Is it really 2009 already?

Is it over? Is it really over? Are we still here? An economic downturn the likes of which most people have never seen. Government bailouts and handouts. A presidential election and all the nonsense that goes with it. These are just a few of the things we endured in 2008, a year many would prefer to forget. But lest we be tempted to repeat the follies of 2008, let's take one more look in the rear-view mirror. And remember -- with apologies to Dave Barry -- we're not making any of this stuff up.

The Clark County School District revealed in March that 91 percent of high school students who took a basic algebra test to measure their skills bombed the exam. In geometry, the number was 87 percent. "Maybe this is the shock we need to get the system fixed," said Superintendent Walt Rulffes. ... At UNLV, about one-third of the student newspaper's press run was stolen after an editor wrote a pro-Palestinian column last spring. ... After an independent audit discovered that Clark County building inspectors had looked the other way on safety issues involving casino hotel renovations, the County Commission voted to spend $4 million to create a new office to oversee the building department. ...

A California appeals court held that homeschooling was essentially illegal, ruling that allowing parents to teach their kids at home would undermine a "primary purpose of the educational system (which) is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state." ... The Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada was shut down -- while triggering a national scandal -- when it was revealed that health care practitioners were re-using syringes and vials at the facility. ... Two California homeowners in Sunnyvale had a heated dispute when one installed a solar-electric system and then sued the other claiming that his neighbor's redwood trees should be cut down because they shaded the solar panels. ...

As local government officials worked into a panic over declining tax revenues, some of those very same officials -- sitting on the board of the Regional Transportation Commission -- voted in February to give RTC General Manager Jacob Snow a 7 percent raise and pad his severance package. ... Two academics at the University of California, San Diego made a splash by arguing that the odds are 10-to-1 Lake Mead will be dry by 2014. They never responded to an offer taking them up on the action. ... Democrats traditionally have opposed measures that require voters to show ID at the polls, but for the Nevada Democratic caucus in January, workers who hoped to participate in the "at-large" sites set up near major hotels had to provide identification. ... Nevada lawmakers went into special session twice during 2008 to address state budget woes, but each time decided not to touch state worker raises, which will be as high as 10 percent over the next two years for some employees. ...

Gov. Jim Gibbons in May created the Spending and Government Efficiency Commission to pore over the state budget and suggest potential savings. But upon being named to head the panel, Bruce James informed other board members that K-12 education and the university budget -- which together consume more than half the general fund -- were off limits. ... Self-proclaimed friends of minorities again urged the Nevada Board of Regents to delay implementing tougher academic standards for UNLV and UNR, essentially arguing that black and Hispanic students aren't capable of meeting the new requirements. ... A public records request revealed that Gov. Gibbons sent more than 860 personal text messages in just one month on his taxpayer-funded cell phone -- with many of the missives going to a Reno woman who was not his wife. ... University system Chancellor Jim Rogers threatened to stop sponsoring monthly "Diversity Forum" luncheons unless leaders of the state's minority communities became more enthusiastic about purchasing $500-a-seat tickets to a fundraising dinner for the Nevada Health Sciences System. ...

A handful of state and local officeholders sought to get the Nevada judiciary to kill the state's term limits amendment, which was overwhelmingly approved twice by voters in the 1990s and was set to claim its first victims this year. ... A local social activist said it was "morally reprehensible" for the state Division of Welfare to consider cutting off handouts to adults here illegally or to deny benefits to the head of a household who refused to look for work. ... Struggling with a major tax shortfall, the city of Las Vegas is rushing forward with plans to build a new City Hall. ... The state's longtime point man in the fight against the Yucca Mountain Project was forced to resign after it was revealed he granted himself and other staffers raises of as much as 33 percent without going through the proper channels. ...

Assemblyman Harry Mortensen, D-Las Vegas, has submitted a bill draft request asking lawmakers to create the Office of State Paleontologist. ... In order to appease a handful of vocal residents in the area, Clark County commissioners decided to keep a $12.4 million highway overpass shut down after completion. When news of the decision was publicized, the board backed off and voted to open the interchange at Lake Mead Boulevard and the Beltway. ... Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, defending the costs of alternative energy subsidies, told an interviewer: "Coal makes us sick. Oil makes us sick. It's global warming. It's ruining our country. It's ruining our world." ...

Democrats won big victories in the November elections, taking control of the state Senate and reaching a veto-proof majority in the Assembly. Despite the ongoing budget controversies, they vow not to raise taxes. ... Democrats successfully targeted high-profile Republican state Sens. Bob Beers and Joe Heck by adopting a two-prong approach: keeping the neophyte candidates who ran against them out of the spotlight while flooding the districts with hit pieces against the incumbents. ... Meanwhile, political unknown Robert Blakely spent less than $200 on his campaign to unseat incumbent Regent Bret Whipple -- and won. Mr. Blakely said he didn't even watch the election returns because everybody told him he had no chance to win. ...

A philanthropist who sought to donate $2 million to the Clark County School District said he gave his money to other causes after district officials didn't seem overly interested in his offer. ... A local lawyer said a decision to permanently close an underpass near West Las Vegas as part of the Interstate 15 widening project was essentially a plot to keep blacks out of downtown and amounted to "the worst incident of race-based segregation" he had ever seen in Las Vegas. ...

Happy New Year.