Bob Whitby
Senior Writer
Contact: 868-4521 • Email
The veteran journalist has been working for newspapers since age 11 when he got his first job as a delivery executive for the San Jose Mercury News in Saratoga, Calif. He has put in stints writing for and editing papers in Texas, Wisconsin and Florida, most recently as editor of Orlando Weekly. He has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of South Florida, and once snuck into Cuba to chronicle the recovery of a stolen boat.
Recent Articles
Labor Smackdown!
In an old-school unionization battle, the gloves come off. Why Station Casinos and the Culinary Union are fighting as if their lives depend on it.
April 12th, 2012
The Station Casinos ads aren’t pushing a product or a service, and they’re not burnishing the company’s name, at least not in the sense of a traditional image campaign. They’re asking you to take sides in a nasty labor battle between Station and the Culinary Union Local 226, which wants desperately to organize at the non-union Station properties.
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Bunker Mentality
April 5th, 2012
Courtesy of the Great Recession, we already knew the walls of a gated community can’t keep out economic reality. Terse notices about uncut grass and mandated paint schemes proved no match for a rising tide of sinking property values that easily swamped those stuccoed seawalls. It didn’t matter how strictly residents adhered to the rules; the ugliness flowed right over the top.
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Seven Days
A curated tour of this week in your city
April 5th, 2012
Tuesday, April 10: When it comes to inclusivity, Las Vegas’ historic Helldorado parade is the closest thing we’ve got to a Mardi Gras procession. Secure a place in the May 19 festivities by registering with the city, now through April 30. ElksHelldorado.com.
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Is the Water Authority’s Magic All Tapped Out?
March 29th, 2012
SNWA general manager Pat Mulroy has spent the last two decades stitching together the Valley’s water utilities into a behemoth that feeds growth by feeding on growth, depending on revenue from new hookups to pay for the infrastructure that supplies those hookups. It worked great until the growth stopped and the unsustainability of such a closed-loop business plan became painfully obvious.
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Seven Days
This week in your city.
March 29th, 2012
OK, so watching celebrities golf might not seem as interesting as, say, watching celebrities do something they’re actually good at. But this year’s Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational tournament from Thursday, March 29 through Sunday, April 1at Shadow Creek features an interesting lineup that includes actor/comedian Joel McHale, whose work on The Soup and Community is nothing short of brilliant. We’d go just to see him raise an eyebrow.
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Scenes from the Near-Death of a City
Less than a decade ago, North Las Vegas dreamed of building a suburban utopia. Now it’s just trying to survive.
March 29th, 2012
The ninth floor of the new $127 million North Las Vegas City Hall offers a sweeping view of low-rise sprawl, and from up there the city looks neat and orderly, stretching away nearly to the mountains with Las Vegas Boulevard pointing the way northeast along a corridor of commerce and activity.
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Seven Days
A curated tour of this week in your city
March 22nd, 2012
NASCAR Weekend was nice and all, but the real roots of racing in this town are out in the desert, where machines with 3 feet of suspension bash through terrain that would be a tough hike. The Mint 400 is the granddad of off-road racing, and it’s happening Saturday near Jean. If you can’t make it out there, see the cars and trucks on Fremont Street on Friday, March 23 from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
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Seven Days
A curated tour of this week in your city
March 15th, 2012
SATURDAY, MARCH 17
Every bar in town is having some kind of St. Patrick’s Day throw-down; check Seven Nights—the yang to this column’s ying—for the best party bets. It is within our purview, however, to recommend the 46th annual Southern Nevada Sons of Erin St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival, 10 a.m. until the party ends, in downtown Henderson. It’s family friendly. HendersonLive.com.
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For Las Vegas, a Win-Winco Situation?
March 8th, 2012
Do we really need another grocery store chain? We have Smith’s, your dad’s grocery store; Vons, see Smith’s; Albertsons, see Vons; Fresh & Easy, a feel-good convenience store; Costco, Walmart for Democrats; Sam’s Club, Walmart for Republicans; Whole Foods, the place you want your neighbors to think you shop; Food 4 Less, the place you don’t want your neighbors to think you shop; Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods without the attitude; a few Super Targets; and probably some others I’m forgetting.
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Chris Powell
Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s president on getting a second Sprint Cup race, the success of Electric Daisy Carnival and last year’s IndyCar tragedy
March 8th, 2012
It’s not often that a guy makes the leap from professional sportswriter to boss of one of the marquee racetracks in the U.S. But Chris Powell pulled it off, quitting journalism in 1988 and working his way to Las Vegas Motor Speedway by 1998, when he was hired as executive vice president and general manager. In the 13 years Powell—now the president and general manager—has overseen the complex, LVMS has morphed from a series of racetrack facilities into something of a Las Vegas events center.
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