Las Vegas Sun
2012
- Overheating refrigerator causes $80K in damage to town home
- Sunday, June 24, 2012
- By Jackie Valley
- A town home fire that began in a refrigerator Saturday night displaced a family of four and caused $80,000 damage, officials said.
- Playing with matches blamed for damage to condo
- Sunday, June 24, 2012
- By Jackie Valley
- A child playing with a lighter started a fire Saturday evening at a Desert Shores Villas condo, causing $25,000 damage, fire officials said.
- Role model at age 102: Great-grandmother still going strong
- Community:
- Sunday, July 1, 2012
- By Kiki Turner
- The red, white and blue balloons tethered to the backs of chairs and table legs made the lounge on the first floor of Stewart Pines Senior Apartments look decked out for an Independence Day party.
- Agreement could keep new utility lines out of Tule Springs fossil fields
- Wednesday, July 4, 2012
- By Joe Schoenmann
- A settlement announced Tuesday might prevent new power lines and pipelines from going through a fossil-rich, 23,000-acre parcel in the north valley proposed as a national monument.
- PBS’ ‘History Detectives’ take on case of Henderson resident’s WWII-era artifact
- History: Son hoping keepsake is piece of bomber that crashed into Empire State Building in 1945
- Tuesday, July 24, 2012
- By Conor Shine
- When Louis Atkins arrived to work on Monday morning, July 30, 1945, he found a small hunk of metal sitting in his midtown Manhattan office in New York City. The mangled piece of metal was severely burned and sported rows of rivets. Atkins surmised the object was part of the B-25 bomber that two days earlier had crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, which sat across the street from his office. The crash killed 14 people. Atkins took the piece home to show his family, and over the next 60 years, the artifact and its origins ...
- Henderson resident's artifact verified as authentic piece of New York history
- History: PBS 'History Detectives' verify metal plate was from bomber that hit Empire State Building in 1945
- Wednesday, July 25, 2012
- By Conor Shine
- For more than 60 years, a small, melted hunk of metal lined with rivets has been an object of fascination and the subject of countless school show-and-tell projects for Henderson resident Irv Atkins and his family. The artifact was discovered by Atkins’ father, Louis, in his 10th-story office in midtown Manhattan on July 30, 1945, two days after a B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, which towered across the street from Louis Atkins’ office.
- Photos: A peek inside ‘Jubilee!’ auditions of G-strings, high kicks and 'showgirl walks'
- Thursday, July 26, 2012
- By Andrea Domanick
- Beneath the stark house lights of Bally’s Jubilee Theater, 11 women stand chest out and chin up, beads of sweat rolling down their heavily-made-up faces. ...
- Now 90, twin sisters back together under one roof, loving and living life
- Living Las Vegas:
- Tuesday, July 31, 2012
- By Cristina Chang
- It was a simple question: Who is the prettier twin? “Me,” Thelma Woods said without a skipping a beat. “Oh shoot!” said her twin sister, Velma McKenney. “Why you think that? And we look alike.” Las Vegas residents Woods and McKenney, who both turned 90 on Saturday, share more than their appearance. The twins grew up during the Great Depression, followed the civil rights movement closely and lived to see the nation’s first black president. They grew up in New Orleans during a time when the banks closed and finances were tight. But there would always be enough food on ...
- Panel featuring Tuskegee Airmen brings historical touch to aerospace convention
- History:
- Thursday, August 2, 2012
- By Conor Shine
- Capt. Roscoe Brown spent two years flying with the famed Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, logging more than 200 missions with his squadron. But, Brown says, people only ever ask about one. “Everybody always wants to know how I shot down the jet,” the 90-year-old Brown said Wednesday in Las Vegas. Brown, then 23 years old, was flying a long-range mission in 1945 as an escort for bombers on their way to attack Berlin when he saw a fleet of jets on his 11 o’clock.
- Former Sheriff Ralph Lamb's old-school manner inspires TV character
- History:
- Saturday, August 4, 2012
- John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times
- The first thing you notice about former Sheriff Ralph Lamb is that voice — the low, gravelly growl of a former five-pack-a-day Marlboro man. Even at age 85, Lamb still uses the plain-spoken utterances of an old-school lawman. He was known as the Cowboy Sheriff and once was considered the most powerful man in Nevada.
- Long trail, sometimes cold, led to arrest in slayings from 1978, 1994
- Wednesday, August 8, 2012
- By Cristina Chang
- It was early Saturday, April 22, 1978, when a witness led Metro Police to the corner of an apartment building just north of downtown. There they encountered a gruesome sight. Officers found a dead woman lying nude between a parking stall and a wall at 211 W. Wilson Ave. Livid marks and scratches on the victim’s neck suggested that the woman, 22-year-old Barbara Ann Cox, had been strangled to death. Abrasions covered her back, and a cut was spotted over her right eye.
- Television isn't required for watching CBS' 'Vegas'
- Entertainment:
- Tuesday, October 2, 2012
- By William D'Urso
- The new CBS TV show “Vegas” hit it big with almost 15 million viewers in its first week, and then another 2.35 million viewers who recorded and watched the show within three days of the original broadcast.
- Court hearing in decades-old Las Vegas slayings delayed until December
- Friday, October 5, 2012
- By Jackie Valley
- A preliminary hearing Friday morning for Nathaniel Burkett, 62, the man accused of killing two Las Vegas women decades ago, was continued until Dec. 7 in Las Vegas Justice Court.
- 'He lived and breathed maps': Parents grateful son will be memorialized via collection
- Wednesday, October 31, 2012
- By Brian Nordli
- John Feathers and his wife were sipping coffee as they watched the 6 a.m. news last week in their Las Vegas home when they received an early-morning jolt.
- Video: New Frontier imploded five years ago today
- Tuesday, November 13, 2012
- By Sun Staff
- Five years ago this morning, the New Frontier reached the end of the line when it was imploded at 2:37 a.m.
- Once king of the gambling halls, faro now a ghost
- History:
- Monday, November 19, 2012
- By Dave Toplikar
- When Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday holstered their six-guns and sat down at a frontier saloon to gamble, they wouldn’t play poker. The hot game of the Old West was called faro, or farobank. Earp dealt a game at the Oriental saloon in Tombstone, Ariz. Down the street, Doc Holliday picked up extra money as a dealer in the Bird Cage saloon. Gamblers loved it. The hands played fast. A lot of people could play at once, like modern-day craps and roulette
- 'They were absolutely heroes': The MGM Grand fire and the men who fought it
- 32 years later, firefighters relive the nation’s second-deadliest hotel fire
- Wednesday, November 21, 2012
- By Dave Toplikar
- Two distant, black columns of smoke caught John Pappageorge’s eye as he drove to work on a crisp, 38-degree morning in November 1980. Pappageorge, then a deputy chief with the Clark County Fire Department, wondered if the smoke might be a pile of tires on fire. Or was it a building?
- MGM Grand, Hilton fires led to improved safety codes
- 1980 MGM Fire:
- Wednesday, November 21, 2012
- By Dave Toplikar
- After 85 people died as a result of the MGM Grand fire in November 1980 and eight perished in an arson less than three months later at the Las Vegas Hilton, Nevada lawmakers revamped high-rise safety codes.
- Survivors, witnesses describe chaos of MGM Grand fire
- 1980 MGM Fire:
- Wednesday, November 21, 2012
- By Dave Toplikar
- Some 5,000 people were in the MGM Grand when it caught fire Nov. 21, 1980. Eighty-five people died and about 700 were injured. Here are the recollections of some of those who either survived the fire or were there.
- On anniversary of JFK assassination, investigator looks back
- Q&A with Robert Blakey, former chief counsel of House Select Committee on Assassinations
- Thursday, November 22, 2012
- By Tovin Lapan
- Forty-nine years ago today, on Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza. The assassination and subsequent slaying of shooter Lee Harvey Oswald shocked the country.
- U.S. remembers a ‘date which will live in infamy’
- Friday, December 7, 2012
- Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times
- In just over seven minutes, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave voice to a nation’s outrage, branding Dec. 7 as a “date which will live in infamy” for Japan’s attack on the Pearl Harbor Naval Base. Within an hour, Congress had voted a declaration of war.
- NFR has roots in informal gathering of cowboys in Colorado
- 2012 WRANGLER NATIONAL FINALS RODEO:
- Saturday, December 8, 2012
- By Richard N. Velotta
- Rodeo has come a long way since a group of cowboys from neighboring ranches in Deer Trail, Colo., got together to settle an argument over whose wrangling skills were the best. How did rodeo get to be so big in Las Vegas? Here’s a look at some key events that have helped bring attention to Las Vegas every December.
- Pop quiz: How well do you know the classic neon signs of Vegas?
- LAS VEGAS HISTORY:
- Wednesday, December 19, 2012
- By Ric Anderson
- It’s time for a Las Vegas history test, presented one letter at a time. We picture letters from seven signs on display at the Neon Museum, 770 Las Vegas Blvd. North. The museum is home to more than 150 signs from Las Vegas casinos and other businesses, including hotels, restaurants and wedding chapels. Scroll through these photos to see if you can tell which casinos or hotels these letters came from.
2013
- Nixon at 100: 'He knew how to get things done'
- Wednesday, January 9, 2013
- David Lightman, McClatchy Newspapers
- Richard Nixon would have turned 100 today, and his old friends will gather at a hotel near the White House to toast the memory of the 37th president. What is not said also will say much about his evolving legacy, because no protesters or seething Nixon-haters are expected outside the doors.
- For Sasha Semenoff, Holocaust survivor and longtime Vegas performer, 'music was his life'
- Friday, January 11, 2013
- By Ed Koch
- Longtime Las Vegas violinist Sasha Semenoff most times played for his livelihood. But there was one bleak period when, at the brutal hands of the Nazis, he played for his very life. In a 2009 interview, Semenoff told the Sun that while he was being transported to a concentration camp a German soldier saw him holding a mandolin and told him to play “La Paloma.”
- In sneak peek of memoir, Oscar Goodman details how he came to defend mobsters
- Living Las Vegas:
- Wednesday, January 16, 2013
- By Richard N. Velotta
- Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman’s memoir about his life as a mob lawyer and his three terms as “happiest mayor in the universe” hits bookstores June 4.
- Students in KKK costumes spark controversy at Las Vegas Academy
- Thursday, January 24, 2013
- By Paul Takahashi
- A class presentation involving students dressed in Ku Klux Klan costumes has one local high school embroiled in controversy.
- Joe Downtown: Discovery of floor safe excites new owners of Atomic Liquors
- Friday, January 25, 2013
- By Joe Schoenmann
- Under layers of old flooring, Kent and Lance Johns, manager/owners of the old Atomic Liquors, 917 Fremont St., made an astounding discovery recently. A safe.
- Renewed sense of community rekindles spirit of Rat Pack days in Las Vegas neighborhood
- LIVING LAS VEGAS:
- Friday, February 8, 2013
- By Brian Nordli
- It is fitting that residents in today’s Paradise Palms neighborhood party once a month in a hallowed hall of Las Vegas’ yesteryear. In a city that would rather demolish and rebuild than preserve and restore, these residents are fighting to hold on to what makes their neighborhood special.
- Joe Downtown: Decades-old safe discovered in Atomic Liquors yields only old receipts
- Monday, February 18, 2013
- By Joe Schoenmann
- New owners of Atomic Liquors on Fremont Street, one of the oldest free-standing taverns in Las Vegas, finally opened a floor safe discovered months ago during remodeling.
- New exhibit at Graceland showcases Elvis' connection to Las Vegas
- Monday, March 4, 2013
- Associated Press
- A new exhibit opening at Graceland showcases Elvis Presley's strong connection to Las Vegas, where he performed and vacationed.
- Nevada officials mark Holocaust Memorial Day
- Thursday, April 4, 2013
- By Cy Ryan
- Henry Kronberg says he had nightmares for years of the time he spent in Nazi prisons and concentration camps during World War II and it must be prevented from ever happening again.
- Joe Downtown: Helldorado Days heralds Vegas' Wild West past
- Wednesday, May 8, 2013
- By Joe Schoenmann
- Computer chips easily outnumber cowboys in Downtown Las Vegas, especially as startup founders and coders find sanctuary around East Fremont Street, soon to be the backyard of dot-com retailer Zappos. But Zappos aside, Las Vegas’ persona remains firmly grounded in the Wild West myth, and downtown’s Helldorado Days, a multiday celebration of the the West’s rugged reputation, fits right in.
- Raising a glass to an Atomic history
- living las vegas:
- Saturday, May 18, 2013
- By John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times
- On a nearly deserted downtown Las Vegas block, a small brick building fronted by a curvy neon sign heralds a bygone era here: That’s when the big bombs went boom and awestruck Las Vegas residents watched the mushroom clouds billow into the bright desert sky. At Joe and Stella Sobchik’s liquor store and bar on Fremont Street, downtown denizens walked up to the roof, cocktails in hand, for a better view of the sky show.
- Scarlet and Gray to observe golden anniversary commencement Sunday
- UNLV:
- Saturday, May 18, 2013
- By Paul Takahashi
- UNLV is celebrating its 50th commencement, a milestone that represents incredible growth for the university. UNLV began as an extension campus of UNR in 1951 with 12 full-time students and 16 part-time students who met in the dressing rooms of Las Vegas High School's auditorium.
- Little Church of the West marks 70 years of walking down the aisle
- the strip:
- Wednesday, May 22, 2013
- By Alison Saclolo
- When Dudley Moore knocked on Greg Smith's office door a few years ago, it was business as usual for the wedding chapel owner. Moore, an Oscar-nominated actor, was getting married the next day and wanted to see the Little Church of the West before he walked down its aisle. “He was scheduled to be married with us and I had no idea. We chatted a bit and he came in and played the organ,” Smith said. Little Church of the West will celebrate its 70th anniversary on Wednesday, and Smith said it still would be business as usual for the ...
- Joe Downtown: Group seeking public donations to keep Huntridge renovation plans alive
- Wednesday, June 5, 2013
- By Joe Schoenmann
- The fate of historic Huntridge Theater will become clear in just a few short weeks. And depending on support from locals, the 69-year-old theater will either be on its way toward resurrection or the wrecking ball.
- Mohave County high school has spirit(s)
- History: Students, staff have reported seeing ghosts, hearing strange noises at Kingman school built over old cemetery
- Thursday, June 6, 2013
- By John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times
- Principal Steve Elwood enters the narrow passageway where nobody else at Lee Williams High School dares to go.“This place gives people the creeps,” Elwood says. Talk about school spirit. Some believe the campus is haunted by restless phantoms from a previous century, when Kingman was a frontier town and Arizona still a territory.
- Joe Downtown: TV star buoys effort to raise funds to save historic Huntridge
- Thursday, June 6, 2013
- By Joe Schoenmann
- “Criminal Minds” star and Las Vegas native Matthew Gubler is lending a hand toward efforts to buy, renovate and reopen the historic Huntridge Theater in Downtown Las Vegas.
- Work put into Mob Museum's building honored for protecting history
- Thursday, June 6, 2013
- By Conor Shine
- The Mob Museum has been recognized as one of the top public works projects of the year by a national organization, the city announced Thursday.
- UNR partnership puts Nevada history at your fingertips
- Monday, June 10, 2013
- Guy Clifton, Reno Gazette Journal
- From World War II recollections of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who were on the front lines of the action, to the early days of Nevada’s gaming industry, to civil rights, ranching life, immigration and the words of state government leaders, the Oral History program has spent nearly 50 years documenting the voices of hundreds of Nevadans. Now the interviews are available online.
