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In business unique businesses courts Final frontier becomes final journey for the cremains of Henderson woman, hundreds more Man gets 11 years for mortgage fraud scheme By Ana Ley staff writer Sandra Lee Bower always wanted to go to space, but the retired Henderson real estate agent died in 2011 before her dream could come true. Then began her husband's mission to send a tiny piece of her on an astronomic journey. "She was just fascinated by it — space was her thing," Frank Bower said. "If she had to do it over again, she'd have been an astronaut." Shortly after Sandra Lee Bower died from pneumonia complications that spring, her family discovered a website for Celestis, a Houston-based service that offers flights into outer space for cremated human remains. One year and $2,600 later, a silver vial the size of a lipstick tube carried a portion of her ashes into the Earth's orbit along with the remains of 319 others, including a NASA astronaut and actor James Doohan, who played "Scotty" on "Star Trek." Since then, Davis Funeral Home in Las Vegas has begun offering Celestis' services, which range in price from $995 to $12,500 based on the distance a vial travels and the duration of its trip. "Nevada has the highest rate for cremation in the country, and people are always looking for unique ways for disposition," said Todd Noecker, general manager of Davis Funeral Homes. The state was ranked first in the nation as recently as 2012, when cremation accounted for 74 percent of all disposition methods, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. By Tovin Lapan staff writer STEVE MARCUS together forever: Frank Bower looks at a marker for his wife on an ashes wall at Palm Boulder Highway Mortuary & Cemetery. After his own death, his remains will join his late wife's. Add to that a fascination with space and the unknown (think Area 51 and Las Vegas' annual Star Trek convention), and the service is a perfect option for Nevadans, Noecker said. Davis Funeral Home, whose two Las Vegas locations started offering Celestis flights about three months ago, already provides unusual services for Las Vegans wanting to memorialize loved ones. Among them are charms, pendants and other keepsakes that hold human ashes and jewelry etched with DNA patterns and fingerprints. "People do unique things here," Noecker said. Liftoff for Sandra Lee Bower's New Frontier flight was May 22, 2012, from Cape Canaveral, Fla., said Pazia Schonfeld, a spokeswoman for Celestis. After orbiting Earth 576 times, the spacecraft re-entered the planet's atmosphere on June 26, 2012. Frank Bower kept the rest of his wife's ashes inside an urn at Palm Mortuary off Boulder Highway in Henderson. His remains will one day join hers in a spot reserved for the couple marked with a photograph of their 1959 wedding day. To memorialize his wife's trip into space, Celestis sent a certificate and a compact disc with video of the flight's liftoff. A file listed everyone on the flight, and a commemorative message followed Sandra Lee Bower's name: "It was a dream come true." jobs nlv company seeking workers for astronaut simulations By Eli Segall staff writer If you enjoy science and won't get claustrophobic living with others in a spacecraft, Bigelow Aerospace has the job for you. The North Las Vegas company is seeking "mature, well-adjusted" adults with technical backgrounds to work part time in astronaut simulation studies. Those hired will spend eight-, 16- or 24hour periods in a "closed volume spacecraft simulation chamber" in North Las Vegas and produce daily reports on their activities, including their interactions with other crew members. They will be monitored continuously as they eat, sleep and exercise in the module. 12 20140113_VI12_F.indd 12 Qualified applicants must be detailed note-takers and have a bachelor's or master's in social, psychological, behavioral, biological, nursing, engineering or human factors sciences. Bigelow will use its standard BA 330 module in the studies, said Mike Gold, director of D.C. operations and business growth. The spacecraft can hold up to six people and function as an independent space station. Founded in 1999, Bigelow develops expandable space-habitat modules. The company launched two prototypes into space in 2006 and 2007 aboard converted Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles. Last January, NASA officials announced that the agency had awarded Bigelow a $17.8 million contract to provide a Bigelow Expandable Activity Module to the International Space Station. The BEAM is an inflatable room that can be compressed into a 7-foot tube. Meanwhile, company founder Robert Bigelow unveiled plans in May for a spacecraft known as the Guide. He gave few details at the time but said it would be able to land as an operational base on the moon. He said the Guide would be smaller than a car and that he plans to have test flights this year at a dry lake, about 100 miles north of Las Vegas. A man who pleaded guilty in a $15 million mortgage fraud scheme was sentenced recently to 11 years in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro sentenced Lloyd Gardley, 60, who is in federal custody in Pahrump, after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud, one count of bank fraud and two counts of mail fraud. Besides the prison term, Gardley must pay $1.4 million in restitution and will be under supervision for five years after his release. Ten people were charged and convicted in the scheme involving straw buyers and the submission of fraudulent paperwork to obtain mortgage loans, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice. The scheme involved the purchase of 30 homes in the Las Vegas area between 2005 and 2007, officials said. Gardley was considered to be the leader of the conspiracy and recruited others into the scheme, officials said. Once mortgage loans were approved, the defendants disbursed money from the loan transactions for their own use, officials said. The defendants typically would rent the homes and resell them for a profit, using the same scheme, officials said. They then defaulted on the loans, leading to approximately $15 million in losses for the lenders, officials said. "Gardley is one of two individuals who were sentenced to prison this week for committing mortgage fraud in Nevada," U.S. Attorney for Nevada Daniel Bogden said in a statement in the days following the sentencing. "Unfortunately, these crimes are not victimless and the damage to the community is lasting. "The mortgage fraud scheme artificially inflated home values that, in turn, raised purchase prices of comparable homes, forcing innocent homebuyers to pay well above true market value for their homes." | 13 JANUARY 2014 | 1/9/14 1:27:46 PM

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