Stacy J. Willis
Story Archive
-
Social
In the age of miracles
Thursday, July 16, 2009 It seems that trash is calf-high here in the homeless corridor on Main, jammed between tents and makeshift encampments. You find yourself wishing for a broad-scale miracle, because practical solutions seem elusive.
-
Government
Hush, Mr. Hampton
Thursday, July 16, 2009 Oy. It’s a given that John Ensign is unethical and should get gone. Right now, it’s poor, poor pitiful Doug Hampton who’s annoying the hell out of us.
-
Government
Capital stooges
Thursday, July 16, 2009 On a breezy day, Gov. Jim Gibbons stood on a grassy lakeside and announced, using sports metaphors and rambling vagaries, his resignation. For the good of Nevada. He wore a sharp red jacket, black skirt and heels; hair in a neat barrette.
-
Foreclosures
'It’s easy to have an idea; it’s harder to implement it'
Thursday, July 9, 2009 The road to foreclosure hell is paved with ‘good faith.’
-
Entertainment
Guess who’s back in town?
Thursday, July 9, 2009 It’s a match made in female-stereotype heaven almost 40 years ago: Charo and Vegas. The boobs, the big blond hair, the campy flirty cuchi-cuchi whatever—Charo was Vegas before Holly got her first implant.
-
Crime
Interview Issue: The Rev. Deacon Bonnie Polley
Thursday, July 2, 2009 The Clark County Detention Center Chaplain discusses what made her interested in helping prisoners, plus Rev. Polley's work with a domestic violence victim convicted of killing her husband.
-
Dining
Dunk this!
Thursday, July 2, 2009 The idea of Dunkin’ Donuts’ new Dunkin’ Run website was, I thought, to order your doughnuts online and have them waiting for you at the drive-through. Sounds deliciously over-convenient.
-
Crime
Does scandal matter?
Thursday, July 2, 2009 There’s a certain poetry to the news of former Clark County Commissioner Dario Herrera’s impending release from prison coinciding with the news of Sen. John Ensign’s extramarital affair.
-
Music
Red, white and green!
Thursday, July 2, 2009 Isn’t it time we gave up those noisy, environmentally unfriendly fireworks, anyway?
-
Culture
Interview Issue: Candice Nichols
Thursday, July 2, 2009 The Center's director helped pass the domestic-partnership bill passed at the Legislature this year, the gay community and why today's Jesus Camp kids are now indifferent to homosexual youth.
-
Crime
A tragic statistic
Thursday, June 25, 2009 Crimes against children are on the rise, but let’s not be so quick to blame the recession.
-
As We See It
Death of a big cat
Thursday, June 18, 2009 When Midas, a 10-year-old lion, got very sick, and there was a chewed-up half of a toy football in his cage, the first thing zoo director Pat Dingle thought was that the Roman Catholics killed his lion.
-
Lawsuits
Settlement blitz!
Thursday, June 11, 2009 Retired judges probably ought to be relaxing at a pool party, cosmopolitans in hand, the voices of angry litigants a thing of history. But instead, they are holing up in District Court hearing rooms in the Regional Justice Center, trying to resolve piles of medical-malpractice lawsuits (sans martinis).
-
Art
Coffee topped with art
Thursday, June 11, 2009 The top of any truly loved coffee beverage is a canvass, a small but alluring place for the artiste/barista to create a thing of visual beauty. Skilled baristas make patterns, leaves, snowflakes, Curious George faces, lions and more.
-
Literature
Fruit from the Blackberry bush
Thursday, June 11, 2009 What kind of pop-culture machinators would we be if someone didn’t immediately publish a small gag book about what might appear on Obama’s BlackBerry?
-
Dining
It’s chili out there
Thursday, June 4, 2009 Contestants will battle it out in Red Chili, Chili Verde and Salsa categories, which require that chefs add no beans or pasta or other carbs that purists consider a distraction from meat and hot peppers.
-
Dining
Original is still best
Thursday, June 4, 2009 Coffee offered by a redheaded clown in a yellow jumpsuit should be extremely confident. Indeed, McDonald’s coffee used to make the waifiest of us feel like longshoremen.
-
Federal Goverment
When the dust settles
Thursday, June 4, 2009 Nevada off-roaders have avoided meaningful regulation for years; it’s the last Western state not to have off-road vehicle titling and registration. But that’s about to change.
-
Technology
What they really meant to say ...
Thursday, May 7, 2009 Along with the joy of twittering comes the pleasure of rearranging real tweets into conversations that did not take place.
-
Entertainment
Foreclosures, horses and Patrick Swayze—oh, my!
Thursday, April 30, 2009 This is something never to be taken for granted about our city: that wandering a distance of about 100 feet can be like falling down the rabbit hole. A wonderful thing, this.
-
Entertainment
God's showman
Thursday, April 23, 2009 So there’s this story about a showbiz guy who finds the Lord and renames himself John 3:16 Cook and starts preaching the Word, not just to quietly aching suburbanites with dependable tithes, but also to drunks and homeless guys and drug addicts and prostitutes.
-
Economy
Only a pawn
Thursday, April 23, 2009 Diamond earrings and gold pendant? $35. HP copier/scanner? $5. Finding out your treasure belongs are virtual crap? Priceless.
-
Economy
Was Gov. Gibbons aboard the Titanic?
Thursday, April 23, 2009 Eerie similarities between the sunken ship and the sinking city. Will there be enough lifeboats?
-
Television
All eyes on us
Thursday, April 16, 2009 Cancer patients cast aside, gubernatorial divorce squabbles, debating a prostitution tax, contemplating a school closure, harassment of Muslims—WTF is going on in Nevada?
-
Art
Get the arts education you always wanted
Thursday, April 9, 2009 Five posts gathered from art discussion site artbabble.org—“no art degree required”—which went live to nonmembers on April 7.
-
Economy
Let’s fix this thing!
Thursday, April 9, 2009 In case anyone’s keeping track, the signs of the Apocalypse—killer bees, vacation-villa CEOs, bankrupt casinos—are upon us.
-
Environment
A complex problem
Thursday, April 2, 2009 Eager to be green, lawmakers are considering the problem of apartment communities: Few complexes offer recycling.
-
Entertainment
Waxy Goodman
Thursday, March 26, 2009 As if one weren’t enough. As if he needed the ego boost. As if wax Don Corleone and wax Bugsy Siegel weren’t enough to fill the genre! And as if we’re not going to end up with a mob museum that is bound to feature him prominently, anyway ...
-
Health
Prescription for confusion
Thursday, March 26, 2009 Images flash across the screen in the auditorium at Spring Valley High School: Heath Ledger, Jimi Hendrix, Dana Plato, Len Bias, Judy Garland—people who died from prescription-drug overdoses.
-
Development
Stopping power
Thursday, March 19, 2009 Out here there’s no love for development. This is the iconic Old West.
-
Transportation
Bridge over troubled times
Thursday, March 5, 2009 When it’s finished, the 1,900-foot-long, 88-foot-wide bridge will hold four lanes of traffic—17,000 cars a day—and one pedestrian walkway. It will be the United States’ first concrete-steel composite arch bridge.
-
Nevada
Do-over
Thursday, March 5, 2009 Wad up the state constitution and whip out a fresh sheet of paper, something’s not right about Nevada.
-
Budget
Affordable trees, cared-for children and drive-up pawn shops
Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009 So here we are at the Henderson Parks and Recreation Center conference room, where, during the monstrous downfall of civilization, seven people have gathered to plan an Arbor Day celebration.
-
Economy
Learning with less
Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009 Through it all, there is math. He’s good at math. Five is the number of months since his dad lost his job as a warehouse worker. Three is the number of places his family has stayed since then.
-
Global Warming
Oscar and the panda
Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009 Welcome to fabulous, energy-devouring Las Vegas, Mother Earth. We’re standing under that iconic sign—the freshly paved parking lot looks great—waiting for the mayor of Las Vegas to talk about climate change this morning.
-
Entertainment
Old ladies, please!
Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009 So the movie at a packed Green Valley Ranch theater is about to start when three elderly ladies come in, looking for last-minute seats together and the drama really starts.
-
Issues
Emissions impossible
Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009 Fixing a Toyota 4Runner at a 2G station after failing the smog check: $1,344.75. Getting around the smog check by spending a minimum amount in an attempt to fix the vehicle: $450. Getting said 4Runner repaired and passing the smog check at another 2G station: $100.91. Conclusion: What the hell?
-
Environment
Stop driving on Red Rock
Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009 Saturday. A beautiful, clear, crisp day. The kind that used to become magically more so the further out West Charleston you got. Today it’s not like that. It’s trafficky.
-
Economy
The states we're in
Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009 Look around. Everywhere, mixed signals. At lunch the other day, the Yard House in Town Square was packed. You wonder, this is a recession?
-
Environment
Local scientist tries to revive conversation on nukes
Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009 About a thousand feet below the desert at the Nevada Test site are some two kilometers of tunnels, labs, plutonium and scientists.
-
Nightlife
Cards and beers
Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009 Crappy economic times call for an underdog success story to lift our spirits. Conveniently, our neighbors to the south have one brewing: The Arizona Cardinals made it to the second round of the NFL playoffs.
-
Energy
Renewable Nevada
Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009 Can we fail at being sustainable and yet lead an economic recovery by developing a renewable-resource industry? It’s a question that Vegas and, more broadly, Nevada faces.
-
television
From courtroom to bookshelf
Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008 When Margaret Rudin was on trial for killing her husband, Ron Rudin, in 2001, she wrote a poem. It begins with what she prayed for most: to have the legal proceedings move forward in “days of unclouded truth.”
-
Las Vegas
It all connects somehow
Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008 Say what you will about Las Vegas being fake. Under that, or maybe because of that, is a city of everyday people whose lives create contradictions that make this place, especially at this moment, a masterpiece of art.
-
Poverty
Naming the dead
Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2008 In 2005, 75 people died on the streets here; in 2006, 78; in 2007, 51; and this year, 48. On Thursday evening, volunteers gathered at the Homeless Memorial Candlelight Vigil to remember those who were lost this year.
-
Sports
Of frozen butts and Hasselhoff
Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2008 International recording and TV star and onetime Vegas resident ... wait for it ... David Hasselhoff, looking every bit as Hasselhoffy as in your dreams in a black leather jacket and combed curls, sang the national anthem; his appearance alone was worth $30.
-
Casino
La Concha’s moving parts
Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008 A tall, skinny cowboy in snug jeans is looking across the vacant lot south of the Riviera, and he spits. “Oh yeah, I do remember. ... The clamshell,” he says, tugging on the brim of his black hat.
-
Politics
What do we change now?
Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008 Having cannon-balled into the vat of Kool-Aid and washed themselves free of irony and shruggishness, Obama’s fans and volunteers aren’t ready to quit. In fact, they’re exhilarated.
-
Budget
Leaping into the abyss
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008 ’Tis the season to cringe at our collective budgets. But who knows how it will all break down?
-
Entertainment
Forest for a cause
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008 Just as you’re getting your pure Christmas love on, you lean back and look at the Review-Journal’s tree, and there, on a high branch, is an ornament made of a shrunken R-J page with the headline “Serial rapist gets life in prison.” Hmm.