News

Remember voting in 1996 for the $120 million bond question that was to help pay for the Regional Justice Center, expand the county jail and expand county juvenile facilities? Sixty-nine percent of Clark County voters approved Question 1 in a low-turnout September primary. Almost 20,000 of us voted for it.

Clark County’s costs for the Regional Justice Center construction mess actually are higher than that nearly $53 million arbitration award to AF Construction. From what I can see, Clark County spent at least $76 million in its unsuccessful effort to blame the contractor for delays and cost overruns.

The arbitration decision that concluded Clark County bore the bulk of the blame for the construction fiasco known as the Regional Justice Center paints a dismaying picture of short-sighted decisions dogging the project from start to finish with one main goal: How do we do it on the cheap?

With all the cheery news of corrupt politicians, a reader asked whether convicted politicians lose their pensions?

Rebecca and Edward Shoemaker have been foster parents for 35 newborns the past five years and were described as “a phenomenal family, a phenomenal resource” for Clark County Department of Family Services. He’s a Las Vegas police officer; she’s a stay-at-home mom who was adopted as a newborn herself. Married for 22 years, they’ve raised a son, 20, and a daughter, 15.

Electronic eavesdropping is a prosecutor’s best friend. Defendants can’t deny the stupid words out of their own mouths.

When the Washington Post and “60 Minutes” teamed up for news stories portraying online poker players as consumers who need protection from cheats, the impact seemed obvious. The odds of passage of U.S. Rep. Barney Frank’s bill legalizing and regulating online gambling became stronger.