REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOK

THE ONGOING FUROR OVER SOUTHERN NEVADA'S MASSIVE HEALTH ALERT won't dent tourism, said Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.

"The average guy who wants to come out and have a martini with me isn't going to think about getting a shot," he said at his weekly news conference.

Really?

As chuckles spread through the press corps, he corrected himself.

"A shot of anything other than gin," he said.

And yes, it appeared he really wasn't making an intentional alcohol reference.

For once.

ALAN CHOATE

A MAN REJECTED A PLEA AGREEMENT AND DECLARED himself not guilty in a Nye County court Feb. 26 in connection with a disturbance at a Tonopah filling station last year.

According to police, Mark Steven Scott stopped to fuel his vehicle at the same time the station was raising its gasoline prices. When Scott saw the price jump just as he started to fill his tank, police said, he flew into a rage, smashed the store's telephone and threatened an employee.

The gas station-convenience store's name: Giggle Springs.

HENRY BREAN

SOUTHWEST VALLEY RESIDENT JANAS DYMON GOT INTO A FIGHT with the Las Vegas Valley Water District after she received a massive -- and as it turned out, incorrect -- bill in December. Based on the amount of water the district said she used, Dymon joked that she must have a Strip-style water extravaganza hidden somewhere on her property.

"Yeah," she said with a laugh, "the neighbors don't like it, especially when I play the loud Pink Floyd during the show."

HENRY BREAN

DURING THE MURDER TRIAL OF DR. HARRISTON BASS, attorney David Lee Phillips jokingly equated his prowess at filing motions to Prince's songwriting skills. Phillips explained that he could file motions in his sleep, adding that Prince is known to wake up in the middle of the night and dictate songs.

This started a whole line of questioning from District Judge Jackie Glass and others in the courtroom.

"Are you wearing purple when you do it (file motions)?"

"Are you listening to Prince while you do it?"

Finally, Glass' marshal put his foot down: "You're honor, Mr. Phillips is no Prince."

DAVID KIHARA

LOS ANGELES TIMES BLOGGER AND HENDERSON RESIDENT Richard Abowitz explained to his Southern California audience that Henderson isn't Las Vegas. He offered his experience during a Saturday night trip to a busy Henderson P.F. Chang's to illustrate the difference.

"We won't have to wait," for a table, a friend boasted. "Don't worry. I know how to handle the situation."

Abowitz said he begged his friend "not to try her $20 game."

"This is my neighborhood," he said. "It is embarrassing to do that here."

The friend ignored his pleas and flashed a few bills at the hostess, but to no avail. The hostess told them the wait would be over an hour.

"That always worked before," Abowitz quoted his friend as saying. "Isn't this Las Vegas?"

Justice Bill Maupin got some laughs last week during a hearing over who should have jurisdiction in a dispute between tobacco companies and the state attorney general's office.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Victoria Thimmesch Oldenburg was arguing that Nevada's court system should have jurisdiction over the dispute. Attorney Steve Patton, representing the tobacco companies, argued it belongs with a federal arbitration panel.

Maupin, who opted in January not to run for another term on the state high court, noted during the Tuesday argument that having the dispute over whether a state has complied with provisions of the tobacco settlement agreement heard in a state court could prove advantageous to a state attorney general.

"Well, I could see the concern here ... that if you left the question of compliance to individual state courts around the country they would all find that there is compliance so that they wouldn't politically hurt their states. Assuming there are political influences in the courts. I can't speak to that of course."

SEAN WHALEY

IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN

Iowa draws line on Las Vegas experience

An Iowa man argued in court recently that he shouldn't have been fired for asking hotel staff to find him a prostitute while staying at a resort-casino in Iowa, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reported.

His reasoning? The resort boasted that it offered a Las Vegas-like experience.

Neil Jorgensen, 62, an employee of the Riverside Casino and Golf Resort in Riverside, Iowa, got a free night's stay at the casino after a year on the job. About midnight, after spending the evening eating and drinking, Jorgensen began calling the front desk inquiring about a prostitute, the newspaper reported.

Managers refused, so Jorgensen called an adjacent resort with the same request.

"The advertisement is that it's just like Las Vegas, so I thought I was in Las Vegas," Jorgensen testified at an unemployment benefit hearing, the Press-Citizen reported.

Jorgensen was fired the next day, the Press-Citizen reported.

At the court hearing, Jorgensen blamed it all on the booze. "I was absolutely plowed," he said.