Reporters’ notebook

SOMETIMES HEROES GET NO RESPECT.

On Oct. 18, Michael Ryan and an inmate from a local halfway house, Tracy Treadwell, helped foil a robbery at a shopping complex on Rainbow Boulevard and Russell Road.

During the robbery, Ryan chased and tackled a 50-year-old suspect they said robbed a nearby day spa.

Ryan says he couldn't help telling his wife about his heroic deed. The couple was excited to watch the local news because Ryan had heard KTNV-TV, Channel 13, was doing a story about the thwarted robbery.

But the news station instead reported that a group of women from the day spa had put an end to the robbery.

"That's not the story you told me," Ryan recalled his wife saying. "They said the women took him down!"

DAVID KIHARA

COMIC PETER ANTHONY OFFERED A SOMBER MOMENT at the Old Timers Reunion Dinner at the Orleans last Sunday, asking the more than 1,000 people to bow their heads for a moment of silence for those not with us. As those in attendance dutifully bowed their heads, Anthony began reading the names: "Lance Malone, Erin Kenny, Dario Herrera and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey."

Hoots of laughter erupted from those who had expected to think about the dearly departed, not former commissioners now behind bars.

JANE ANN MORRISON

SEN. HARRY REID SHOWED OFF HIS POP CULTURE KNOWLEDGE and got in a crack about the sexiest woman alive in an interview this month with American Prospect magazine.

Reid discussed his love for movies, telling the magazine he hated "The Bourne Ultimatum" and loved "3:10 to Yuma." Topping his list was "In the Valley of Elah." The acting particularly stood out, he said.

"Tommy Lee Jones, and Susan Sarandon ... and then that ugly woman -- Charlize Theron, she added a little to it," he said.

Reid's "unexpected injection of comedy" caused aide Jim Manley "to almost pop a vein trying to contain his guffaws," the magazine said.

Theron was named "Sexiest Woman Alive" this month by Esquire magazine.

TONY BATT

DURING A BREAK FROM JURY SELECTION for the Darren Mack trial, prosecutor Robert Daskas, who recently announced his candidacy for Congress, was walking through the courthouse lobby when he waved at defense attorney Greg Denue and a Review-Journal reporter.

Denue bellowed a bit of advice to Daskas, urging him to slip a mention of Iraq into his long-awaited opening statements in the nationally televised Mack trial.

Daskas did not take Denue's advice.

K.C. HOWARD

IT TOOK 19 MINUTES FOR a loaded chlorine tanker to cut across the most populated areas of Clark County on Aug. 29. As the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada reviewed last week how the near-disastrous event came to happen, Commissioner Rebecca Wagner couldn't help zooming in on one of the most remarkable facts about the incident.

"I thought it was impossible for anyone to be able to cross the Las Vegas Valley in 20 minutes," Wagner said.

LISA KIM BACH

DURING UNLV'S "SUSTAINABILITY" conference on making Las Vegas more efficient Wednesday, one of the university's vice presidents wondered why attendees at the conference were mostly sitting near the back of the room.

University system Chancellor Jim Rogers, who has been in the news lately for proposing tax increases and the use of a state financial reserve to pay for budget shortfalls, had an answer.

"I don't think anybody wants to get too close to me these days," he said.

LAWRENCE MOWER

SPEAKING BRIEFLY AT THE EFFICIENCY CONFERENCE, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said he's always liked the concept of going "green."

"I assure you that the one thing I love about my (law) practice was when people would give big bags of green to me," he said.

When Goodman became mayor and was told that the city of Las Vegas would focus on becoming green, "It brought a smile to my face," he said.

LAWRENCE MOWER

NOT EVERYONE WAS PLEASED when police arrested a man they say shot three officers after a 31/2 hour standoff on Oct. 19.

"They should have killed him," said Charlie Smith, who was kept from going to his home while police negotiated with the shooting suspect. "Look at this mess. Think of how much it's going to cost us to baby-sit this guy in jail. I mean he shot three cops. He ran this town for almost four hours."

Sgt. John Loretto, a Las Vegas police spokesman, said it's department policy to make every attempt to bring a potentially dangerous situation to a peaceful resolution. "Whether that takes an hour or three or four hours, this agency is willing to commit to that," he said during a radio station interview.

When he was no longer being recorded, Loretto said the question as to why the man was not just shot was "stupid."

"We're not a militia," he mumbled.

BETH WALTON