Steve Friess - Home Page

Dear Recruiters and Assigning Editors:

From Siegfried & Roy's turmoil to the Las Vegas coroner's weird practice of posting gruesome photos of missing dead people online, Sin City provides an often bizarre, frequently serious, always bottomless resource of inspiration and assignments. My wide and varied interests are put to great use here in writing news, politics, features, pop culture, technology, travel and health for the nation's largest news outlets.

This site archives dozens of my best pieces from Las Vegas and beyond, including my years overseas in China and the random news-features I come across anywhere I go. I wander into the epicenter of some of the biggest stories of my time -- the butterfly ballot in 2000 and the 2003 SARS crisis in China come to mind -- but I also have a whimsical, curious side that has led to much of my Newsweek work.

Among the highlights:

Breaking News/First to report...

The massive Bellagio blackout. (First to press/online for Boston Globe.)
A controversial $1 million deal to bring Monets to Vegas. (Newsweek)
Cirque du Soleil's plans for a Beatles-themed show at the Mirage. (Reuters)
A Vegas icon, the Glass Pool Inn, is closing. (Boston Globe/Chicago Tribune)
First to tour the first American casino in Macau, China. (US News & World Report)
Only reporter invited to cover secretive gay convention in Hong Kong. (Various)

Probing profiles of...

Cirque du Soleil's gay dancers, Patrick & Johan, for The Advocate.
Chinese basketball stars Wang Zhizhi and Yao Ming for USA Today.
Former Ford Vice Chair Allan Gilmour, now openly gay for The Advocate.
Mob lawyer-turned-mayor Oscar Goodman for US News.
Nevada gubernatoral candidate and cancer battler Jan Jones for Mamm.

Meticulous investigative reports of...

The US Government's demands for Social Security numbers of some 2000 Census respondents.
A corrupt Vegas teachers' union leader found to have embezzled his previous union.
A top schools department head and a principal found to have falsified parts of their resumes in unrelated cases.

Personal writings that include...

An essay blasting right-wingers who oppose gays being Big Brothers, which led to my CNN appearance.
Opinion pieces on a so-called rave on the Great Wall of China and on the Beijing Olympic decision for papers across the nation.
A controversial account of life at the Sun-Sentinel on election night in Palm Beach County when the butterfly ballot emerged a culprit in the Gore-Bush fiasco.

Innovative travel stories...

My critique of the new $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas.
My Little Brother and I grade Las Vegas' pools.
My Little Brother and his friend rank Vegas' animal acts/attractions.
A Boston Globe piece on Reno's attempted -- and mixed -- revival.
Major piece on Beijing and a live Q-and-A with readers.

Important business stories that examined...

Implications of Las Vegas gaming spreading to Asia.
Why senior citizens won't leave inheritances as much anymore.
The growing popularity of plastic surgery in China.
The searing-hot housing market in Palm Beach County, using computer-assisted reporting to analyze and compare property assessments.
Whether marriage would be financially wise for gay couples.

Quirky takes on...

Saltwater swimming pools, Michael Jackson's arrest, the father of Atari and more

A public school website with rampant mispellings, including "kunderfarden."

A raging controversy surrounding illegally kept pork pets.

A for-credit course on world-control conspiracies.

International coverage, besides in China, of...

Extensive coverage of the Cambodian adoption crisis for USA Today.
A mislabeled AP photo of Middle East violence.
The plight of Serbian gays amid the wars in the Balkans.
The trial of El Salvadoran ex-leaders for the slaying of American nuns.
A Nova Scotia school e-mail project that went haywire.

High-tech matters such as...

The tech behind the Borg Invasion at the Las Vegas Hilton.
Extensive coverage of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The Democrats' accidental release of its entire e-mail mailing list.
Internet addiction in college.
A video game that offended minorities.
How a gay couple invented e-mail and a major component of the Internet.

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