REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK

WHAT WOULD YOU NAME A PET THAT WAS RESCUED FROM THE LIED ANIMAL SHELTER JUST BEFORE HUNDREDS OF ANIMALS WERE EUTHANIZED?

Donna West, 50, adopted a silky terrier immediately before an outbreak at the shelter forced officials to euthanize animals there. She named the dog Chance. The Review-Journal got a, ahem, chance to meet Chance at an anti-war rally in front of the federal courthouse on Wednesday evening.

Not only is Chance very friendly, but, according to West, he's politically savvy. At least for a liberal dog.

West proudly claimed that Chance peed on her "Bush lied" sign, specifically the "Bush" part.

FRANCIS McCABE

MAYOR OSCAR GOODMAN IS DUMBER THAN A ROAD LIZARD.

Don't fret, dear reader, we're not insulting the beloved Goodman, who won the stamp of approval from nearly 85 percent of the Las Vegas voters who bothered to cast ballots in April's election.

It's just that Goodman isn't convinced that being judged less intelligent than a reptile is an insult.

Asked at his news conference Thursday what he thought about developer Bill Walters characterizing Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian in the Wall Street Journal as being "dumber than a road lizard," Goodman responded that he didn't know what a road lizard was, much less its IQ.

"For all I know, a road lizard could be very smart," he said.

DAVID McGRATH SCHWARTZ

AT LAST WEEKEND'S RIVER RUN IN LAUGHLIN, CUSTOM MOTORCYCLE BUILDER VINCE DOLL DIDN'T HESITATE IN IDENTIFYING HIS PERSONAL FAVORITE among the many on display. As he straddled his favorite and hyped it to the crowd as a bike for a brutally handsome man like himself, he laughed before responding to a question about the name of the model.

"You can call it an FCA," said Doll, founder of Redneck Engineering, a South Carolina-based company. "For Candy Asses."

He leaned over the front wheel to point out why.

"It has a shock (absorber)," he said.

LISA KIM BACH

OVERHEARD ON THE SCANNER: "He (the suspect) has got a long list of things he should not be doing."

GENE WEINGARTEN OF THE WASHINGTON POST HAD SOME FUN at Las Vegas' expense. The columnist noted a recent story on three Las Vegas homeless men filing a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city after being jailed for sleeping too close to feces.

He phoned city spokeswoman Elena Owens, and according to his column in the Post, the following exchange ensued:

WEINGARTEN: So what's up with the poop statute?

OWENS: Actually, it was put in the ordinance by mistake.

WEINGARTEN: By mistake? An ordinance accidentally said you couldn't sleep near a pile of poo?

OWENS: Yes. And it was rescinded, but that apparently didn't trickle down to the city marshals who arrested the men.

WEINGARTEN: You said "trickle down."

OWENS: Ha-ha.

WEINGARTEN: So how does a mistake like that happen?

OWENS: I'm going to put you in touch with Brad Jerbic, the city attorney.

WEINGARTEN: So, Brad, how does a mistake like that happen?

JERBIC: To be honest, it was not intended to be in the ordinance. It was a line someone started to draft, and it accidentally got left in.

WEINGARTEN: Did it have to be human poop? Could it have been, like, squirrel poop?

JERBIC: It didn't specify. We don't have squirrels here, but it could have been lizard poop.

DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE BILL RICHARDSON PRIDES HIMSELF ON BEING ABLE TO REACH ACROSS THE AISLE, FOR A RIDE.

Richardson, the New Mexico governor and former ambassador to the United Nations, told the Review-Journal about a diplomatic mission he recently undertook to North Korea, noting that he was joined on the trip by former Bush administration official Anthony Principi.

"I went to Steve Hadley, the national security adviser, and said, 'Let's do a joint delegation,'" Richardson said. "... I also had a little bit of an ulterior motive, and that was that I needed an airplane to get there. So we got an Air Force plane."

MOLLY BALL

WHEN IS A SPY PLANE NOT A SPY PLANE? According to Laura McGowan, a public affairs specialist at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, when the Air Force chooses to call it something else.

In response to Review-Journal scribe Keith Rogers' repeated descriptions of the Predator as a spy plane, McGowan wrote:

"In your articles, I see you refer to the Predator as a spy plane. The Air Force refers to it as an unmanned aerial vehicle or system."

Rogers responded: "Any way you cut it, it's a remotely piloted aircraft that spies on the enemy. Hence a spy plane."

KEITH ROGERS