ON THE SCENE: Calif. Town Wants to Join Ariz. or Nev.

Secession isn’t being taken lightly in these parts. Usually the topic here involves whether the mercury hits 120 or not, but not these days. Nestled in the Mojave desert, Needles is rimmed by the Colorado River and Interstate 40. A short drive away sits the boomtowns of Laughlin Nevada and Bullhead City Arizona. I got here in a roundabout way. The crew came out early to attend a city council meeting on he possible secession, I flew into Las Vegas and then drove the 97 miles across pure blankness. In fact, the drive may have lasted less than two hours, but it felt like it took a day. The heat sears the through the air conditioning and even though I am inside the car, I can easily tell the desert outside bakes. The sand across the stretch reminds me of Kuwait in some ways. A white dirty type of sand with little or low... [read full story]