WEEK IN REVIEW: Reporters’ Notebook

This past Tuesday was many things. A nice day for a walk. Better than Monday. The 67th day of 2011. The day UNLV officials announced they would kill 33 degree programs and more than 300 jobs if budget cuts go through. Social Work, gone. Philosophy, gone. Women's Studies, gone.

Lots of people pointed out the irony of that last one being killed on this particular Tuesday. Because Tuesday, March 8, 2011, also happened to be the 100th annual celebration of International Women's Day.

RICHARD LAKE

If it's ever built, the towering Ferris wheel proposed for the Strip is sure to excite children traveling with their families, said Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins.

He recalled how excited he would get as a kid when he saw a sign advertising baby rattlesnakes at a rural outpost.

Collins said his family would pass the roadside rattler attraction while returning to Las Vegas from California on a two-lane highway some 50 years ago.

When Commissioner Larry Brown's turn came to speak about the Ferris wheel, he appeared snake bitten.

"I'm still in the back of that station wagon trying to figure out Commissioner Collins and the rattlesnakes," Brown said.

SCOTT WYLAND

Students threatened to walk out of Chaparral High School Wednesday to protest the replacement of much of the school staff, but backed down at the urging of administrators.

When students then decided to rally at the school flag pole after school, it seemed like their protest would be thwarted a second time when school buses parked in front of students and obstructed the view of TV news crews and photographers who had gathered on the sidewalk.

Gratefully, it was a fleeting inconvenience as the buses soon left on their routes.

JAMES HAUG

TWEET OF THE WEEK: @latimestot (Los Angeles Times blogger Andrew Malcolm): Except for the affair, ethics probe & no $$, Nevada's GOP Sen. Ensign was a certain 2012 victor.