Alexandra Berzon

Story Archive

Strip carousers hear picketers’ grievances: Early-morning protest over worker deaths, safety gives way to deal; Wednesday, June 4, 2008; As 2 a.m. neared on Tuesday, construction workers marched in circles outside the locked gates of CityCenter, their picket signs raised above their heads: “Unsafe Job Site.” Karaoke from the Hawaiian Marketplace across the Las Vegas Strip grew more and more discordant, as it does there every night.
Safety agreement ends walkout on Strip: Tuesday, June 3, 2008; Construction will resume on MGM Mirage's CityCenter as early as tonight because union officials and contractor Perini Building Company have reached an agreement on safety improvements at the site.
CityCenter workers still off the job; more talks this afternoon: Tuesday, June 3, 2008; Thousands of construction workers who walked off the CityCenter construction site at midnight to demonstrate their concerns over safety issues remain off the job.
Workers walk off CityCenter site in protest: Union leaders: We’ll picket until contractor meets demands for increased safety; Tuesday, June 3, 2008; Construction workers shut down MGM Mirage’s CityCenter at midnight Monday, walking off the job to protest safety conditions at the $9.2 billion project after a rash of fatal construction accidents at the site and on the Las Vegas Strip.
BREAKING: Construction workers to walk off CityCenter site: Monday, June 2, 2008; Construction workers at the $9.2 billion MGM Mirage CityCenter project are expected to walk off the job at midnight in a disagreement over safety at the site, union officials said late tonight.
Unions threaten CityCenter walkout over safety: Monday, June 2, 2008; Construction workers will walk off the job at CityCenter at midnight tonight if the general contractor, Perini Building Company, does not follow through on steps to improve safety, union leaders said today.
State OSHA boosts work site safety: Public, union pressure had mounted following Strip construction deaths; Saturday, May 31, 2008; Nevada will begin requiring contractors to place temporary flooring or safety netting beneath employees working on high-rise projects, the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced Friday.
Fall-safety requirement may get OSHA enforcement: With contractors’ consent, state agency to require floors or netting; Friday, May 23, 2008; Responding to pleas from the Ironworkers Union following deaths on the Las Vegas Strip, Nevada workplace safety regulators appear close to what could be a significant change to improve safety in high-rise construction, according to several people involved.
Interpreting protections away: Union: OSHA weakens its standards with challenge-proof ‘directives’; Sunday, May 18, 2008; Prompted by circumstances surrounding the deaths of construction workers on the Las Vegas Strip, the International Association of Ironworkers is questioning federal safety regulators over their decision not to enforce several safety laws.
Keeping the heat on OSHA: U.S. House panel to review agency’s safety standards on industry; Sunday, May 11, 2008; Citing the deaths of 10 workers on the Las Vegas Strip, a House panel will hold a hearing to review construction safety standards and the conduct of government agencies responsible for overseeing workplace safety.
On safety, we could learn from NYC: Missing here: Big Apple’s expanded role in oversight, outrage over deaths; Sunday, May 4, 2008; Two months ago, after a string of tragic construction fatalities shook New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave an address to the city’s building inspectors.
Local government safety role to get a look: County, city officials also plan to explore ways to strengthen OSHA; Friday, May 2, 2008; Two leading Southern Nevada elected officials said Thursday they want to bring together developers, building contractors, workers and state and local officials to find ways to improve safety following a series of deaths on construction projects on the Las Vegas Strip.
Lax safety oversight is paid notice on the Hill: Government should raise fines for dangerous sites, labor experts testify; Wednesday, April 30, 2008; Labor experts told a U.S. Senate committee Tuesday that weak government oversight of workplace safety is putting workers at greater risk and contributing to on-the-job fatalities, including in Las Vegas.
Mystery surrounds CityCenter fatality: Investigation under way in electrician’s fall — fifth death at project; Tuesday, April 29, 2008; Electrician Mark Wescoat, 47, of New Jersey fell to his death at MGM Mirage’s CityCenter work site Saturday. Nine other workers have died in construction accidents in Strip building projects, including four at CityCenter, over the past 17 months.
Orleans case sparks investigation: Official’s involvement draws attorney general’s interest; Friday, April 25, 2008; The Nevada attorney general’s office has opened an investigation into the state Business and Industry Department’s handling of a case involving the deaths of two workers at the Orleans, the Sun has learned.
A stricter OSHA seen after Sun series: Agency holds firm on findings following investigation of Strip construction site deaths; Tuesday, April 22, 2008; Most recently, the agency did not back down from its recommended citations against a subcontractor in connection with the death at the Cosmopolitan of a safety engineer. A subcontractor, Reliable Steel, had protested the findings, but OSHA officials refused to budge.
Influenced, OSHA bends: After involvement of Gibbons appointee, violations, fines in case of Orleans workers’ deaths were reduced; Friday, April 18, 2008; The reduction removed a tough but rare finding of willful disregard for safety that would have permanently marred the record of the owner of the Orleans, Boyd Gaming Corp., and could have exposed the company to costly lawsuits or fines in the future. To reduce the citations, the Nevada's OSHA negotiated a series of maneuvers that broke significantly from normal department procedures.
A CAUTIOUS PUSH: After Strip building site deaths, some workers want more safety demands from unions, but press too hard and they may be jobless; Sunday, April 13, 2008; The 70-odd ironworkers working at the Fontainebleau construction site were fed up with dangerous conditions. In July, they stopped working in the unsafe areas and persuaded their union, Ironworkers Local 433, to negotiate with the contractor to correct several specific safety problems: They wanted a caged elevator, not an open lift, to ride to higher floors. They demanded installation of a promised cable so they could attach their safety harnesses. They wanted the safety net, then balled up somewhere on the site, stretched beneath workers, where it belonged.
Union demands safety upgrade: Ironworkers leader wants state OSHA to direct contractors to install decking that could prevent falls; Wednesday, April 9, 2008; The Las Vegas Ironworkers Union is asking Nevada safety regulators to require contractors to provide netting or temporary flooring of the kind that could have saved two workers who fell to their deaths last year on the Strip.
In fatalities, union to meet with OSHA: Policy represents change for ironworkers local; Saturday, April 5, 2008; With tensions over construction worker deaths along the Strip surfacing, about 200 ironworkers filled their union hall Friday night to discuss how to improve workplace safety. By meeting’s end, there was general agreement among union stewards that they would now participate in conferences between state safety inspectors and contractors when safety violations are discussed in the wake of workplace fatalities.
Ironworkers want stronger union action: Some members, relatives of victims resent local leader’s comments; Thursday, April 3, 2008; Members of Ironworkers Union Local 433 and friends and relatives of some accident victims say the union leadership isn’t fighting hard enough to ensure safety at Strip building sites.
OSHA up for rare inquiry: Lawmakers call for hearings, suggest more inspectors for safety agency; Wednesday, April 2, 2008; Nevada lawmakers said Tuesday they expect the Legislature will hold hearings on safety lapses involved in deaths at Strip construction sites and on the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s conduct after the fatalities.
'Not in this city': Safety engineer says fundamental change impossible in build-crazy Vegas; Tuesday, April 1, 2008; The disturbing rash of worker deaths at casinos, condos and hotels being built along the Strip raises safety issues that must be addressed, safety engineers and others say. But making fundamental changes in the culture of construction safety in go-go Las Vegas will be tough.
OSHA goes easy: After meeting with employer only, it often reverses findings, cuts fines; Monday, March 31, 2008; Hundreds of construction workers signed a 10-foot long memorial poster for the family of Harold Billingsley after the 46-year-old ironworker plunged to his death at CityCenter last year. Four months later, on a night in February, relatives unrolled the poster at the home of his sister, Monique Cole, and her husband. Cole placed Billingsley’s brown leather boots and sticker-covered construction helmet on the kitchen table. The family had gathered to talk to a reporter.
Pace is the new peril: Amid pressure to finish massive projects, 9 men have died in 16 months; Sunday, March 30, 2008; In the shadows of the cranes, steel and concrete upon which Las Vegas has pinned its addiction to growth, a body count has emerged. Nine construction workers have died in eight accidents since the end of 2006 at the towers that are redefining the Las Vegas skyline — Trump, CityCenter, Cosmopolitan, Fontainebleau and Palazzo. That’s as many deaths in 16 months as were reported during the entire 1990s building boom on the Strip.
High number of Las Vegas homes now vacant: Friday, March 21, 2008; The U.S. Census Bureau recently came out with its 2007 home vacancy rate data, and the Wall Street Journal has created a nifty map that makes it easy to compare Las Vegas with other parts of the country.
Reid focuses on Nevada unemployment (but gets a little confused): Friday, March 7, 2008; With the political and financial worlds buzzing about depressing national employment data released Friday by the Department of Labor, Sen. Harry Reid took the opportunity to highlight Nevada's rise in unemployment - and what Reid sees as obstruction from the Bush administration in solving economic woes.
Putting foreclosures on the map: Monday, Feb. 18, 2008; RealtyTrac has posted an interesting map that lays out the various stages of foreclosure in Las Vegas.
Resistant, immune...Let's call the whole thing off: Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008
Las Vegas foreclosure rate still soaring: Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2008
Chamber: See no downturn, hear no downturn: Friday, Feb. 1, 2008; With the local housing market continuing to drop and the national economy tanking, this year’s installment of the Chamber of Commerce’s annual economic forecasting event, Preview Las Vegas, could have been a real downer.
Subprime clean up: Sadness overwhelms: Counselors are deluged; Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008; Kendra Sellers sits in a small office and listens to tales of lives falling apart.
All the woe can be tough to hear. And she wonders whether she contributed to it.
In her past job, Sellers was a mortgage lender. She pushed subprime home loans to customers, then tossed and turned at night, wondering what would happen to the homeowners. But she was under big pressure to push those loans. The lending companies were desperate.
New foreclosure data highlights Nevada's horrible year: Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008
Furniture Mart gets new CEO: Monday, Jan. 28, 2008
Countrywide CEO: Don't cry for me Nevada: Monday, Jan. 28, 2008; A favorite source of contempt for people concerned about Nevada's high rate
of foreclosure - and that included for at least a short time the three
leading Democratic presidential candidates - is the unbelievably high
severance package of Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo.
How Vegas could weather a recession: Despite bad omens, it might come down to gambling’s eternal lure, in good times and bad; Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008; There may be no place more calculating, more confident and with more swagger than Las Vegas, a seemingly invincible boomtown built on the finely honed skill of talking people out of their money and offering them nothing tangible to take home.
Why rural voters broke for Obama: Results could hint at a big shift in Republican-controlled counties; Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008; One intriguing outcome of Saturday’s Democratic caucus is that Barack Obama, a Chicago politician whose appeal nationwide is deep among affluent liberals and college students, broke through in Nevada’s mining and ranching counties.
Republicans switch, fatten Dems' numbers: Sunday, Jan. 20, 2008; Perhaps the biggest winner in Saturday’s caucus will be the state Democratic Party. Judging from observations by Sun reporters at precincts across the state, many voters who had been registered as independents or Republicans declared themselves Democrats.
Republicans re-register for Obama in Elko: Saturday, Jan. 19, 2008
Hopefuls: It’s Elko or bust: Population 17,000 and visits by four presidential candidates within 24 hours; Saturday, Jan. 19, 2008; What a whirlwind Friday for Ann Wright, with history unfolding right before her: four presidential candidates visiting this mining town in 24 hours. In Elko!
“These people came all this way to see us,” said Wright, a waffling Democrat who was excited by all the attention the candidates were paying her little city.
When campaigns collide: Friday, Jan. 18, 2008
Clinton attacks Yucca Mountain dump: Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008
CES smaller this year: Monday, Jan. 14, 2008
Gaming boosters on Clinton team blast Obama: Friday, Jan. 11, 2008
Countrywide Rescued by Bank of America: Friday, Jan. 11, 2008
Foreclosure relief for Countrywide borrowers: Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008
The Vegas Building Rumor Watch: A Skyscraper Farm?: Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008
World Jewelry Center moves forward: Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008
Vegas wants a tech industry, but it’s slow going: What’s missing: Critical mass in education, venture capital; Sunday, Jan. 6, 2008; For many technology companies here, the solution is to have satellite offices in other places.
Egypt eyes cash from tut stuff: Proposed law with long reach back in time could bring changes to Luxor exhibit and bills to resort for royalties; Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008; In the deep recesses of the Luxor, visitors pay $9.99 to view replicas of the contents of King Tutankhamen's ancient burial tomb as it was discovered in 1922, including a gilded cow's head, a gold-covered depiction of the jackal-headed Egyptian god Anubis, and minitombs that held the bodies of premature babies.