For Nevada we have:

NV-Senator John Ensign (R) - F

NV-Senator Harry Reid (D) - F

NV-01 Shelley Berkley (D) - A+

NV-02 Dean Heller (R) - A

NV-03 Jon Porter (R) - A

http://www.congressionalpoker.org/index.php?option=com_sectionex&view=category&id=2&Itemid=12#catid40

This is our tax dollars at work trying to after the fact C.Y.A. for a failing health care system which allowed greed to run amok.

Gary Loveman, Harrah's chief executive, said on a conference call that results at regional casinos were "mixed," while in Las Vegas "the gaming business has held up well, but room rates are off a bit."

Boyd Gaming Corp , which owns and operates 17 casinos in seven states, posted a 45 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit.

Boyd, which is building Echelon on the Las Vegas Strip, said net income fell to $31.2 million, or 35 cents per share, from $56.3 million, or 64 cents per share, a year earlier.
From All Bets Are Off: Casinos Feel Economic Pain

Tim Russert: You said it was good on balance for New York and America in 2004, and now you're in Ohio and your words are much different, Senator. The record is very clear.
Mrs. Clinton: Well, I--I--you don't have all the record because you can go back and look at what I've said consistently. And I haven't just said things; I have actually voted to toughen trade agreements, to try to put more teeth into our enforcement mechanisms. And I will continue to do so.

Noted on a Wall Street Journal
page Wednesday is that the only way she can continue to vote is by remaining in the Senate.

Nearly 7,100 company-operated Starbucks stores across the U.S. -- all except the licensed shops in supermarkets, airports, malls, hotels and the like -- closed at 5:30 p.m. local time so some 135,000 employees could go through about three hours of training.

Part back-to-basics tutorial, part pep rally, the teach-in aimed to reacquaint baristas with the art of pulling the perfect shot of espresso and steaming milk to add a subtle hint of sweetness to a latte and give the velvety foam on top just the right thickness. (Rivals Cash in on Starbucks' Teach-In)

Starbucks said that when its shops open Wednesday, customers will be greeted with a promise posted in each store: "Your drink should be perfect, every time. If not, let us know and we'll make it right."

Being open would be a good start at being perfect. If they closed early for training--and if I actually cared about designer coffee--and I wanted a cup of coffee, I would never go back. All my friends know that no one better get between me and my coffee. Must have been an "efficiency" expert who planned the shutdown during normal business hours to improve quality and image.

House members are discussing a tentative plan would allow the government to purchase up to 1 million mortgages over five years in an effort to help struggling borrowers avoid foreclosure and financial markets avoid more credit-related losses. The loans would be bought by the Federal Housing Administration, a Depression-era agency that insures loans made to borrowers with poor credit.

The effort shows that the housing crisis has evolved to the point where government officials are considering bailing out large groups of borrowers and Wall Street investors.

Now there is an operative phrase: Wall Street investors. I am too sure that Congress wants to bail out ordinary people, except that some of these people vote; however, the Federal Reserve was created to protect the big financial institutions and after already plunging hundreds of billions of dollars of imaginary money into the system to protect Citigroup, Bear Stearns and the like. Congress now wants to do its part. Will the quid pro quo show up as campaign contributions, money in offshore accounts, hmm? Just how in the hell long can a government, which is now spending $3 TRILLION a year, keep inventing new money? (which makes the old less valuable) And where is the money coming from for the economic stimulus plan? Water on the moon? "Money from nothing" seems to be this government's mantra--Democrat and Republican alike.

I did not get an adjustable rate mortgage or any other such nonsense, did not use a credit card as if it was a gift card, did not trade up to a new vehicle every year--I still drive my '92 Ford, and I am sick and tired of all the whining people who now can't make ends meet and the politicians who want to make it all better with free money. That's my life that all these foolish losers on Wall Street are also affecting and they get a bailout for being stupid and greedy. I think we need a national anthem. Throw all the bums out and start again.

In a desperate move to salvage her campaign, Hillary--our very own Lady Macbeth--has unleashed what one campaign official called a "'kitchen sink" approach, hoping that something will stop the slide which now shows Obama ahead in Ohio and Texas in several polls.

As Dick Morris, former Bill Clinton campaign manager, puts it in discussing Hillary's pressure on Democrat Superdelegates and her wish to seat Florida delegates:

The Clintons' approach is driving voters into Obama's arms in droves. What better example of what he calls "old-style Washington politics" than the use of superdelegates to nullify the will of the voters?

National tracking polls show Obama gaining almost daily - and all now put him in the lead. That reflects popular anger at the Clintons' tactics. (Hillary on the Rocks)

Is Obama ready to lead a nation? I have doubts that any sane person could or would but his experience in surmounting the "Clinton Machine" gives him better credentials than Bill Clinton ever had or Hillary ever will.

The executive arm of the European Union said the U.S. software group defied a 2004 order from Brussels to provide the information on reasonable terms.

Microsoft has now been fined a total of 1.68 billion euros by the EU for abusing its 95 percent dominance of PC operating systems through Windows.

Oh, well...what's a billion and a half among enemies?

"Not since Tony Spilotro has there been as notorious a hoodlum
as Rick Rizzolo. For the bank to say they didn't know is farcical."
- Stan Hunterton, attorney for Kirk Henry, 2/22/08

In a shocking turn of events, US Attorneys for Nevada, Gregory Brower and Daniel Hollingsworth, have taken the side of a California bank asking US Federal Judge Philip Pro to remove beating victim Kirk Henry from being first in line to receive his $9 million dollar court ordered settlement to be taken from the sale of the forfeited Crazy Horse Too topless bar

...

In addition to trying to take Kirk Henry's settlement and give it to a bank, Brower and Hollingsworth asked Judge Pro to conduct a hearing behind closed doors with the bank's attorneys allowed to argue via telephone; deny Henry's request for discovery including an investigation into where Rizzolo hid his personal assets; and deny Henry's request for a trial in open court.

The government said they were doing this to save taxpayer money because they believed Henry would not prevail at trial, and by cutting short his attorney's requests, taxpayers would save the cost of fighting the bank in open court, then losing.

This wasn't the first time Nevada US Attorneys have raised eyebrows in this case. They have a history of trying to keep the public in the dark regarding the Crazy Horse Too. On August 13, 2007, they told Judge Pro, "The general public should not be allowed to know the proposed offers, the proprietary information, etc." regarding the sale of the topless bar.

Politicians, state officials, judges, and attorneys working for mob figures. Sounds just like the days when "Mr. Cleanface" Harry Reid was Gaming Commissioner and the mob claimed he was in their pocket. Maybe the city motto should be "What happens in Vegas has always happened in Vegas."
For the full article go to AmericanMafia.com.

And yet, just when the pundits declared her closing statement as her valedictorian moment and applauded the high tone she took, Clinton has finally let her anger loose. Holy entitled place in history, Batman, Hillary just can't believe that people could like another Democrat better than her; for that matter neither can Bill who decided to tell Texans that if Hillary doesn't win Texas, it is their fault, not the Clintons. With another campaign policy shift hoping to revive her position, Hillary is "merely strutting her hour upon the stage, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" to paraphrase Shakespeare.

From the Los Angeles Times:

In a move to salvage her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton adopted a newly bellicose tone toward rival Barack Obama on Saturday, saying he was making false and shameful attacks on her record.

The New York senator mocked Obama's speaking skills and his power to draw tens of thousands of supporters to rallies that have dwarfed her more modest events.

Yes, Clinton just can't believe that Obama would dare to have bigger rallies than her, but the sudden passionate anger is too little, too petty, and most likely too late.

The world has just turned upside down...although the SNWA pipeline plan reeks of ecological disaster by sucking water from eastern Nevada auquifers, little did I suspect that a politician might actually propose a plan that seems to have merit.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday he is conducting an industry-wide probe of health insurers into an alleged scheme to defraud consumers by manipulating reimbursement rates.

Cuomo said he intends to sue UnitedHealth Group Inc (UNH.N) and four of its subsidiaries, including Ingenix Inc, the nation's largest provider of health care billing information.

The attorney general also issued 16 subpoenas to the largest U.S. health insurance companies, including Aetna Inc (AET.N), Cigna Corp (CI.N) and Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, a unit of WellPoint Inc (WLP.N).

If I recall correctly United Health Group signed an agreement to acquire Sierra Health Services Inc.which provided health benefits and services to Nevadans and amazingly the Nevada Insurance Commission approved the purchase leaving Nevadans with only a few health care providers and giving United Health Group as much as 80 percent of the Nevada market.

At the time Forrest Burke, of United Health, said there would be no increase in rates and that reimbursement and other factors would be unaffected. (Nevada Appeal)

However, it is reimbursement that United Health is now being investigated for. Kind of makes it easy to set rates when there is no competition thanks to our ever watchful Nevada politicians.

For those who hate Governor Gibbons almost as much as Bush, there is one thing he may be getting right:

On November 9, 2007, Governor Gibbons sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice requesting that they seek a final and accurate determination, within their jurisdiction, of what this merger would mean to healthcare access and availability in Nevada.

"A merger of this magnitude could prove to be less than advantageous to Nevada consumers due to the overwhelming HMO and Medicare market share the UnitedHealth Group will control in our state," Governor Gibbons concluded.

He got one right. Read the Governor's office complete press release here.

On his first trip to America as Mexico's president, Mr. Calderon said he is working to combat anti-Americanism in Mexico and to improve job prospects there to reduce migration. He said he hopes that Americans resist anti-Mexican sentiments.

"The worst thing that happened in this country is this anti-Mexican or anti-immigrant perception of people. We need to contain this," Mr. Calderon said after a speech at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

"I need to change in Mexico the perception that the Americans are the enemy, and it is important to change the perception that the Mexicans are the enemy," he said. "We are neighbors, we are friends and we must be allies." (Leader Decries U.S. Anti-Immigrant Views)

Calderon should have said, "We need your money!" He might also be negotiating for more help to protect Mexico from those pesky illegals passing through Mexico's southern border with Guatemala. And if you weren't aware, Mexico's policy for illegals is jail time, unlike in the U.S. where illegals enjoy the benefits of gang membership, sexual predation, drug dealing, drunk driving, car theft, and a host of pursuits by a northwardly mobile population, while Wal Mart now sells its products with Spanish labels to make them better consumers, and the U.S. government prints everything in Spanish--so they know their "rights." However, I don't believe that the Mexican government will provide documents in English; Spanish is an official language; English is not.

[Mexico] has traditionally been just a transit point on the immigration route, and has long been under pressure by the US to step up its security. Shortly after taking office in December, President Felipe Calderón responded to the call by setting up a new border police force with 645 officers.

But his administration is under equal pressure by critics who say Mexico demands of the US what it doesn't give to its own migrants: fair treatment. (Mexico's other migrant problem)

Of course it is no surprise Mexicans (and Hondurans and Gruatemallans, and Chinese?...want to come here with the way the Mexican workers--and others--are treated by the government and corporations and land owners.

Deputy Foreign Minister Gerónimo Gutiérrez recently (2006) acknowledged that Mexico's immigration laws were "tougher than those being contemplated by the United States," where the authorities caught 1.5 million people illegally crossing the Mexican border last year....A trip to Chiapas raises questions about whether Mexico practices at home what it preaches abroad.

If the major characters in the migration drama unfolding in Chiapas could be captured in a collage, it would include a burly, white-haired farmer named Eusebio Ortega Contreras, who did not hide that most of the workers who picked mangos in his fields for $6 a day were underage, undocumented Guatemalans. Indians from Chiapas used to do these jobs, Mr. Ortega said. But in the past five years, they have been migrating to the United States. And lately, he said, he has begun to worry that he is going to lose the Guatemalans, too.

"We know that the conditions we provide our workers are not adequate," said Mr. Ortega, president of the local fruit growers' association, who showed a reporter the meager shelter he can offer: an awning off a hay shed for a roof and lined-up milk crates for beds. (Mexico Worries About Its Own Southern Border)

I guess we should have invaded Mexico instead of Iraq when we wanted to depose corrupt leaders.

The study by two researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, predicts a 50 per cent probability it will be gone by 2021 in the absence of other changes.

"We were stunned at the magnitude of the problem and how fast it was coming at us," said study co-author Tim Barnett, a marine research physicist.

It's been a bit of a surprise to boat owners whose marinas keep moving to follow the vanishing shoreline, also, but it should make a great off-roading park when it becomes a dry lake bed. Besides no water to drink, what happens if there isn't water running through the electrical turbines of Hoover Dam?