Veteran ABC journalist Sam Donaldson will speak at UNLV on Feb. 24 as part of the Barrick Lecture Series.

His talk, "Views From Washington," is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall. The event is free, but tickets are required. Tickets will be available at the Performing Arts Center Box office at Ham Concert Hall beginning Feb. 15. For more information, call (702) 895-3801.

Donaldson, who has been with the network since 1967, currently is co-anchor of "PrimeTime Live" and is a regular on the Sunday show, "This Week," formerly known as "This Week with David Brinkley."

Since beginning his ABC career as Capitol Hill correspondent, he has covered many major news stories, including the Vietnam War, Watergate, and the House Judiciary Committee impeachment investigation in 1974.

From 1977 until 1989, Donaldson was ABC's chief White House correspondent. He was also anchor of "World News Sunday" from 1979 until 1989. His 1987 autobiography, "Hold On, Mr. President," was an international best seller.

Donaldson has covered every national political convention since 1964 with the exception of the 1992 Republican Convention.

For "PrimeTime Live" Donaldson has covered a wide variety of stories. During the 1994-95 season, he reported on one of the worst friendly fire accidents in U.S. history, which occurred over northern Iraq, killing 26 people. He investigated just what happened when two U.S. Air Force fighter plans shot down two U.S. Army helicopters, and, in an exclusive interview, spoke to the only man accused of making a mistake, Air Force Capt. Jim Wang, who later was acquitted of all charges.

The previous season he tracked down suspected Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke in Argentina. Priebke subsequently was put under house arrent and is wanted for extradition by the Italian government. Among his stories for the 1992-93 season was one in which he investigated how for 40 years the six U.S. tobacco companies waged campaigns to obscure the truth about smoking hazards and fend off regulation.

With "PrimeTime" live co-anchor Diane Sawyer, Donaldson joined President Bush and first lady Barbara Bush for a live tour of the first family's living quarters in 1989. They also co-anchored an unprecedented broadcast in 1990 from inside the Kremlin, where they toured its magnificent palaces and provided a rarely seen look at Lenin's private apartments.

Donaldson also reported from Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1989 as part of an hour-long, award-winning investigation of the Pan Am 103 bombing.

He was the first network television reporter to provide unilateral, live coverage from Saudi Arabia after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and to provide unilateral, live coverage from Panama after the U.S. invasion in December 1989.

Born in El Paso, Texas, Donaldson received a bachelor's degree from Texas Western College and did graduate work at the University of Southern California.

Donaldson began his broadcast career at KRLD-TV in Dallas in 1959. He soon joined WTOP-TV in Washington, D.C., where he anchored the station's weekend news broadcasts and produced and moderated a weekly interview program before joining ABC News in 1967.

He has received numerous awards, including three Emmys and a Peabody. The "Washington Journalism Review" named him the Best Television White House Correspondent in the Business in 1985, and the Best Television Correspondent in the Business for four consecutive years beginning in 1986.

The Barrick Lecture Series, funded through a grant from philanthropist Marjorie Barrick, presents nationally and internationally known speakers from a variety of fields each year at UNLV. The presentations are free and open to the public.

For additional information, call (702) 895-3801.