Reporters’ Notebook

REP. JON PORTER AND AN AIDE WERE EXPLAINING TO A REPORTER LAST WEEK HIS NEW BILL that encourages doctors to issue prescriptions electronically rather than through often-indecipherable handwritten notes.

The "e-prescriptions" would cut down on mistakes, the aide said. The doctor would be able to spot-check what other medications a patient has been taking to ensure against interactions.

"So you don't do Viagra and Cialis at the same time," Porter interjected.

STEVE TETREAULT

TO COLLEGE STUDENTS, GOV. JIM GIBBONS HAS BECOME "GOVERNOR GRINCH" FOR HIS PROPOSAL TO CUT THE HIGHER EDUCATION BUDGET. Student leaders used computer software to place Gibbons' face atop the cartoon figure's body and featured them on fliers seeking support for their cause.

On MySpace, a social networking Web site, students had fun doctoring different photos of Gibbons and affixing them to different bodies, UNLV Graduate & Professional Student Association President Jeremy Houska said.

"Some of them I can't really talk about," he said. "They were kind of inappropriate."

LAWRENCE MOWER

STEPHEN BROWN, THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF FARMER'S INSURANCE IN NEVADA, HAS BEEN MAKING THE ROUNDS TO CITIES to mark the third year of the company's ranking of secure places to live in the United States. This year, the Las Vegas Valley ranked third among metro areas with at least 500,000 people.

The study included factors like the unemployment rate, job growth, natural disasters, crime rates and extreme weather.

At Wednesday's presentation to the city of Las Vegas, though, what apparently stood out the most was Brown's charming Scottish brogue.

"I love your Nevada accent," Goodman quipped.

"The accent's actually from Beaumont, Texas," Brown replied.

ALAN CHOATE

MICHAEL KELLY KEPT THE ANTI-NUCLEAR FIRES BURNING AS HE STRODE ACROSS THE ENTRANCE TO CASHMAN CENTER BEFORE MONDAY'S HEARING on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project.

Pacing back and forth while hoisting his "No Nukes" sign, he was the lone protester outside where in years past at such events dozens toted signs in opposition to what Nevada politicians often call "the dump."

Kelly said he was bewildered. "Nobody else is doing it. ... I don't know why there aren't more people out here," he said.

"They're just selling us a bunch of goods, just like the war," he said about government officials who want to haul 77,000 tons of lethal nuclear waste across the country to the mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

KEITH ROGERS

YOU COULD SAY SECURITY WAS TIGHT WEDNESDAY FOR THE YUCCA MOUNTAIN CONFAB AT THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION'S HEARING FACILITY ON PEPPER LANE. Citing security regulations that follow federal court guidelines, NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said he couldn't disclose how many armed guards were on hand to watch over the 40 people who showed up to hear arguments in the state's challenge of the project's licensing support certification.

By one count, there was one guard for every four people (excluding two people running the metal detector and another watching while folks took off their shoes and belts and unloaded their money clips, glasses and personal computers for the scanner).

The leased, $4 million facility includes in its price tag $1 million in high-tech video and audio gear and computer equipment. Plans call for spending another $1.2 million over the next 21/2 years to accommodate the droves who are expected to attend hearings as the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste debate heats up.

Perhaps some of the money could be invested in cots for attendees to snooze on while the list of 76 acronyms used in the proceedings is read into the record. Count 'em, 76 -- from AMR, which stands for Analysis Model Reports, to NGPA, Next Generation Performance Assessment, to, you guessed it, YMSCO, or Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Office.

KEITH ROGERS

ISLAMIC DEMAGOGUES WON'T HAVE MAYOR OSCAR GOODMAN TO KICK AROUND -- NOT THIS WEEK, AT LEAST.

Goodman decided to err on the side of caution when Thomas Elementary School students gave him a present.

"I was just handed a little teddy bear, but I promise you I will not name him," Goodman said.

He was referring to the case of Gillian Gibbons, the British schoolteacher who was thrown in jail in Sudan after she allowed her students to name a teddy bear "Mohammed."

ALAN CHOATE