Print edition for November 29, 2006

Law school studies expansion but medical funding has priority: UNLV Boyd School of Law officials want to expand its legal services into Northern Nevada - a proposal that puts them in competition with other higher education programs on the hunt for more money from state legislators.

FOR LOVE OF THE GAME: An eerie silence pervades in the locker room. Save for the occasional cough or the rasping of Velcro nervously being opened and closed, the defending champion Las Vegas Wildcats wrap themselves in thoughts of the battle to come.

Editorial: Keeping sex offenders away: But a New Jersey public defender's office is suing a town over its ordinance that has barred a convicted pedophile from living in the home he has owned for 37 years.

Elvis painter also enjoys being Elvis: Who: Elvis tribute artist Steve Connolly

Editorial: Crafting little 'white lies': It also shouldn't be surprising that someone has found a way to capitalize on liars' needs to have someone cover their tracks. According to a recent story by the Las Vegas Sun, an Illinois-based company called The Alibi Network sets up clients with phony travel documents so that the client's loved ones think they are in one place when, in reality, they are someplace else. And Las Vegas is that place about 20 percent of the time.

Editorial: Don't fence them in: In a story Tuesday by USA Today, the increasingly vocal group says that the proposed double-walled structure would block access to the Rio Grande that is necessary for cattle and for migrating wildlife sought by hunters who lease portions of private ranches.

Crackdown on graffiti to involve businesses: By Tony Cook; The next phase in Clark County's crackdown on graffiti could ask commercial property owners to assume greater responsibility for combating the problem.

Two Dems target LVCVA funding: CARSON CITY - Setting up what could be one of the premier showdowns in next year's Legislature, Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus and freshman Assemblyman Richard "Tick" Segerblom are looking at tapping into some of the more than $200 million that annually goes to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to promote tourism.

UNLV's chief fundraiser Gallagher calls it quits: With two years remaining in UNLV's $500 million capital campaign - its most ambitious - chief fundraiser John Gallagher is quitting.

Letter: Kudos to coverage of language initiative: While we respect the decisions of the local authorities, we also consider it essential that your readers learn all points of view relating to such a transcending issue.

FLASHPOINT for Nov 29, 2006: It has become conventional wisdom that Rep. Jon Porter will always be vulnerable, especially after Tessa Hafen's strong showing and the district's close partisan demographics. But beyond those numbers lie some depressing figures for the Democrats as they chant their wait-until-next-years. Porter destroyed Hafen by almost 2-to-1 in the district's outlying areas - Boulder City, Laughlin, Moapa Valley, Bunkerville, Moapa and Searchlight. Yes, even Harry Reid's Searchlight went for Porter against his ex-press secretary. And total turnout in the outlying areas was 70 percent. Porter's margin of victory in those areas - not far from his overall margin over Hafen. ...

Q & A: Margaret Spellings: Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is traveling to some unusual places these days to push her higher education vision.

Letter: United we stood, and so should we stand now: On Sept. 11, 2001, Muslim terrorists, without warning, attacked New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. They killed more than 3,000 and caused substantial property damage.

Judge blocks newspaper deal: Sam Skolnik; A federal judge in San Francisco temporarily blocked a business arrangement between the newspaper chains Hearst Corp. and MediaNews Group on Tuesday, saying the deal may be both anti-competitive and illegal.

Which fish are worth frying?: WASHINGTON - The Justice Department's decision not to investigate allegations that Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., made illegal campaign fundraising calls from his office raises a question central to ethics reform in the new Congress: What if there's a law on the books and no one enforces it?

Letter: Illegal immigrants should go back home: There were also limits for each country so we did not take in more people than our resources could handle.

Jon Ralston on why, whether or not she chooses to admit it, Dina Titus' political career in Nevada is over: During the ride down Carson Street in the state capital after the meal, I wondered why Titus wasn't thinking about herself as the first female governor, because she is as smart and talented as the others. She expressed no interest.