Editorials

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the University of Nevada, Reno have a serious building maintenance funding shortfall, on the order of more than $1 billion, as reported Friday by the Review-Journal’s Yesenia Amaro. Add in the College of Southern Nevada campuses, and there’s an additional $200 million in unfunded work.

Events of the past two weeks have shined a light on just how unwieldy and inoperable the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act already is, even though most of its provisions haven’t been implemented yet.

Las Vegas and Phoenix are the largest adjacent metropolitan areas in the United States not directly connected by an interstate highway. That fact alone is enough to justify the construction of a major freeway between the population centers and their more than 6 million residents.

Saturday’s explosion of a runaway train loaded with oil shouldn’t become a tragedy to be exploited. The Quebec town of Lac-Megantic, just 20 miles from the Maine border, was devastated by the blast. There are 24 confirmed deaths, with many more expected, as the 26 still missing are presumed dead.

Last November, the penny-stock company Las Vegas Railway Express announced an ambitious, privately financed plan to start a party train with Las Vegas-to-Los Angeles service, with the inaugural trek set for New Year’s Eve. That prospect left the station months ago, unfulfilled.

For all practical purposes, Nevada doesn’t have capital punishment. In the 36 years since Nevada reinstated the death penalty for its worst killers, just 12 inmates have been executed, none since 2006. Nevada’s only execution chamber was shut down when the state closed the Nevada State Prison. The Legislature won’t fund a new chamber, even though 83 men are on death row.

Las Vegas visitors can’t have an enjoyable experience if they don’t feel safe. And they won’t come here at all if they believe violence could erupt around them.

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas is getting better and better about partnering with private industry to improve students’ employment prospects. The latest example of the school’s responsiveness is its consideration of a minor in drone technology.

Those who consider the U.S. Constitution a “living document,” subject to continual reinterpretation as society changes, like to point to the Third Amendment as proof the founding document is too dated to be read literally. “No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law,” the amendment reads.

Another sure sign that this country’s pet obsession is going off the rails: The Nevada Supreme Court heard 50 minutes of arguments Wednesday about a Henderson dog that killed a 1-year-old boy.