Alex Richards

Story Archive

Have long-term vacancies increased more in your neighborhood than in others?: Monday, May 11, 2009; Long-vacant residences are on the rise in the Las Vegas Valley.
Nevada aircraft collisions with animals: Monday, May 4, 2009; Last month the FAA released records detailing about 100,000 reported wildlife collisions with aircraft in the United States since 1990.
The numbers on the swine flu: Wednesday, April 29, 2009; The key figure: 0 cases in Nevada.
Swimming pool density in the Las Vegas Valley: Monday, April 27, 2009; A map that estimates the number of residents in each ZIP code compared with the number of pools dotting the Las Vegas Valley.
Low turnout for primary vote: Monday, April 20, 2009; Residents of Clark County’s cities turned out sparingly in most precincts for the primary vote on April 7. About 1 in 10 residents who could vote cast a ballot.
A history of unemployment in Nevada: Monday, April 13, 2009; Although initial unemployment insurance claims have dropped from a high of nearly 9,000 per week in January, they’re still about 50 percent higher than in the same week last year.
Housing collapse evident in falling tax appraisal values: Monday, April 6, 2009; This map shows the average change in tax appraisal value between the close of rolls for fiscal 2009-10 and the previous year for single family homes in the valley, by ZIP code.
Economic plunge cited as factor in suicide rate increase: Sunday, April 5, 2009; The rate of suicides in Clark County jumped by 10 percent from 2007 to 2008, a rise that experts attribute in part to the recession.
Do you know where your power comes from?: Monday, March 30, 2009; A breakdown of where energy generated in Nevada and the United States comes from.
Doctors scarce in Las Vegas compared to other areas: Monday, March 23, 2009; For the number of people who live in and around Las Vegas, we're woefully short on doctors and health care workers in general.
Foreclosure sales have home market feeling down: Monday, March 16, 2009; When Nevadans started to realize they were at the epicenter of a full-blown foreclosure crisis in 2007, riding a rising wave of loan defaults that eventually turned into auctions and bank repossessions, they didn't really understand what was in store for the real estate market.
Home loans: What a difference two years make: Monday, March 9, 2009; This map shows the difference in loan volume between a boom year (2005) and a bust year (2007).
Nevada's government among the smallest: Before any cuts, state spends less, employs fewer than almost all others; Sunday, March 8, 2009; Is Nevada state government too big, too small or just right? That’s the question legislators must confront. All else is noise.
Home vacancy rates growing in Nevada: Monday, March 2, 2009; Roughly 1 in 23 residential addresses in Clark County (4.31%) were listed as vacant by the postal service at the end of 2008.
Nevada's aging population not as old as other states: Monday, Feb. 23, 2009; Nevada has been following a national trend — aging populations.
What’s the holdup at the airport?: Monday, Feb. 16, 2009; Vegas air travelers had about a 1 in 5 chance of arriving at McCarran or another destination at least 15 minutes late in 2008.
Valentine's Day: For the factually inclined, romance quantified: Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2009; If you believe Valentine's Day cards should be black like your heart, then this numeric breakdown of amour is for you. Just kidding. You don't have a black heart. It's a shade of burgundy.
By the numbers: Rental cars: Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009; $23 billion: Estimated revenue from passenger car rentals in 2007, according to the U.S. Census
Unemployment in Nevada: A look at the past 10 years of joblessness in Nevada; Monday, Feb. 2, 2009; The Sun charts Nevada's unemployment, once comparatively lower than the rest of the nation but up to the fifth highest rate in 2008.
Teen births on the rise: Monday, Jan. 26, 2009; Following a national trend, the teenage birth rate in Nevada shot up in 2006 to nearly 56 per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19, according to data released this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New construction permits slowing: Monday, Jan. 19, 2009; Even with a marked slump in home construction in 2008, Clark County still issued permits for more than 12,000 residential units through November — the fifth most of any county in the United States.
A year for foreclosures: Monday, Jan. 12, 2009; 2008 was not a good year for homeowners in the Las Vegas Valley.
Violent crime in Nevada: Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009; A look at key numbers and statistics associated with violent crimes in Nevada and the country as a whole.
How states compare on college admissions tests: Monday, Jan. 5, 2009; Shopping standardized test scores — the SAT, the ACT or both — to bolster college applications is commonplace.
Single family home sales in 2008, Clark County: Monday, Dec. 29, 2008; New and resale single-family homes, not including condos, multi-unit properties or transactions in a trustee sale.
Gas prices roughly reflect oil prices: Monday, Dec. 22, 2008; A look at changing oil and gas prices.
Glance at changes in rural Nevada: Monday, Dec. 15, 2008; Last week the U.S. Census released demographic estimates for American counties and cities with as few as 20,000 residents.
How airlines have cut capacity in their service from Las Vegas: Monday, Dec. 8, 2008; As air carriers revise their schedules throughout the year, they change routes, the number of flights available and the types of aircraft in service, all of which have a direct effect on capacity.
One measure of homeowner distress on rise: Monday, Dec. 1, 2008; Auction and trustee sale notices recorded in Clark County are a good benchmark for the number of properties mired in the foreclosure process — it’s typically the last stop before bank repossession.
Turkeys, by the numbers: Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008; Even the Thanksgiving season has its own set of factoids and numeric doodads. The Sun makes a quick rundown of the holiday and its unfortunate prey of choice: the turkey.
Precinct view of Obama’s win: Monday, Nov. 24, 2008; The Barack Obama/Joe Biden ticket won Clark County by a 19-point margin, a partisan disparity not seen here in nearly a quarter-century, when Ronald Reagan bested Walter Mondale by 27 points during the 1984 election.
Indicator of a slowing economy: Monday, Nov. 17, 2008; Nevada’s gross domestic product is stagnating.
The ways we cast ballots in Clark County:: Since ’96, percentage voting early has grown; Monday, Nov. 10, 2008; Just over 17 percent of votes were cast early in 1996, but early voting was easily the method of choice in the 2008 general election.
Breaking down the early vote: Monday, Nov. 3, 2008; A look at early voting in the 2008 general election in Clark County
Where the new voters are: Monday, Oct. 27, 2008; This map shows the percent increase in voters for Las Vegas Valley precincts from June 1 to the close of registration Oct. 14.
Property stolen, recovered: Monday, Oct. 20, 2008; The equivalent of $110 in property and money was taken from every person living in the Las Vegas Valley from April 2007 to March 2008.
The housing bubble in Nevada: How big a slice were ‘subprime’ loans?: Monday, Oct. 13, 2008; The death knell for the subprime loan in Nevada began to sound in 2007.
The money race in Nevada: Monday, Oct. 6, 2008; From February through August, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama raised about the same amount in Nevada, just shy of $1 million for each campaign.
Spending in Clark County down, but not evenly among industries: Monday, Sept. 29, 2008; Sales of goods and services in Clark County haven’t matched last year’s.
They're courted as never before: Students are registering in record numbers, and Obama has the edge; Saturday, Sept. 20, 2008; Ben Carpenter’s weapons in the battle for the young vote include GOP-themed Frisbees and bottle-opener key chains, and he handed out as many of the freebies as he could at UNLV this week.
Just the facts: Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008; A look at Clark County figures.
Metro-reported auto thefts: Monday, Sept. 8, 2008; Auto thefts reported in Metro's jurisdiction have been on the decline for two years.
Two say treatment would have been better option than cell walls: Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008; With her youthful face and mellow disposition, 22-year-old Corrie Pallone doesn’t come across like someone who should be in prison.
Locking up criminals locks in rising costs: Tough sentencing laws keep inmates streaming to crowded facilities; Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008; Nevadans hold two values close: They are tough on crime, and tight-fisted with public money.
They can no longer be both.
A study by the Las Vegas Sun has found that those two values are today in stark opposition.
Services help determine whether probation succeeds: Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008; The contrast between the probation rates for felons in Nevada and Massachusetts is as stark as the states’ climatic and geographic differences.
County ahead of population curve: Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008; Curious about what the nation’s population will look like in 2050? Just look at Clark County.
Growth-related jobs nose-dive: Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008; Job losses began to mount in many Nevada business sectors two years ago. Residential construction led the way, with a loss of 10,000 for specialty contractors and 2,300 for homebuilders.
Rising use of painkillers taking deadly toll: Prescription drug deaths overtake those from street drugs; Monday, July 7, 2008; The New Addiction: Part 2: The skyrocketing use and abuse of prescription narcotics in Las Vegas is accompanied by a similarly startling increase in the number of fatal overdoses, a Sun analysis has found.
The painful truth about Nevada: Many Nevadans crave painkillers, and some doctors oblige; Sunday, July 6, 2008; The New Addiction: Part 1: Nevadans consume about twice the national average of several prescription painkillers, making us among the most narcotic-addled populations in the United States, a Sun analysis has found.
Tracking Nevadans’ Appetite for Painkillers: Sunday, July 6, 2008; The Sun discovered the startling increase in the number of narcotic painkillers consumed in Nevada after analyzing several thousand pages of Drug Enforcement Administration reports on the production and distribution of controlled substances to pharmacies and health care practitioners in the United States.