There is no “Red Light Express” from Disneyland

It is true that Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has requested federal funding for a Northern Nevada rail line that would run through a town with brothels in it, including the Moonlite Bunny Ranch.

But it's not true that Reid backs some sort of plan to take tourists directly from the gates of Disneyland to the doorstep of the Bunny Ranch. That's what a Republican congressman, egged on by a Fox News host, has erroneously accused him of.

Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., has been spreading his story of a supposed "Red Light Express" as a shocking tale of government waste. Fox News' Megyn Kelly bought the tale, calling it "a (rail) line that will deliver customers straight from Disney, we kid you not, to the doorstep of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch in Nevada."

Reid has supported plans for a magnetic-levitation line from Disney to Vegas, a proposal that is in the running for $8 billion federal stimulus funds that are to go to rail projects. Separately, he is asking for a $475,000 earmark in the current spending bill for the V&T Railway, an 18-mile tourist train from Carson City to Virginia City.

The train would go through Mound House, where the four brothels in Lyon County are located.

Reid spokesman Jon Summers told the Nevada Appeal that Franks' story was an attempt to create controversy where there should be none.