Print edition for October 26, 2005

Excerpts from Sen. Reid speech: AP; - Marine Lance Cpl. Donald Cline Jr., Sparks, "was the first Nevada soldier to die in Iraq. During the initial invasion of southern Iraq, Lance Corporal Cline was killed in combat while assisting injured soldiers on March 23, 2003. He left behind a wife and two sons, Dakota and Dylan."

Poker whiz Sartori hopes to deal an ace in music: Thirty-year-old Tom Sartori is using his fame at the poker table to boost his career onstage and in the recording business.

NLV site for buses at risk: The commission had planned to build an 8,000-square-foot bus terminal on 18.6 acres that North Las Vegas earlier this month bought for $6.8 million from the Clark County School District.

Beefcake is served up to commission: Enterprise Township resident Richard Hayes, who asked to be excluded from the proposed zoning overlay, attempted to show on the county's overhead projector a photo of his property that ran in the Las Vegas Sun.

'Clean' plan for Yucca repackaged: Suzanne Struglinski; WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department's plan to make Yucca Mountain a "clean" nuclear waste dump is just more of the same old garbage to project critics.

Columnist Jon Ralston: Metro has not yet begun to fight: It wasn't World War II. But the battle that the cops lost at the Metro Fiscal Affairs Committee was but a skirmish in what will turn out to be a much more global conflict that will play out during a campaign season and define the power of the police union, the future of certain elected officials and the accountability (and accounting) of Clark County.

Horseplay on the Hill: Benjamin Grove; WASHINGTON -- Members of a House-Senate panel are quietly planning to kill legislation designed to stop horse slaughter, sources close to the process told the Sun this week.

Lawmakers consider co-payments for Medicaid: CARSON CITY -- More than 173,000 poor and disabled Nevadans who currently receive free medical care and prescription drugs may be required to start making nominal co-payments.

Who gets in may be out: By Liz Benston; Anyone who has been to a nightclub in Las Vegas has seen a form of gender discrimination at work.

Editorial: Be forthright for safety: In an interview with Las Vegas Sun reporter David Kihara this week, she talked about meeting her 5-year-old granddaughter every day after school, and taking her hand. "I wouldn't feel safe letting her walk home on her own. There are no crossing guards here. It's not fair to the kids."

Editorial: Rosa Parks: 1913 - 2005: Parks was 92 when she died of natural causes Monday at her home in Detroit -- nearly 50 years after her soft-spoken refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., inspired a young minister, Martin Luther King Jr., and sparked the bus boycott that became the first mass demonstration of the civil rights movement.

Columnist Tom Gorman: Shop talk with one of the least notorious or nefarious wise guys in Las Vegas, 73-year-old California fugitive Sid Soffer: Sid Soffer?

Columnist Jeff Haney: How poker players use strategies learned in Dan Harrington's two popular books on Texas hold 'em: Late in 2004 and earlier this year, an acclaimed two-volume set of books on how to play no-limit Texas hold 'em tournaments, titled "Harrington on Hold 'em," was released by Two Plus Two Publishing of Henderson.

Letter: Study shows potential for rail disaster: But if the accident or attack that causes the breach involves a high-temperature, long-duration fire -- all too possible in real-world train wrecks -- there very well could be a plume of radioactive smoke and catastrophic and long-term impacts downwind.

Driver spared serious injury: National Hot-Rod Association driver Whit Bazemore escaped serious injury when his Matco Tools Funny Car erupted into flames during a testing run Monday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Questions surround vote on Metro contract: That's the view of local government observers who believe that board appointees' voting decisions hinge on whether an appointee was selected to represent a particular constituency, whether he is an authority on the issue being debated and whether the topic is one of strong public interest.

Boxing boss says fund for medical testing needed: Ratner made his remarks in an interview on "Face to Face With Jon Ralston" that will air at 5:30 p.m. today on Las Vegas ONE and will be repeated throughout the evening.

MGM Mirage 3Q profit falls 27 percent; hurricane hurts results: Adjusted earnings, which don't include charges, were $112.3 million, or 38 cents per share. On that basis, analysts were looking for higher earnings of 41 cents per share, but MGM's revenue matched estimates, according to a Thomson Financial poll.

Letter: Metro officers deserve raises: The Chamber of Commerce says Metro Police officers shouldn't get the proposed raise because people don't get raises anymore and it's an unfair burden on the taxpayers. The chamber also says the officers shouldn't get merit raises and cost of living adjustment increases. The Clark County commissioners say the police officers shouldn't get the raise because it's too high. What neither of these groups tells you is that after an officer has been on the job for 15 years, they don't get merit raises. The pay is frozen.

Letter: U.N. involvement goes much further: What about the U.N. budget and our spending on its many programs? Add the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Overseas Private Investment Corp., the Development Banks, Export-Import Bank, forgiveness of debt and other donations when there are catastrophes in the world, etc.

Letter: Major economic depression likely: The anarchy that occurred in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina may very well be a future view of what could and would happen nationwide should we be hit by a major economic depression. Looting, arson, vandalism, murder and all the other horrors of a society in anarchy are likely to occur on a scale never before seen in this country.

Editorial: When a pharmacist is a pill: Proponents of the proposal told the Reno Gazette-Journal that pharmacists shouldn't have to violate their own moral or religious beliefs by filling prescriptions for birth control pills and other medicines. Some of these supporters are pharmacists.

Las Vegas developer begins work on condo-casino complex: The two-tower complex, similar in height to the Wynn Las Vegas resort and Donald Trump's proposed condominium project, will be on 8.5 acres between the Bellagio hotel-casino and the planned MGM Mirage CityCenter project.

Visa restrictions hamper Chinese tourism: Airline executives from around the world are meeting in the city this week for the first-ever Las Vegas World Aviation Forum.