Joe Schoenmann

Story Archive

After OK’ing booze restictions on Fremont Street, Las Vegas turns attention to street performers

Friday, Aug. 29, 2014

On a recent summer night along Fremont Street Experience, one SpongeBob Squarepants, two Spidermans and three guys in jockstraps walked the street. There was also a man in an odd costume that included ...

Victor Chaltiel, 2011 Las Vegas mayoral candidate, dies at 72

Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2014

Victor Chaltiel, who ran for mayor of Las Vegas in 2011, died Monday. He was 72. A native of France, Chaltiel was one of ...

Layoffs at University Medical Center called necessary, overdue

Thursday, Aug. 21, 2014

Layoffs at University Medical Center are expected to save $21 million in the next nine months and help make the public hospital more sustainable, officials said today. “This isn’t something we want to do, but there’s an understanding of why we’re doing it,” CEO Lawrence Barnard said, reflecting on some of the reactions he’s gotten from hospital staff. “We need to structure ourselves in a way that’s sustainable.” The layoffs eliminated ...

Attorney disputes Metro officer’s story about confrontation at Vanguard Lounge

Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014

The attorney for a man arrested after a confrontation with Metro police in a downtown bar in June said the police officers' version of events conflicts with ...

Video shows confrontation between Metro cops and bar patron, but police say there’s more to story

Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014

In a blurry video shot about 3 a.m. June 4, seven Metro Police officers can be seen herding people out of a downtown bar, The Vanguard. The officers wanted people ...

Is it finally Las Vegas’ time to get a major pro sports team?

Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014

We’ve heard the pitches for years. One year it’s basketball, the next year it’s hockey, or baseball. So you can hardly blame Las Vegans for being skeptical about our ...

Las Vegas’ Major League Soccer bid hits delay but still alive, city says

Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014

Las Vegas' bid for a 24,000-seat downtown soccer stadium hit another delay today. City leaders canceled an Aug. 20 City Council review of the financial plan for the ...

Downtown tech manufacturing startup ceases operations

Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014

A Downtown Project-backed company aimed at creating a mini consumer electronics manufacturing hub in downtown Las Vegas has been shuttered before ...

Meeting on proposed soccer stadium funding canceled

Thursday, Aug. 7, 2014

The city of Las Vegas and soccer stadium developers have canceled another meeting to discuss funding of the proposed project. In a news release late Wednesday, the city said ...

Six questions about the finances behind Las Vegas’ bid for a Major League Soccer stadium

Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2014

For the first time Thursday, the city of Las Vegas will ask its residents: What do you think about helping pay for a new Major League Soccer stadium? The city's first ...

Gaming exec is first woman to head Metro fiscal panel

Monday, July 28, 2014

For the first time, a woman now heads a committee that watches Metro Police’s bottom line, votes on spending and has the power to approve police union contracts. Renee West, chief operating officer of ...

Police facing bigger crowds on streets downtown, on the Strip

Monday, July 28, 2014

Downtown’s rebirth is gaining so much steam and the way tourists are enjoying Las Vegas is changing so fundamentally that it’s forcing Metro Police to change the way they ...

Group of women trying to break into pot business ‘for the right reasons’

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Five women say they want to sell medical marijuana because they've each known someone who could benefit from it.

With a $29 million funding gap, Las Vegas works to pull together Major League Soccer bid

Friday, July 25, 2014

Developers proposing a $201 million Major League Soccer stadium must first plug a $29 million funding gap and reduce the taxpayers' share of the project's costs, according to city officials and records obtained by the Las Vegas Sun. The records show that the city of Las Vegas is proposing picking up 74 percent of the stadium's ...

Marijuana entrepreneurs rush to meet application deadline

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

You will know them by the boxes they carry, because most don’t want to give their names. Wanna-be medical marijuana sellers, growers and producers flooded the Las Vegas Development Services Building on the last day to submit applications. Some came with just minutes to spare before ...

Atomic’s property sold to Hsieh’s Downtown Project — wait until you see the price

Friday, July 18, 2014

Downtown Project made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. Sitting at his usual bar stool Thursday night in the bar at 917 Fremont St., co-owner Kent Johns said the sale won’t change the operations because he and his brother remain in control. “We’re still running the bar,” he said.

Las Vegas’ booze ban is cleaning up Fremont Street, but not everyone is pleased

Friday, July 18, 2014

A lump of a man in a soccer jersey with a blue medallion hanging from his neck scans a wall cooler filled with beer in a gift shop lining the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas. Above the cooler, a neon yellow sign blares a message ...

Police can now confiscate booze in downtown casino district

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

From now on, if you have a bag of liquor and you open it on the Fremont Street Experience, police have the option of confiscating the booze. That was the lesser punishment considered ...

Las Vegas city manager gets raise to $220,000

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Las Vegas City Manager Betsy Fretwell will get a 10 percent annual pay raise to about $220,000, after the City Council rejected a proposal for a 30 percent hike. By a vote of 4-3, the council decided...

Metro Police honor officers who showed valor in life-and-death situations

Monday, July 14, 2014

Metro’s Best of the Badge awards banquet at Red Rock Resort on Friday night honored 26 people who valiantly handled challenging situations between November 2011 and December 2013 ...

Las Vegas sees slow start to medical marijuana applications

Thursday, July 10, 2014

After three days, just one group has applied to do business with Las Vegas in its newly formed medical marijuana industry. The city opened the application process Tuesday ...

Report: Cliven Bundy ranch battle spurs radical right

Thursday, July 10, 2014

The victory a Nevada rancher claimed in a government standoff with armed militiamen has served to embolden right-wing extremists and conspiracy theorists across the country, an organization that tracks hate groups...

Harrison House, a reminder of Las Vegas’ segregated past, becomes a landmark

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Until 1960, black entertainers could perform in Strip resorts but they couldn’t stay the night. Many stayed in the Harrison Guest House, a tiny home that Genevieve Harrison began renting to black entertainers when ...

Radio troubles prompt Metro to double up officers in patrol cars

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Metro Police are doubling officers in patrol vehicles again, but this time it's because the department's radio system is working so poorly. The current radio system, which has been rife with troubles almost since Metro began using it five years ago, became such a problem that...

Sheriff breaks silence, says BLM, Bundy share blame for near-catastrophe

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Three months after he helped broker an end to a standoff between federal agents and self-ascribed militia members supporting Clark County rancher Cliven Bundy, Sheriff Doug Gillespie is talking publicly about how what started as a cattle roundup nearly led to a bloodbath in his jurisdiction. And Gillespie lays as much blame on the feds as he does...

For second time in a month, police contend with talk of ‘the revolution’

Suspect arrested for DUI also tells officer, ‘You are going to get yours’

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Invoking the words of a man who took part in the slaying last month of two police officers and a bystander, a Las Vegas man told police “the revolution is coming” as he was …

Man claiming connection to Las Vegas shooters arrested in Indiana

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Early last week, Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie said “other” people were still being looked at in connection with Amanda and Jerad Miller, who killed two Las Vegas police officers and a citizen June 8. Now law enforcement officers in Tippecanoe County have arrested ...

Metro officer involved in shootout identified

Sunday, June 29, 2014

A Metro Police officer involved in a non-fatal shootout Thursday night in the northeast valley has been identified as Ryan McNabb. McNabb, 38, has been employed by the LVMPD since August 2004.

In Clark County sheriff race, Joe Lombardo, Larry Burns will pit police brass against police union

Friday, June 27, 2014

The race for Clark County sheriff will show who really holds political power in the state’s biggest county. Assistant Sheriff Joe Lombardo is the favorite. Retired captain Larry Burns is the underdog, but he has a key supporter in ...

Las Vegas council eyes another curb for downtown drinking

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Las Vegas officials aim to further tighten restrictions on outdoor drinking downtown, introducing a measure next week that bans people from opening bags that contain ...

Sheriff Doug Gillespie on funerals, budget battles and the key to solving conflicts peacefully

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Sheriff Doug Gillespie has led Nevada’s largest law enforcement agency for the last seven and a half years. In that time, he’s attended the funerals of seven Metro officers. It’s the toughest part of the job. For the last three weeks, Gillespie has stood in front of TV cameras to explain the unexplainable ...

Cop-killer declares, ‘I am in charge now,’ before fatal shootout

Monday, June 23, 2014

Fifteen days after the shooting deaths of two police officers and a bystander in eastern Las Vegas, Metro Police have not determined a motive for their killers, Jerad and Amanda Miller. Sheriff Douglas Gillespie said, “It would be pure speculation on my part to …

City Council bans alcohol bottles and cans at Fremont Street Experience

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Drinking alcohol from bottles or cans outside in the downtown casino district, a practice that has been allowed for years, could now bring a fine of up to $500, under a measure ...

Former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian recognized with seniors award

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Mayor Carolyn Goodman called former UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian “the most beloved human being in our community,” as he was recognized today as a senior who has made a difference in Las Vegas. Two months after...

Crowdfunding site raising money for families of slain officers

Monday, June 16, 2014

HealthDonor.com has set up a crowdfunding account with a goal of raising $10,000 to help the families of slain Metro Police Officers Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo. The officers were shot to death...

Price is right for Kerry Simon’s new lunch spot

Sunday, June 15, 2014

What matters if a business wants to survive in downtown Las Vegas is reaching a price for services, meals, coffee and booze that downtown customers can afford — or isn’t beyond the pocketbooks of tourists who might find cheaper eats or drinks in nearby casinos.

Metro officer eulogized as loving family man, strong of mind and body

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Officer Alyn Beck, one of two Metro Police officers killed in an ambush Sunday, was eulogized today in funeral services as "a great man, officer and an even better family man. Strong as an ox with a mind to match ...

Slain officer called ‘a damn good cop, a great dad’

Thursday, June 12, 2014

A Bosnian who immigrated with his family to the United States to escape his war-torn homeland only to be gunned down as a Metro Police officer in Las Vegas was eulogized as …

Despite changing times and attitudes, being a police officer has always had its dangers, experts say

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Sunday's killing of two police officers in Las Vegas coincides with a slight uptick in officers killed nationwide to start 2014. After years of decline in the number of annual officer deaths, a study has found that 62 officers had died by accident or at the hands of a criminal to start the year compared with …

Video shows last moments of cop-killers’ lives

Metro confirms officer's shot killed Jerad Miller

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Metro Police today confirmed police gunfire killed cop-killer Jerad Miller in a shootout Sunday morning in an eastern Las Vegas Wal-Mart. “This is a dramatic difference from...

Reports: Metro Police killed extremist; cop wounded in Wal-Mart shootout

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Anti-government extremist Jerad Miller may have made a suicide pact with his wife before the two went on a deadly rampage Sunday, but indications are …

A day after: Metro Police are out with heads on swivels, watching everyone

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

A day after two of their colleagues were ambushed and killed, Metro Police on the streets are doubled up, more aware and watching their surroundings with …

Shooters identified in slaying of Metro Police officers, bystander

Monday, June 9, 2014

Sheriff Doug Gillespie called the events that left five dead — Metro Officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31; an unidentified bystander; and the two assailants — “an unprecedented day here at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department as well as in …

Two officers, three others dead in shootings at restaurant, Wal-Mart

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Two suspects declaring the start of "the revolution" shot two police officers this morning at a CiCi's Pizza on Nellis Boulevard, then ran into a nearby Wal-Mart and shot at least one other person before killing themselves, according to Metro Police. Assistant Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the two suspects ambushed and shot the two officers shortly before 11:30 a.m. at the CiCi's Pizza at 309 N. Nellis Blvd. …

Joe Downtown: Police crack down on security, alcohol on Fremont Street

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Combatting the heat, many thousands of people drank thousands more gallons of alcohol while ...

Las Vegas council agrees to initial medical marijuana rules

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

The complexity of regulating medical marijuana tongue-tied Las Vegas lawmakers as they slogged through 27 pages of proposed rules today. When the City Council finished, this is what they did ...

Las Vegas may require receipt for booze sold downtown

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Stores that sell liquor downtown, particularly in the Fremont Street Experience, could be required to seal the booze in a bag with an affixed receipt. That recommendation...

Council takes first step toward tax district for soccer stadium

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

The Las Vegas City Council has passed the first of several steps to create a tax district that could help finance a downtown soccer stadium. By a unanimous vote, the council...

Proposed regulations assert medical pot dispensaries linked to crime

Monday, June 2, 2014

Language in proposed regulations for medical marijuana businesses that links dispensaries to violent crimes and gang activity exaggerates...

Proposed ban on alcohol-carrying containers in Fremont Street Experience called too vague

Monday, June 2, 2014

Banning all containers would have meant if someone bought a six-pack from one of six stores currently selling package liquor in the Fremont Street Experience, he or she could be …