Print edition for March 14, 2006

Growth: Who should pay?: Southern Nevada cities and counties historically have lagged behind the rest of the country in charging developers for the extra streets, schools, parks and other demands that population growth places on local governments.

New hands, new plans: By Liz Benston; Pinnacle's announcement Monday that it is buying Aztar Corp. gives Lee's company control of the Tropicana.

CORRECTIONS: Because of an error by the Sun, a story in Sunday's edition incorrectly stated that Elaine and Steve Wynn have a son. They have two daughters, Kevyn and Gillian. The Sun regrets the error.

DULY NOTED: For the first time in several years, there were empty seats for the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. There were entire rows of vacant seats atop the grandstands in turns three and four and an overhead camera shot revealed additional bare aluminum on that side of the track. That doesn't mean those seats weren't sold, as LVMS announced a "virtual" sellout on Friday. But it also may mean that LVMS can probably stop erecting new grandstands for a while. Sunday's crowd was estimated at 154,000. Or in math terms, a lot to the third ...

NCAA cries foul over use of 'March Madness': Now the basketball sneaker is on the other foot, and it's the National Collegiate Athletic Association that is riled up about the LVCVA's use of the term "March Madness."

Letter: Abortion is a private decision for a woman: I would suggest that he and many other people should take the advice of dear Ann Landers and MYOB - mind your own business. This is a subject that should never have been politicized because it is no one's business. This involves a woman and her conscience.

Divided over changes: As far as Dale Earnhardt Jr. is concerned, the reconfiguration of Las Vegas Motor Speedway's 1.5-mile tri-oval can't start soon enough.

Letter: You don't have to be liberal to dislike Bush: You do not need to be a liberal (as if that's a dirty word) to have a complete disdain for President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick "Shotgun" Cheney.

Letter: R-J's editorial pages missing obvious take: Am I the only one in this valley who finds it (you fill in the blank: funny, sad, interesting, unacceptable, pathetic) how many daily Review-Journals get published without any columns about the Bush administration in their editorial pages? They must be struggling to find any that have something nice to say.

Letter: States' interests taking back seat to big money: However, last week the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would deprive individual states of the right to label food packaging as they see fit. Instead, all food packaging information would be regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Coach looks to broaden team's horizons: After a suggestion from former UCLA coach Gary Adams, Coyotes coach Tim Chambers invited a touring team from Taiwan to campus at the start of his CCSN career.

Decades later, still a cut above: Competition is fierce, burnout is common, budgets are limited and deadlines are pressing.

Bus costs hinder plan to start school later: By Emily Richmond; "I could win one of our neighboring states' lotteries so we can buy the buses we need."

EOB may be granted new life: Timothy Pratt and Dan Kulin; The city of Las Vegas is set to follow Clark County in helping to bail out the financially troubled Economic Opportunity Board with $200,000 more in taxpayer funds.

Hearings on rural water delayed: In an order issued last week setting a hearing on the district's applications, Ricci denied some of the district's requests, saying at one point that a district request would "prove detrimental to the public interest."

Editorial: Gale Norton's mixed legacy: We hope the mountains survive the Bush administration's intertwined environmental and energy policies, which Norton has championed with a passion.

Editorial: Our failure to communicate: "The feds are killing us. The DHS loves to have meetings and meetings. We don't have the time," the head of Philadelphia's emergency management department recently told Newhouse News Service. And a National Guard communications specialist said, "(Homeland Security) threw a lot of money at trying to connect the dots, but all they did was create more dots."

John Katsilometes on Kenny Guinn's whereabouts and James Cameron's larger-than-life theme park proposal: A source tells the Las Vegas Sun that Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt has been notified that Guinn is out of state and she will be working from his office in Carson City today.

Editorial: Corruption trial under way: Honorable elected officials know where to draw the line and don't allow themselves to get taken in by such unethical and illegal overtures. There are politicians, however, who are so motivated by greed and have such a lust for power that they are willing to cross the line and sully their offices - and stoke public cynicism in government.