SAY WHAT?

"This is a strong statement by Boyd Gaming to double down on the locals' market."

Wachovia gaming analyst Dennis Farrell Jr., on Boyd Gaming's $950 million offer to acquire the bulk of rival Station casinos' Las Vegas casino properties, announced Monday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. (Bill Boyd, chairman of Boyd Gaming, LEFT.)

"The biggest thing I see here is the incredible pessimism. The government is doing a lousy job of alleviating fears. ... People left and right are throwing in the towel."

Keith Springer, president of Capital Financial Advisory Services, explaining to The Associated Press why the Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 251 points Monday to its lowest close since 1997, on news the government was in talks with Citigroup to acquire as much as 40 percent of the firm's COMMON stock -- a controlling interest -- to keep the banking monolith afloat. President Obama followed up Thursday by releasing a budget plan that calls for $1 trillion in new taxes on "the rich" to further socialize America's health care system.

"What we are doing here is we're creeping our way toward nationalization."

Terry Connelly, dean of Golden Gate University's Ageno School of Business in San Francisco, commenting on a proposal for the Treasury and the Federal Reserve to begin shoring up banks by converting the government's shares in those banks (including Citigroup) from preferred to common shares.

"There is a significant fiscal cost associated with illegal immigration. We believe people who create (immigration) policies ought to take that into consideration."

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, visiting Las Vegas Tuesday to publicize a study showing 8 percent of Nevada's residents are illegal aliens, and that Nevadans spend $470 million annually on the K-12 schooling of the children of illegal immigrants; $85 million per year on uncompensated outlays for health care provided to illegals; and $31 million per year incarcerating deportable aliens. Pro-amnesty groups dismissed the Federation for American Immigration Reform as a "hate group."