Reporters’ Notebook

SOMETIMES SILENCE IS GOLDEN. At a recent court hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen remanded a defendant to custody after learning she had tested positive for methamphetamine and tried to fake a drug test.

After hearing Leen's decision, the defendant tried to explain herself. She revealed that she is 31/2 months pregnant.

"You're pregnant, and you're testing positive for methamphetamine?" the judge asked angrily. "You might want to exercise your right to remain silent."

CARRI GEER THEVENOT

OVERHEARD ON THE SCANNER: "They're obviously trying to find the car keys, because they're picking through the trash."

AT A RECENT MEETING TO DISCUSS AVIATION SAFETY in the wake of two recent fatal crashes, one pilot greeted another with a joke: "It's my constitutional right to crash, and I plan to exercise it."

HENRY BREAN

MAYOR OSCAR GOODMAN'S LATEST SHOWBIZ ADVENTURE may have gone to his head. Speaking Thursday during the announcement of Gordie Brown's new gig at the Golden Nugget, which is going to name its theater the Gordie Brown Showroom, Goodman complained he'd been misled.

"I was brought here under false pretenses," he quipped. "They told me they were going to name this the Oscar Goodman Theater."

Goodman, of course, already has his own theater, complete with live television broadcasts. It's called the City Council chambers.

ALAN CHOATE

A WOMAN WHO WOULDN'T GIVE HER NAME but identified herself as a Las Vegas resident since the 1950s called in about a recent story on the Southern Nevada Water Authority's activities in White Pine County.

To support its plans to tap groundwater from across eastern Nevada, the Southern Nevada Water Authority now owns and operates seven ranches in White Pine County and even has its own cattle brand.

The caller said she doesn't care for the authority's water pipeline plans or its entry into the livestock business.

"I know they already have their brand, but a big R might be good," she said. "It stands for 'robbers.'"

HENRY BREAN

OVERHEARD ON THE SCANNER: "Well if I have a choice, I'll go on break."