reporters’ notebook

THE O.J. SIMPSON CASE IS NOW THE GOLD STANDARD by which all other criminal cases in Clark County will be judged.

More than a dozen people posted comments on the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Web site after District Judge Valorie Vega sentenced a 23-year-old woman to spend three to 10 years in prison for stabbing to death another woman at Bally's.

Most expressed shock that the woman, Latrovia Reed, would get less time in prison than Simpson, who will spend between 9 and 33 years behind bars for kidnapping and armed robbery. One person wrote: "3-10? Heck, O.J. got more for scaring someone."

DAVID KIHARA

MONDAY'S ONE-DAY SPECIAL SESSION of the Legislature was short, if not sweet. In the Assembly, it seemed as if half the day was taken up by lawmakers' recited disclosures, which lawyers advised them they had to make about potential conflicts of interest.

Each legislator read a statement before every bill about their personal and familial connections to businesses affected by taxes or entities that get state funding, from charitable boards to day jobs to kids in college. Just about everybody had something to disclose.

After one lengthy round, Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert, R-Reno, quipped, "It's nice to learn about everybody's families today."

MOLLY BALL

SOME ASSEMBLY MEMBERS DEPARTED from the boilerplate they'd been given to read by counsel. Before a hearing on a bill affecting the retail sales tax, Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko, disclosed that his wife runs a convenience store and would be upset about the tax change. So, he said, "I could vote against it and keep my wife, or I could vote for it and maybe my wife would leave me and you all would have to take care of me forever."

Carpenter then voted against the bill.

MOLLY BALL

TO PUBLICIZE ITS STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS early next year, the City of North Las Vegas sent out an invitation that starts out flat then springs into the three-dimensional shape of a house.

It's pretty cool, but the Week in Review staff would like to suggest a few accessories that would complete the scene:

• A yard choked with weeds and door-hanger restaurant menus.

• A backyard pool filled with green sludge, mosquitoes and West Nile virus.

• A cardboard couple with an adjustable rate mortgage and no choice but to move back in with their parents.

• A tiny "For Sale" sign that identifies the house as "bank owned."

• A pop-up real estate broker offering walkthroughs in exchange for food.