REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOK: YEAR IN REVIEW

Reporters' Notebook sends out 2007 with a chuckle, courtesy of these items from the past 12 months.

JANUARY

Female lawmakers have been known to wear red dresses to draw attention during presidential State of the Union addresses. But at President Bush's speech, it was Rep. Shelley Berkley's lips that stuck out.

Berkley wore lipstick so bright it drew notice in the galleries overlooking the House floor. The Nevada Democrat reported she was wearing a combination of Revlon Red and another Revlon color, "Cherries in the Snow."

Before the speech, Berkley asked if her lipstick was on right, and "she was advised she did not need to add more," according to a bystander. In the context of Berkley's style, her chief of staff, Richard Urey, said the lipstick was "middle-range Shelley."

But, he conceded, others might view it differently. "For people who do not base their sense of style with a Vegas influence, it would be upper range," Urey said.

STEVE TETREAULT

FEBRUARY

Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury opposed a plan to limit government seizures of private land known as the People's Initiative to Stop the Taking of Our Land, or PISTOL. He was concerned PISTOL would hinder road projects.

In presenting a compromise plan, he jokingly referred to an alternative he'd call the People's Initiative to Stop the Takings of Our Future Freeways. "Or PIST-OFF," he said.

OMAR SOFRADZIJA

MARCH

Some of the valley's most dedicated humanitarians were tested by Rebel fever.

Social workers were enthusiastically discussing a planned evening outreach mission into downtown's soon-to-close homeless winter shelter, during which they hoped to help up to 40 homeless women find more permanent housing. The enthusiasm quickly waned, however, when one of the workers realized that the Rebels were at the same time scheduled to take on Oregon in an NCAA Midwest Regional Sweet 16 game.

The "Oh, crap" moment was followed by someone only half-jokingly asking: "Can we get a TV in there (the shelter)?"

The group decided to go ahead with the outreach and tape the game.

LYNNETTE CURTIS

APRIL

Members of the Assembly feasted on a rare culinary delicacy during a break in a mammoth floor voting session. Assemblyman James Settelmeyer, R-Gardnerville, and members of his family spent the day before castrating 350 calves on the family's Carson Valley ranch and served "Rocky Mountain oysters," cooked up by Assembly Sergeant of Arms Terry Sullivan.

There are many names for Rocky Mountain oysters. "Montana tenderloin, prairie oysters, swinging sirloin. It just comes down to the fact that most people don't want to call them testicles," Settelmeyer said.

So how did they go over with his colleagues? "There were individuals who decided to eat them and individuals who did not," Settelmeyer said.

One of the biggest fans, according to Settelmeyer, was Assemblywoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas.

"She told me when she was pregnant she remembered eating 'turkey nuts,'" Settelmeyer said.

ED VOGEL

MAY

Large square pieces disappeared from Las Vegas City Council candidate signs along Martin Luther King Boulevard, near the U.S. Highway 95 overpass. As they tended to obliterate the candidates' faces, it might have seemed to be a form of political sabotage. But wouldn't it be easier to remove the signs?

The mystery was solved when a motorist observed a homeless man standing in the median near the traffic light. The front of his sign was scrawled with an appeal for help. The back? The face and part of the name of Ward 5 candidate Stacie Truesdell.

HEIDI KNAPP RINELLA

JUNE

Assembly chambers intermittently took on a carnival atmosphere in the waning hours of the 2007 legislative session.

In the early hours of the final day, legislators and staff members threw around red stress balls. Assemblyman Harvey Munford, D-Las Vegas, and Assemblywoman Susan Gerhardt, D-Henderson, were especially skilled at heaving balls to people sitting in the balcony.

Assemblyman Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas, showed promise as a juggler, as did Assembly clerk Jason Hataway.

Aiden Kendrick, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley's 7-year-old son, helped keep legislators awake during the daylong floor sessions by running around the chamber and hiding under members' desks.

At one point, when legislators and members of the crowd were about to fall asleep, Aiden took his mother's microphone and screamed: "Hi, everybody!"

Everyone snapped to attention.

ED VOGEL

JULY

The Southern Nevada Health District released its first report on the overall health of Clark County residents. There was the expected poor showing in the smoking and drinking categories. And then there was this unexpected surprise: We're gaining weight, but we're not as fat as the average American.

The health district offered no explanation of its findings. So we came up with some explanations of our own:

• Too busy drinking and smoking to eat.

• All the lipo.

• The buffets ain't what they used to be when the carb-lovin' mob ran things.

• Loose slots, looser scales.

• Overall weight of the community brought down by unusually high number of tiny, French-Canadian acrobats.

• Can only afford to eat one meal a week because of the prices at celebrity chef joints.

• Complain about it all you want, but meth is slimming.

• All the exercise fleeing payday loan collection agents.

• They didn't count the silicone.

• I can't smoke where I eat? Guess I'll smoke.

AUGUST

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was scheduled to address the National Association of Black Journalists convention. His speech was to begin at 12:30 p.m., but it was almost 1 p.m. by the time he took the stage.

"I want to apologize for being late," Obama began. "But you guys keep on asking whether I'm black enough."

MOLLY BALL

SEPTEMBER

In response to a Review-Journal story about advertising by the Shady Lady Ranch being allowed in Clark County publications, the husband of one of the sex workers at the brothel near Beatty called to defend his wife's honor. She wasn't portrayed in a classy way in the story, the man claimed.

"She is very classy," the husband said. "She's had her pictures in Penthouse, and she has made adult movies with (porn actor) Ron Jeremy."

PAUL HARASIM

OCTOBER

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 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

NOVEMBER

During the Darren Mack trial, a juror asked Family Court Judge Chuck Weller, whom Mack is accused of trying to assassinate, about any behavior Mack might have exhibited prior to the shooting that caused him concern.

The judge responded that he thought Mack might have been behind a ruse played on Weller two weeks before the shooting.

Someone had taken out an advertisement in a local shopper magazine, advertising a bidding event for a Harley at the judge's home on a Saturday at 7:30 a.m.

Weller went to the courthouse early that weekend morning to get some work done.

"My wife called me and said all these bikers were at our front door wondering where the auction was."

K.C. HOWARD

DECEMBER

The Hillary Clinton campaign's Christmas party got a visit from a very special Santa.

It was hard to tell under all the padding and white hair, but the jolly guest was none other than Rory Reid, the Clark County commissioner and chairman of Clinton's campaign in Nevada.

Like his father, Sen. Harry Reid, Rory can generously be described as slender. It took a lot of padding.

MOLLY BALL