WEEK IN REVIEW: Reporters’ notebook

A reader with an Irish brogue called an RJ reporter Thursday to complain about ancient history.

The reader, who did not give her name or say where she was calling from, was upset that a story in the paper referenced the slaughter of Spanish sailors by the Irish in 1588.

The woman said the story should have noted the "real" facts: that the English forced the Irish to kill or be killed. She did not dispute the fact that several ships from the Spanish Armada sank off the coast of Ireland and that survivors were executed, by the Irish, when they swam to shore.

The reporter ended the call by apologizing for not being able to change history, adding, "I'm not going to argue about something that happened in 1588."

All of this was over a story about a new show on the Strip called "Battle of the Dance."

"It's the second thing I've read in the paper today that slighted the Irish," the caller said.

SONYA PADGETT

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Pugh doesn't expect to get much if a federal judge allows the government to seize the property of three people convicted of mortgage fraud following a nearly 10 week trial on Thursday.

Steve Grimm, his estranged wife, Eve Mazzarella, and Melissa Beecroft were found guilty on 31 combined counts of bank, wire and mail fraud in a multimillion-dollar scheme.

"They don't have any property left," Pugh told the Las Vegas Review-Journal after the verdict was delivered Thursday. "We seized their bank accounts after the indictment, but there wasn't much in them. But we did get a monster truck that was quite valuable."

DOUG McMURDO

North Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Stephen Dahl has some interesting artwork in his office, including a large sign advertising "Great Ho-made Cookies." Dahl's staff bought it as a gift after he admired it in a store near his home.

The judge likes the sign because it can be taken two ways, he said. "If you read it the wrong way, you've got interesting people making your cookies."

LYNNETTE CURTIS