Print edition for October 14, 2006

Letter: Banks not above immigration laws: What guarantee is offered through photo cards against persons using an unproven name, address and any other information as prepared by a foreign consulate - as noted by Bill Martin in Wednesday's Las Vegas Sun?

Ron Kantowski has never confused professional golfers for clothing designers, but after a recent trend of conservative outfitting around the greens, the statement being made at the Frys.com Open is ..: - Dave Barry, humorist

Letter: Voters can pull America out of this mess: We see the "all about oil" invasion of Iraq - a country having nothing to do with Sept. 11 - costing the lives of our courageous troops as well as thousands of innocent civilians and their children.

FLASHPOINT for Oct 14, 2006: Ordinarily, this might be a dog-bites-man story. But Oscar Goodman is no ordinary mayor. On Friday Goodman, a Democratic mayor, endorsed Dina Titus, a Democratic state senator seeking the state's highest office. I know what you're thinking: So what? Yes, anywhere else a prominent politician of one party endorsing the standard bearer is a nonevent. But Goodman so hoards his political capital that he almost never endorses. Sure, he's endorsed lieutenant governor hopeful Bob Unger - but Unger made him money in the Showcase mall. The fact that Goodman waited this long to endorse Titus, who must believe she needs ...

Departure reduces race to a blip on the political radar: When the most interesting thing about a political campaign involves a candidate who chose not to run, it's safe to say that the race doesn't exactly rank up there with Lincoln-Douglas.

A dry land looks to El Nino for a sloshy winter: In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the sun is shining, warming the surface of the sea more than in an average year. Thousands of miles to the east, that warmer-than-average ocean is helping to bring storm systems carrying precious precipitation to California, Nevada and the mountains of the American West.

Editorial: Melting pot boiling over: The drawing is a poor and unsupported reaction to a rash of robberies targeting Mexicans. In a story in Sunday's Las Vegas Sun, Timothy Pratt reported that Metro Police have yet to analyze all of the data about the ethnicity of the robbers.

Letter: Bush economy is nothing to brag about: Bush points to his tax cuts as the reason that the deficit is smaller than forecasted. The tax cut and his throwing money at an unjust war in Iraq are at the core of his unsound fiscal policies and hence at the heart of the nation's economic woes. As of Friday the U.S. National Debt Clock was recording a debt of $8.547 trillion - $28,521 of indebtedness for every man, woman and child in the United States.

Editorial: Giving consumers credit: The report released Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office, the investigating arm of Congress, says that credit cards have evolved from having fixed rates around 20 percent and few fees, to cards that can charge 30 percent or more in interest and up to $39 every time a consumer makes a late payment.

Editorial: Clearing the air: This new diesel fuel has just 3 percent of the sulfur content of older diesel fuels. Sulfur - like the lead that was removed from most fuels in the 1970s - contributes to air pollution and gunks up vehicles' pollution control devices. At least 80 percent of the diesel fuel available for trucks must meet this new low-sulfur standard by Sunday.