducing virus. Health officials say airlines and other transportation carriers are being warned about the outbreak in Las Vegas. Similar outbreak at the California hotel-casino Downtown.
January 2007
UMC CEO Lacy Thomas is fired after it is revealed that 2006’s financial loss was $34.3 million, $15.5 million more than reported. There are concerns about whether the debt compromised patient care.
February 28, 2008
Ricin found in a suite on Valley View Boulevard near Flamingo Road.
March 3, 2008
First of a handful of medical clinics closed because investigators find that staff reused syringes, contaminating vials of medication and infecting six people with hepatitis C. Health officials send 40,000 letters to that clinic’s patients, urging them to get tested for hepatitis B and C and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Illustrations by Colleen Wang