Reporters’ Notebook

During a Thursday meeting with the Review-Journal's editorial board, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman suffered a surprise nosebleed.

"That's what happens when you take meth," the mayor joked.

"You've been spending too much time downtown," cracked R-J Assistant Editorial Page Editor Vin Suprynowicz, hitting a little too close to home for the city's unrelenting champion of downtown redevelopment.

"Ooh, that hurts," the mayor responded.

GLENN COOK

The first hour of Clark County School Board meetings is known to some as "happy hour" because it consists mostly of progress reports and good news from students and staff.

School board members' pride over district achievements prompted this reaction Thursday from Ken Small.

"If they got any more self-congratulatory, they would have to remove their clothes," said Small, a school architect and candidate for School Board seat F.

JAMES HAUG

Calvin Ni, 17, a junior at Clark High School, thinks he has found a flaw in a new dress code policy under consideration by the School Board. The policy requires students to cover up all undergarments.

"I don't see where you have to wear undergarments, though," Ni said.

JAMES HAUG

Reporters often hear from the reading public after a controversial story has run. Often, those callers are polite and well-informed.

But sometimes, it's the Crazy Cat Lady on the phone.

She called the other day, complaining about how humans don't take feral cats seriously. They can stop the spread of disease! They can offer comfort to the afflicted! They can kill vermin!

"Do you understand what I'm saying?" Crazy Cat Lady asked. "I'm drunk right now, so I don't know what I'm saying. But, you know what I mean?"

RICHARD LAKE

At President Barack Obama's recent town hall meeting in Henderson, the final question went to Green Valley High School math teacher Terri Wright, who hit the president with a two-parter: "When you were a freshman in high school, did you have math homework every night, and did you do it?"

"The answer is yes and sometimes," Obama said.

After the event, Wright said she appreciated the president's honesty, but she acknowledged that she might have to teach around his answer a little bit.

She knows students will remind her the president of the United States didn't always do his math work, but Wright said she already has her answer ready. "Yes," she will say, "but sometimes he did."

"And think what he could have become if he'd done it all the time," Wright said with a smile.

HENRY BREAN