Judge pushes for speedy libel trial

A Las Vegas judge has bulldozed her way through what should be the careful pre-trial work of a libel case in order to get a jury decision on damages before the fall elections, according to a column by the editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Although the news article in question from the 3,000-circulation Las Vegas Tribune criticized a public figure — a judicial candidate up for election this fall — District Judge Sally Loehrer ruled herself that the paper had libeled the candidate and that the question did not need to go before a jury, leaving only the question of how much the candidate should recover to the jury.