The Feb. 15 shooting death of Palo Verde High School freshman Christopher Privett has generated plenty of headlines and handwringing — mostly over how the formerly inviolable enclave of Summerlin has now been sullied by senseless violence. The tragedy has also exposed a roiling undercurrent of racism in the valley. Yeah. Check out the comments below today’s story on the Review-Journal website, and help yourself to a serving of quivering racist paranoia. Amid the calls for reinstating segregation, rants against school busing and vaguely sinister calls for “action” in response to this “hate crime” against whites, you’ll find yourself splashing around in some noisome muck indeed. Or maybe it’s just a glimpse into the psyche of your average R-J reader.

The clincher is the police haven’t released any information on the alleged shooter, whom the R-J identifies as 16-year-old Palo Verde sophomore Gerard Davidson. No one seems to be answering the administration line at Metro on President’s Day, but I’ve got a message in to the media arm.

The 70 mph winds of Feb. 14 didn’t just tear up valley trees and send construction materials sailing through the air like confetti. Suzanne Hackett of the sculpture park Goldwell Open Air Museum, located near Beatty, Nev., reports that Albert Szukalski’s “Desert Flower” was toppled during the storm, basically squishing the work.

Before nasty 70 mph winds:

… and after nasty 70 mph winds:

Ouch. Thankfully the sculpture made from car bumpers was insured, so the museum may receive some compensation for the loss.

Oh, and this isn’t some piece of folksy cowtown quirk that was destroyed. Szukalski was an internationally known Belgian artist. He planted the seed of what would later become the open-air museum when in 1984 he sited his plaster-and-fiberglass interpretation of The Last Supper here.

The ceiling of the Visitor Center — a small house in the center of the outdoor sculpture garden — also collapsed, and will be closed until it can be repaired. Paypal donations to help with repairs can be sent to goldwell@goldwellmuseum.org.