Las Vegas Weekly

2011 Year in Review: Names and Faces

Sharron Angle: She isn’t crazy and she isn’t a wacko … Right?

Photo: Justin M. Bowen

Sharron Angle, fresh off a narrow defeat at the hands of Harry Reid in their 2010 U.S. Senate battle, was prepared to run for a seat in the U.S. House to replace Dean Heller ... and on the first day of filing, unexpectedly dropped out, calling the election process “a mockery.” She’s led a relatively quiet life since.

After Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in Tucson on January 8, her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, was rushed to her side in a plane provided by Golden Nugget owner Tilman Fertitta.

Lance Malone, one of the former Clark County commissioners at the center of the infamous Operation G-Sting corruption case, is serving out the remainder of his six-year sentence at a halfway house in Las Vegas. He was released from Lompoc prison on February 1.

Former UNLV basketball great Armen “The Hammer” Gilliam died on July 5 at age 47 from an apparent heart attack during a pickup game in a Pittsburgh suburb. The 6-foot-8 power forward played for the Rebels from 1984-87, leading UNLV to the Final Four as a senior and finishing as the school’s seventh all-time scorer. He went No. 2 overall in the 1987 NBA Draft to the Phoenix Suns. RIP, big man.

He died doing what he loved. Former KJUL-AM radio announcer Scott O’Neil was taping The Dennis Bono Show on March 24, when he collapsed onstage and died.