Pinnacle Entertainment , operating casinos in regional U.S. markets, posted a wider fourth-quarter loss, due mainly to costs related to opening a new casino, while Harrah's, which operates Las Vegas Strip resorts like Caesars Palace and the Flamingo, posted a fourth-quarter loss, burdened by impairment charges and losses at its properties in Illinois and Indiana.

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

District Judge Elizabeth Halverson, who has been suspended with pay for eight months, has announced she will run for office again if forced from her post by the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline, which finally filed formal charges against her. Halverson, as a judge, has been accused of falling asleep in court, abusing employees, mishandling jury trials and general incompetence, and as a citizen, keeping a filthy yard.

At the same time, the Nevada Supreme Court has ordered the commission to justify why it took so long to bring formal charges against Halverson.

Is it any surprise? Another judge in Clark County who has been accused of behaving like a pig wants to continue to wallow at the government trough. And why do bad judges and lawyers continue to practice--or in this case paid--for so long after problems begin to appear leaving the public exposed and vulneralble to a legal system voted one of the worst in the country? Perhaps the oversight committees are part of the problem?... Or the fact the legal system basically polices itself?...Do you think?

Or another question to ask the public...do you care?

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."

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.

Nevada's largest teachers' union has launched its initiative targeting the state's gaming industry in an effort to get more funding for public schools.

The Nevada State Education Association submitted its petition to the secretary of state Monday. The proposal would raise the gaming tax on Nevada's largest casinos to 9.75 percent, from 6.75 percent. The union estimates that an additional $250 million per year, although others contend $400 million is more accurate, could be used for public schools and teacher raises.

The higher tax would apply only to casinos that make more than $1 million a month in gaming revenue.
...
The union's next step is to gather 58,628 signatures by May. 20.

How much would you like to bet that the initiative will be rejected just hours before the deadline to place on a ballot leaving no time for a re-write?

The Sun has reported that Regents are joining Chancellor Jim Rogers in rejecting budget cuts.

"A week after Gov. Jim Gibbons got a letter from higher education Chancellor Jim Rogers rejecting Gibbons' request to plan for 5 percent budget cuts, some regents got into the act.

Regents Bret Whipple and Stavros Anthony sent a message Oct. 29 telling Gibbons they "were unaware of -- and disappointed by -- the tone and content" of Rogers' letter.

...

Anthony, who's planning to run for Las Vegas City Council, said he didn't have enough information to give an opinion on Gibbons' suggestion. He said the point of his and Whipple's letter "wasn't to slam anybody," but to ensure state and higher education leaders continued communicating.

Regent Steve Sisolak said although Anthony and Whipple are entitled to an opinion, 'I disagree with them very strongly. I think the chancellor presented a well-thought-out, pointed, direct letter to the governor.''

As I pointed out in an earlier posting, complete with excerpts, Rogers' letter was a rambling, often confused, and grammatically deficient letter. One would have hoped that someone in Rogers' position would have reviewed his letter before sending it to the Governor, but apparently he is so convinced of his intellect that he doesn't need to proofread. Therefore, I also have to wonder if Sisolek actually read the letter before praising it. It would also be nice if newspaper headlines actually reflected the content of the stories within, since the headline from the Sun suggests the Regents support Rogers, but the article has two Regents separating themselves from Rogers' letter. But of course, I am simply asking too much of publicly educated Regents, educators, politicians, reporters, and other Nevada citizens to write what they mean, when they barely teach writing and critical thinking in Nevada schools.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's longtime relationship with a powerful Nevada real estate developer has given rise to a lawsuit by a public interest group.
Judicial Watch wants to know if the Nevada Democrat and other state politicians exerted undue pressure on the federal government on behalf of his friend.

Mr. Reid was at the head of the Democrats' campaign against the "culture of corruption" in Washington. But for years, the Los Angeles Times reported, Reid was active in clearing hurdles to the development.

Judicial Watch is suing the Bureau of Land Management for documents related to the 43,000-acre Coyote Springs housing and recreational development northeast of Las Vegas, now in its early stages. The lawsuit alleges the bureau failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request of March 8.

Lawyer and lobbyist Harvey Whittemore, a shareholder in the law firm of Lionel Sawyer & Collins, is the driving force behind the project and a political contributor to Mr. Reid. Mr. Whittemore has employed Leif Reid, a son of the senator, as an attorney.

I wonder just how many politicians and atttorneys are going to get rich from this, especially after the glowing support by Senator Reid, Senator Ensign, former Governor Kenny Guinn, President and CEO of the Nevada Development Authority Somer Hollingsworth, Joe Pantuso of the Southern Nevada Homebuilders Association, and Pat Mulroy of the Southern Nevada Water Authority to name a few.

For more on Coyote Springs see
Water for new town flows to lobbyist: Whittemore gains water rights for development without contention seen in other parts of Nevada
Huge development under way in Nevada desert

The Clark County School District lost $2 million in funding because a federal survey underestimated the number of Nevada students whose primary language isn't English.

Local and state education officials say the Las Vegas district will receive slightly more than $4.4 million from the federal government this school year, down from $6.4 million last school year.

Is it the fault of the Feds that the estimate is low or did our state and local education officials forget something? When students are enrolled, officials know the ethnic background of the students and the language spoken at home, so that information would be available if local officials passed it on to the appropriate Federal level. My guess...the mistake was at the local level.

The recent articles on the Nevada sex scene have given bloggers plenty to post the last few days, so why not go with the flow; hopefully, the attention will keep Oscar saying stupid things, his stock in trade, giving bloggers continued blogisms...or is that blogasms.

New York Times, September 8, 2007
Escape From Las Vegas
By Bob Herbert

Amber is 19 years old and on Sunday she caught a flight out of Las Vegas's McCarran International Airport and went home to a small town in Minnesota, not far from the Iowa border.

I'm rooting for her. She's low on funds ("I've got my ticket, that's about all," she said), and she's at a crucial turning point in her life.

The question is whether she will go off to college in Florida, and stick with it, which she insists is what she wants to do, or whether she will slip back into her life as a stripper and lap dancer, which is so often the start of the descent into the hell of prostitution.

"I hate the dancing," she told me. "Sometimes I think I don't have a strong enough mind for it, because of the way people treat me."

I met Amber in Las Vegas last week. I was with Melissa Farley, a psychologist and researcher who was asked by the head of the U.S. State Department's anti-trafficking office to do a study of the sex trade and its consequences in Nevada.

(She published the book-length study this week under the title, "Prostitution and Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connections.")

In the Las Vegas Sun today key state legislators are differing over the meaning of proposed rules designed to reduce the $900 million in tax breaks that Nevada businesses can get for building environmentally friendly buildings.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, says businesses seeking sales and property tax breaks must adhere to the criteria for "green construction" buildings set out in AB621, passed by the 2007 Legislature.

But Senate Commerce and Labor Chairman Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, says some companies got opinion letters supportive of their building projects from the state Tax Commission before the new law was passed.

Because of their reliance on a 2005 law governing tax breaks for green construction, they should get tax breaks regardless of what was stated in the 2007 law, Townsend said.
...
During the June 1 floor vote on AB621, Townsend said the legislation eliminated sales tax breaks for all buildings except the CityCenter project being built by MGM-Mirage; Fontainebleau; the Venetian's Lido-Palazzo Resorts projects; the Molasky Corporate Center; the Echelon Place project by Boyd Gaming, and the Panorama Towers project. All are in Clark County.

Legislators revised the older green construction law after learning it would result in more than $900 million in sales and property tax breaks, reducing funding for local government and public schools. The new law is expected to cut the tax breaks in half.

Yep, there just might be a law suit in there somewhere; hasn't Buckley heard of ex post facto? Probably not since education isn't big in Nevada and UNLV students are more noted for hotel management than government but wasn't that Juris Doctor from the University of Arizona supposed to cover that? Just a thought.

But strangely, all the changes haven't affected the biggest projects being built by the most powerful corporations in the state, which just happen to be the ones the legislators most want to keep happy so that they get to keep their "50 percent" positions in Carson City. Frankly, my dear, I am amazed.

Excerpt of article, Tax Panel Slammed For Secrecy, in the Las Vegas Sun:

When the Nevada Tax Commission awarded a $40 million tax refund to the Southern California Edison Co. in 2005, it did so behind closed doors -- after not even bothering to inform interested parties that the case was pending.

When the Legislature in 2005 decided to reward those who constructed environmentally friendly buildings, the Tax Commission developed such generous guidelines that large casino companies and other mega-projects stood to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks for investing in "green" facilities.

And when the Legislature the same year set caps on a property tax relief measure, the commission was accused of undercutting legislators' intent by adopting a regulation that allowed large landowners to divide their property into smaller parcels to qualify.

Although each of those decisions spawned controversies, public protests to Tax Commission rulings typically come after the fact, when it is too late to influence the outcome. That's because in contrast to most other states, Nevada's Tax Commission operates largely in secret, making it difficult for average taxpayers to participate.

Exactly! I think we should have a more open commission, like the Las Vegas City Council, which openly supported Rick Rizollo and the Crazy Horse Too; and the Clark County Commissioners, who openly voted to give Vinnie Faraci favored employee status so he can run a strip club when he gets out of prison; and the former Clark County Commissioners who freely discussed bribes over the telephone so the FBI could record the conversations on wiretaps. Really, unless you are committing a federal crime, you might as well be openly crooked as the Nevada media seems unusually pathetic at following many stories--see how many stories are broken by the L.A. Times first when it involves corruption in Nevada--and how seldom city and county prosecutors get involved in corruption cases; although if you make fun of prosecutors on your MySpace page, District Attorney Dave Rogers will go after you, then. See Substitute judge in North Las Vegas loses job over MySpace blog.

On LasVegasNow Brian Atkinson Turner, son of former Commissioner Yvonne Gates, and his wife, Katherine O'Gara, were taken into custody on drug and child endangerment charges.

Police arrived at the home in Southern Highlands because they received reports that O'Gara was driving erratically, possibly under the influence, and with her three-year-old in the car, unrestrained. Inside the house, they found filth and garbage and more, including marijuana and a hydroponic growing system favored by indoor pot farmers. A loaded handgun was in the glove box of the car, just inches from where the child had been.

Law enforcement are still tracking down leads about Gates and has long suspected that some of the money paid by Gates to her family members-- more than $400,000--for her campaign made its way back into her own pocket.

So far, Turner is only charged with possession with intent to sell marijuana and was released Wednesday evening on $10,000 bail.

Some interesting excerpts of a Tony Cook colunm in Las Vegas Sun Politics:

Clark County hired Josh Griffin and Tim Crowley in February 2006 at a rate of $5,000 a month until the session began, when the monthly rate jumped to $10,000. Overall, the county paid the pair $105,000. Griffin and Crowley also represent gaming giant MGM Mirage.

The county stood to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue because of the tax breaks and wanted them reduced as much as possible. MGM Mirage, on the other hand, had expected to save about $395 million on its $7.4 billion CityCenter thanks to the tax breaks and wanted to keep as much as possible.

The issue pitted the interests of one Griffin-Crowley client against another.

"They couldn't forcefully advocate for the county because in doing so they would have been forcefully arguing against another client," one county official complained privately. "They weren't able to help us."

The issue highlights a common problem.

The state's most talented lobbyists often boast more than a dozen clients. Indeed, 67 lobbyists in Carson City this year each represented more than 10 clients, making occasional conflicts inevitable.

The client lists of some lobbyists include local governments and special interests that they regulate. When it comes to which client will bear the burden of a tax shift, lobbyists can suddenly find themselves in sticky situations.

Sometimes, the ironies are rich. For example, R&R Partners, one of the state's lobbying powerhouses, represents the Indoor Tanning Association and the Nevada Cancer Institute.

Conflict of interest means disclosure and withdrawal in most places...in Nevada it just means that you get paid for not being able to do the job. Great work if you can get it, but you have to be part of the corrupt network of politicians, developers, attorneys, courts, and corporations to have a chance.

U.S. Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign of Nevada today introduced legislation that establishes a conservation program that helps ranchers prevent the occurrence, spread of, and damages caused by wildfire to rangeland.

"Nevada, along with other Western states, is facing unprecedented threats to the rangeland," said Reid. "In the past, Nevada wildfires have devastated our rural families and ranches. This legislation will help prevent wildfires and mitigate damages from ones that occur. This is a good step forward in addressing the conservation and environmental concerns of Nevada and the Great Basin."

Meanwhile in Carson City, Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons joined with Senator Maurice Washington (R-Washoe), Senator Barbara Cegavske (R-Clark), Clark County Superintendent Walt Rulffes, Clark County Assistant Superintendent Dr. Karlene Lee, and others to sign a bill providing for the establishment of 29 empowerment schools across Nevada and provides an additional $400 in per pupil spending at those schools.

"By signing this bill, we are taking that next big step toward providing our children with an education that will better prepare them for the future," said Governor Gibbons. "Who better to assess and meet the needs of students than the principals, teachers, and parents who spend time with these children each day?"

Maybe juvenile corrections officers? And who paid for two Clark County Superintendents to make the trip to Carson City?

A $1 billion plan to cover part of the projected $5 billion shortfall in funding for highway projects was signed into law by Governor Jim Gibbons.

The bill takes $20 million annually from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and part of the existing rental car tax and property tax revenues for capital projects in Washoe and Clark Counties.

The money should finance $1 billion in bonds for improvements to Interstate 15 and U.S. 95 in the Las Vegas area and Interstate 80 in the Reno area.

Harry Reid of Nevada, who in the past three years has blamed Republicans for being soft and beholden to big oil, has finally noticed that gasoline prices are at record prices already this year.

CQ Today reports that Energy legislation and the annual defense authorization bill -- including an amendment to begin a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq -- will dominate the Senate floor between now and the Fourth of July recess, according to Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Senators returned this week from their Memorial Day recess, during which they got an earful from constituents. Reid said, "There are two issues that are foremost in their minds: No. 1 is the Iraq War and No. 2 are gas prices. We're going to deal with that as soon as we finish with this immigration legislation." In non-political without posturing words what Harry means is: Which we will never finish because both sides are more interested in creating more voters than closing borders and dealing with criminals so your gasoline prices will be high all summer unless something happens to depress prices which is beyond our control but that we will take credit for.

Reid, a Democrat who represents Nevada, was referring to a comprehensive immigration overhaul that has been offered as a substitute amendment to a shell bill (S 1348). The controversial bill has attracted numerous amendments, and Reid may try to force an end to the debate later this week -- a move Republicans will resist. Or not, as politicians determine how many political miles can be forced out of posturing for the public. If we could just get as many miles per gallon from our vehicles as politicians get from empty posturing we would have a world-wide oil glut.

Reid said that once the immigration debate ends, there will be an effort to proceed to a "no confidence" vote on Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. But that attempt is unlikely to garner the 60 votes needed. I thought after immigration the Senate was going to tackle gasoline prices. In ordinary speak this means by the time we are done with the small stuff oil companies will have two more record breaking quarters and the economy will be in a real recession that even the media might recognize.

The energy legislation could prove contentious, even though its pieces commanded broad bipartisan support in committee. Much will depend on the amendments offered on the floor. PORK!!!

Reid said the legislation (S 1419) is an amalgam of bills approved by four committees: Energy and Natural Resources (S 1321); Environment and Public Works (S 992); Commerce, Science and Transportation (S 357); and Foreign Relations (S 193). Oh no. If one committee is bad, think what four committees have done to the bill.

He said he did not think the legislation was the "appropriate time" for a floor fight over efforts to address global warming. But he acknowledged that battles are likely over moves to toughen fuel efficiency standards and to set a national renewable-portfolio standard requiring 10 percent to 20 percent of electricity to be produced from renewable sources by 2020. While at the same time there is Democratic Congressman, Alan Mollohan, from West Virginia trying to put restrictions on wind generated power which just might affect his state's coal industry. He claims the blades kill bats. My experience is that bats are smarter than congressmen. Naturally, miners vote and bats don't so I am sure his concern for the bats is "real." The question of how to have wind turbines and protect birds and bats has been the subject of articles for the past few years with several solutions being tested. Perhaps the Congressman simply wants the wind farms built on the land he purchased with the head of a small defense contractor that had won a $2.1 million contract from funds that the congressman added to a 2005 spending bill.

As for global warming, will someone please explain why temperatures on the other planets have also risen--is our global warming so powerful that we can affect Mars? And has anyone actually considered how much pollution is created by China, India, Mexico, etc.? Even Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is aware that China is bringing on-line a 1,000 megawatt coal-fired power plant every 10 days. Are they going to stop?

Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons joined with Assemblyman Joe Hardy (R-Boulder City) May 30 during a ceremonial signing of AB 6 sponsored by Assemblyman Joe Hardy, which reaffirms the legal authority for local governments to offer prescription discount cards, such as the one offered by the National Association of Counties (NACo). The Prescription Drug Discount Card can provide as much as 20% in savings on each prescription and is available to the insured, underinsured, and non-insured.

The Governor stated, "I am pleased that all 17 counties will now have the opportunity to provide residents with the savings option provided through the Prescription Drug Discount Card program or other similar programs. The costs of prescription drugs can often create a significant burden for those living on a fixed income."

I wonder how it affects those of us on a flexible income. Mine keeps getting smaller every year.

For further details on this program contact www.NACO.org/drugcard.

The Reno Gazette-Journal reported that the Nevada Senate voted 20-1 to approve Assembly Bill 478, which Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said was needed to close a loophole in the state's 2005 payday loan law.

Several small payday loan companies opposed the law, insisting they were "installment lenders" who should be regulated differently. Buckley noted the companies changed their contracts when the 2005 law took effect. Those changes allowed them to charge interest rates ranging up to 900 percent for over a year.

Under AB478, any company charging more than 40 percent interest on a loan must limit the term of the loan to 35 days. If a borrower can't pay the loan back after that time, the interest rate must drop to the prime rate plus 10 percent, or 18.25 percent in the current market.

Within a week after the proposed 2005 law change was announced, attorneys were advising their payday loan clients to basically create contracts that are executory in nature, meaning it is like signing a rental agreement for six or twelve months. As soon as you default, the whole amount of the contract becomes immediately due. By the time the law went into effect, the loan companies already had their new business plan in effect, so they never missed out on their loan shark returns; plus they had another two years to invest in new enterprises as they had to know the law eventually would be reworked. Also, their attorneys have had two more years to think of possible ways to continue collecting exorbitant rates from the segment of our population who can't qualify for bank loans in the midst of our booming economy...for some. And I wonder if the legislature is looking at how a credit card company owned by Illinois residents incorporated in lNevada--I am referring to HSBC--can, through penalties and fees and other clauses, pump interests rates to 120 percent or more? But hey, as long as "corporations" file their fees to incorporate, Nevada remains a scam friendly state. Spend a day on the Secretary of State website and you might be amazed how many corporations are formed and then sort of vanish before they comply with furnishing a list of officer which they have at least a year to do, or corporations which are managed by other corporations which further searching shows don't exist

As reported in the Sun, Nevada lawmakers heard last-minute pleas this week for several tax breaks supporting the film industry, seniors, and nonprofit medical providers.

Lobbyists for the movie industry and unions asked the Senate Finance Committee to pass SB321, a bill containing sales and fuel tax breaks for companies that make films in Nevada.

Movie companies are spending much less money in Nevada, mostly because other states have aggressively competed for their business, according to Tim Rubald, director of the state Commission on Economic Development. Spending on feature films in Nevada has dropped from $44.8 million in 2000 to just $14.3 million last year.

State tax officials estimate the tax break will take about $35,000 from state coffers each year.
However, supporters say that is vastly outweighed by film companies' contributions to Nevada's economy, and that the breaks will create jobs and spark millions of dollars in investments. To get the tax break, film companies must hire at least 30 percent Nevada employees, in full-time positions.

The committee also heard testimony on SB179, a bill sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, which would expand eligibility for a property tax break for low-income seniors.

Finally, the committee considered SB501, a proposal to give sales and fuel tax breaks to nonprofit organizations that provide ambulance or air ambulance services.

Plus legislators may be moving toward revoking "green building" tax breaks (See "Tax break pulled 'out of the air' could cost state $900 million"), which they hurriedly passed in 2005.

In 2004 Chris Giunchigliani, then a state assemblywoman, was listening to a NPR show on building green and tax incentives while working on "smart growth" bills to introduce the next year and came up with a tax break plan of her own tax of 50 percent. If a business met a certain green standard, it would get a 50 percent property tax break for 10 years. And if a business applied in the fourth quarter of 2005, it could qualify for a 50 percent sales tax break on construction materials. It sounded so good that lawmakers rushed it right through.

Did the 50 percent number come from careful research and debate?

"I just pulled it out of the air," said "Chris G.

More and more builders were already going green because building green can save a lot of money in utility costs, even before tax breaks are considered. With the 50 percent tax break developers may save three times as much in taxes as they invest in building green. MGM Mirage, for example, estimates it will spend an additional $125 million to $225 million to make its $7.4 billion CityCenter a green development, which may net as much as $390 million in tax breaks.

The number that Chris pulled out of her hmm... turns out not to be an incentive but a lucrative gift to the big developers, while possibly costing the state nearly one billion dollars in revenue over ten years. I wonder who will have to make up this deficit in budget revenue while the legislature presides over statewide infrastructure shortfalls? Let's see: I'm not a casino, a developer, a senior, or a movie maker. Oh yeah, it must be me.

Casino City Times reported that the Nevada problem gambling bill is expected to pass

The Assembly Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to discuss legislation this week that would make state funding of problem gambling treatment and research permanent with a vote on Senate Bill 453 following. The bill passed out of the Senate on May 7 following a 20-1 vote approving the measure.

Former Gov. Kenny Guinn appointed the advisory committee in 2005 to make recommendations on disbursing the state funds.

The money is diverted from the state general fund through an existing tax on slot machines, with an allocation equivalent of $2 per machine.

William Bingham, Bellagio's vice president of table games and an advisory committee member, said the measure seems to have the support of the entire gaming industry. "We're just waiting to have this renewed and to continue to monitor the programs that are being funded," Bingham said. Of course, because anything else would be bad publicity for an industry that generally feeds indiscriminately, I mean provides us with quality entertainment.

Six percent of Clark County's approximately 11,000 homeless listed problem gambling as their primary reason for being homeless, a Southern Nevada Regional Planning Commission's Committee on Homelessness survey released in April shows.

Gee whiz, oh gosh, my my--six percent works out to 660 homeless persons who blame gambling problems for their homelessness. I wonder if we could compare that to the two million residents who are affected by the lack of Clark County and the state ever developing a real transportation plan; or well over 200,000 Clark County students getting one of the worst educations in the country while legislators dicker over all day kindergarten--which is simply a disguised plan to get Mexican children out of their non-English speaking homes a little more and leading to the need to build a thousand more classrooms and hire a thousand more teachers for a program which has no lasting benefit past second to fourth grade. A more effective plan would be to give existing teachers a raise and extend the school day one hour, giving students benefits over the whole twelve year experience. But then, maybe giving our children to Clark County schools for extra time isn't the best idea either...I went to their website for information on just how many students and teachers there are in the district and found on the ccsd website some of the following headings:
School Links
Back to School Information
Important Dates for 2004-2005 (PDF)
School Directory (PDF)

Important dates for 2004 in the year 2007--yep, these people are surely the ones I want educating our children. Now I know why our legislators are so knowledgeable and wise. They must all have had a Nevada public education.

The Las Vegas Sun reports that Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, who also chairs the Regional Transportation Commission has threatened that growth in Las Vegas might have to be slowed If the Legislature fails to address a state highway funding s