Reporters’ notebook

During Tuesday morning’s commission meeting, Giunchigliani asked if the spa would offer pedicures and haircuts, and whether it would meet health standards and codes.

A representative from the airport said the spa would offer pedicures and meet health codes but wouldn’t offer haircuts because people usually don’t have enough time for a haircut while they’re waiting for their flight.

Giunchigliani was the only commissioner who seemed interested in the proposal, and after her questions, Commissioner Rory Reid requested that the record reflect that "Commissioner Giunchigliani will soon have her nails done at the airport."

LAWRENCE MOWER

 

DR. KEITH SCHWER HAS A TIP FOR LOCAL SENIOR CITIZENS WHO WANT TO SHOW THEIR COMMITMENT TO THE COMMUNITY: BUY A BURIAL PLOT. Schwer, director of UNLV’s Center of Business and Economic Research, was responding to an audience member’s question about the "graying" of Nevada at the release Tuesday of United Way’s 2007 Southern Nevada Community Assessment when he mentioned the macabre way seniors can make a permanent mark here. "Seniors have not made a commitment to our community," he said. "They still have a burial plot back in Cleveland. When they die, they are going back there. You are committed to Nevada when you want to be buried here. Everybody else is a visitor."

LYNNETTE CURTIS

 

DAVID ALFARO, A HOMELESS MAN WITH AN AFFINITY FOR THE BOTTLE, THINKS THAT LAS VEGAS city officials ought to take their effort to designate park space for specific uses a bit further. It’s not just about children needing a safe place to play, Alfaro said after a recommending committee meeting Tuesday. It’s about drinkers who need a safe place to drink.

"We need a place where the mayor and I can sit down and get drunk," Alfaro said.

Frank Wright Plaza, the small park across from City Hall, already seems to be serving that purpose.

LISA KIM BACH

 

JOE BIDEN IS AN EXASPERATED FATHER. SPEAKING TO THE CULINARY UNION IN LAS VEGAS ON FRIDAY, the Delaware senator and Democratic presidential candidate lamented his son’s enrollment in the Delaware Army National Guard: "At 31, as a married man, he joined the United States Army, and his mother hasn’t slept with me since."

Last year, the same son left a lucrative law firm job and won election as Delaware attorney general. "You know what’s wrong with that?" the senator asked. "No Biden has ever made any money. … I said, ‘You win, you take a giant cut in salary, and there goes my window with a view when you put me in the home.’"

Biden said his two other children are also Democrats and similarly uninterested in easing his retirement. "Raise one Republican so you can live good when you get old," he advised.

MOLLY BALL

 

FORMER COMMISSIONER LYNETTE BOGGS IS ACCUSED OF CLAIMING A HOME ON THE 6300 BLOCK OF GRAYS RIVER COURT as her residence while living outside her then-district.

Grays River Court residents said last week that they hadn’t seen Boggs.

Lakeisha Clark, who has lived in the neighborhood for two years, said: "I’m the only black person on the block."

Daniel Del Pozo, who now rents the house Boggs claimed as her residence, said he wished the company that rented the home to him in April would have told him the house was at issue in a criminal case. But, he reasoned, it wasn’t as if a violent crime was alleged to have been committed in the house.

"It’s not like someone was murdered here," he said.

DAVID KIHARA

ASSEMBLY CHAMBERS INTERMITTENTLY TOOK ON A CARNIVAL ATMOSPHERE in the waning hours of the session.

In the early hours Tuesday, legislators and staff members threw around red stress balls. Assemblyman Harvey Munford, D-Las Vegas, and Assemblywoman Susan Gerhardt, D-Henderson, were especially skilled at heaving balls to people sitting in the balcony.

Assemblyman Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas, showed promise as a juggler, as did Assembly clerk Jason Hataway.

Aiden Kendrick, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley’s 7-year-old son, helped keep legislators awake during the day-long floor sessions by running around the chamber and hiding under members’ desks.

At one point, when legislators and members of the crowd were about to fall asleep, Aiden took his mother’s microphone and screamed: "Hi, everybody!"

Everyone snapped to attention.

ED VOGEL