Print edition for July 24, 2006

Some left behind, after all: By Emily Richmond; The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to show regular gains in achievement with 100 percent of students demonstrating proficiency by the 2013-14 academic year.

Letter: Hezbollah forces Israel to defend itself: Instead we get to read about "Israel's mad, berserk reaction" to the recent attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah, which he finds "mystifying." The rest of his letter goes on in that vein. In his rush to blame the victim, Mr. Quale sprints right past spurious moral equivalency to a reckless endorsement of terrorism.

Letter: Foreign policy is a foreign concept to W.: Now, three years later, over 2,500 of our brave young men and women have died and over 20,000 are maimed. Iraq is in the midst of sectarian civil war with thousands of Iraqis dying every day; the country's infrastructure is in shambles with no end in sight. A terrorist organization like Hamas has taken over the Palestinian territory, and the other terrorist group in Lebanon, Hezbollah, has provoked Israel into another war, which is killing innocent Israeli and Lebanese citizens alike.

Reid top donor for many in his party: As the American Express commercial says, and Sen. Harry Reid well knows, membership does have its privileges.

Editorial: Bailout or just bail?: According to a story by the Las Vegas Sun on Friday, the U.S. Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration has informed the university that the agency has the authority to withhold $5 million in unused funding from the security institute if the program doesn't make good on the promises it made in its original 2004 grant and also explain why it hasn't met those objectives.

LV is tending to Cultural Affairs: By Kristen Peterson; They plucked Cultural Affairs from the office of Leisure Services, which oversees recreational, sports and performing arts programs. The reorganization means Cultural Affairs will no longer be filtered through parks and recreation and can focus mostly on the visual arts.

Online poker distances itself from sports betting: Liz Benston; Potential customers are invited to learn the ropes by playing free games where no money changes hands.

Letter: Embryonic stem-cell research a red herring: Has the quest for cures been set back by this veto? Not one bit. While embryonic stem-cell research is mostly producing tumors, adult stem-cell research is making incredible advances. This may come as a shock to most Americans who get their information from the mainstream media, but there are currently 72 conditions or diseases being treated or are in clinical trials using adult stem cells.

Ron Kantowski on why despite a checkered past for street races Vegas Grand Prix may finish: By Ron Kantowski; There are a lot of burned-out Chevrolets haunting the dusty beach roads of our auto racing past. Only most of them dont have fenders.

Editorial: Census clock is ticking: That's a whole lot of people - 131 million more than lived in the United States 50 years ago and 214.5 million more than lived here in 1906. America has become the third most populous country after China and India.

Letter: What to do with unused embryos?: According to a recent issue of Time magazine, there are "hundreds of thousands" of frozen embryos stored at in vitro fertilization clinics in the United States. Most of them will not be used to produce pregnancies but instead will ultimately be destroyed.

Editorial: Mining for information: According to a story last week by USA Today, at least five of these data-mining computer programs were created for Total Information Awareness, a Pentagon program that Congress disbanded nearly three years ago because of personal privacy concerns. Yet, despite Congress' concerns, these data-mining programs are still being used by other intelligence agencies to cull through such information as financial transactions and communications and travel records.

Street races have been a spark for other cities: Brian Hilderbrand; A downtown street race in Denver in the early 1990s cost that city millions of dollars over two years and drove open-wheel racers away from the Mile High City for 11 years.

Ron Kantowski on why - despite a checkered past for street races - Vegas Grand Prix may finish: You hear their engines roaring on.

John Katsilometes on how Executive Pastry Chef John Hui will get his just desserts at Pebble Beach: It was the fourth hole-in-one scored by Norvell, who plays four times a week at TPC and Southern Highlands.

THE OPENING LINE: When I was a kid growing up in Chicago they used to show Bears exhibition games on tape delay after the 10 o'clock news. I used to love those games, because my dad would let me stay up (until I fell asleep) to watch them and because we always bet on the outcome.

LOOKING IN ON: CITY HALL: Dan Kulin; The sale of downtown Las Vegas white elephant Neonopolis is apparently a done deal, with a Delaware-based partnership paying $25 million for the roofless mall and movie theater complex.

Jeff Haney draws a bead on a long shot to win the 2007 BCS championship: The Hilton sports book has Notre Dame a 9-2 favorite followed by Oklahoma at 5-1 and Ohio State at 6-1. Every other team on the board is 8-1 or higher to win the championship game.