In Las Vegas, how about a perp pool on when the first Trump pardonee gets re-arrested?

Posted on by April 10, 2026
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perp pool

Jimmy Hoffa (via Wikipedia)

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Originally published January 21, 2025
Updated January 22, 2025
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A half-century ago, I was part of a ghoulish office pool started in the Philadelphia bureau of the Associated Press, where I worked at the time. On what day of the week would Jimmy Hoffa’s body be found? He was the convicted, mobbed-up ex-Teamsters Union president who suddenly vanished after leaving a Detroit-area restaurant in 1975. His disappearance quickly became a national sensation. It was widely believed–then and now–Hoffa was done in at the behest of one of his supposed organized crime cronies.

Six of us hacks each pitched in $5.00 (about $30 in today’s dollars). I chose Saturday.

As it turned out, Hoffa’s remains were never found. He’s still missing. So no one won the office pool (except my supervisor, who didn’t return the wagers even though there was no “winner”). Hoffa was legally declared dead in 1982, although the case officially is still open.

The Hoffa bet popped into my mind amid the big news last night that newly re-inaugurated President Donald J. Trump pardoned or commuted nearly 1,600 rioters who had a hand in storming the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021. Those receiving his grace included several convicted of seditious conspiracy.

Since I’m now New to Las Vegas, let’s start a new pool. In what month going forward will the first of these releasees be re-arrested on charges of committing another criminal act of some kind? In my view, with such a large universe of suddenly emboldened suspected hooligans for whom law and order has proven to be an elusive concept, it’s certain to happen. Just a matter of when.
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UPDATED: A few thoughts on the setting Sun in Las Vegas

Posted on by April 10, 2026
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Las Vegas SunSEE UPDATES AT END OF POST

Originally published April 3, 2026
Updated April 6, 2026
Updated April 8, 2026

In 2019 here’s what I opined in this space. The fresh federal-court lawsuit brought by the Las Vegas Sun against its larger, long-time joint-operating-agreement business partner, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, claiming antitrust violations was simply absurd, given that the law allowed such restraints of trade. “Imagine,” I began, in the style of Rod Serling opening an episode of  “The Twilight Zone:” “Two thieves who, after a heist, can’t agree on the division of spoils, and one of them actually sues the other in court. Outrageous, eh?

Seven years and millions of dollars in legal fees later, we know the outcome, thanks to rulings from a federal appellate court: Yes, it was outrageous. The case was tossed. And as a result the Sun is on its deathbed, at least in print.

Today, the RJ stopped printing the Sun, an ad-free one-section insert inside the RJ. The Sun likely does not have the wherewithal to print it alone.

The death of any newspaper, of course, is to be lamented, as it reduces information reaching the public. (Long before becoming New To Las Vegas, I worked for several newspapers in competitive markets that later went under.) Already-media-starved Nevada will be left with just three daily print newspapers. But how much that benefits the RJ in the longer run remains to be seen. Latest circulation numbers appear to show a continuing decline, and now readers will receive less of a package. And as I wrote in yet another 2019 post about this fight, “In a battle between two scorpions in a bottle, only one will survive–assuming the bottle doesn’t sink in water and also kill the victor.” Continue reading →

UPDATED: It Didn’t Stay Here: Thousands of Las Vegas references in Jeffrey Epstein files

Posted on by April 10, 2026
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Jeffrey Epstein Las Vegas

Jeffrey Epstein

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Originally published February 9, 2026
Updated February 13, 2026
Updated March 5, 2026
Updated April 10, 2026

Perhaps the latest national pastime is pawing through the millions of documents that Congress forced the Trump Administration to cough up and put online concerning the long-running Jeffrey Epstein sexual abuse scandal. Anyone with an Internet connection, a high tolerance for mind-numbing detail and some time can partake.

That includes the staff at the New To Las Vegas world headquarters. But not, it seems, what’s left of the diminished Las Vegas or Nevada news media. None seems to have bothered taking the trouble to pursue the local angle and publish anything beyond wire-service reports.

’tis a pity. For as it turns out, there are simply thousands and thousands of documents referencing Las Vegas. Mainly collected or generated by the FBI, they range from the criminal to the mundane. Many names and institutions are identified. Reputations stand to be damaged.

This collectively makes some of the characters in the Epstein files terrific candidates for my long-running list, It Didn’t Stay Here. The criterion is simple: trouble elsewhere (in Washington, D.C., where the documents were released) for things that happened in that bug light of mischief called Las Vegas. It’s a firm rebuttal to that famous former Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority marketing slogan, “What Happens Here, Stays Here.” You can see the list nearby. Las Vegas’s large presence in the Epstein files also underscores Sin City’s amazing ability to pop up in far-flung national matters.

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After Las Vegas fixes Cesar Chavez’s legacy, let’s ponder renaming Carson City

Posted on by March 31, 2026
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Carson City

Kit Carson

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It’s been a terrible, terrible month for the reputation of Cesar Chavez (1927-1993). On March 18 The New York Times published its five-year investigation uncovering the long-celebrated farmworkers union leader’s long sexual abuse of girls and others. Governmental and private leaders who had venerated him for decades immediately started racing to distance themselves and take his name off stuff. A debate has started about appropriate new names.

For me, it’s an easy fix. Simply rename everything possible for Dolores Huerta, who co-founded what became the United Farm Workers with Chavez and in many circles is equally as famous. She was also his victim, suffering his sexual abuse and bearing him two children–at least one the product of rape–and secretly giving them away lest their labor union movement be damaged. Huerta finally broke her silence earlier this month at age 95 to The Times, whose stories about Chavez undoubtedly will win a Pulitzer Prize.

As a state with relatively little farming and a weak union structure, Nevada doesn’t have a lot of things bearing Chavez’s name. Remedial actions could include renaming the Las Vegas park and the portion of a Las Vegas street unofficially sporting his name, and changing a state law that requires the governor to issue a proclamation every year designating Chavez’s birthday on March 31 as Cesar Chavez Day.

But while we’re at it here, I also think it’s time to consider renaming our remote state capital of Carson City. It’s currently named after Kit Carson (1809-1868). He was a celebrated, even legendary, mountain man and wilderness guide. But in my view he was also a war criminal, and not just once. Carson killed Indians and Latinos almost for sport in service of a U.S. government relentlessly pushing West to steal as much land and wealth as it could in the name of American exceptionalism. Continue reading →