Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Mary Hynes is among four journalists who were selected to be inducted into this year’s class of the Nevada Newspaper Hall of Fame.
The Nevada Press Foundation announced Wednesday that Hynes along with former longtime Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski, The Nevada Independent reporter Howard Stutz and Las Vegas Sun editorial cartoonist Mike Smith will make up the foundation’s 2026 Hall of Fame class. An induction ceremony is scheduled or Sept. 26 at Springs Preserve.
Hynes has spent more than three decades in the Review-Journal’s newsroom in a variety of roles and has helped guide coverage ranging from O.J. Simpson’s arrest and conviction in Southern Nevada to the push to open the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository and other newsworthy events in Las Vegas history, Review-Journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook said in Hynes’ nomination letter.
“Mary’s strong sense of right and wrong and a belief that institutions had an obligation to serve the people instead of themselves was obvious from her early days covering local governments,” Cook wrote.
Hynes said on Wednesday she was shocked to learn about her induction into the hall.
“It is truly an honor to be recognized in this manner,” Hynes said. “It is truly also more about the work than receiving recognition, but the recognition is very nice.”
Hynes: ‘I have always tended to challenge authority’
Hynes was honored as one of the state’s top journalists by the Nevada Press Foundation in 2025, in part for reporting on the campaign of a convicted felon who was running for state Assembly. Hynes also earned the honor in 1994, Cook said.
Hynes started at the Review-Journal in 1988 and was named Assistant City Editor in 1997 before becoming the City Editor from 2000 to 2012. She left the Review-Journal in 2012 but returned in 2019 and helped lead coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic before joining the investigative team.
More recently, Hynes has investigated the financial dealings of a Las Vegas nonprofit and sexual assault claims at an elite Summerlin private school.
“In 2025, Mary was named Nevada’s Outstanding Journalist again, 31 years after she first received the honor,” Cook said. “The award, which almost always goes to a reporter, was evidence that rather than slow down in the later stages of her career, the fire in Mary’s belly burns just as hot as it did when she graduated from college.”
Hynes, a graduate of the University of Colorado, Boulder, said her work is the result of being curious about the world around her.
“I pay attention to my own instincts and my own reactions to things,” Hynes said. “If I observe something and it doesn’t seem or feel right, I look more closely at that. And I have always tended to challenge authority. It’s just how I’m built.”
Inductees represent ‘decades of outstanding journalism’
Kantowski retired from the Review-Journal at the end of 2022 after spending more than 35 years writing about sports in Las Vegas.
Kantowski has covered UNLV and high school athletics, motorsports, boxing, and many professional franchises and was named the 2016 Nevada Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association.
Nevada Press Foundation Executive Director Brian Allfrey said Kantowski has helped capture the evolution of Las Vegas from a market without major league teams into one of the nation’s most important sports cities.
“Kantowski built a legacy not simply by reporting scores, but by finding the people, humor and meaning behind Nevada sports,” Allfrey said.
Stutz, a former Review-Journal staff writer, is one of the state’s most respected reporters on gaming, tourism and business, Allfrey said, adding that colleagues have commended Stutz’s mentorship, professionalism and generosity with younger journalists. Stutz has also worked for the Sun and was executive editor of CDC Gaming Reports before joining The Nevada Independent.
Smith has been the Sun’s editorial cartoonist since 1983 and uses sharp visual commentary to document more than four decades of Nevada and national public life, Allfrey said. Smith’s cartoons have been nationally syndicated and has had a weekly cartoon that appeared for more than 20 years in USA Today.
In 2013, more than 13,000 of Smith’s cartoons were donated to UNLV in a bid to preserve a major visual record of Nevada journalism and history, Allfrey said.
The Nevada Newspaper Hall of Fame is administered by the Nevada Press Foundation and honors those who have made a significant and lasting contribution to Nevada’s newspaper industry, Allfrey said.
“Together, the four inductees represent decades of outstanding journalism, leadership and service to Nevada communities,” Allfrey said. “Their careers include distinguished work in reporting, editing, sports journalism, business coverage and newsroom leadership.”
Contact Casey Harrison at Review-Journal.com. Follow @Casey_Harrison1 on X.
