Story Archive

Lodging complaints

Arts district leaders and a local businessman battle over a Downtown motel

Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009

Arts district leaders and a local businessman are battling over one Downtown motel.

Second chance: A snapshot from the Vegas Valley Book Festival

Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009

Vegas: “[T]oss a chip out on the table, you’re treated the same as anybody else. Nobody gives a damn where you come from. Where you’re going is all that counts."

The dog days of Dora To

She claims she’s a responsible pet-store operator; her opponents say she’s harming the animals

Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

For animal-rights activists, Dora To’s business was an example of pet-store owners purchasing their puppies from puppy mills—breeders that, although they may operate legally, still do not take care of the animals they raise.

Flavor of Chinatown

A new book reveals the authentic community inside Las Vegas’ Chinatown

Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009

American Chinatown: A People’s History of Five Neighborhoods chronicles Chinese communities in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu and … Las Vegas?

Painting the town

A crusade to fight graffiti becomes a city-wide arts group

Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009

A crusade to fight graffiti becomes a city-wide arts group.

Objects telling stories

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009

Explore the endless possibilities of synthesizing graphic design and text.

Stupak’s true legacy

Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009

The Stratosphere helped create, and continues to complement, Naked City.

Economy be damned! Downtown gets a new gallery

Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009

Place Gallery opened last week and the new space suggests that the local arts scene here is starting to turn around.

Downtown vs. the 'burbs: Murder rates surprisingly similar

Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009

A look at Metro’s year-to-date homicide stats reveals that, when it comes to murder rates, there’s little separating Downtown from Summerlin?

What’s in a green name?

As more companies shoot for LEED certification, more are asking what it really means

Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009

An environmentally friendly casino has to be a contradiction in terms. Giant buildings that welcome and encourage the extravagant, wasteful behavior of thousands of guests at the same time hardly seem like a recipe for saving Mother Earth.

A growing problem with no solution

In a state with an alarming suicide rate, murder-suicides appear to be increasing as well

Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009

In a state with an alarming suicide rate, murder-suicides appear to be increasing as well.

You can't get away

Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009

I live near the far southwest corner of the Valley. We are, one likes to think, just about beyond the reach of graffiti and crime. But not quite.

Now what?

Parolees looking for a second chance are finding it more difficult than ever

Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009

Parolees looking for a second chance are finding it more difficult than ever.

Impaired vision

Tough times for the governor’s former health-care advisor

Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009

It’s been a busy year for Rudy Manthei. The prominent Las Vegas ophthalmologist has been fighting for malpractice reform, then may have helped put the brakes on the pain and suffering cap. Later, he was arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Don't forget he was also was also named as a defendant in a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed this spring.

Aiming high

Nellis photo essay touches down at the Library of Congress

Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009

Shot at Nellis Air Force Base by photographer Nicholas Price, Cleared Hot! is an intimate, black-and-white portrait of life behind the scenes in the Air Force.

Money and justice

Can Nevada bridge the gap between tight budgets and effective counsel for the poor?

Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009

Can Nevada bridge the gap between tight budgets and effective counsel for the poor?

Full-court press

UNLV’s Barrick Museum tries to reinvent its game

Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009

The Marjorie Barrick Museum of Natural History, tucked inside an average building on the UNLV campus, is the kind of place that can be hard to find even if you’re among the small percentage of Las Vegans who have been there before.

The joke's on us

Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009

It was a joke. Right? When Harry Reid, during a Chamber of Commerce luncheon last week, told a Review-Journal ad man, “I hope you go out of business.”

New Pecking order

The ACLU’s spirited local chief steps down

Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009

After 13 years of hell-raising as executive director of the Las Vegas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Gary Peck is finally calling it quits, in what the ACLU calls an amicable parting.

Creating his own structure

A Las Vegas violinist brings his classical skills to the hip-hop scene

Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009

Classical mixed with hip-hop? Well, that’s something you don’t hear about every day, and that’s exactly the appeal for young Las Vegas violinist Anthony Williams, intent on taking the rigorous technique of his classical training and spreading it across the freer forms of jazz and hip-hop.

A healthy debate

Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009

Judging by the fired-up crowd at an informal town-hall meeting at Stoney’s Rockin’ Country Friday evening, hosted by conservative KDWN 720-AM, supporters of Barack Obama’s health-care reform agenda have their work cut out for them.

Signs of frustration

Deciding to save Elton John’s Red Piano signs was the easy part. Now what?

Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009

Deciding to save Elton John’s Red Piano signs was the easy part. Now what?

Call it ‘American art’

Even as the black arts community in Las Vegas struggles to establish itself, many artists bristle at the term

Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009

Even as the black arts community in Las Vegas struggles to establish itself, many artists bristle at the term.

Master (pint-sized) builder

Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009

The artist Frank James is precise. Very precise. Set your watch by him precise. In his living room there are three tables; and on these tables are scale models, each about the size of a footlocker, that James assembled by hand: a church, a house and the Tabernacle of Moses. The church alone took him 8,985 hours to make.

A Fuller life

Ed Wood's old flame hasn't lost her power to impress

Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009

A few weeks ago, Dolores Fuller, the so-called “Queen of the B Movies,” suffered a stroke, and she’s been in pain ever since. But last weekend, the 86-year-old actress donned a sequined gold sweater at the Montara Meadows Retirement Community on East Tropicana and retained an astounding amount of her formidable presence.

Cash for dealers?

The federal program to jump-start the auto industry still carries many question marks

Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009

The federal program to jump-start the auto industry still carries many question marks.

Up and down

Despite the uncertain economy, dreams of a new Downtown persist

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Dreams of downtown revitalization die hard in this town. While cranes and crews dot the landscape at the center of town, the vibe Downtown gives us is the same as always—a sort of holding pattern, forever awaiting better days when a seamless urban whole at last rises up beyond its disparate pieces.

Superhero status

A local comic book shop is up for the industry’s highest award

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Comic Oasis has most everything a comic-book customer might want—killer selection, a laid-back atmosphere and a friendly staff. Now, the shop has something else to crow about—a nomination as the best comic book store in the world.

‘It’s noisy, it’s terrible’

Reopening F Street, where the $70 million price tag is only part of the story

Thursday, July 23, 2009

When it comes to reopening F Street, the historic center of black Las Vegas, the $70 million price tag is only part of the story.

Vision quest

A photographer from Thailand sees the light in the Southwestern landscape

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Komkrit Thusanapanont’s ethereal, light-infused landscape photography of the American Southwest proves that the most spectacular thing about Las Vegas is not the Strip but the majestic Wilson Cliffs in Red Rock Canyon.

One station to rule them all

Thursday, July 16, 2009

With all the fuss about the proposed $4 billion DesertXpress high-speed train traveling only as far as Victorville, no one has given much attention to where the train would stop at the other end—Las Vegas.

Musseling in

Lake Mead provides a home to the continent’s largest invasive species

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Native to the Ukraine, quagga mussels turned up in North America in the Great Lakes in 1989, and then eventually hitched a ride by boat to Lake Mead. Apparently, they really like it here.

Design at the crossroads

The visual chaos—and possibility—at Vegas’ most arresting intersection

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Despite its reputation, Las Vegas is, visually speaking, a surpassingly orderly place. The Strip anchors the city’s fantasy side, and the low-slung subdivisions and shopping centers hold down the rest.

Our own Darwin Award nominee?

A North Las Vegas fire captain is indicted for torching his own ride

Thursday, July 9, 2009

A North Las Vegas fire captain is indicted for torching his own ride.

An offer they will refuse

The battle over the mob museum heads to court

Thursday, July 9, 2009

The battle over the mob museum heads to court

Interview Issue: Keith Schwer

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Is the Director of UNLV's Center for Business and Economic Research the "Prince of Gloomy News"? Or is that just the role of the economist?

Don’t Check In

A Nevada group tries to preserve secret union ballots

Thursday, July 2, 2009

As Nevada’s national political profile rises, it finds itself on the front lines of a growing number of issues. The latest is the Employee Free Choice Act, a law being debated in Congress that would make it easier for employees to unionize by bypassing secret-ballot voting in favor of simply signing an authorization card.

Interview Issue: Lawrence Sands

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Chief health officer of the Southern Nevada Health District dispels common misconceptions, adressing the swine flu outbreak and the quality of health care in Las Vegas.

Interview Issue: Virginia Valentine

Thursday, July 2, 2009

The Clark County manager began her career as an engineer, explains the intricacies of county versus state and how the two work together, plus child-welfare integration issues.

The Super-Abridged Quasi-Michelin Guide

Thursday, July 2, 2009

With news that the Michelin Guide has decided not to publish 2010 guides to Las Vegas and Los Angeles, citing the bad economy, we’ve decided to pitch in.

What’s up with What’s On?

The local entertainment mag has a growing list of potential creditors

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Usually when newspapers or magazines are struggling financially, they look to cut back on costs. They may curtail their freelance budgets. Local entertainment magazine What’s On seems to have another strategy—not paying its freelancers.

The Travel Issue: It is this much space that gets us into trouble

Contemplating the big empty in Lathrop Wells with the mysterious Jimmy K

Thursday, June 25, 2009

To search for Yucca Mountain one first needs a map. Wait. That’s second. The real first step is to call up the Department of Energy for some information on how to get there. Where is it, exactly? And what does it look like?

Learning From Las Vegas, 2.0

The authors of the famous architectural book revisit Sin City

Thursday, June 25, 2009

The authors of the famous architectural book revisit Sin City.

Victorville Rising

Thursday, June 18, 2009

With news that Sen. Harry Reid has thrown his support behind the $4 billion DesertXpress high-speed train from Las Vegas to Victorville, residents of Victorville are feeling mighty good about themselves.

Some local Muslims reflect on Obama’s Cairo Speech

Thursday, June 18, 2009

President Obama’s June 4 speech in Cairo was widely hailed as a new start for the troubled relationship between the West and the Muslim world.

Bronson

Monday, June 15, 2009

Bronson tells the story of petty thief Michael Peterson, sentenced to prison in 1974, who changed his name to Charles Bronson and over the next three decades gained notoriety as Britain’s most violent prisoner.

Asylum Seekers

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Asylum Seekers begins with a promising premise: Six social misfits seek to opt out of society by competing against each other for one spot in an asylum.

Stingray Sam

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Stingray Sam follows the titular character, a two-bit cowboy lounge singer on the planet Mars, and his buddy, the Quasar Kid, as they rocket across the galaxy trying to save a kidnapped girl.

Crash course

What’s up with all the officer-involved accidents lately? And who’s paying the bill?

Thursday, June 11, 2009

What’s up with all the officer-involved accidents lately? And who’s paying the bill?

Wary Harry

Reid’s numbers may be down, but can any Republicans beat him?

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Reid’s numbers may be down, but can any Republicans beat him?