Print edition for August 20, 2006

Trail evokes memories of past...: Kristen Peterson, Las Vegas Sun; Click here for a printable Pioneer Trail map.

John Katsilometes stops in for an eye-opener at Downtown Coffee Company: Not anymore. Today the place is outed.

FLASHPOINT for Aug 20, 2006: What goes around comes around. Months ago Sen. Harry Reid had Democratic leaders sign onto a letter saying both Dina Titus and Jim Gibson "are good Democrats." This was designed to undermine the central tenet of the Titus campaign - that Gibson is not a good Democrat - and was widely seen as a tacit Reid endorsement of Gibson. Reid and Titus have had a strained relationship for years, including when Titus blamed the senator for his son, Rory, seeking the County Commission seat she coveted. So imagine the irony now as Reid has to make the phone call to ...

Feigning science, polls toy with Nevada media, voters: Michael J. Mishak; In politics, one day you're up, the next day you're down. But as a candidate in Nevada, you can be both at the same time.

Commentary: Thom Reilly on the importance of addressing Nevada's health care crisis now, before it's too late: Despite a sustained period of economic prosperity and substantial job creation in Nevada for the past decade, our state faces serious challenges related to our health care system, including an unacceptably large number of uninsured and underinsured citizens and a serious workforce shortage of health care professionals.

Letter: Work with California can avoid water crisis: I read, with great interest, Southern Nevada Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy's prediction that uncontrolled growth in our valley will stop in 2013 if the agency's plans to pump ground water south from rural Nevada aren't approved.

Editorial: Judge's ruling on the mark: Now a U.S. District Court judge in Detroit, ruling on a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups, has reached the same conclusion.

Let's get ready to rumble: Jon Ralston, Las Vegas Sun; And you thought the primary was nasty?

Letter: Personal attacks are not the way to power: We have yet to hear one single viable new idea come from the Democrats to deal with the spectrum of problems affecting both Nevada and America. Where are the ideas, where is the vision, and why do the liberals think they can run my life better than moi?

Letter: Gangs are like terrorists in our neighborhoods: For the first time in my life, the front door to my home was broken into and I was burglarized recently. It was nothing short of a violent act of terror.

Editorial: Water plan must go forward: The general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, Pat Mulroy, predicts that unless a plan to tap ground water supplies from Lincoln and White Pine counties to the north is allowed to move forward, new growth in the Las Vegas area will end sometime between 2013 and 2016.

When government makes your house no longer a home: In the mid-1990s, when Las Vegas wanted to build a parking garage for the Fremont Street Experience, it covetously eyed property at Las Vegas Boulevard and Carson Avenue that had been owned by the Pappas family for more than four decades.

Hal Rothman wonders what's in store for the emerging modern cityscape: The District is one of two developments that encourage the suspension of disbelief in the best Las Vegas style. Like Lake Las Vegas, it creates illusion of being better than real, subtly promising the fulfillment of desire. One canny local bicyclist jokes that his Sunday morning ride through the make-believe village by the lake is as close as he will ever get to the Tour de France. It may not be Europe, but in the right light, it feels awfully good.

Letter: Not much optimism after cease-fire: Looking at it from my perspective of watching the Arab-Israeli conflict longer than Mr. Friedman has been alive, my conclusion is that the Arab-Islamist world isn't smart enough to draw the same conclusions as Mr. Friedman. For almost 60 years it has been the total destruction of Israel that has driven the Arabs, not concern for the well-being and the future of their own children.