Print edition for July 29, 2006

Group plans recall effort to remove two judges: Sam Skolnik; The head of a local judicial watchdog group, saying that two District Court judges do not have the "legal competence or judicial demeanor" to remain in their posts, will start a recall-petition drive against them.

Day 1 at the World Series of Poker: AP; BIG NEWS: The world's biggest poker tournament kicked off with 8,580 registered players, easily topping last year's 5,619, and pushing the top prize to $11.7 million. The 12 final players will win at least $1 million. More players can still enter for a $10,000 seat until Monday.

Novel shows love affair with soccer: Nonstop rain flooded Rio Cuale and poured over sidewalks and into Banderas Bay. Inside his rental unit in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, words thankfully flowed just as smoothly for Kenny Stern.

Editorial: Drug errors cost billions: Not all medication errors lead to injury, but patients can expect to suffer at least one error on average each day they are in the hospital, the report said. The financial costs are high: Hospitals face roughly $3.5 billion in extra costs due to medication errors, and it costs another $887 million to treat nonhospitalized Medicare enrollees who are 65 and older.

Travelers caught in a loop: According to the report released this week, frequent travelers whose names resemble those of the estimated 200,000 known terrorists and suspected terrorists are subjected to several hours of interrogations and background checks each time they attempt to board an airplane or enter the United States.

Letter: Vegas should not recycle California's mistake: It all worked out very well, until the city decided it would like to have that extra money, so they started a "recycling program." This involved raising the trash collection rates to pay for it - so we were paying more each month for the city to make money on items we were separating and putting out for them to pick up.

Why schools still detest the test: By Emily Richmond; espite this week's good news about improved scores on tests required by the federal government, the Clark County School District still wishes Washington oversight would go away.

World Series of Poker: AP; What: 37th annual World Series of Poker main event.

FLASHPOINT for Jul 29, 2006: Am I catching you before it's too late? I hope so. Here's a quiz: What does "pay to play" mean, and do you believe the charge about Jim Gibson? Did Dina Titus really vote to quadruple her own pension and increase her own salary? Did Bob Beers really do what Jim Gibbons accuses him of in that new ad? Did Gibbons really use his position to get his day job back with an airline? Could Barbara Lee Woollen really slow illegal immigration? Is there a reason besides his adorable kids to make Brian Krolicki lieutenant governor? Who are Bob Unger, ...

Prosecutor's involvement called a lapse: A Clark County chief deputy district attorney and candidate for Las Vegas Justice Court "didn't exercise good judgment," his boss says, when he vouched for a criminal defendant who handled his advertising and made a sizable contribution to his previous campaign.

Shooting the breeze with 'The Mouth': What: North American 8-Ball Championship

Editorial: School police hard to keep: According to a recent story by the Las Vegas Sun, the district's police force is 32 officers short of the 175 positions for which it is budgeted. And the reason is fairly simple: money.

They're wild about Harry: Yale-trained philosopher and leadership guru Tom Morris is teaching a Community College of Southern Nevada continuing education class this weekend - on the practical wisdom of Harry Potter.

Letter: Safe Climate Act can make a difference: The first six months of this year were the warmest ever recorded in the U.S., and - with increasingly drier conditions - wildfires are becoming a bigger problem. As global warming pollution levels continue to rise, scientists predict more extreme weather, threatening the balance of our ecosystems.