Old LV post office benefits from pork

Benjamin Grove and Suzanne Struglinski

Monday, Nov. 28, 2005 | 9:25 a.m.

Congress has doled out money for a number of projects in Las Vegas this month through annual appropriations bills, including $500,000 for the Old Post Office renovation, in part for weather-proofing, fixing leaks and repairing loose glazing to seal up the drafty structure.

The neoclassical red brick building, 301 E. Stewart Ave., was the city's first federal courthouse. The federal government gave the 72-year-old structure to the city in 2002 and the city is renovating it as a museum. The project has already netted more than $2.1 million in state and federal grants in the last three years.

Congress Pay Raises

Lawmakers will receive a 1.9 percent raise in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, boosting their pay $3,100 to $165,200. The salary hike was part of a $137 billion transportation, housing and treasury programs spending bill approved by the House Nov. 18 on a 392-31 vote. The Senate approved it on an unrecorded voice vote.

Members of Congress are entitled to an annual cost-of-living raise unless they specifically vote to block a pay hike.

The pay increase was controversial -- some lawmakers said it was unseemly to allow themselves raises as the deficit mushrooms, in a year when they are debating whether to trim spending on Medicaid, food stamps and student loans. The Senate had voted 92-6 to strip the pay raise from the spending bill, but it was re-inserted as a House-Senate "conference committee" finalized the details of the bill. Nevada's five lawmakers opposed the pay raise.

Yucca standard 'inadequate'

Among the last to submit public comments on the new draft proposal for a Yucca Mountain radiation protection standard were two die-hard nuclear critics: the consumer group Public Citizen and Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass.

The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled its new standard in August, essentially proposing two standards: the first one required that the proposed nuclear waste repository would not be allowed to emit more than 15 millirem of radiation for the next 10,000 years. After that, it could release up to 350 millirem.

Yucca proponents say the repository is safe. EPA officials said setting a Yucca standard so far into the future was unlike anything they had done before. But Yucca critics fear the repository will leak deadly radiation and say the EPA standard is too lax. Public Citizen called the proposed standard "completely inadequate." Markey wrote that he was concerned "the proposed rule fails to comply with the clear requirements of the law."

The EPA, which closed its public comment period last week, collected more than 120 comments both for and against the new standard from official groups to private citizens, some well-articulated, a few rambling and a few profane. It is not known when the agency will issue the final version of the rule. Read more about the standard and access the comments through the EPA's Web site: www.epa.gov/radiation/yucca/about.htm.

Teenage hang-ups

Nevada is not among the 11 states that limit teen driver cell phone use, the Reno Gazette-Journal noted in a story this week, despite a growing number of teens who use mobile phones and federal pressure to restrict use.

The National Transportation Safety Board earlier this fall recommended that states ban teens from chatting on wireless phones as they drive.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that the percentage of drivers aged 16 to 24 who use cell phones jumped from 3 percent to 8 percent last year. Connecticut last month joined New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia in banning cell phone use by all drivers.

Pardon me!

What does a turkey do once he's been pardoned by the president?

He's going to Disneyland!

Breaking with a 15-year tradition of sending the "pardoned" National Thanksgiving Turkey to Frying Pan Park in Fairfax County, Va., President Bush on Tuesday pardoned Marshmallow and his sidekick turkey Yam, the official "alternate," and the two are headed to Anaheim, Calif., to the Disneyland resort.

The two turkeys, originally from a Minnesota farm, will be part of the park's holiday display and "where they will stay the remainder of their natural lives," according to the White House.

"Marshmallow and Yam were a little skeptical about going to a place called 'Frying Pan Park,'" Bush said. "I don't blame them."