Quick reads

New affordable housing focuses on grandparents

There's no place like Grandma's house, especially if that's the place you call home. On Monday, the David J. Hoggard Family Community, an affordable housing development for seniors who have legal custody of their grandchildren and/or great-grandchildren, opened at 1100 W. Monroe Ave.

The development, the first of its kind in the valley, will offer two- and three-bedroom apartments for seniors 55 years and older. At a cost of $10 million, the complex was completed thanks to contributions from the city of Las Vegas, the Community Development Programs Center of Nevada, Steams Bank, Nevada Housing Division and SunAmerica Affordable Housing.

The project was named for Hoggard, a Silver State civil rights leader who was one of the first local black police officers. He also served as the first black to head the Economic Opportunity Board and was a local president of the NAACP. He died in 2001.

--Emmily Bristol

Mother nature can't clean herself, people

This Saturday you can get down and dirty to help the earth. A bevy of organizations under the UNLV Public Lands Initiative umbrella organization, Get Outdoors Nevada, is soliciting volunteers for the Great American Clean-Up Day at Lake Mead National Recreational Area. The event is scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to noon. It's all part of Keep America Beautiful, aka, "Stop messing up the joint."

Volunteers will start spring cleaning at the upper parking lot at Lake Mead Marina and fan out from there. Volunteers are asked to bring the usual suspects: hats, gloves and sunscreen. The payoff is a barbecue-licious lunch. For more information, call 895-4890 or go to www.getoutdoorsnevada.org.

--E.B.

It's a bird, it's a plane, It's a...UFO confab!

Time to find your tinfoil helmet, folks. The 14th International UFO Congress Convention and Film Festival starts Monday in Laughlin.

While there's no promise of little green people, there will be plenty of nerd fun--a film festival, research presentations and extraterrestrial-related concepts (one session titled "STARGATES OF THE GODS" sounds promising), and discussion, including abductees' weird tales.

"If you are ready for truth and knowledge that can empower you, and help you become a positive life force, then plan now to attend the upcoming conference," the program promises.

The event is at the Flamingo Laughlin runs from March 6-12. Rates are $23 for partial days to about $500 per person for the entire conference (including rooms). Those interested can call the UFO Congress at 303-651-7136.

--E.B.