The Census Bureau is released new figures Thursday saying the state increased in population by 2.9 percent in the year ending July 1 -for a total of 2.6 million people.

Other lists where Nevada seems to be at the top include:
violent crimes, judicial malfeasence, bribery, corruption, traffic jams, rudeness.

A lot of those new residents are going to go thirsty as Nevada creates an environmental disaster with its water policies. I think I'm taking my toboggan to Montana.

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Harrah's said Monday that the National Indian Gaming Commission has approved the company's $17.7 billionpurchase by private equity buyers Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group, pending final commission review. That conditional approval means Harrah's can go forward with the deal, which is expected to close in early 2008.

Posted by Zounds Off at 9:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On the heels of Goldman Sachs posting its fist ever quarterly loss, Bear Stearns Cos. said Thursday a bigger-than-expected writedown in its mortgage portfolio caused the nation's fifth-largest U.S. investment bank to post the first loss in its 84-year history.

It took a $1.9 billion writedown in the quarter ended Nov. 30 as its mortgage-backed securities continued to lose value amid the global credit crisis. That was much larger than the $1.2 billion it expected in November.

Bear Stearns' fiscal fourth-quarter loss, and collapse of two hedge funds it managed during the summer, prompted Chief Executive Jimmy Cayne to pass on his 2007 bonus. Members of the company's executive committee also will not receive year-end bonuses.

For more go to Yahoo News.

Last year Bear Stearns paid Chief Executive Jimmy Cayne $40 million, a 32 percent raise, after the firm reported its fifth straight year of record profit. (but built on poor lending practices and soon to be record losses...Don't you just love Wall Street "wizards?")

So as I see it, even giving up his cash bonus this year, the man has been paid obscene amounts of money in the past and still makes obscene amounts of money to screw up this year. It's no wonder that candidates such as Edwards, Obama, Clinton, Paul point fingers at the corporations for the ills of the world. Nobody on my block is going to have any sympathy if corporations get hit with taxes, penalties, what have you when most of us simply lose our jobs if we screw up or when the corporate heads screw up for us.

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Judicial Hellholes are places where judges systematically apply laws and court procedures in an inequitable manner, generally against defendants in civil lawsuits. In this sixth annual report, ATRF shines the spotlight on six areas of the country that have developed a reputation for uneven justice.
1 South Florida
2 Rio Grande Valley
and Gulf Coast, Texas
3 Cook County, Illinois
4 West Virginia
5 Clark County, Nevada
6 Atlantic County, NJ

From pg. 22 of the report:
The Los Angeles Times conducted an in-depth report on the Clark County judiciary entitled, "They're Playing With a Stacked Judicial Deck." As the paper reported: "A common perception among a dozen out-of-state lawyers interviewed about their experiences in Nevada
courtrooms is that justice in Las Vegas is just another form of legalized gambling."
Lawsuit shenanigans have increasingly tarnished the reputation of Clark County's
civil justice system. Clark County "courts are clogged with frivolous litigation and
the rolls of the state bar are spotted with unethical and incompetent attorneys."
"Indeed, frivolous class action lawsuits know no boundaries in a city that sings to
lawyers in siren song fashion."
...

As I have written before, it is so nice to know that the Times reports more on our corrupt legal system than Nevada's own media. Our newspapers seem to enjoy relaying and replaying our scandals but seem reluctant to upset the party by actually uncovering corruption, unless the players aren't part of Nevada's favorite sons and daughters club, such as former Chicagoan Lacey Thomas.of UMC "fame."

Posted by Zounds Off at 3:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the Las Vegas Sun:
Two years ago, after learning that each of 23 tennis courts at the new Washington Buffalo Park was cracked even before it opened, city staff did not want the city to work again with Asphalt Paving Corp., the courts' general contractor.

The City Council ignored that recommendation, however, and allowed APCO to bid for $19.1 million worth of work on the Centennial Hills Community Center. APCO did not win that contract. But shortly after, APCO filed a $7 million claim against the city over the $29.7 million Washington Buffalo Park job.

During the past year, APCO has bid twice on city projects and both times the City Council awarded the contracts - worth a total of $13.2 million - to the company, unanimously and without question.
...
Mayor Oscar Goodman holds a 4 percent stake in Apex Business Park, which is partly owned by APCO employees.

'm sure readers can do the math.

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Arena deal:
The Las Vegas City Council is expected to extend the city's deadline for a signed deal with Real Estate Interests Group for a Downtown sports arena. The Bloomfield Hills, MI-based company's proposal calls for the arena to be developed in the first phase of a $10-billion, 85-acre mixed-use development on the West side of Main Street.

Harrah's problems:
Misdemeanor criminal charges are imminent for problematic remodeling done at the Rio, Harrah's Las Vegas and Flamingo Las Vegas hotels, according to a statement Thursday from the county manager's office.

Wynn/Adelson spat:
The issue surfaced during last week's county zoning meeting. Adelson's company, Las Vegas Sands Corp., wants to build a new convention center behind its existing Sands Expo and Convention Center. The company pitched the 1.7 ¯million-square-foot project as being in conjunction with its other developments, which would allow Adelson to provide fewer parking spaces.

However, Wynn argued the proposed convention center was not in conjunction with Adelson's resorts, and thus required a parking ratio of two spots for every 1,000 square feet. That's almost double what Adelson had planned and could make the project much more expensive.

What did Wynn use to back up his argument? He owns a parking garage between the proposed convention center and Adelson's other projects, a physical contradiction of Adelson's contention that the new center is "in conjunction" with his other properties.

Posted by Zounds Off at 2:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As reported by the press of Atlantic City: "In a stunning move, New Jersey gaming regulators refused to renew the operating license of Tropicana Casino and Resort and turned over control to a trustee who will oversee the troubled property until it is sold.

By a 4-1 vote Wednesday, the Casino Control Commission ruled that Tropicana's owner, Columbia Sussex Corp., lacked the good character, business ability and financial responsibility required under New Jersey's licensing standards."

The casino will remain open while a buyer sought.

Posted by Zounds Off at 9:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Consumer Price Index was at the root of the market's weakness for Friday as total CPI and core-CPI, which excludes food and energy, were higher than expected for November. Apparently, inflation woes worry investors that the Federal reserve won't lower rates any farther.

What the Fed has done as reported by the L.A. Times as "an act of global economic cooperation ...[is announce] an agreement with four foreign central banks to create a new method for injecting billions of dollars into the world's financial system to break up a potentially crippling logjam in credit.

The Fed said that it would lend at least $40 billion to cash-strapped U.S. banks starting next week and could supply considerably more. In addition, it will temporarily make $24 billion available to the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank to help meet demand for dollars in Europe.

By acting in conjunction with those institutions, as well as the Canadian and British central banks, the Fed is seeking to alleviate a problem that could hurt the United States as it struggles to avoid slipping into recession. "

Hey, what's a few more billion dollars pumped out to devalue the dollar--I mean alleviate the credit crunch and save world financial institutions? Now that everyone else's money is worth more, we might see some of the wholesale buying of U.S. property that we saw with Japanese investors in the 1980's. From housing bubble to commercial bubble, what will the "experts" at the Fed think of next? How about calling a recession a recession? Or how about bailouts as bailouts for only the big financial institutions? When will the big institutions really pay the price of bad management? Not while there is a Federal Reserve, period.

Posted by Zounds Off at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From a recent Las Vegas Review Journal column;
Nevada Supreme Court Justice Nancy Saitta is about to get a scathing critique, as a law review article for the prestigious Northwestern Law School in Chicago examines her election in 2006 and calls her unqualified for the job.

While on the District Court, Saitta "was the most reversed District Court Judge in Nevada and was an extremely inefficient lower court judge who had not published a single opinion or academic article," wrote Bronson Bills, a law clerk for a federal judge in Utah.

"Moreover, not only was Saitta unqualified for the Supreme Court, she was tied to several wealthy special interest groups who sought to oust Justice (Nancy) Becker."

Bills was a law clerk for Saitta during the last seven months of 2006 and a former law clerk for Senior District Court Judge James Brennan. His article "A Penny for the Court's Thoughts? The High Price of Judicial Elections" is scheduled to appear in the Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy in January.

Nancy Saitta has been the subject of several Steve Miller articles which have pointed out her ties to such Las Vegas notables as current Federal prisoner, Rick Rizzolo, among others. I imagine that what the law review article doesn't mention is that the lower certain people in town score on the Dante's Inferno Test (the test scores the participant as to which circle of Hell he or she belongs), the higher they rise in politics and power.

Posted by Zounds Off at 1:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Southern Nevada Water Authority board has signed off on a deal with several other Western states that could bring more water to the fast-growing Las Vegas Valley. The agreement has new rules for dealing with the current drought, including the operation of Lake Mead and Lake Powell during long dry spells. It also requires Nevada to pay for a new reservoir in California that would store Colorado River water that would otherwise go to Mexico. The 200-million-dollar reservoir would supply at least 400-thousand-acre-feet of water to Southern Nevada. In addition, the water authority would be able to build a pipeline to bring rural Nevada groundwater to the Las Vegas area. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne is expected to sign the agreement in Las Vegas on December 13th. It will cover Nevada, California and the five other Colorado River states. Water Authority chief Pat Mulroy says the additional supplies will not lessen the need for further conservation efforts in Southern Nevada.

What someone should do is force California to change its laws that require greenery planted at industrial parks and other commercial properties. In the middle of a drought in the middle of a desert, it is totally Californian to require a lawn at a warehouse and totally irresponsible. The "big one" can't come soon enough for the rest of the country to save us from "Californication."

Posted by Zounds Off at 7:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Education Week is reporting that teenagers in a majority of industrialized nations taking part in a leading international exam showed greater scientific understanding than students in the United States--and they far surpassed their American peers in mathematics, in results that seem likely to add to recent consternation over U.S. students' core academic skills.

New results from the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, released today, show U.S. students ranking lower, on average, than their peers in 16 other countries in science, out of 30 developed nations taking part in the exam.

The test measures the performance of 15-year-old students, regardless of grade level, examining the skills they pick up both in the classroom and outside school, as well as their ability to apply that knowledge to a variety of situations.

In science--the main subject tested on the 2006 PISA--American students scored an average of 489, below the international average among industrialized nations of 500, on a scale of 1 to 1,000. Finland, which has shone in worldwide comparisons in recent years, notched the top science score of 563, followed by Canada, Japan, and New Zealand.

While the United States' science score on PISA lagged statistically behind more than half the developed nations', it ranked in the same statistical category as eight other industrialized countries, including Poland, Denmark, France, and Iceland. The United States outperformed such nations as Italy, Greece, and Mexico.

In 2003, the last time PISA measured performance in science, U.S. students tallied an average of 491, 9 points lower than the average of 500 in industrialized countries.

In math, which was tested in less depth on this PISA, American teenagers fared even worse, producing an average score of 474, 24 points below the international average of 498 among the 30 participating industrialized countries. Finland also landed on top in math.

The top-scoring American students' averages were statistically worse than those for 23 of those nations, and equal to only those of Spain and Portugal. Just four countries--Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Mexico scored lower than the United States.

But hey, our students really know how to text message their friends when they are supposed to be paying attention in the classroom.

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According to a 2007 UNR study Nevada remains the fastest-growing older population in the U.S. .

The bad news, said the study, is the state is facing "critical shortages" of medical professionals.

"The convergence of an overburdened health-care system, inadequate resources for seniors and the sheer number of aging baby boomers is setting the stage for an aging perfect storm to hit Nevada," said the study, titled Elders Count Nevada: Key Health Indicators for Nevada's Elders.

According to the study, between 1990-2000, Nevada's 65-and-older population grew 72 percent, while the number of residents 85 and older more than doubled.

From 2000-04, the state's 65-and-older population grew by nearly 20 percent - more than five times the national rate.

The growth of Nevada's elder population is only expected to accelerate as baby boomers reach retirement age. Seniors made up 11 percent of the Nevada's population in 2004, but are projected to become more than 18 percent by 2030.

The study predicted Nevada will remain number one in terms of senior population percentage growth until 2030 with an overall senior population growth of some 264 percent between 2000-30.

The problem is Nevada already ranks at or near the bottom of all states in terms of doctors, nurses and other health-care workers per capita the report said.

What's more, since 2005, Nevada has ranked last in the number of current medical school students per 100,000 population in the U.S.

Also in 2007 the CDC and the Merck Company Foundation ranked Nevada as the worst state in terms of smoking prevalence among older adults and its seniors are twice as likely as those in other states to be binge drinkers.

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