REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOK

WHERE IS THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACE TO BE AT 5 O'CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON?

If you're driving, it's probably Interstate 15 near the Strip. But if you're walking, it would be anywhere near the exit of the Clark County Government Center's parking lot, where a swarm of employees hit the gas, slam on their brakes and come within inches of playing bumper cars in their frenzied dash for the street.

It's as if they're afraid they'll turn into proverbial pumpkins if they're on county pavement one minute past 5 p.m.

SCOTT WYLAND

COUNCILMAN RICKI BARLOW GOT A NEW NAME LAST WEEK AFTER THE LAS VEGAS CITY Council approved a deal to bring Buy Low Markets into a now-vacant West Las Vegas storefront, the fruit of a long effort to get a grocery store into the economically depressed neighborhood.

"That's Councilman Buy-Low now, right?" quipped Mayor Pro Tem Gary Reese.

Maybe you had to be there.

ALAN CHOATE

OVERHEARD ON THE SCANNER: "The man is only upset and overreacting because Tiger's losing the U.S. Open."

WORK IS EXPECTED TO START SOON ON TWO "GATEWAY" SCULPTURES for the downtown Las Vegas Arts District, one at Las Vegas Boulevard and Fourth Street and one on Charleston Boulevard between Commerce Street and Casino Center Boulevard.

They will be 45-foot steel paintbrushes that will shoot converging streams of LED light over the Arts District.

The lights change color, so some nights it'll be literally possible to paint the town red.

ALAN CHOATE

DURING A HEARING IN DISTRICT COURT MONDAY FOR FORMER UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER CEO LACY THOMAS, a marshal entered the courtroom and accidentally slammed the door.

The noise startled a witness who was testifying.

"I'm sorry," the witness said. "I was distracted."

"That's OK," said Daniel Albregts, who is Thomas' attorney. "I don't think they're coming for you."

DAVID KIHARA

A T-SHIRT COMPANY THAT MAKES MONEY ON THE BONES OF EMBATTLED POLITICIANS has a new item in its inventory: a shirt bearing Gov. Jim Gibbons' mug and stating, "I did not have TEXT with that woman."

It's a clever, if unoriginal, reference to Gibbons' voluminous texts to his female friend via a state cell phone.

Week In Review grew suspicious, however, after noticing the company identified Gibbons as the "Arizona Governor." Sure enough, the shirt is the product of a Detroit-centric company, which produced a version featuring the same phrase next to a picture of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, whose unearthed texts to a former aide showed he lied at a police whistle-blower trial when he denied a sexual affair with the aide.