There’s a surprise twist to CityLife Editor Steve Sebelius’ blog item titled “Teacher Ron Taylor can’t serve on the school board.” Taylor phoned me Tuesday afternoon to say he was putting the announcement on his website, teachers4change.net, that he will retire as a teacher in order to fulfill his obligations as a school board trustee if elected.

“I want to clear up any muddying of the waters,” Taylor said. “I want things to be crystal clear so I can serve my constituents to the best of my abilities if elected to the school board.”

Though Sebelius presents an in-depth, riveting argument about constitutional separation of powers to prevent a government employee from becoming, in effect, his own “superboss” by serving on a legislative body affecting his job, in the end Sebelius has to admit that, heretofore, legal rulings, at least in the state of Nevada, haven’t always gone the way he argues they should. Dina Titus, for example, has served in the state Legislature while remaining a professor at UNLV — a situation comparable to Taylor being elected to the school board.

Presumably, Taylor could be elected, keep his day job teaching and remain on the school board while fighting a legal battle to decide the issue. But Taylor vows on his website not to do this.

“I will not seek an opinion from any court or ethics panel, thus saving the public a long drawn out decision and court battle,” Taylor writes.

Taylor is running in District B against Chris Garvey for the seat being vacated by Ruth Johnson due the term limits. This is one exciting race to keep an eye on. Taylor and Garvey are presently scheduled for several debates in the next two weeks– the first two in Mesquite (Thursday and Saturday, Oct. 2 and 4, at the Eureka Hotel and Casino from 6-9 p.m.); and at Cheyenne High School (Tuesday, Oct 7 at 6 p.m.).

Katherine Duncan, president of the Ward 5 Chamber of Commerce, is troubled by the closure of F Street, a road that originates in the heart of West Las Vegas and used to pass under I-15 and 515 near the Spaghetti Bowl. Turns out her organization had big plans for F Street. They were going to use the road as a gateway into the Westside, an area that’s stagnated despite the Renaissance of nearby downtown.

The chamber hoped to work with the city to bring new educational facilities and religious centers to the neighborhood so they can start getting their fair share of casino/tourist loot. The predominantly black neighborhood is currently one of the poorest parts of Las Vegas.

But instead of moving forward with the plan, it looks like the Ward 5 chamber will be going back to the drawing board, unless the city somehow puts a halt to the construction that’s already well under way. Which seems unlikely.

Ward 5 Representative Ricki Barlow declined to comment for a story in the upcoming issue of CityLife, but is holding a meeting on Thursday at 5:30 at Doolittle Community Center. The city’s announcement stressed the lengths they went to to inform Westside residents of the closure. But the people I talked to for my story, including 93-year-old Estella Jimerson and her family, insist they didn’t get any notice.

I didn’t bring a tape measure to the interview, but it’s possible that they live outside the 400-foot radius the city used to determine who would get maps illustrating the closure. They mailed those out in February 2006, two-and-a-half years before the road closed.

There’s a lot more, and a little bit of Westside history, in this week’s paper.

The tightest economy in decades has spawned a den of thievery at McCarran International Airport, so says Francis McCabe, aka the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Road Warrior.

McCabe describes the rise of the theft of passengers’ belongings at McCarran as part of a natural ebb and flow, most recently exacerbated by tough economic times and the millions of passengers (and most importantly, their bags) that cycle through the airport each year. McCabe goes on to say that he’s been hearing “rumblings” of increased airport theft just in the last several weeks.

As usual, the R-J isn’t telling you the whole story — and they’re woefully late with the “news” that they did put out.

We have nothing against McCabe (he looks like an affable guy in his online staff picture, and he’s a decent writer), but CityLife warned nearly a year ago that McCarran has the seventh highest rate of theft of passenger belongings among the nation’s 10 busiest airports.

According to our investigation, from 2003 to 2006, McCarran passengers filed 1,466 reports for damaged or stolen items worth $1,163,172.13 in claims. Further, while McCarran lands the No. 7 spot in the total number of such incidents nationwide, the local airport ranks No. 2 for per-claim dollar value ($793.43) and No. 3 for the total dollar value of all claims among the country’s busiest airports.

Transportation Security Administration Nico Melendez was quick to deflect responsibility away from his agency, saying, “Theft from bags didn’t start with us.”

Rosemary Vassiliadis, deputy director for the Clark County Department of Aviation, told CityLife last November that “Any theft concerns us, and we’ve been very aggressive at theft. Theft isn’t new because the TSA is here … it’s always been a concern.”

Vassiliadis said airport officials screen, train and monitor the roughly 18,000 people who work at McCarran, about 1,000 of whom are TSA employees. Employees, most of whom are subcontracted with the dozens of airlines at McCarran, submit to background checks with both the TSA and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, are trained by their respective employers and undergo airport-specific instruction that spells out McCarran’s zero tolerance for stealing. In addition, she says, airport officials and Metro officers at an airport substation constantly monitor potential thieves.

UNLV public administration professor William Thompson, however, says the rise in local airport theft has more to do with Las Vegas’ toxic cocktail of 24-hour gambling and the thousands of other neon-lit pleasure merchants across the valley. In his opinion, the numbers reflect tourists wanting to avoid embarrassment if they lose prized possessions – or pawn them to feed gambling habits. He, too, wondered at just how serious TSA and McCarran officials are about cutting these crimes.

Last year, Thompson told CityLife, “Historically, we’ve had a very high reporting of room theft here, much higher than in other places. This could be a similar thing, for people to save face. But another reason could be that the recruiting of airport employees is local and more lax. There could be this false fear that they don’t want to profile people so they don’t check them out thoroughly.”

It’s interesting that, nearly a full year after our initial report, thefts at McCarran remain high.

Since last November, CityLife has been locked in a battle with the TSA for a full disclosure of passenger theft reports through present day. Although the once-frenetic struggle has simmered down to a calmer routine of telephone and snail mail updates, we’re keeping the pressure on.

Once federal and local airport officials finally come clean about the extent of theft at McCarran, you’ll be the first to know.

Anytime the National Security Agency and the notoriously repressive Chinese government agree on something, you’d better damned sure understand what’s happening.

According to CNET, members of the International Telecommunications Union, a United Nations agency, are meeting behind closed doors to establish worldwide tracking protocols and programs to ensure everything you say — and everything you do — on the Internet can be traced directly back to you.

That the Chinese government proposed these changes, and called for this meeting as early as last year, is troubling enough. That internally leaked documents say the international group wants to use these changes to quash political dissent around the world is nauseating. That our own National Security Agency is a willing party to these talks is criminal.

Back when we had a saner regime installed in Washington, government officials worried about the ITU overstepping its bounds and grabbing too much power. In 1997, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright upbraided the group for trying to wrest control of Internet domains. Albright and others expressed concern that this United Nations group, with a budget of more than half a billion dollars, was beginning to wield powers not specifically granted to it. The ITU has no power of its own, but some would like to change that.

Leaders from the ITU have been lobbying for the past several years, most notably at meetings of the World Summit on the Information Society, that individual nations and the United Nations begin to grant it real authority.

Today, it seems as if these multinational cyber tyrants are personifying Lord Acton’s maxim that absolute power corrupts absolutely (interestingly, the 19th century historian, editor and essayist also said that no particular class of people is particularly fit to rule, but that’s another tangent for another day).

Still, before you despair that your late nights of anonymous porn surfing are over, know that legal groups are challenging the proposed destruction of personal, online privacy.

A joint statement of the American Civil Liberties Union and the London-based Privacy International released Tuesday to CityBlog was particularly damning.

“It is simply amazing that the ITU is engaged in a process aimed at a radical change in the nature of the Internet, behind closed doors,” said Gus Hosein, senior fellow at Privacy International. “The interests of virtually every person on the planet are at stake, yet the public does not have a seat at the table, while the Chinese government and the NSA do?”

Ron Taylor may be a great teacher. He might even be a good union organizer, although he failed to oust the mostly feckless Clark County Education Association in favor of the Teamsters last year. But there’s one thing Ron Taylor cannot do: Be on the school board.

That is, he can’t serve on the Clark County School District Board of Trusteees, so long as he continues to be a teacher in the Clark County School District.

Why? It’s very simple, and it has very little to do with Taylor, and plenty to do with a constitutional principle several hundred years old, called the separation of powers. Simply put, a person in the state of Nevada cannot at the same time exercise the powers of the legislative branch of government (in this case, the policymaking, tax-spending school board) while at the same time exercising the functions of another branch (in this case, teaching in the district).

It’s unconstitutional. And since elected officials swear an oath to uphold the state constitution, Taylor would be in immediate and incurable violation of that oath, should he win election and be seated as a trustee.

He has every right to run for the office. But if elected, he must resign his government job (and all government jobs) if he’s to be a trustee, or to hold any elected office of trust or profit under the state of Nevada.

Taylor shows little evidence of being aware of the separation of powers doctrine, as this Las Vegas Sun story from Friday shows. It’s little wonder, since nobody quoted in the story — or commenting on it — seems to understand, either. Indeed, we at Various Things & Stuff once were in the dark about this very important provision, too. But we’ve since seen the light: Let’s see if we can do some education of our own, shall we?

First, Taylor clearly needs to go back and read the constitution. “The intent of the Nevada Constitution is not that I have to give up my livelihood in order to serve,” he told the Sun. In fact, the intent of the Nevada Constitution is precisely that, assuming the livelihood in question is government employment, and the office sought is in the legislative branch.

Second, Taylor is understandably confused by the example of Howard Rosenberg, a University of Nevada Reno professor who nonetheless sat on the board of regents of the university system for years. Unfortunately for Taylor, Rosenberg’s service — while beneficial to the system — was still an affront to the constitution. It was justified by incorrect interpretations of the document by the Legislature and the state Ethics Commission, interpretations that not only don’t comport with the plain language of Article 3, but with the early understanding of it as well. (Under one opinion, even a school janitor was ruled constitutionally ineligible to hold school board office!)

Clark County Deputy District Attorney Mary Anne Miller — who advises the school board — says Rosenberg’s situation is unique to the board of regents, and thus doesn’t apply. She’s wrong twice: Government employees — admittedly with other legal fig leaves justifying the practice — have served in the legislative branch in other instances. And what’s controlling here is not statute, but the constitution.

Other opinions arise to challenge Taylor. One has to do with conflicts of interest and the perception of impropriety. And surely, those are good arguments. You can’t be both a teacher and the guy who decides the conditions under which teachers work. You can’t be the guy who begs the board to approve certain items in a budget and the guy who ultimately approves the budget. It’s a direct, obvious conflict. But that’s not the reason Taylor can’t serve.

Another ruling, in Douglas County, gets closer to the point: “It would make you the boss of your boss. You can’t serve two masters,” Judge Michael Gibbons said in 2001. Indeed, you cannot. If Taylor were on the board, he could set policy that his boss would have to follow. Again, it’s a direct and obvious conflict. But that’s not the reason Taylor can’t serve.

He can’t serve because the separation of powers clause says he can’t. Oh, as a bonus side benefit, following the constitution in this case would eliminate all the conflicts contemplated above. But the real reason that little sentence was included in the constitution was this: To prevent a person or a class of people from subsuming unto themselves all the powers of government, and thus becoming some sort of “superboss.”

Taylor says he’ll argue all the way to the state Supreme Court, which fills us with both hope and dread. On the one hand, the court has been a little more sensible lately in its decisions, refraining from some of the excesses of its past. It might just decide to uphold the constitution! On the other hand, it might buy into the slow erosion of original understanding that’s infected so many attorney general, legislative counsel bureau, ethics commission and other opinions over time and relegate Article 3 to the dustbin of history. You never know.

There is a way for Taylor to clear the way for himself, and others, such as Rosenberg, to serve in public office. All he has to do is circulate a petition to amend the Nevada Constitution and eliminate Article 3. It’s not easy, but that’s what you have to do if you don’t like the way things are.

In the meantime, Taylor had better come up with some better arguments than this: “Teachers understand what’s going on in a classroom. Why wouldn’t you want that expertise?” he askes. Well, gee, other than the fact that it’s constitutionally forbidden, how about this: The Clark County School Board has existed for years without the surely indispensible experience of one Ron Taylor. We’re guessing the district will go along quite nicely without him.

UPDATE: Ron Taylor, perhaps bowing to the impeccable logic of our interpretation of the state constitution, has today pledged he will resign as a teacher in the Clark County School District if he is elected to the board of trustees. It’s an emminently ethical thing to do, and a sign of respect for the governing document of Nevada. Would that everybody in the state had the same respect.

Let me start with an admission: I’m pretty deficient in the orienteering department. I could get lost inside my own house. But one weird thing I’ve noticed about Las Vegas is that it’s easier to get around, for a newcomer at least, at night.

It’s the only city I’ve ever lived in that’s like that.

During the day, Vegas is all one dun-colored wash. The landmarks are really hard to tease out of all the beige.

Everybody has analyzed the debate this way and that, so we won’t belabor the point, except to say this: We think Barack Obama did pretty well. And while we don’t think John McCain did well, (that creepy smile scares children!) it was, by no means, a blowout.

Here’s our free advice to the Democratic nominee, worth precisely what he’s paid for it: Stop saying McCain is right about stuff. Stop saying you agree with him. Did you notice McCain didn’t throw Obama even one such bone, the entire debate? Hell, McCain didn’t even look at Obama, much less pay him a compliment. And when McCain was talking about Obama, it was to say Obama didn’t understand things.

Obama had some good lines: He said crony capitalism had failed; he reminded McCain of his asinine statement that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong,”; he said tax loopholes mock McCain’s claim that American businesses pay the second-highest taxes in the world; he said his “liberal” voting record was just a response to George W. Bush’s radical agenda; he threw the “bomb Iran” song back in McCain’s face; and he stood by his guns on meetings with foreign leaders without preconditions and the fact that he’d violate Pakistan’s borders if it meant getting Osama bin Laden.

But the missed opportunities were legion! When McCain said Obama didn’t know the difference between a “tactic” and a “strategy,” Obama had a great opportunity to say: “Sure I do. John McCain is lying about my record right now as a tactic, in service of his overall strategy to divert attention from his sorry record and create a fictional version of mine. How’s that, professor? Did I get it right?”

Bam.

When McCain was bitching about earmarks, including Obama’s, why couldn’t the good senator from Illinois have said something like this: “Saying all earmarks are bad is one of the stupidest things John has said tonight, although it’s still early. Earmarks can be good, such as building a children’s hospital, or an electric transmission line, or to fund a community program that helps people find jobs, or they can be bad, like the ones that John’s running mate has sought for Alaska since she’s been governor but has lied about since being nominated to become vice president.”

Bam.

McCain tried to put Obama on the defensive, with this: “So let me get this right. We sit down with [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad and he says, ‘We’re going to wipe Israel off the earth,” and we say, “No, you’re not.’? Oh, please.”

To which Obama could, and should, have said this:”Damn straight, John. We look him in the eye and we tell him that if he continues on that course of action, he lays the seeds of his own destruction. It’s a hell of a lot more effective than hoping he searches YouTube for that clip of you molesting a Beach Boys song. By the way, Brian Wilson called. He wants an apology.”

(To be fair, he kind of did say that at another point, so good for Obama.)

Toward the end, McCain said this: “We’ve seen this stubbornness before, in this administration. To cling to a belief that somehow, the surge has not succeeded, and failing to acknowledge that he was wrong about the surge, it shows, to me, we need more flexibility in a president of the United States than that.”

Obama’s possible reply? This: “John, it doesn’t matter if I cling to a belief that you think is wrong, because that doesn’t hurt anybody. Meanwhile, this unnecessary war of aggression, begun with lies, and which, by the way, you supported, has killed more than 4,100 U.S. soliders and thousands of Iraqis for no damn good reason at all. And you to cling to a belief that says we should stay there for up to 10,000 years? That belief is dangerous and will hurt people. So let me propose a new metric for the American people to decide this election: Vote for the candidate who won’t kill your military sons and daughters because of a belief.”

We’re just saying, there’s some options out there for Obama.

If you hadn’t heard (via news flash), Bob Loux has announced he will resign as head of the Nevada Agency on Nuclear Projects, which fights Yucca Mountain. He said he doesn’t want to be a distraction from the fight against the dump, and inasmuch as he stole money from the state and put it in his pocket gave himself and his staff big raises, he was distracting people. (See update, below.) So, good move, Bob.

(And, by the way, props to the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects. Ordinarily, when somebody is caught essentially embezzling severely abusing state funds, heads roll. police are called, handcuffs are applied and the perpetrator is dragged off to jail. (See update, below.) But those kindhearted souls on the commission’s board — read their names here — are allowing Loux to stay on until his replacement is found, which they think will take about six weeks. After that, he’ll retire with dignity and, one assumes, a full pension, which is so much better than spending the next six to 10 in a state prison! So, good move, commission.)

Anyway, Gov. Jim Gibbons took the opportunity to revel in some typical gubernatorial douchebaggery. Here’s his statement:

(Carson City, NV) – Governor Jim Gibbons was pleased to receive the announcement that the Nuclear Projections Commission had accepted the resignation of Robert Loux, Executive Director, at its meeting earlier today in Las Vegas.

“This action sends a strong message that fiscal accountability must be maintained. I thank the Commission members for meeting promptly to consider this matter, and I anticipate expedited recommendations of qualified replacement candidates from the Commission so Nevada will continue the fight against nuclear waste without delay.”

Governor Gibbons had requested Loux’s resignation earlier this month. Governor Gibbons also sent correspondence last week to Richard Bryan, Chair of the Commission requesting that the Commission remove Mr. Loux from his position.

Now, it’s true that Gibbons requested Loux’s resignation, on Sept. 10, as this Review-Journal story clearly shows. But that is not the whole truth: Gibbons on Sept. 9 said through his spokesman that Loux should simply pay the money back through monthly payroll deducations over the next 18 months. Far from wanting Loux out, Gibbons initially was proposing he stay for at least a year and half! Gibbons needed a whole day to realize that stealing is a violation worthy of somebody having to resign.

When will somebody (besides the guy who has bird-dogged this story from the start, Chuck Muth, realize that what Loux did is technically referred to in law books as “a felony” punishable by a sentence in “state prison”? Well, we’re not holding our breath on that one.

UPDATE: We’re told by somebody in the know that Loux had authorization, at least from previous Gov. Kenny Guinn, to allocate a lump-sum salary budget for his office as he saw fit, with oversight from state personnel and budget offices. However, that same permission was not sought or granted by Gibbons. Moreover, it was Loux’s allocation of raises well in excess of what other state workers were getting, as well as his boosting his own salary above even Gibbons’s, that raised enough ire to lead to his resignation.

We still can’t get past the obvious conflict of interest inherent in setting one’s own salary, however, even if Loux was acting within parameters established within the state system. If that’s not already illegal, then it should be.

In case you were waiting on an official explanation of the wholly arbitrary and likely politically motivated firing of Nevada U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden in 2006, well, here it is. According to an Inspector General’s report released today, it was, uh, wholly arbitrary and likely politically motivated. Here’s about as spicy as it gets:

… we found that no one involved in the removal process ever objectively assessed any concerns about Bogden’s performance. No one examined any statistical measures of his office’s work compared to other USAOs, or inquired about the assessment of local law enforcement officials about him. No one involved in the removals reviewed the [evaluation and appraisal] report about Bogden’s office.

You can read the entire juicy Bogden chapter of the report here.

… when it’s an attack ad getting all up in McCryptkeeper’s rictus grill. On the upside, maybe this means the Winter Olympics will be in toasty ol’ Arizona:

"I sure hope I at least crash into the banana factory!!!!"

Since neither the Federal Aviation Administration, the major airlines, local aviation officials nor the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority wants McCarran International’s corporate coolness to ever melt down into the fiery killing fields of the North Las Vegas Airport, Uncle Sam is kicking in some cash for new high-tech safeguards for jets flying in and out of McCarran.

FAA Spokesman Ian Gregor tells CityBlog that his agency will provide as much as $5 million to help four major airlines, including Southwest, install so-called Electronic Flight Bags to help avoid runway incursions on the airfield. The “bags” are actually hardware and software packages to be installed on at least 20 jets with each airline. The packages include moving maps and aural alerting systems to warn pilots when they’re out of position on the airfield or are taxiing down the wrong path.

Although the last crash at McCarran was back in July 1993, the airport does have the second-highest rate of runway incursions of any other in the state, pegged at 21 since 2004, according to the FAA’s 2008 Runway Safety Report. An incursion can mean a potential runway collision between two or more aircraft, but old-time wingnuts will tell you it more commonly refers to an airplane out of position in or near a staging area — hardly a cause for panic. Research from the FAA and other aviation experts indicates incursions could be cut by 44 percent with such new technology.

Gregor says the FAA has high hopes for the test program.

“Radar is at least 50-plus years old. The Electronic Flight Bag replaces it with GPS technology,” he says.

No changes will be made to tower operations or equipment at McCarran, says Gregor. The new “flight bags” will merely help pilots orientate themselves here if they’re unfamiliar with McCarran’s layout. At all times, says Gregor and other aviation experts, McCarran tower personnel and airfield marshals will work to ensure all aircraft are properly positioned at all times.

Although local aviation officials wouldn’t comment in detail on the test program, Candice Seeley, public information coordinator for McCarran, tells CityBlog, that local officials support “any effort toward enhancing airfield safety and reducing the number of aircraft incursions.”

According to FAA figures, runway incursions at the North Las Vegas Airport are the highest in the state, at 29 since 2004. Gregor says that, for now, the new flight bags are too expensive for smaller commercial operations (such as those at North Las Vegas) and private pilots. Eventually, he says,  “Anyone who wants to fly in the national airspace will have this kind of capability.”

The Electronic Flight Bags are part of a larger safety push from the FAA, which is hosting the Competition for the Sky conference in Las Vegas from Sept. 29 through Oct. 2. Gregor says the conference will address the dearth of “flight space” around American airports, due in large part to higher buildings near runways, power lines, newer windmill farms and other encroachments. For more details on the conference go here.

''AARRRRGGHH!!!''

So yeah, Donny and Marie have been in town since Sept. 9, hitting the Flamingo Showroom stage five nights a week (two shows on Saturday) with contract-stipulated verve and rictus jaws like those you’ll find in 18th century medical journal illustrations of tetanus patients:

I was there last Thursday night, part of a packed house that saw tourists rubbing elbows with, you know, other tourists — mostly a crowd of 45-year-old women, squinting to compare the 50-year-old man onstage with the 16-year-old boy whose posterized visage …

… sneered down from their bedroom walls 34 years ago.

Dude still moves all ’70s sexy-like, though, as does his little sister. Watching them together — especially the between-songs banter — was kind of a blast from the past, in that I’d forgotten how creepy it always was to witness these Mormon siblings getting all coy and coquettish with each other onstage back in the day. Well they’ve still got it.

At one point, Donny mentioned loving his new digs at the Flamingo, except that he had some trouble sleeping the night before. ‘The room was so bright,” he said. “They put me behind Marie’s teeth!”

Blindingly bright teeth, sure. Everyone laughed. But wait, he was behind her teeth? I can’t really get an image of that arrangement, unless he’s saying… [Homer Simpson-esque horrified sigh and shiver].

 

Ancient petroglyphs translation: "May a malevolent Indian spirit wither the manhood of he who dares litter here."

If U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley has her way, the days of rednecks using Gold Butte for weekend, whiskey-fueled re-enactments of Extreme Sports Challenge could be nearing a close.

Sources tell CityBlog that today Berkley will introduce the Gold Butte Conservation Act, which seeks to protect the 350,000-acre natural gem south of Mesquite through a newly announced National Conservation Area designation, hopefully protecting its thousands of historical and cultural artifacts and the myriad of desert species that call it home.

One thing Berkley’s act will mean is that authorities can now treat Gold Butte like the cultural treasure trove it is. This assumes, of course, that there’s any federal money left over from the current Wall Street bailout for new local rangers to keep the roving, soused bands of four-wheeling C.H.U.D.s out of Gold Butte’s rocky mix of trails, caves, flowers, and sacred cliff art.

Still, the bill sets up a collaboration in which the Bureau of Land Management and local officials will decide how to best manage the new National Conservation Area, including the rights of those who use the area for recreation. With CityLife Managing Editor Andrew Kiraly’s recent reporting on the environmental devastation inflicted on the land by careless hikers, campers and off-roaders, there’s little doubt that those activities will be curtailed somewhat, say sources.

Of course, one way to cut down on the four-wheel pillaging out at Gold Butte would be to increase the size of the now one-deep ranger corps now responsible for patrolling all this the sandy vastness. (By comparison, the 197,000-acre Red Rock National Conservation Area has nine of its 12 staff positions currently filled).

Still, Berkley sounds sincere in her efforts. “We cannot afford to wait years before moving to preserve the Gold Butte area given the damage that is already being inflicted by vandals who have targeted rock art drawn over thousands of years that can never be replaced and which tells the story of our heritage as Nevadans,” she says.

Interestingly, congressional sources tell CityBlog that U.S. Rep. Jon Porter, whose District 3 includes Gold Butte, decided against sponsoring just such a bill. Other Nevada lawmakers awaited his action; when none was forthcoming, Berkley took matters into her own hands.

Again, the public record is no friend of Porter. His latest ecological inaction comes a full five and half years after he described his experience in nearby Sloan Canyon to a Review-Journal reporter in this way:  “As you walk the canyon you can sense and feel 800 years of heritage,” Porter said.

No word yet on whether Berkley’s legislation will pass so close to an expected adjournment, but sources say it’s not beyond the realm of possibility. See the Oct. 2 edition of CityLife for more on this story.

Even if it’s only to avoid being mugged and stabbed in the face while also being carjack-raped. You can almost hear the snickit of the light bulb finally going on in dim minds around the valley. Snip from today’s story in the R-J:

The goal of high school graduation is no longer just about getting a good job or going on to college.

Education and law enforcement officials suggested Thursday that it has become a matter of life and death.

Sheriff Douglas Gillespie and Clark County School District Superintendent Walt Rulffes drew attention to the correlation between violent crime and low graduation rates in a news conference Thursday outside Clark High School.

“This is especially troubling here in Nevada,” Gillespie said. “Sadly, we have one of the lowest graduation rates in the country. Correspondingly, our prisons and detention centers are functioning at maximum capacity.”

The slogans snowflake down in a blizzard of oh-just-too-easiness: “Murder ain’t cool. Kids, stay in school.”

Was scouring out my digital camera the other night and I had forgotten about my silly yen for taking pics of droll casino signage. Here are a couple that fell out of my trusty Cyber-shot.

Posted on the window of Terrible's Lakeside Casino and RV Park in ... [drum roll on oil barrel using two human tibias as sticks] ... Pahrump.

Corporate mindworm on the loose in the stairwell of the El Cortez. Also-ran slogan: "Be courteous or you'll be out of workeous, jerkeous."