Reporters’ Notebook
LOCAL JOURNALISTS ARE TREATED TO MORE THAN THEIR SHARE of dog-and-pony shows by Southern Nevada’s expansive public relations machinery. In the case of a Metropolitan Police Department demonstration of crowd-control techniques staged for the media in a stadium parking lot Friday, dog-and-pony applied literally and figuratively.
Behold, the dog …
… and the pony.
DURING A HEARING IN DISTRICT COURT ON THURSDAY, Chief Deputy District Attorney Scott Mitchell was arguing that Lynnette Boggs intentionally misled the public when she claimed a baby sitter as a campaign expense. He equated Boggs’ actions to a candidate going to an ice cream parlor after a hard day on the campaign trail, ordering a chocolate ice cream sundae and then claiming the person who made it as a campaign expense.
In making the argument, Mitchell said it would be wrong to claim the ice cream experience as a campaign expense, even if “it is something special to me. I look forward to it, and it’s the only way I can get through a campaign.”
District Judge Donald Mosely replied: “I think Jack Daniels might be more appropriate.”
DAVID KIHARA
FEDERAL OFFICIALS AND STATE REPRESENTATIVES met in Las Vegas on Thursday to sign a landmark agreement charting a course for water users on the Colorado River during times of drought.
It took years of tense negotiations and compromise to hammer out the deal, and finishing things out didn’t go so smoothly either.
When Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne leaned in to sign the historic deal, his pen didn’t work so he had to borrow one from Wyoming State Engineer Patrick Tyrrell. Then when Kempthorne stood to hold up the signed document for the audience, he bumped the American flag behind him, sending it tumbling from the stage.
HENRY BREAN
IN THE 1980s WHEN JOE DIMAGGIO WAS CLOSE WITH THE LATE HARRY VOGEL of Las Vegas, the two men went to visit Phyllis McGuire’s Rancho Circle home, known for its huge dining room. Vogel’s daughter-in-law, Sugar Vogel, said DiMaggio looked at the singer’s dining room and said: “I hit home runs that didn’t go as long as this dining room.”
JANE ANN MORRISON
REVIEW-JOURNAL READERS WHO ALSO READ YAHOO! NEWS on Friday had reason to be a little confused. We reported that (at an average meal cost of $44.44) Las Vegas had leapfrogged New York (at an average of $39.46) to become the most expensive restaurant city in the country, according to the most recent Zagat Survey for Las Vegas. But on Friday, Yahoo! News had a report from Forbes.com listing New York, at that same average of $39.46, as priciest in America.
While we always suspected that some folks in New York would just as soon pretend that Las Vegas — and everything else west of the Hudson River, for that matter — didn’t exist, it appears that Forbes.com was using old statistics, while the R-J report was based on Zagat research released Thursday.
HEIDI KNAPP RINELLA
COUNTY PUBLIC DEFENDER JENNIFER SCHWARTZ was in court last week representing a man accused of molesting two girls. She said the teenage girls recanted their statements and told authorities that they had lied.
Teenage girls lie and manipulate to get what they want, Schwartz said, adding, “That’s why I don’t want girls.”
“Do you think boys will be better?” asked District Judge Ken Cory.
“Then I’ll just live with dogs,” she retorted.
DAVID KIHARA
BAD NEWS TRAVELS FAST, EVEN IF IT’S NOT TRUE.
When a fight broke out Wednesday at Canyon Springs High School, the day after six people were wounded in a shooting at a school bus stop, the media was quick to respond. Canyon Springs, after all, is just 2 miles south of Mojave High School, home to four of the bus stop shooting victims.
Police used pepper spray on the crowd of students when it looked like Principal Ronan Matthew was about to be attacked.
Matthew said he wasn’t hit by a student. Yet within hours a local TV station and wire services were reporting the principal had been wounded.
“They didn’t even ask me if I was hurt,” the principal said.
Matthew said he called the television station three times Wednesday to say he was fine, but the reports didn’t stop. His son, who lives out of state, called him in a panic after hearing the reports.
“I don’t like people calling me from Arizona saying … you’re hurt,” Matthew said.
BETH WALTON
IF YOU WERE TO MAKE A LIST OF THINGS THAT THRIVE IN THE DESERT sun, chocolate and fish probably wouldn’t be on it.
But companies specializing in those items have recently contacted Las Vegas about locating in the city.
Dalecarlia Chocolates, a Swedish company, and Oceanis Holdings Ltd., which builds and operates aquariums, both recently met with Mayor Oscar Goodman.
The chocolatier was interested in opening a manufacturing plant, the mayor said.
“It’s just in the very preliminary stages,” Goodman said, adding that he expects to hear more from the company next year. “They wanted to introduce themselves to me.”
Oceanis Holdings, which has aquariums in cities around the world, including Melbourne, Bangkok and Shanghai, apparently didn’t do an outstanding job — the mayor couldn’t remember if the company is based in Australia or South Africa.
(For the record, they’re Aussies, mate. G’day.)
ALAN CHOATE
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