The Week
A Fix for Car Fixers?
September 20th, 2012
Computers are in charge of almost every aspect of your vehicle these days, from telling the transmission when to shift to controlling the door locks. When something goes wrong, as it inevitably will, who has the specialized, sometimes proprietary, knowledge and tools to fix the problem? The dealer who sold you the car, of course. But as a 2009 Consumer Reports survey found, motorists aren’t always satisfied with the service they get at dealers. They want choices. Independent garages want the business. Competition benefits everyone. Read more »
Pfffft!
September 13th, 2012
Basketball season tips OFF in two months. Just keep repeating that over and over, because short of picking some winners at the sportsbook, that might be the only positive Vegas-related sports news you hear for a while. Yes, football season has barely gotten under way, but it might already be time to punt on our local teams. Read more »
The Week
The Many Meanings of School
August 30th, 2012
So what is the purpose of school in Las Vegas? Is it to provide social services to families, or to train our kids solely for jobs in our dominant industry? Is it simply to provide the basics of math and reading? Or is it to impart the skills necessary for critical thinking, and stir the curiosity for cultural engagement? Is it possible to do all of these things and still do them well? Read more »
The Week
Who Really Needs a Cooling Off?
August 16th, 2012
Gross. It’s just so freaking hot. It’s beyond oppressive—not just the blanket of sweltering summer heat, but the omnipresent politics; the inescapable, steaming piles of rhetoric that, historically and still unbelievably, lead us to choose the leader of the free world. Read more »
The Week
Where Have All the Kids Gone?
August 9th, 2012
From mid-June to early September, the daily routine was pretty much the same: Wake up, eat breakfast, get dressed, receive a swift kick in the ass out the door. Not that we always needed said kick. It was summertime, our time. After nine months of being cooped up in a classroom—the lone release during a six-hour day being a 20-minute kickball game at recess—we couldn’t wait for summer, for the chance to rediscover the great outdoors. There were bikes to ride, cans to kick, all-time quarterbacks to select, tennis and Wiffle balls to knock into the grumpy old neighbor’s backyard. Read more »
The Week
Four More Years ...
July 26th, 2012
On July 27, hundreds of American athletes will stroll into Olympic Stadium in London for the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Games. Reindell Cole will not be among them. Although his 25-foot-plus jump in the June 22 preliminary round at the Trials was enough to get him a spot in the finals, his results two days later left him without a ticket to London. Read more »
The Week
The Tule Tradeoff
July 19th, 2012
Environmental advocates were expected to give three cheers for the bill introduced by Sens. Harry Reid and Dean Heller on June 27. And they complied. Justifiably. The bill’s hallmark section protects a large, valuable piece of the Earth’s ecology and history, Tule Springs. But these advocates had only about 48 hours to study the lengthy bill before the dailies went to press. Come mid-July, they were a bit more circumspect. By then, they’d studied it in toto and noticed some stink-bombs hitching a ride on the wave of fresh air. Read more »
The Week
Peace, Love and an Old Theater
July 12th, 2012
Everyone agrees on this much: The Huntridge Theater should be open. “It should be a place the community can go to and enjoy. Companies could rent it out for different things. You could get married there,” says Cima Mizrachi, whose family owns the 68-year-old historical landmark and the property it sits on. “Schools that don’t have a good theater on their campus could use the Huntridge,” says Dan Roberts, a member of the newly created Huntridge Foundation. “I could see banquets happening in there.” Read more »
The Week
An Idea That Shouldn’t Leave the Gate
July 5th, 2012
If anyone’s name belongs on this airport, it’s Sen. Pat McCarran’s—and not just because his legislation created the Civil Aeronautics Board, forerunner to today’s Federal Aviation Administration. As a U.S. senator, he helped obtain the gunnery school (later Nellis Air Force Base) that created the need for a new airport, and then he paved the way for its construction. Local officials named it for him because he made it possible. Read more »
The Week
They Came, They Glowered … They Left the Town Intact
June 28th, 2012
Boulder City’s famed bighorn sheep grazed as lazily as usual in Hemenway Park early Friday afternoon, June 22, oblivious to the “danger” that was just now rolling into town. A couple of miles up the road, it was the moment the sleepy hamlet’s 15,000 residents had dreaded for weeks: the arrival of scores of masked members of the Mongols Motorcycle Club for their three-day national convention. Read more »
