Print edition for September 26, 2006

Getting down on dirt: If you didn't know you were closing in on Pahrump Valley Speedway, the sign would be easy to miss.

Letter: Right monopolizes local talk radio: Right-wing radio is overrepresented here, in terms of both national and local talk shows. A balance is needed to maintain the sanity of progressives in Southern Nevada - particularly during ride times - and to provide a bit of humor to offset the anger and hatred of the authoritarian right.

John Katsilometes takes a look at what's gone from the Strip, the 7-Eleven, and what may yet to be: 'Spamalot': The one-stop shop for all varieties of refreshments (especially, we hear, coke), in a tatty locale just off the Fremont Street Experience, has been dark for months.

LOOKING IN ON: GAMING: By Liz Benston; Online gambling sites shrug off arrests

Letter: Tax hike hidden in Medicare payments: First, who in this country could give any credence to what this president has to say? This is the same guy who raised the cost of Medicare B for seniors who earn $80,000 a year. Who ever heard of two or three different prices for the same health care insurance?

FLASHPOINT for Sep 26, 2006: Did you realize today is six weeks until Election Day? And did you realize how much you know about the candidates for important offices? Look how much the TV ads enlighten us: Gubernatorial candidate Dina Titus loves illegal immigrants - almost as much as she adores taxes. Her opponent, Jim Gibbons, loves saving corporations money and wasting tax dollars inside the Beltway. And how about congressional contender Tessa Hafen? She was born in Southern Nevada but miraculously, now she is from out of state. And Rep. Jon Porter - who knew there were no pictures of him without President Bush ...

Old-Timers have last Stardust fling; Orleans new host: The Stardust may be on life support, with the plug to be pulled Nov. 1, but that didn't prevent a record number of Las Vegans from enjoying the final Old-Timers' Day celebration at the 48-year-old resort.

Letter: 'Cowboy diplomacy' won't defeat terrorists: I have a feeling that the present Bush administration does not fully understand, nor feel compelled to grasp those simple concepts. The White House likes to connect terrorism with the war in Iraq when the two are actually very separate issues. We could literally bomb Iraq back into the Stone Age and the threat of terrorism would not go away.

Editorial: A gap in coverage: The so-called "doughnut hole" is built into the new Medicare Part D drug plan that took effect in January. Medicare is the federally funded health care program for people age 65 and older. The new drug benefit calls for suspending federal subsidies of a participant's prescriptions once his or her coverage has hit $2,250. The coverage resumes only after participants have spent $3,600 of their own money buying prescriptions.

Editorial: Tipping the tax code: According to a Las Vegas Sun story Thursday, Everson met with Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign and assured them that the IRS would hold up its end of a bargain with tip earners who were told they would not be audited if they voluntarily signed up for a program in which they use the IRS' formula for calculating and reporting tips.

LOOKING IN ON: WASHINGTON: WASHINGTON - After three retired military officials gave stark and often blistering accounts Monday of the Bush administration's failures in prosecuting the Iraq war, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said the testimony could change the nation.

Harrumph, says Pahrump: By Timothy Pratt; Michael Miraglia, Pahrump Town Board member, remembers going into a restaurant to ask for "a simple napkin."

Editorial: Iraq as a deadly paradox: This is the question we hope even the staunchest supporters of President Bush asked themselves after reading the general conclusions that intelligence agencies reached in a classified report they finished in April after nearly two years of analysis.

Ex-general to command anti-terror institute: In a move seen as bringing more accountability to the secretive Institute for Security Studies, UNLV President David Ashley has hired a new executive director from outside Nevada to run the troubled anti-terrorism organization.

Letter: Nonsmokers have right to clean air: Although I live in Utah, I frequent the casinos in Nevada. I am a nonsmoker; so I only eat in restaurants with nonsmoking sections and my casino trips are fewer.

Ashley consolidates executives under a VP: Click here for a printable graphic.

Their loss is our gain as police claim the tools of the criminal trade: By Sam Skolnik; In the last 12 months, Metro Police seized $1,040 from Moran Matias after allegedly finding bags of methamphetamine and powder and rock cocaine in his pickup truck.