WASHINGTON — The House last week passed new consumer protections for credit card users, including restrictions on how banks can charge fees and raise interest rates.
CARSON CITY — In a state where people value small government and little intervention in their private lives, the Nevada Legislature is considering several bills that would increase the power of authorities to collect and store sensitive information on the people they seek to protect.
THE CAMERA-READY PIGS at Bob Combs’ North Las Vegas pig farm have gotten a lot of media attention since swine flu hit the nation, despite the fact that you can’t get this strain of swine flu from pigs.
I always enjoy perusing the concise summaries of the increasingly ludicrous nonsense being peddled by our government lackeys when I open the monthly newsletters of the Tucson-based Doctors for Disaster Preparedness.
During his four years as president, George H.W. Bush made many mistakes stemming from his desire to appease the opposition. Remember how, to the delight of congressional Democrats, he reneged on his “read my lips” pledge regarding taxes?
If UNLV is serious about becoming an elite research university, then I’ve got an urgent study for the Department of Public Administration: find out what on earth President David Ashley was thinking when he put the person who created the school’s abhorrent, unconstitutional speech code in charge of rewriting it.
Legislative Democrats — who control both houses in Carson City — have for months exploited Nevada’s revenue woes to hammer away at Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons and his austere budget proposals.
The Stephen King ’80s horror novel “Pet Sematary” told the story of a supernatural Indian burial ground behind the town’s pet cemetery. Generations of children learned that if they buried their pets in the rocky soil, overnight they would return alive.
Public service is a high calling, and we should be grateful to our fellow citizens who toil in state and local governments to ensure a high quality of service for us all. Certainly, we want to compensate them fairly for their dedication and hard work on our behalf.
Some moderate Republicans, the few still existing, long for Tom Ridge to save them in Pennsylvania, indeed to rescue their very party.
For months we’ve heard legislators, lobbyists and union officials decrying the impact that the economic downturn might have on their wallets and not ours.
It is time to take a firm stand in support of one of the most oppressed, most discriminated against, most despised and reviled minorities in this country.
How long since you’ve been to Vegas, Alan Greenspan? Have I got some irrational exuberance for you!
Some say that when a person gets stage fright, he or she should look out into the audience and imagine people sitting in their underwear.
NEW YORK — Some travelers are sticking with planned trips to Mexico despite the swine flu scare, but others are postponing vacations or switching to the Caribbean or sunny beaches elsewhere.
When the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park reopens May 15 for the summer season, the first visitors may see spring wildflowers struggling up through remnant snowdrifts. Situated 1,000 feet higher than the South Rim, the North Rim’s heavy winters force the shutdown of visitor facilities annually from Oct. 15 until mid-May. Only a few intrepid snowshoe trekkers or cross country skiers with backcountry permits reach the North Rim in the dead of winter.
James Hartley, 46, draws his gun and slowly approaches the sliding glass door. A tug to the right confirms his suspicion: It’s not locked.
Not to sound Pollyannaish, but ever notice how the universe sometimes offers up an unexpected yang for a nasty yin it dumps on us?
The Las Vegas chapter of the Mule Deer Foundation will have its annual banquet and auction Saturday at the Gold Coast.
With the possible exceptions of whoever gets to eat the leftovers on Bravo’s “Top Chef” and anyone who comes into contact with Eliza Dushku and her leather pants on Fox’s “Dollhouse,” the best job on TV has to belong to T.J. Lavin.
NEW YORK — Here are some questions and answers for travelers regarding swine flu, flights and cruises to Mexico, travel insurance, and how to protect yourself while traveling.
Pretend it is late fall and you are driving around on a lazy Indian summer afternoon. Out of the clear blue, you see a yard ablaze with color. Chances are, it’s a patch of blooming chrysanthemums. Do you know that, with a little planning and planting, you can have that show of mums in your yard?
She calls long-distance to ask if I would “write a column for her,” and I feel a familiar anxiety. See, when folks “assign” ideas to me about columns or songs I might write, I always feel awkward and helpless. Because it just doesn’t work that way for my Muse. Either something engages The Boys In The Boiler Room or it doesn’t. And I never know what will or what won’t.
Here are a few things in news, entertainment and popular culture that we’ve been talking about lately.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of two excerpts from Jack Sheehan’s “Quiet Kingmaker of Las Vegas” about E. Parry Thomas. Sheehan interviewed Thomas as well as casino industry executives for this book about the life of a Las Vegas pioneer.