Week in Review: Reporters’ Notebook

The BLM’s dust study found that nearly all samples contained palygorskite, a fibrous clay substance that has many of the same characteristics as asbestos.

The naturally occurring mineral is not regulated like asbestos, but researchers think it has potential to cause lung disease and cancer in humans. It just doesn’t have a very catchy name, which is why Cary Grant never starred in a movie called “Palygorskite and Old Lace.”

KEITH ROGERS

Mark Fine, chairman of the UNLV Foundation’s Board of Trustees, was talking to a group of university employees about proposed budget cuts.

He went through his background, noting that he has been on the board for almost 30 years. Fine, who lost to Oscar Goodman in the 1999 Las Vegas mayoral race, also noted that he is a real estate developer.

“I learned the only thing lower on the food chain than a mob attorney is a real estate developer,” he said.

RICHARD LAKE

Central Nevada District Judge John Davis, who died Wednesday at age 76, was an avid outdoorsman and hunter who, even late in life, could ride solo into the wilderness on horseback and return with giant buck.

Attorney Harry Kuehn recalled stopping by to see Davis when Kuehn was on his way home from his own hunting trip. He said the judge was very gracious, inviting Kuehn and his hunting buddy to stay for breakfast.

But Davis couldn’t help but rib Kuehn about the smallish doe he had bagged. “He kept calling it my German shepherd,” Kuehn said.

HENRY BREAN

Noting the scarcity of toilet paper in local schools, teaching assistant Autumn Tampa had this to say about further budget cuts to school funding: “We’re already lacking in the basic necessities to function as human beings.”

JAMES HAUG