Print edition for November 21, 2005

Flashpoint for Nov. 21, 2005: Back from D.C., so here are the capsule reviews of the interviews we did for "Face to Face" on Capitol Hill. Rep. Jon Porter: Doing his best for Nevada. He said so. About 10 times. Rep. Jim Gibbons: Didn't know about Senate vote on Iraq war. No position on budget or TABOR. Running for governor. Sens. Reid and Ensign: Couldn't tell them apart. Refused to appear together. Maybe they are the same person. Sen. John McCain: I felt like he is running for something. Sen. Ben Nelson: Don't remember much. I think it was the Ben Nelson from Nebraska. Sen. ...

Millennium Gaming throws its hat into Pennsylvania ring: By Liz Benston; This month, the owners of the Cannery Casino and the operators of the Rampart Casino in Las Vegas became the latest gaming operators to enter the Pennsylvania market with a deal to develop a racetrack casino.

Letter: Bush distorts truth, compromises principles: The further down the road we go with this group of inept stumblebums, the more time, money and lives it will take for us to come back.

Incidents and accidents: Benjamin Grove; Number of accidents and incidents at comparable general aviation airports since January 2000:

Columnist Ron Kantowski: A nice guy at UNLV who deserves better than to finish last: During my 18 years on and around the UNLV football beat, the Rebels have had five coaches. Four were nice guys. One was a horse's backside.

Editorial: Breaking up is hard to do: The Nevada Legislature, in a special session earlier this year, already had approved spending $250,000 to study the concept of splitting up the district that in recent years has ranked as either the nation's fifth or sixth largest.

Hybrid rental cars pull into LV: It took landing in the pea-soup smog that Los Angeles residents breathe to jump-start Jeff Pink's entrepreneurial spirit.

Editorial: Offering death with dignity: The 4-by-5-foot red granite stone will be placed in an area of the cemetery reserved for indigent burials in remembrance of "those homeless veterans who have been forgotten and buried without recognition or honor."

Letter: Invading Iraq should not have been Plan A: Let's say for argument's sake that the Bush administration did not distort the available intelligence reports and really did believe that WMDs were in Iraq. As an alternative to attempting to bully an international community into invading Iraq, the U.S. could have financed the expansion of weapons inspectors and their equipment by 10 times, at a fraction of the cost of the present 3-year-long war, and no loss of lives. The best part of this scenario is that the U.S. would have stood tall -- for peace -- in the international community, and Sadaam would have been seen as a ...

Union takes issue with panel: By Emily Richmond; The union representing Clark County's school administrators wants the chief executives who make up the Council for a Better Nevada to mind their own business.

ESPN boxing analyst calls Nevada safety study 'a joke': A Nevada State Athletic Commission study aimed at making boxing safer is "a joke" that is unlikely to produce meaningful improvements, says colorful ESPN television boxing commentator Teddy Atlas.

EPA to review Yucca input: Suzanne Struglinski; WASHINGTON -- By the end of today, the Environmental Protection Agency will add its last pages to the stack of public comments on the proposed radiation protection standards for the Yucca Mountain project.

Editorial: Taking aim at 'puppy mills': Much to the agony of thousands, if not millions, of dogs a year, however, many unscrupulous, unregistered, high-volume breeders are getting away with calling themselves retail pet stores because they sell some of their puppies directly to the public through print and Internet ads. The puppies are shipped in small crates and the customers never see the breeding operation. Even still, the breeders are exempt from federal inspections.

Aloha, Hawaii fans: By Rob Miech; UNLV's assists in its opener against Long Beach State, a high in second-year coach Lon Kuger's tenure with the Rebels. UNLV gave out a school-record 41 assists against Wagner on Dec. 28, 1982.

Properly cooked bird is the word in new campaign: Ben Grove and Suzanne Struglinski; WASHINGTON -- The federal government has unveiled a new cartoon campaign to educate Americans about food safety for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Letter: Distinguishing ID from theory and fact: Contrary to Mr. LeBoeuf's assertion, there are no "serious, well-researched scientific studies that support intelligent design," because ID makes no testable claims. The ID "theory" can be boiled down to one simple statement: "We can't explain it, so God must have done it."

For attorney, forum was 'eye-opening': "One problem teenagers face today is peer pressure to join gangs. ... Sometimes teenagers don't have anyone to model after except drug dealers and gang members, causing them to turn to violence and corruption."