Print edition for August 15, 2006

John Katsilometes on an idea whose time (maybe) has come: John Tesh headlining a gospel brunch at Wynn Las Vegas: Far-fetched? The pairing of gospel music and soul food with the person once known as the Whitest Man in America might seem as such. But Tesh provides a persuasive account as to how this could, in fact, happen.

This is not your mother's Powder Puff: What: New Mexico Burn at Las Vegas Showgirlz

Letter: Bush too preoccupied with war and wealthy: One hears nothing from the White House on the cost of the backbreaking wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with their attendant drain on our nation's wealth. You have not heard one word from President Bush, Karl Rove or Vice President Dick Cheney about Halliburton and other war profiteering companies charged with cronyism, corruption, theft and utter mismanagement of their contracts in Iraq. Nor have you heard this administration express any concerns over the funding of pork barrel projects such as Alaska's $200 million "bridge to nowhere." Bush and his conservative Republican counterparts in Congress do not seem to care about ...

'What happens here' stays with LVCVA: Perhaps saving the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority from one of the more embarrassing deals in its history, a federal judge has officially voided the $1 sale of the tourism agency's most popular marketing slogan.

Letter: Default forced NEA to recover funds: For nearly a decade, the National Endowment for the Arts has given the National Theatre for the Deaf every consideration allowed by law regarding repayment of the 1998 Challenge Grant. We have great regard and respect for the National Theatre for the Deaf and the work it does. So much so, that we continued to fund other National Theatre for the Deaf grant requests totaling more than $600,000 concurrent with working out a repayment plan.

FLASHPOINT for Aug 15, 2006: Do people pay attention to what they read? Alas, many do not. And many of them will be choosing primary nominees today. Many candidates, for instance, missed the Aug. 8 filing deadline for campaign contributions - and many of them will not have their finances disclosed before the election. The folks behind TASC filed theirs late - and paid a $25 fine (now that's punishment!). Also, too many readers took my predictions Sunday as my favored candidates despite the copy in the column. They saw the pictures of the candidates, assumed they were my preferred picks and sent nasty e-mails ...

Letter: Thankfully, Lieberman has right to run again: Is Mr. Burgess suggesting that Sen. Lieberman doesn't get the message because he chooses to exercise his right to run for office? Or does Mr. Burgess think that because the very few members of one political party that turned out to vote in a primary election managed to choose another candidate, that such a vote represents the entire state of Connecticut?

LOOKING IN ON: WASHINGTON: WASHINGTON - Patience is waning among Nevada's Democrats in Congress over the Veterans Affairs Department's inability to keep veterans' personal records from being lost or stolen.

Letter: Don't ignore lessons of history: On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, inflicting damage and loss of life to U.S. citizens. The U.S. declared war against Japan and attacked Japanese ships and islands that the Japanese had invaded.

Editorial: Letting their guard down: In a letter to Congress, the governors of 51 states and U.S. territories demanded that the National Guard provision be dropped from the version of the National Defense Authorization Act that was recently passed by the House. The letter was drafted Aug. 6 and was circulated last week for signatures from those attending the National Governors Association summer meeting in South Carolina.

Editorial: Cease-fire must be enforced: Perhaps the most revealing fact of the war, which began July 12 when Hezbollah terrorists crossed the border and killed three Israeli soldiers and abducted two others, was the quantity and type of arms the group possessed.

Editorial: Taken for granted: The private nonprofit UNLV Research Foundation is charged with securing money for scientific and technological research. The foundation also oversees the beleaguered Institute for Security Studies, which has received nearly $9 million in public money but has failed to meet its objectives, one of which included a master's program in homeland security that has never materialized.