Timothy Pratt

Story Archive

For collectors of scrap, a much lighter haul: Drop-off in demand for salvaged metal globally has caused pain locally; Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009; Gregory Dickinson was scouting out Dumpsters in his 1988 Chevy Silverado last month when he discovered a load of metal shelves behind a supermarket. It would have been his lucky day — if it had been, say, August.
Since the global economy has gone into a tailspin, demand has dropped for raw materials such as scrap metal, driving down the prices paid for recycling those materials.
Despite pressing needs, wishes are modest: Web site answers the question: What do homeless people in Las Vegas want?; Monday, Dec. 22, 2008; On this Christmas wish list, you’ll see the word “warm” 19 times — as in “warm winter coat,” by far the most popular item.
Renewing an area can hurt a community: Plan to raze apartments could cut social ties; Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008; Gail Sheppard and Kalani Byrd reacted to news of a plan to buy and demolish apartment buildings at Buena Vista Springs, where they live, with the question: “How come nobody told us?”
A vast hunger for work at In-N-Out cattle call: Hundreds line up for shot at fewer than 50 jobs at new fast-food store, with similar turnout expected today; Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008; As rain pelted the roads, close to 500 people filed through the hotel lobby of the Holiday Inn Express on Rainbow Boulevard, hoping to get a job flipping or serving burgers.
Tenants forgotten in demolition plan: Project approved with big unknowns: What would be built, who’d be displaced; Friday, Dec. 12, 2008; Clark County commissioners signed off on a $7.6 million plan to buy and demolish 250 apartments at Buena Vista Springs without knowing that dozens of people live in the complex. All the details about how far the money would go and what would rise from the rubble were not laid out for the commission.
Club within, an island of calm, safety, helps children find path to success: Friday, Dec. 12, 2008; Myzaveon Riley can still hear the dry pop of gunshots in his ears. He and his friend Tavis were playing hoops, four years ago. They just ran.
Annie Wilson, Metro Police's liaison to the homeless: Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008; When Annie Wilson hit the streets of the Las Vegas Valley in May 2006, she became the first homeless liaison for Metro Police. Advocates at the time said she was also the first police liaison to the homeless in the nation.
Second thoughts on who handles discrimination: Giving enforcement power to state would have costs; Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008; The state agency that handles job discrimination complaints will ask Nevada’s Legislature for the power to confront housing discrimination, too. That sounds like a good idea, but some experts say it could be a mistake.
Problem once thought dire hasn’t been confirmed: Millions spent to fight human trafficking; few examples found; Monday, Dec. 8, 2008; It sounded like a script of an international spy thriller: lies, border-crossings, violence, sex.
By chance, lost then found: Misplaced wallet draws together two disparate men united by language; Thursday, Nov. 27, 2008; From his bicycle he sees it, lying on the grass in front of the sort of suburban house that will never be his address. It’s a brown leather wallet.
IRS owes 4,000 valley taxpayers: Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008; More than 4,000 people in the Las Vegas Valley have something to be thankful for — and apparently don’t know it. That’s how many taxpayers have yet to collect their economic stimulus or refund checks from the IRS this year.
State agency seeks role of feds in fighting bias: Nevada commission wants right to go to court, fine landlords; Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008; For the second time since 2005, the state agency that deals with discrimination on the job is asking Nevada’s Legislature for the legal power to confront discrimination in housing.
U.S. strikes at landlord bias against children: HUD gets payments to families, message to apartment owners; Monday, Nov. 24, 2008; The federal government recently settled a complaint against the owners of Las Vegas apartments who allegedly discriminated against families, the third such case in the valley in two years.
North Las Vegas Housing Authority chief resigns: Friday, Nov. 21, 2008; North Las Vegas Housing Authority Chief Executive Don England resigned from his post today, North Las Vegas City Councilmen William Robinson and Robert Eliason said.
E-mail reveals hesitancy to move at-risk tenants: Monday, Nov. 17, 2008; The shabby apartments at Casa Rosa in North Las Vegas sit right across the street from North Las Vegas Housing Authority Chief Executive Don England’s office, but they may as well be on another planet.
North Las Vegas eyes foreclosure solution: Federal crisis aid may pay for demolition at cost of moving people into homes; Friday, Nov. 14, 2008; North Las Vegas wants to spend about $7.6 million of foreclosure crisis aid money to buy and demolish a failed apartment complex, the only idea of its kind among the plans for the $54 million allocated to Southern Nevada.
Polls show big Hispanic voter turnout: Univision hails registration effort in state; Monday, Nov. 10, 2008; A few days before early voting began Oct. 18, Univision anchor Luis Felipe Godinez stood next to a giant thermometer like the ones used for fundraising drives. He issued a challenge to his audience.
For 94-year-old, election echoes our turbulent past: She was reminded of the despair of the Great Depression, of the ‘horrible’ fearfulness of the McCarthy era, and of the country’s unequal treatment of blacks. But now she’s filled with hope.; Friday, Nov. 7, 2008; Before Tuesday, there was only one presidential election that had kept Gay Kauffman up until 2 in the morning: Dewey-Truman.
When a recession hits home: Sunday, Nov. 2, 2008; Las Vegas is in a big hurt.
The parallel presidential campaign in Spanish: Highly coveted voting bloc has an information filter different from others’; Friday, Oct. 31, 2008; Jorge Ramos, news anchor for Univision, the nation’s top Spanish-language television network, asked Republican presidential candidate John McCain the same question twice — but the Arizona senator answered each time that he didn’t understand.
Noting need group serves, state bolsters Urban League: Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008; Nevada state agencies are stepping in to shore up one of the Las Vegas Valley’s biggest poverty-fighting organizations, the Urban League, following the resignation of several of its board members.
Those empty homes for sale are harming communities: Vacant houses form barriers among neighbors, experts say; Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008; Fifty-eight percent of the houses for sale in the Las Vegas Valley are empty, the highest such figure in the three decades such information has been gathered, said Larry Murphy, president of SalesTraq, a firm that compiles real estate data.
Local Hispanic papers agree: Obama’s the one: Friday, Oct. 24, 2008; The Las Vegas Valley’s two Spanish-language weeklies announced their support for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Thursday, having come to the endorsements via markedly different means.
Head Start meets big need: With kids in program for full days, parents have better shot at creating stable family life; Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2008; The schedule would have been impossible for most people, but it was set by a dedicated mother.
Political miracle links McCain, Virgin of Guadalupe: Thursday, Oct. 16, 2008; Sen. John McCain’s earthly profile dominates the foreground; the Virgin of Guadalupe’s luminous visage nearly floats in the background.
Six questions for Patricia Cunningham: Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2008; After 17 years at KCEP 88.1-FM, Patricia Cunningham’s voice is among the most familiar on the Las Vegas Valley’s airwaves.
In downturn, more seeking help, in more ways: United Way doubles funds for pressing needs, still must deny some groups; Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008; United Way of Southern Nevada just doled out $2 million to 39 groups in an attempt to meet those needs — twice what it spent last year. But requests had come in for more than four times that amount.
Fraud probe worries champions of black vote: Investigation of ACORN could dampen turnout, experts say; Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008; An investigation into possible voter registration fraud announced Tuesday might discourage blacks from going to the polls, experts said.
Hawaiians for Obama are working their Vegas links: Here and on the islands, many feel a special tie to the Democratic candidate; Saturday, Oct. 4, 2008; Maya Soetero Ng was speaking last week at a rally on Oahu for her brother, Barack Obama, when she reminded her fellow islanders not to overlook a potential source of support for the presidential candidate: Las Vegas.
Need for workers spurs call for action: Executives of big Vegas-area employers lend backing to campaign for change in law; Friday, Oct. 3, 2008; As the nation watched Congress scrambling to try to prop up a struggling economy, a little-known Texas organization rolled out an expensive ad campaign in Las Vegas and four other Western cities last week, hoping to revive another piece of unfinished Capitol Hill business — an immigration law overhaul.
Is Urban League in state of denial?: After failing to meet deadlines, board puts off obligations again; Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008; At the Urban League’s September board meeting, the first since June, a state official showed up with a list of things the poverty-fighting organization had to do to keep receiving $2.6 million a year in federal funds.
Urban League finances under fire again: County pulls federal money after finding mismanagement of program and double billing; Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2008; The Urban League has to correct most of the problems within 30 days to draw again from the grant, said an analyst at Clark County Community Resources Management, the division that oversees the federal money.
In libertarian Vegas, ACLU keeps finding battles to fight: Monday, Sept. 22, 2008; Shortly after becoming executive director of the ACLU of Nevada in 1996, Gary Peck sat at a table with the group’s board of directors and listened as his newfound colleagues discussed a Las Vegas ordinance that made a stretch of Fremont Street practically private, prohibiting most First Amendment activities such as passing out leaflets.
Hispanic law students help others up: Offering practical advice and serving as role models, they urge high schoolers to aim for college; Friday, Sept. 19, 2008; Siria Gutierrez remembers opening the door to her honors English class in her first year of junior college and thinking, “Whoa — where are all the brown people?”
Terror arrest haunts family: German sues U.S. over McCarran detention; Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2008; After the German businessman was arrested at McCarran International Airport in late December 2006, federal and North Las Vegas authorities strip-searched him, withheld his heart medicine for 36 hours and kept him in jail for four days and three nights before forcing him to return to Europe.
Julie Murray: Executive Director, Three Square Food Bank; Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008; The organization operates out of two warehouses on Pecos Road and opened in December, just as signs of the valley’s slide were becoming apparent.
Hispanics prefer personal touch: Expert says advertising might reach potential voters, but as comedian shows, face time has no substitute; Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2008; Comedian George Lopez had just spent an hour squeezing baby cheeks, signing the T-shirt of a chubby kid -- “for ‘El Gordo’ (the fat one)” and tossing free sweets, with a wink, into shopping bags at the checkout counter.
In naming spokeswoman, Democrats invest in Hispanic vote: Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008; The state Democratic Party has named Emilia Pablo, one of the most widely recognized local faces in Hispanic households across the Las Vegas Valley, as its new spokeswoman.
Voices of valley's slump: Portraits of economic angst emerge from local job seekers' calls and e-mails; Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008; After a story about the state’s apply-by-phone-for- unemployment-benefits system, dozens contacted the Sun hoping the newspaper could connect them to jobs. Here are the stories of some of those people, in their own words.
Award puts Vegas woman in company of Rosa Parks, former president: Friday, Aug. 1, 2008; One summer day in 1945, a 13-year-old girl lay down between rows of cotton on the Ivory Plantation in Tallulah, La.
Jobless claims stress state: Good news?: Ironically, flood of calls means department is hiring, paying overtime; Wednesday, July 30, 2008; If you’re among the 100,000-plus out-of-work Nevadans and you want to talk to someone who can send you an unemployment check, expect to spend a lot of time dialing and then even more on hold.
Black-Hispanic rivalry may be myth: Polls: Most in both groups view relationship favorably, Hispanics back Obama; Monday, July 28, 2008; When Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton gained support from Hispanic voters by a 2-to-1 ratio over Barack Obama in Las Vegas and elsewhere during primary season this year, many wondered aloud in the media if there were some sort of problem between the nation’s two largest minority groups.
Utilities fund for poor petering out: Reserves dwindle while applications for help steadily mount; Wednesday, July 23, 2008; A state program to help poor people pay their utility bills is nearly broke, forcing it to limit the amounts it gives to Nevadans in need, just as that need reaches its highest point so far this decade.
Nevada’s poor will have to tighten belts more if food stamp, welfare cuts OK’d: Friday, July 18, 2008; Just when a souring economy is making life tougher for a growing number of poor Nevadans, the state is preparing to cut back on the services designed to help them.
Voter registration groups decry ban at courthouse: Thursday, July 17, 2008; Republicans, Democrats and other groups are no longer able to transform newly minted citizens into voters at the U.S. courthouse downtown, due to a recent dust-up.
Urban League gets kudos, then reality check: Nonprofit asked to improve its cash flow tracking; Thursday, July 10, 2008; A recent board meeting of the Las Vegas-Clark County Urban League saw a state official laud the still-new nonprofit organization for its efforts to ramp up in the past six months.
‘Community’ more than a label for retiring county official: Lincoln-quoting resources manager a tireless advocate for the valley’s poor; Saturday, July 5, 2008; Douglas Bell has been a voice in the desert, of sorts, for 30 years, head of a little-known part of Clark County government called Community Resources Management. His office has brought a total of $330 million to the valley for its most vulnerable, including the homeless.
Demise of Vegas public housing ‘projects’ sought: Decision to seek federal OK for first demolitions expected to bring storm of protest; Tuesday, July 1, 2008; It was item small “e” on the agenda, and it sailed through with nary a nay from the board nor a peep from the public. The board approved seeking permission from the federal government to demolish 251 apartments of subsidized housing.
Need deciding nonprofit funding: New formula for how much groups receive also factors in results; Thursday, June 26, 2008; Two branches of government say they are becoming more businesslike in the way they give out millions of taxpayer dollars to nonprofit organizations in Southern Nevada.
Youth teams’ rival goalie: Fuel costs: Soccer families who scraped for Hawaiian tourney are blocked and kept home; Thursday, June 19, 2008; Six youth soccer teams are the latest casualties of the unrelenting surge in fuel prices. They’re grounded in the Las Vegas Valley while an annual regional tournament continues apace in Hawaii. Others made it to the tournament only after coaches and parents borrowed the money.