Print edition for September 27, 2006

Mad hot ballrooms: The Golden Nugget showroom added 200 seats during the venue's renovation over the past six months.

Letter: Seniors show plenty of responsibility: Seniors are not selfish by not wanting to fund all the outrageous costs of education and other government giveaways with the never-ending increases in property taxes. The seniors of today were raised in a time when there was some responsibility in raising children and the costs involved in them. Keep voting, seniors!

Letter: Bush, GOP haven't secured our borders: Unfortunately, they don't seem to comprehend that terrorists are already embedded in our society. They fail to secure our seaports, airports and land borders sufficiently to block the entrance of terrorists. Members of sleeper terrorist cells have been entering our country with impunity since before 9/11 and continue to flood through our borders on a daily basis.

Letter: President's policies help spread terrorism: It's almost as if we were having attacks on a daily basis before 9/11/01, when in fact the only newsworthy attack on U.S. soil by terrorists before 9/11/01 was the attack on the World Trade Center a number of years prior to that horrific September morning.

Is Gibbons effective in Congress? Yes, in a most uninfluential way: J. Patrick Coolican and Steve Kanigher; The televised debate between Democrat Dina Titus and Republican Jim Gibbons featured accusations that did not match up with the facts. Here is a look at the truth behind the debate on two issues of importance in Nevada.

FLASHPOINT for Sep 27, 2006: That old saw about the Democrats never missing an oppor- tunity to miss an opportunity may be coming true. Or is it? National pundit Charlie Cook writes of "Shifting Sands" in a column this week: "If Republicans can replicate the environment of the past six weeks, their chances of holding onto their House majority are pretty good, and they will almost certainly retain their Senate majority. But if the spotlight shifts away from terrorism and declining gasoline prices and back onto the war in Iraq, where it was before, the House very likely goes back to the Democrats and the ...

THE NEVADA VOTE: Michael J. Mishak; Jill Derby doesn't want to cut and run in Iraq. She's against amnesty for illegal immigrants. She says her opponent is a "big taxing liberal." And if elected to Congress, this daughter of a Nevada rancher would cut wasteful government spending and restore fiscal discipline.

Jon Ralston dissects the highs and lows of the first Titus, Gibbons debate: In the first gubernatorial debate of the general election at UNR on Monday evening, state Sen. Titus had more fun (she said so), more specifics (she gave a lot) and more spark (by default, but she had plenty). Yet, she also had one of the most memorable and unexpected gaffes in Nevada debate annals - referring to UNR students as their Southern counterparts and then further infuriating the crowd by saying, "All you students seem the same to me."

Editorial: Deaf ears for whining Iran: "This is going against international banking and trade," Ebrahim Sheibany, Iran's central bank governor, said this week on Iranian state television.

Editorial: Proposed ordinance a dud: Michael Miraglia, a member of the Pahrump Town Board, says he is just amazed that not everyone in Southern Nevada speaks English. He told Sun reporter Timothy Pratt about walking into a restaurant and asking for a napkin. "They said they didn't speak English. That really floored me," he said.

Ron Kantowski on how every day at the old ballpark with bosom buddy Dwight was just as good as Opening Day: But the sun eventually did come out and the frost melted and you went to the games because back in those days, sitting in the bleachers was cheaper than going to the movies and a lot less traumatic than watching some tower become an inferno. Except, perhaps, when Ray Burris was pitching on three days' rest.

Kruger clan united: Even when Kevin Kruger landed at Arizona State, one of the few Division-I basketball programs to woo him out of high school in Georgia, he heard the whispers:

Editorial: Nothing ventured or gained: The prospect of Congress accomplishing something more substantial than rhetorical grandstanding before it breaks for fall elections is looking grim.