Reporter’s Notebook

If Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman does run for governor, taxpayers probably won't have to worry about him running up a bill for text messages.

"I had a phone call from a very capable reporter up in Carson City," Goodman said, as news was breaking about Gov. Jim Gibbons and the hundreds of text messages sent on his state cell phone to a woman he's insisted is only a "close friend."

A city spokesman answered the call, Goodman quipped, and said, "The mayor's tied up. He's down in Information Technology learning how to text message."

So the mayor's not the texting type?

"I have a hard time with my stupid cell phone," he said. "I still haven't learned how to take messages off of it."

ALAN CHOATE

IF VOTERS LOOK AT THE CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT'S BUILDING PLAN for the next 10 years and have visions of Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers films cooing, "Nine-and-a-half BILLION dollars!" and then laughing maniacally, they're not alone.

Superintendent Walt Rulffes said his eyeballs bulged too when he saw the numbers. "I had to condition myself to say 'billion' and not 'million,'" he said.

ALAN CHOATE

OVERHEARD ON THE SCANNER: "He's asking them if they love Jesus and then driving off again."

LAS VEGAS MARKETING FIRM R&R PARTNERS WON A NATIONAL AWARD for a conservation campaign it created for the Southern Nevada Water Authority. One of the TV spots featured an old woman kicking a man where no man wants to be kicked, all because the guy is running his sprinklers on the wrong day.

R&R's executive vice president and creative director, Randy Snow, said the commercial works because it follows a rule of comedy.

"There are a few things that everybody thinks are funny," he said. "Getting hit in the crotch is one of them."

HENRY BREAN

THE OLD WOMAN DOING THE KICKING IN THE COMMERCIAL HAS BEEN NICKNAMED MRS. NUTTINGTON, but in real life she is a former dancer who was recommended for the part by a local casting agency.

"That's why she was so limber and good with the kick," Snow said.

HENRY BREAN

FOR YEARS, CLARK COUNTY AIR QUALITY FOLKS HAVE BEEN SPEAKING A LANGUAGE OF THEIR OWN, using the word "exceedance" to refer to days when ozone or carbon monoxide or dust particles violate Environmental Protection Agency standards. An adaptation of the word "exceed," the word has appeared in news releases.

That's why, when air quality officials issued an unprecedented advisory on Tuesday indicating that ground-level ozone probably would violate the new EPA standard, the word "violations" was in parenthesis in the quote from spokeswoman Brenda Williams, who said: "We're liable to have (violations) because the standard has been lowered so much."

KEITH ROGERS