Staff List > Stacy J. Willis > Stories

Contact

  • Photo of Stacy J. Willis

Stacy J. Willis

Story Archive

  • Social

    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

    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

    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

    Thursday, July 9, 2009

    The road to foreclosure hell is paved with ‘good faith.’

  • Entertainment

    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

    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

    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

    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

    Thursday, July 2, 2009

    Isn’t it time we gave up those noisy, environmentally unfriendly fireworks, anyway?

  • Culture

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    Thursday, April 23, 2009

    Diamond earrings and gold pendant? $35. HP copier/scanner? $5. Finding out your treasure belongs are virtual crap? Priceless.

  • Economy

    Thursday, April 23, 2009

    Eerie similarities between the sunken ship and the sinking city. Will there be enough lifeboats?

  • Television

    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

    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

    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

    Thursday, April 2, 2009

    Eager to be green, lawmakers are considering the problem of apartment communities: Few complexes offer recycling.

  • Entertainment

    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

    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

    Thursday, March 19, 2009

    Out here there’s no love for development. This is the iconic Old West.

  • Transportation

    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

    Thursday, March 5, 2009

    Wad up the state constitution and whip out a fresh sheet of paper, something’s not right about Nevada.

  • Budget

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008

    ’Tis the season to cringe at our collective budgets. But who knows how it will all break down?

  • Entertainment

    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.