COMING IN THIS WEEK’S BUSINESS PRESS

POWER BROKER: Sierra Pacific Resources boss Michael Yackira discusses his plans for ensuring that the electric utility company has energy to meet all its customers' future needs.

A DEAL OVER A MEAL: "Doing lunch" is something most businesspeople do a lot, and restaurants are often where many big deals get done. We present a list of 10 hot spots to close a big deal based on interviews with local executives.

THIS WEEK'S LIST: Southern Nevada's biggest business banks.

THIS WEEK'S BUSINESS PRESS POLL QUESTION

Log onto the Las Vegas Business Press Web site and let us hear your opinion on this week's question.

Several states have formed public-private partnerships to build and maintain toll roads as a way to help meet local transportation needs in time of less state and federal funding for road projects. An advisory panel is recommending that a demonstration project be built to test the idea in Las Vegas. If approved, toll lanes would be built on part of U.S. Highway 95 and Interstate 15. Private investors could pay for as much as 88 percent of the proposed project's $1.4 billion cost. Tolls, based on a rate of about 30 cents per mile, would help the private entities recover their investments, and the roads would be turned over to the state when their investments are recovered plus a fair rate of return.

Would you support building more of these public-private partnership toll roads as a way to help improve Southern Nevada's transportation system?

Answer at www.lvbusinesspress.com/poll/