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T.R. Witcher

Story Archive

  • Taxes

    Thursday, June 11, 2009

    What’s up with all the officer-involved accidents lately? And who’s paying the bill?

  • Politics

    Thursday, June 4, 2009

    In choosing Sonia Sotomayor as his nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, President Obama said he was looking for a judge with empathy. Let’s apply our Empathy Meter to see how some of the city’s biggest names fare.

  • Politics

    Thursday, June 4, 2009

    Reid’s numbers may be down, but can any Republicans beat him?

  • Health

    Thursday, May 28, 2009

    If you think catching a cab is hard, try spending a morning with Santa Perez, who has cerebral palsy.

  • Literature

    Thursday, May 28, 2009

    The powerhouse literary journal Granta kicks off its 30th anniversary with its latest issue, showcasing fiction by established masters and up-and-coming young writers.

  • Environment

    Thursday, May 28, 2009

    In tough times, you’d think the proposed development of a new mine on the outskirts of town might be a plus. Yet, the “outskirts of town” have been swallowed by the city. Which is why residents of Henderson are fighting a proposed mine near I-15 at Sloan.

  • Barack Obama

    Thursday, May 28, 2009

    Barack Obama must be something like the Hindu god Shiva.

  • Economy

    Thursday, May 21, 2009

    Architects across the state are trying to stay afloat. No one's building - not offices, not hotels, not condos.

  • Theatre

    Thursday, May 14, 2009

    What was it like cross-examining your friend, legendary American lawyer William Jennings Bryan, during the famous Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925?

  • Issues

    Thursday, May 14, 2009

    Yes, it’s all a bit obscene in this economy, these enormous houses with their dozen flat-screen TVs and their nouveau riche mediocrity of taste, but that hasn’t stopped any of us from coming.

  • Environment

    Thursday, May 14, 2009

    Our politicians say Nevada can become energy independent by 2020. Are we just kidding ourselves?

  • Government

    Thursday, May 7, 2009

    Back in march, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid lent his voice trying to urge a resolution to financial woes at MGM Mirage, which were threatening to sink its flagship CityCenter project.

  • Literature

    Thursday, May 7, 2009

    Playing a Vulcan can be a real head trip: It was enough to lead the most famous Vulcan, Leonard Nimoy, to title his first autobiography I Am Not Spock, and to title his second I Am Spock.

  • Entertainment

    Thursday, May 7, 2009

    This is a story about fear. Not fear of the economy. Not fear of death. But fear of the unknown, the uncertain. Alvin Tam calls this the oh shit moment.

  • CityCenter

    Thursday, April 30, 2009

    MGM Mirage is moving forward with an ambitious, $40 million public art program—which makes sense, since the company bought or commissioned the works two years ago, before the economy went bust.

  • Federal Government

    Thursday, April 30, 2009

    The 10 techniques under discussion were: (1) attention grasp, (2) walling, (3) facial hold, (4) facial slap (insult slap), (5) cramped confinement, (6) wall standing, (7) stress positions, (8) sleep deprivation, (9) insects placed in a confinement box and (10) the waterboard.

  • Film

    Thursday, April 23, 2009

    Los Angeles. Early ’80s. Vacuous, rich and pretty blond boys and girls get drunk, get high and get laid; a few come to a vague realization that their lives are, um, vacuous.

  • Intersection

    Thursday, April 23, 2009

    As the recession burns, more Las Vegans are taking a match to their own rides.

  • Taxes

    Thursday, April 16, 2009

    There was more than an air of cry-baby defensiveness a few weeks ago at the G20 Summit in London, when Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg, accused the U.S. of harboring tax havens

  • Art

    Thursday, April 16, 2009

    We don’t think much about architecture in the Valley, because, frankly, outside of the Strip, there’s not much to talk about. The latest master-planned community, no matter how nice, is, as a design issue, a rote matter, as are the shopping plazas that fill in the gaps of the city’s fabric.

  • Economy

    Thursday, April 9, 2009

    Budget shortfall? What about a $5 Statewide Sex Act Tax. Let’s see, if half a million people have sex once a week … that's $125 million.

  • A&E

    Thursday, April 9, 2009

    Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad comically solves some of the mysteries of Judaism—like what’s in the middle of gefilte fish—and jokingly celebrates hamantaschen, triangle-shaped pastries.

  • Literature

    Thursday, April 2, 2009

    Local lawyer and writer Franklin Levy has figured out a way to combine literary muscle and good design.

  • Economy

    Thursday, April 2, 2009

    Now, with Obama’s $3.6 trillion budget on the line, the foot soldiers of his campaign are being summoned to collect signatures.

  • Art

    Thursday, March 26, 2009

    Here’s the good news. One: The federal government’s economic stimulus bill, the $789 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, includes $50 million in funding for the arts, administered through the National Endowment for the Arts. And two: It’s happening fast.

  • Culture

    Thursday, March 19, 2009

    While Artistic Director James Canfield and the ballerinas are calm and focused, outside, it’s a different story

  • Entertainment

    Thursday, March 19, 2009

    On came a young MC to briefly throttle the joint to attention. She was decked in black pants, a red top, a black vest, a red truckers cap perched high above a camouflage bandana, neither of which could corral her long black hair.

  • Development

    Wednesday, March 18, 2009

    Even in the midst of an economic downturn, there are always plans in the Las Vegas Valley for new homes. And in Henderson, those plans are not small—or easy.

  • Casinos

    Thursday, March 12, 2009

    Modern and contemporary architecture is in large part defined by its generous use of glass.

  • Crime

    Thursday, March 12, 2009

    We encourage our prosecutors to try cases,” says Clark County District Attorney David Roger. “We believe that in order to move 60,000 cases through the system, we need to develop top-notch litigators.”

  • Economy

    Thursday, March 5, 2009

    “This is Jane with Credit Contact at 866-213-7580. I’m calling about your high credit-card balances." I get these damn calls all the time.

  • Art

    Thursday, March 5, 2009

    Apart from the staff of the Weekly, which came to tour through the Las Vegas Art Museum last Thursday, there were not many other visitors. The few I found were from out of town.

  • Crime

    Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009

    There are two ironies about the city of Las Vegas’ Downtown Beautification Office, which sends people with parking tickets, DUIs and domestic-violence offenses on to the streets of downtown Las Vegas to clean them up, in lieu of fines or jail time.

  • Film

    Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009

    While you were watching the Oscars, Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail was the No. 1 movie in America, pulling in $41 million at the box office over the weekend.

  • The Strip

    Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009

    First things first: the Washington, D.C.-based architect Nir Buras hates modern architecture. Second: He wants to remake Las Vegas' most famous street. Completely.

  • Development

    Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009

    We tend not to see the built environment, though it’s all around us, and of all the arts forms, architecture is the one that tends to have the most tangible impacts.

  • Nevada

    Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009

    Nevada State Prison in Carson City, which dates back to the 19th century, is the oldest prison in the state, and one of the oldest in the country. But its long history may be over.

  • Congress

    Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009

    A politician’s life is necessarily a dance between praise and criticism, between the handshakes that build consensus and make nice PR and the stinging words that establish differences—and also make nice PR. And so it goes for Steven Horsford, the first African-American to hold the post of State Senate majority leader.

  • Economy

    Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009

    Fridays at UNLV are usually sparsely attended; the campus moves at a lazy pace. But the campus sits under an uneasy cloud following proposed budget cuts announced last month by Gov. Jim Gibbons.

  • Culture

    Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009

    At the north end of the Springs Preserve, construction crews are wrapping up work on the large new Nevada State Museum—the state’s most ambitious museum.

  • History

    Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009

    When the city of Las Vegas celebrated its 100th anniversary a few years ago, Mark Hall-Patton, administrator of the Clark County Museum, knew that his institution would have to rise to the challenge—because the county’s centennial is this year.

  • Culture

    Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009

    Forbes, last month, has gone and named North Las Vegas and Henderson two of America’s 10 most boring cities.

  • Economy

    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?

  • Literature

    Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009

    At a time like this, when the bubble has burst on Las Vegas’ collective psyche, it’s nice to recall the good old days of sun and fun and money, when a writer could say of the city, without irony, “It is the most incredible oasis the world has ever known.”

  • Conventions

    Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009

    The question on everyone’s mind was how CES would do in a down economy, and whether people still needed all the gizmos and devices the consumer electronics industry peddles here every year.

  • Henderson

    Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009

    It’s safe to say there’s not a lot of street art on the streets of Henderson. But in John Martone's online gallery, vegasstreetart.com, which he operates out of his home in, of all places, Henderson, there's plenty.

  • Real Estate

    Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009

    There is construction at Inspirada, the massive master-planned community in the southern reaches of Henderson, tucked behind the Henderson Airport, but most of the land on the 2,000-acre site is vacant dirt,

  • Art

    Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008

    The three-story building at 601 E. Fremont, at the edge of Downtown’s Fremont East District, has seen duty as a Sears store and a fingerprinting lab used by Metro. It was almost the site of a 10,000 square-foot nightclub.

  • Poverty

    Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008

    On a chilly Christmas Eve morning, Julie Murray, the CEO of Three Square Food Bank, and her staff were on the job well before 8 a.m., readying their giant warehouse for its daily ritual.

  • Development

    Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2008

    Admittedly, it feels like a sign of the economic times, when the Culinary Union, the 55,000-member collective of hospitality workers, decides to pick a fight with City Hall.