Print edition for October 23, 2005

Can boxing be made safer?: June 28, 1933 -- Benny Duran, knocked out in the third round by Johnny Kunich, featherweights, Reno. Duran died four days later.

Tribe criticizes federal response after Nevada wildfire: AP; As Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, the blaze destroyed one home and 16 sheds while blackening 3,000 acres of the reservation along U.S. 95 about 70 miles north of Winnemucca.

Letter: No one can prove God really exists: Let's say it again: There is no evidence that you or anyone else can produce that God really exists. Therefore, intelligent design should not be introduced in a science class that teaches science and the evidence supporting that science.

Columnist Jeff Simpson: MGM, Lanni just keep growing: The state's biggest employer and taxpayer has four huge projects on its plate, but Lanni and his brain trust are already gameplanning the company's next wave of development.

Columnist Jon Ralston: Who will get their money's worth?: If Democratic primary voters want a contrast, Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson versus Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus is as stark as it gets. Conventional wisdom says that Titus is the best Democratic primary candidate and Gibson is the best Democratic general election contender.

Columnist Jeff German: County has some unhappy builders: It made no sense to let the home builders hire their own "independent" inspectors to speed up construction at the expense of the quality of new homes.

Letter: Same-sex marriages would be a plus: However, if we must know, the 10-20 percent of American society that makes up the gay community holds one of the highest per ratio disposable incomes in America. Just think of what kinds of social and economic benefits our communities could reap by allowing same-sex marriage.

Letter: There are other theories out there: When I conducted a search on the Internet for "Ancient Religions," it brought up this result -- about 263,000 sites for "ancient religions." This was done in 0.42 seconds.

Columnist Tom Gorman: Why stats don't tell the whole story of homelessness: Sounds like the kind of person who could most easily find a job and a place to live.

Editorial: Cronyism shouldn't count: "Well, senator," Brown answered, "I will make this pledge to you, that as long as I am around, those partnerships will continue to grow and expand ..." Brown continued at some length about how states look to FEMA for leadership, and that the agency under Homeland Security would respond to natural disasters "as well as we have, and hopefully even better." After FEMA became part of Homeland Security, Brown was appointed FEMA director and no additional hearing was held.

Columnist John Katsilometes: A woman who looks like Oprah, but who has no talk show: It was an otherwise uneventful episode of "Oprah," which aired on a weekday afternoon in September 2004. Oprah Winfey conversed casually with guest Tatum O'Neal -- the discussion dovetailed into world peace and how we should all love thy neighbor -- when Winfrey said it was time to close the show.

Letter: Plenty of evidence for creationism: So what of the other side? Where's the evidence for Biblical creationism? It's all over the place! The testimony God gave of Himself in Scripture, witnesses to the Resurrected Christ, ancient burial sites and numerous archeological discoveries, thousands of copies of biblical texts, Jewish and Roman historical narratives (Josephus and Tacitus), scientific laws testified to in the Bible (like entropy and the movement of light). The list goes on and on.

Search for new schools chief shifts into high gear: By Emily Richmond; The Clark County School District has the nation's fifth largest and fastest growing student population, breaks ground on a new campus each month and successfully negotiated multiyear contracts with the unions representing its teachers, administrators and support employees.

Editorial: Making informed choices: From 1997 to 2004 the Health and Human Services Department failed to report 474 cases to the National Practitioner Data Bank that should have been reported, U.S. Inspector General Daniel R. Levinson said in the report.

Guest Columnist Dominic Gentile: Americans should support protection for journalists: The media has always railed against such treatment of its members and maintained that the free-press clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution forbids such action by government. But the federal courts have not recognized any privilege that would protect a journalist from revealing sources who were promised confidentiality in exchange for their information.

Project Neon leaves some in dark: Nick Christensen; Neon, the catchphrase for a study of alternatives for widening Interstate 15 in the area from Sahara Avenue to the Spaghetti Bowl, would require massive amounts of right of way along the route, taking out some houses and businesses while adding parallel freeway to the existing interstate. The project will also connect Industrial Road to Martin Luther King Boulevard via a flyover and new alignment.

A brutal, vicious sport: If you've watched enough professional boxing matches, you've seen the ferocious haymakers that crumple heavily muscled, finely sculpted bodies to the canvas.

Editorial: The poor get poorer: Minimum wage earners here can take heart that Nevadans approved the question by a more than 2-1 margin. That's an indication that a second approval has a good chance. By all appearances, the state's voters are their only chance of ever inching even a bit toward a living wage, which in Nevada is now $14 an hour. A bill in the 2005 Legislature, which, if approved, would have increased the minimum wage effective this month, died in a conference committee between the Senate and the Assembly.

Q & A with Leondard Slatkin: As an advocate of music education and American musicians, he founded and directs the National Conducting Institute and raised funds to keep alive the Washington, D.C., Youth Orchestra.

Columnist Hal Rothman: The center works for us: Hal Rothman; This unlikely formulation, which perfectly describes the sentiments of our two U.S. senators, Republican John Ensign and Democrat Harry Reid, also illustrates the ways in which Nevada politics differs from the national scene.

Desalination may be solution to water woes of LV Valley: By Launce Rake; Hardly.

Where I Stand -- Brian Greenspun: President bush should find himself a fresh set of horses at White House: There is a classic American sentiment that suggests it would be foolish to change horses in the middle of a stream.

Guggenheim Hermitage still in the game: By Kristen Peterson; The only museum in the Las Vegas Valley accredited by the American Association of Museums is the State Museum and Historical Society, Las Vegas.Essentially, if it weren't for the Guggenheim Hermitage, local students wouldn't be looking at 17th-century decorative arts.