COUNTER INTELLIGENCE: From the Wildfire Casino with talk about the stimulus

 The Wildfire Casino on Rancho Drive is easy to overlook located, as it is, not far from the much larger Fiesta and Texas Station locals casinos.

Longtime locals will remember it as the site of the incredible Ernie’s Bar, which owner Mel Wolzinger operated for many years with great success. (He also had a little success as a major investor in the Golden Nugget and a slot route company, etc.)

Ernie’s was locally celebrated for its great cheap food and drinks and ability to cash paychecks presented by everyone from busboys to bank presidents.

Today, the Wildfire is a spiffy little place with a café that has been taken over by Denny’s. And that’s good news in this economy, for this end of town is struggling.

The food is good and, in tribute to Mel, inexpensive with Denny’s Grand Slam breakfast going for $3.99. (two eggs, two sausages, two pancakes.)

This morning, Molly Ball does it again with an extremely readable and balanced view of Nevada’s relatively small score from the federal stimulus bill: $1.5 billion.

Watch the enemies of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and they are growing in number thanks to a push from the national end of the Republican Party, use the dollar figure to blast him. They will leave out the fact the stimulus will bring and preserve an estimated 34,000 jobs here. Nevada will be a big winner in the green energy and technology race under the current administration and Senate leadership.

The growing question is, will Reid be around after 2010 to see his ideas come to fruition?