A.D. Hopkins
A.D. Hopkins is an American novelist, editor, and journalist.
Early life and education
Hopkins was born in Stuart, Virginia. He attended Florida State University in 1961–62. He then transferred to the University of Richmond, where he edited the student literary magazine The Messenger and studied creative writing under novelist and historian Clifford Dowdey. Hopkins graduated in 1965 with a BA in English and Journalism.
Career
Hopkins worked for the News & Advance in Lynchburg, Virginia. After moving to Las Vegas in 1969, Hopkins worked at the Las Vegas Sun until 1973. His work appeared in various magazines, including True West. In 1973 Hopkins was hired as managing editor of the Valley Times, a North Las Vegas bi-weekly newspaper. At the time, neither of the city's two established daily newspapers covered the city's principal industry of gaming as a political and business issue, but the Valley Times began to do so. Its competitors followed its lead, and gaming remains an important assignment in the Las Vegas media.
In 1977, Hopkins moved to the city's largest daily, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and was editor of its Sunday magazine, the Nevadan, for several years.[1]
In 1991, Hopkins reported that Richard "Richie the Fixer" Perry, a gambler already convicted in the Boston College basketball point shaving scandal,[2] was hanging around the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) basketball program. At the time, NCAA rules meant players were forbidden from closely associating with any gambler. The UNLV questioned the reports until the newspaper published photos of Perry and three UNLV team members sharing a spa in Perry's backyard. Although it was never proved that UNLV players had shaved points, the "Hot Tub Photos" led to Coach Jerry Tarkanian's resignation and Perry's listing in Nevada's "Black Book" of persons who cannot legally enter any Nevada casino.
In 1992, the Review-Journal set up a survey known as the Judicial Evaluation Survey.[3] Lawyers who had recent experience in the courts of incumbent judges answered questions about the characteristics of those judges. The Review-Journal’s survey has been the prototype for similar surveys in other cities and countries.
In 1993, Hopkins wrote that the Nevada Supreme Court had secretly intervened in disciplinary proceedings against a Reno judge. Certain justices involved in the cover-up hired an investigator and gave him authority to discover and punish Hopkins's sources, but they were unsuccessful. The judge resigned in return for a federal agreement not to prosecute him, and two of his supporters on the Supreme Court chose not to run for re-election.
In 1999, Hopkins and K.J. Evans co-edited The First 100: Profiles of the Men and Women Who Shaped Las Vegas,[4] which was originally published in the Review-Journal and later published as a book. The work consisted of one hundred biographic pieces about people whose actions determined the nature of Las Vegas, from explorer Charles Fremont in the 1840s to casino magnates of the 1990s.[5]
A story by Hopkins, published in March 2000, proved that errors in calculating "prevailing wages", paid on all public works construction projects in the state, inflated pay rates and cost taxpayers millions per year.[6] The Nevada Press Association named this project its "Story of the Year".[7]
In 2001, the parent company of the Review-Journal, Stephens Media, designated Hopkins founding editor of Cerca, a magazine that focused on outdoor travel attractions in Southern Nevada and nearby parts of other states. Hopkins also edited a number of books for Stephens Press.[8]
In 2007, Hopkins was a member of a commission formed by the Nevada Supreme Court in order to make recommendations about "super-sealing" court cases, a practice where the name, docket number, and other identifiers of a case are removed from the public record.
In 2010, the Nevada Press Association inducted Hopkins into the Nevada Newspaper Hall of Fame.[9] He retired from the Review-Journal in 2011.
Hopkins's first novel, The Boys Who Woke Up Early,[10] was published in March 2019 by Imbrifex Books.
Publications
Books
- The First 100: Portraits of the Men and Women Who Shaped Las Vegas (2000)
- The Boys Who Woke Up Early (2019)
References
- ↑ "A.D. Hopkins". Nevada Press Association. September 15, 2015.
- ↑ "Jerry Tarkanian". Las Vegas Review-Journal. February 7, 1999.
- ↑ "Lawyers speak up on judges". Las Vegas Review-Journal. May 9, 2010.
- ↑ The First 100: Portraits of the Men and Women Who Shaped Las Vegas (2nd ed.). Huntington Press. December 2000. ISBN 9780929712673. Search this book on
- ↑ "Huntington Press Publishing | The First 100".
- ↑ "U-News: The Fight for Fair Wages". nevadalabor.com.
- ↑ "2001 Better Newspaper Contest award winners". Nevada Press Association. September 7, 2015.
- ↑ Young Las Vegas: 1905–1931: Before the Future Found Us. Stephens Press. 2005. ISBN 9781932173321. Search this book on
- ↑ "Nevada Press Association honors R-J staffer". Las Vegas Review-Journal. September 19, 2010.
- ↑ The boys who woke up early (First ed.). ISBN 9781945501302. Search this book on
This article "A.D. Hopkins" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:A.D. Hopkins. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
