WEEK IN REVIEW: Reporters’ notebook
Lon Bronson’s All-Stars are one of those great Vegas traditions, a horn-heavy band of professional Strip musicians playing songs for kicks to crowds of locals, often for free.
Players and vocalists appear and disappear during shows as they shuttle to and from other gigs. The band has a thick songbook, so it’s no surprise the musicians covered everything from “White Rabbit” to a James Bond medley during their recent return to the Railhead at Boulder Station.
But the true “only in Las Vegas” moment came when Bronson coaxed a couple of local legends onto the floor — 82-year-old burlesque queen Bambi and her daughter Bambi Jr. — to dance to “You Can Leave Your Hat On.”
They were not wearing hats, but they kept their clothes on.
MARK WHITTINGTON
As their own form of a fraternity prank, lawmakers often playfully vote no on bills sought by freshman legislators.
On Tuesday, Sen. Justin Jones, D-Las Vegas, got the treatment.
Jones spoke eloquently on a bill to expand reporting requirements for lobbyists who spend money on legislators.
Though no one spoke in opposition to the bill, a perplexed Jones looked up at a largely red vote tally board, as no votes came raining down.
Then, after a lot of laughing, and before the voting was closed, every senator pushed their yes buttons to turn the tally board green.
ED VOGEL
While on assignment in Searchlight earlier this year, a reporter took time out for some personal research about his family roots in the area. It turns out his great-great uncle worked as a rancher there during the first half of the 20th century.
The reporter — who, it should be noted, is much more comfortable on a couch than in a saddle — returned from the trip with a souvenir: an old branding iron that once belonged to his relative.
Still feeling a little detached from this part of his past, he dug a little deeper by researching the old family cattle brand through the state’s Livestock Identification office in Elko.
The quick and thorough response he got really helped clear things up.
The brand he thought was a K with a bar under it turned out to be a K on its back with an I next to it. Not K Bar but K I. Lazy K I.
Suddenly, it all made sense.
HENRY BREAN
