Now that Election 2008 has left town, it’s time to sort through my pile of clippings for other Las Vegas news:
…Joe McGinniss, Jr. just released a book set in Las Vegas, The Delivery Man, featuring a teenaged lady of the night and a painter with artistic issues. Can anyone write about Las Vegas without a prostitute as a main character? I mean, realistically speaking, with 2 million people living here, just how many call girls can we possibly have?
…Now that Bank of America is buying Countrywide, do you think Countrywide will stop sending me offers for loans that would clearly result in me owing more on my home than it will be worth at the end of the year? Perhaps Countrywide’s marketing people haven’t heard all that nasty news about falling house prices in Las Vegas?
….The Las Vegas Sun reported that former Family Court Judge Terrence Marren plans to launch a campaign for a return to the Family Court in November. Marren moved to Mesquite ten years ago, but now hopes to return to the bench in Las Vegas. Reporter Brian Eckhouse says that in the 1990s “the Nevada Judicial Commission hand-slapped Marren for failing to resolve a few divorce cases fast enough,” but Eckhouse did not mention Marren’s involvement in other controversial cases. In 1998, RJ Reporter Carri Geer wrote about Marren and the case he presided over that awarded a 16-year-old girl to her boyfriend’s parents. I only vaguely remember that case, but I distinctly remember the Chantel Leavitt/James Kerr custody case since I knew the Leavitt family well at that time. I thought there were plenty of questionable actions on all sides, although a complaint filed against Marren over the case was dismissed. In my opinion, the real losers in the case were the grandparents of the 4-year-old girl in question (not to mention the confused child herself who didn't understand being taken from her mother). Leavitt’s mother and step-father mortgaged their home to raise money for the legal battle, although the deep pockets of Kerr and his family meant Leavitt’s family was outgunned from the start. The little girl was Leavitt’s only child and her parents’ only grandchild. You can read the 1997 article, also written by Geer, for yourself: “LV child custody battle garners national attention.”
…The RJ reported on January 12 about the government’s new Real ID program. Those people born after December 1, 1964, don’t have to have the new, ultra-secure ID cards until after 2014. Why? Because people over 50 are so much less likely to be terrorists, illegal immigrants, or con artists. Let me see if I understand: ethnic profiling = bad; old people = fine upstanding legal citizens. Okie dokie.
…Photographer Allen Sandquist has been hard at work documenting Las Vegas' rapidly disappearing buildings. Kristen Peterson from the Sun wrote about him on January 9, and you can see his pictures at mondo-vegas.com, classiclasvegas.com, and roadsidpeek.com. Without people like Sandquist, our meager history would be utterly gone.
…Joe McGinniss, Jr. just released a book set in Las Vegas, The Delivery Man, featuring a teenaged lady of the night and a painter with artistic issues. Can anyone write about Las Vegas without a prostitute as a main character? I mean, realistically speaking, with 2 million people living here, just how many call girls can we possibly have?
…Now that Bank of America is buying Countrywide, do you think Countrywide will stop sending me offers for loans that would clearly result in me owing more on my home than it will be worth at the end of the year? Perhaps Countrywide’s marketing people haven’t heard all that nasty news about falling house prices in Las Vegas?
….The Las Vegas Sun reported that former Family Court Judge Terrence Marren plans to launch a campaign for a return to the Family Court in November. Marren moved to Mesquite ten years ago, but now hopes to return to the bench in Las Vegas. Reporter Brian Eckhouse says that in the 1990s “the Nevada Judicial Commission hand-slapped Marren for failing to resolve a few divorce cases fast enough,” but Eckhouse did not mention Marren’s involvement in other controversial cases. In 1998, RJ Reporter Carri Geer wrote about Marren and the case he presided over that awarded a 16-year-old girl to her boyfriend’s parents. I only vaguely remember that case, but I distinctly remember the Chantel Leavitt/James Kerr custody case since I knew the Leavitt family well at that time. I thought there were plenty of questionable actions on all sides, although a complaint filed against Marren over the case was dismissed. In my opinion, the real losers in the case were the grandparents of the 4-year-old girl in question (not to mention the confused child herself who didn't understand being taken from her mother). Leavitt’s mother and step-father mortgaged their home to raise money for the legal battle, although the deep pockets of Kerr and his family meant Leavitt’s family was outgunned from the start. The little girl was Leavitt’s only child and her parents’ only grandchild. You can read the 1997 article, also written by Geer, for yourself: “LV child custody battle garners national attention.”
…The RJ reported on January 12 about the government’s new Real ID program. Those people born after December 1, 1964, don’t have to have the new, ultra-secure ID cards until after 2014. Why? Because people over 50 are so much less likely to be terrorists, illegal immigrants, or con artists. Let me see if I understand: ethnic profiling = bad; old people = fine upstanding legal citizens. Okie dokie.
…Photographer Allen Sandquist has been hard at work documenting Las Vegas' rapidly disappearing buildings. Kristen Peterson from the Sun wrote about him on January 9, and you can see his pictures at mondo-vegas.com, classiclasvegas.com, and roadsidpeek.com. Without people like Sandquist, our meager history would be utterly gone.
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Photo courtesy of Sinead McEwen at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/659096
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