Reporter’s Notebook

FOLLOWING A NEWS CONFERENCE FOR STATE SEN. DINA TITUS, a Review-Journal reporter accidentally flipped the congressional candidate the bird.

Really, it was an accident.

Titus was driving away from the event with a campaign aide. The reporter was walking back to his car, his hands loaded with a notebook, a Blackberry, a news release, sunglasses and car keys. Titus waved. The reporter tried to wave back, but managed to get only one finger uplifted. It was not the index finger.

RICHARD LAKE

WHEN THE SOUTHERN NEVADA WATER AUTHORITY started buying ranches in White Pine County, General Manager Pat Mulroy had no idea what sort of things she would learn.

When she saw a purchase order for a few dozen new bulls, she asked a staff member about it. As it turned out, the animals were needed to replace bulls that escaped from the previous owner and had to be destroyed.

Once she got the full story, Mulroy probably was a little sorry she asked.

"They had broken out, gone over to Steptoe Valley, met some loose cows and ended up contracting a venereal disease," she said.

HENRY BREAN

OVERHEARD ON THE SCANNER: "They're at the Nevada Landing, a couple having sex under the sign."

WITH ABOUT TWO MINUTES LEFT IN THE UNLV FOOTBALL team's recent victory over hapless Utah State, the Aggies scored a meaningless touchdown to close the gap to 10 points.

But it seemed to mean plenty to one man in the stands, who jumped up and stretched his arms toward the sky while most everyone else around him remained seated.

The man was no Aggie fan, though. He wore Rebel red with "UNLV" emblazened on his T-shirt.

So why was he cheering? The spread on the game was 121/2.

FRANCIS McCABE

THINGS ARE BIGGER OUT WEST. Just ask Assemblyman Pete Goicoechea.

The Republican from Eureka presides over a legislative district that stretches some 425 miles, from the Nevada-Utah border to Gerlach north of Reno and takes in all of U.S. Highway 50, aka "The Loneliest Road in America."

With little hope of knocking on every door in a district that size, Goicoechea does a lot of his campaigning at rodeos and county fairs. But the cowboy lawmaker has no complaints.

"It's a good place to raise cows and kids," he said.

HENRY BREAN

AROUND AND AROUND THE PROVERBIAL BARN went Clark County School Board members, discussing a proposed curriculum change without much resolution.

After 90 minutes or so, school board members decided to move on, but Lauren Kohut-Rost, the deputy superintendent of instruction, expressed sowlike contentment anyway.

"Whenever we talk about curriculum at a board meeting, I'm in hog heaven," she said.

Realizing how that might sound, Kohut-Rost quickly told reporters: "Don't print that."

Jeff Weiler, the chief financial officer, came to her rescue, validating her Elly Mae Clampett with a turn as Jethro.

Taking the podium for the next agenda item, the Virginia native drawled, "Whenever we talk about transportation, I'm in hog heaven. Southern colloquialisms are something I'm familiar with."

JAMES HAUG