Latest news with #freelanceWriter
The Guardian
27-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Freelance writer found dead in Las Vegas container, police say
The remains of a longtime freelance writer in Las Vegas were found last week inside a container at a downtown business, authorities said. Las Vegas police said in a news release that they discovered the body of Matthew Kelemen, 56, while responding to a report 'of a foul-smelling odor' coming from the container. Kelemen's cause and manner of death were still under investigation, the coroner's office in Las Vegas said. Police said they identified Kelemen's 63-year-old roommate as the suspect in his death. But the suspect died last week after crashing during a high-speed car chase involving the Utah highway patrol, police said. The car chase was unrelated to the investigation into Kelemen's death, police said, but the department did not give further details. It also has not identified the type of business where Kelemen's body was found or a possible motive. Kelemen's sister, Mikki Zaferatos, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that her brother had been planning to move out of the room he was renting in a house also occupied by the suspect. Zaferatos said her brother 'was really uneasy living there' and that he had described his roommate as 'strange'. For two decades, Kelemen contributed film reviews, profiles, feature stories and more to local publications, including Las Vegas Weekly. A short story he wrote about Donny Osmond's Strip residency published over the weekend in Las Vegas Magazine. Kelemen moved to Las Vegas in 2003 and had been a staff writer for several years at the now-defunct 944 and City Life magazines, the Review-Journal reported.
Washington Post
27-05-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Longtime Las Vegas freelance writer is found dead in a container, police say
LAS VEGAS — The remains of a longtime freelance writer in Las Vegas were found last week inside a container at a downtown business, authorities said. Las Vegas police said in a news release that they discovered the body of Matthew Kelemen, 56, on May 20 while responding to a report 'of a foul-smelling odor' coming from the container.
Associated Press
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Longtime Las Vegas freelance writer is found dead in a container, police say
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The remains of a longtime freelance writer in Las Vegas were found last week inside a container at a downtown business, authorities said. Las Vegas police said in a news release that they discovered the body of Matthew Kelemen, 56, on May 20 while responding to a report 'of a foul-smelling odor' coming from the container. Kelemen's cause and manner of death were still under investigation, the coroner's office in Las Vegas said Tuesday. Police said they identified Kelemen's 63-year-old roommate as the suspect in his death. But the suspect died last week after crashing during a high-speed car chase involving the Utah Highway Patrol, police said. The car chase was unrelated to the investigation into Kelemen's death, police said, but the department didn't further elaborate in its news release. It also hasn't identified the type of business where Kelemen's body was found or a possible motive. Kelemen's sister, Mikki Zaferatos, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that her brother had been planning to move out of the room he was renting in a house also occupied by the suspect. Zaferatos said her brother 'was really uneasy living there' and that he had described his roommate as 'strange.' For two decades, Kelemen contributed film reviews, profiles, feature stories and more to local publications, including Las Vegas Weekly. A short story he wrote about Donny Osmond's Strip residency published over the weekend in Las Vegas Magazine. Kelemen moved to Las Vegas in 2003 and had been a staff writer for several years at the now-defunct 944 and City Life magazines, the Review-Journal reported.
Condé Nast Traveler
16-05-2025
- Condé Nast Traveler
The 1,550-Mile XTX Trail Is Texas's Version of the Pacific Crest
Pam LeBlanc Journalist Pam LeBlanc spent 21 years covering fitness and adventure at the Austin American-Statesman. Today she's on the loose as a freelance writer, covering adventure and travel around the globe. When she's not writing, you'll find her backpacking, paddling, skiing, swimming or scuba diving. In addition to Condé Nast Traveler, her work has appeared in Texas Monthly, The Nature Conservancy Magazine, Gear Junkie, AARP Magazine, Southern Living, and Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine. Mud slurps at my shoes as I slog along the banks of the Rio Grande, deep in the heart of Santa Elena Canyon at Big Bend National Park. In front of me, Charlie Gandy, founder of the Cross Texas Trail, plunges into a dense thicket of reeds. Soon, we are scrambling over gravel bars and sloshing through knee-deep pools of water. Around us, sheer rock walls close in like curtains on a stage. We're scouting an attempt-it-only-during-drought-conditions alternative route of the 1,550-mile Cross Texas Trail, or XTX, which cuts across the belly of the Lone Star State. None of the XTX trail is 'new'—it simply connects existing roads and trails—but Gandy is promoting it as the 'future Pacific Crest Trail of Texas', with big plans for additional infrastructure. Here in far West Texas, prolonged drought coupled with upstream water usage has slowed the Rio Grande's flow to little more than a trickle, opening the canyon to foot traffic. It's a good alternate section that hardy hikers can tackle in dry years; it's also giving me a chance to see how much potential Gandy sees in the XTX, and the land around it. An alternate route to the XTX, attemptable only by hikers, takes you through the Santa Elena Canyon. A 1,550-mile trail across Texas The XTX, announced late last summer, is currently a red line on a map—a route that cobbles together seldom-used paved backroads, gravel drives, and existing dirt trails. It passes through state and national parks and private ranches. Anyone can head out now on foot, bicycle, or horse to tackle it. But once the route becomes more formalized, Gandy says, it will be even easier to make the trip—especially in a state that's 96 percent privately owned. By next winter, organizers plan to have watering holes installed every 15 miles along the route. Eventually, they'll add simple overnight shelters, solar panels that will allow users to charge devices, latrines, internet access, and educational markers about Native Americans' connection to the land. They're also working with communities and landowners to open pay-to-stay overnight 'glamping' accommodations every 100 miles or so. Gandy, a 66-year-old retired community design consultant who served as a Texas state representative in the 1980s, dreamed up the XTX while hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail in California last summer. The East Coast has the Appalachian Trail, and the West Coast has the Pacific Crest Trail, he figured, so Texas needs its own brag-worthy, long-distance trail, right? Gandy teamed with the nonprofit organization BikeTexas, which provides educational programming and promotes cycling, to plot a route and promote it. Together they've raised $60,000 for the project, and already begun putting that money to use on its development.
Times
12-05-2025
- Times
‘I bought a chapel on a Sicilian island for £140,000'
I never dreamt I'd be able to afford a house on Salina, one of the Aeolian islands off Sicily. I had lived there — renting — when my daughters were young, and with cobalt seas, active volcanoes, green mountains, whitewashed houses and cascades of shocking pink bougainvillea, the Aeolians have long been one of the most sought-after holiday-home locations in Italy. Despite the risk of earthquakes and tsunamis, property prices are sky-high (friends paid €1 million — £850,000 — for a large ruin). There were bargains galore on Sicily, but I didn't want to start again somewhere new. I was looking for a place to live, not go on holiday. And I was (sort of) used to the risk. I am a freelance writer with
