Print edition for February 4, 2006

Letter: Bush's rhetoric lacks substance: The president's track record on energy reform shows a consistent failure of reality to match his rhetoric.

A bit of optimism: "Anytime you play, you never know who will be watching," Stone said. "After a lot of years playing in England, I've learned that you never know who's out there. Things happen when you don't expect them to."

LV urges rental inspections: Dan Kulin; Las Vegas city administrators are pushing for a rental inspection program that is drawing opposition from apartment owners who argue that the high price, invasion of privacy and existing laws make the plan burdensome and unnecessary.

Toxic mercury headed to state: CARSON CITY - Despite protests by state officials, an estimated 4,000 metric tons of toxic mercury is headed for storage in Nevada at the ammunition depot at Hawthorne.

Editorial: A chance for genuine change: Boehner, who came to the House in 1990 when it was controlled by Democrats, made a name for himself early by joining with six other young conservative lawmakers who became known as the "Gang of Seven." They loudly drew attention to any ethical lapse in which they thought Democrats were the major perpetrators. Boehner's work in this area impressed Newt Gingrich, who was elected House Speaker after Republicans gained power in 1994.

No more room: Molly Ball; Thirty women prisoners at the state facility in North Las Vegas soon will be sleeping on cots in a former storage area because there is nowhere else to put them, a symptom of the overcrowding that is currently plaguing the entire state corrections system.

Woman, 86, gets a new trial: Mary Bartsas was given a new trial in a case involving the value of a piece of land that was condemned by the county for a highway construction project.

Editorial: Spying defense fails smell test: Law professors at the University of Chicago, Georgetown University and Harvard, interviewed by The Boston Globe, said Bush does not have the constitutional authority for warrantless spying he claims to have, and that no president has engaged in that type of spying since Congress passed a law in 1978 banning it.

King finds his way home: Although I knew a lot about him through conversations with the Las Vegas' Sun's late entertainment writer Joe Delaney, I didn't meet Sonny until May 2001, when I interviewed him for a story about his show "Off the Cuff."

Letter: Smoking, drinking not comparable: I am a nurse and have never smoked, but I have lost my mother and dad, who were both young, because of their smoking habits. Both of my brothers, who are younger then myself, both have smoked, had heart attacks and bypass surgeries.

Editorial: Putting the brakes on land plan: The tract was to be transferred to Henderson under the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act, a 1998 law that regulates the sale of federal land in Southern Nevada and transfers of such land from the Bureau of Land Management to local governments. Under that measure, 85 percent of the money from sale of federal land is to be used for Nevada parks and conservation projects, 5 percent goes to the state for schools and the Southern Nevada Water Authority receives the remaining 10 percent.

Letter: Treating inmates right affects us all: Since the article illustrates that state officials in charge of this serious civil rights violation are aware of the problem, this leads to increased culpability. No excuses are good enough to avoid responsibility for the needless suffering of inmates.