Print edition for April 21, 2007

Letter: Weapons ban didn't save Virginia victims: On Wednesday, in Tennessee, that state's legislature began consideration to expand the right of citizens to carry weapons on most public property. Hooray for Tennessee, and hooray for the Second Amendment!

Nellis to put the sun to work by 2008: By Phoebe Sweet; Nellis Air Force Base will break ground Monday on a solar power project that is expected by this time next year to generate more than a quarter of the base's electricity needs - enough power to serve 11,000 Las Vegas homes.

Editorial: Shot in the arm: Much of the northern Strip is made up of aging casinos and vacant land. But that location, with easy access to Interstate 15, has always had the potential to thrive. Three recent announcements raise hopes that business people with fresh ideas can inject excitement into a part of Las Vegas Boulevard that sorely needs it.

Letter: Gun control laws must be revisited: As a student at the Community College of Southern Nevada, I realize that school shootings happen frequently. How do you protect such a big area of students? Cops or school police can't be everywhere. Virginia Tech was a gun-free zone and that helped how? It didn't protect the students and staff.

Nevada's Porter wants Gonzales out: WASHINGTON - Nevada Rep. Jon Porter added his name Friday to the short but growing list of Republican lawmakers calling for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign.

Not just any shoes: By Timothy Pratt; The people at the front of the line had arrived a day and a half before the new Air Jordans were due to land.

Editorial: Rehabilitating a broken system: As reported by the Associated Press, national prisons consultant James Austin on Tuesday told a legislative budget panel, which included members of the Assembly Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees, that 40 percent of the individuals entering Nevada prisons are sent there because of probation violations. Of those, half are what Austin described as technical violations, such as not showing up for an appointment or failing a drug test.

FLASHPOINT for Apr 21, 2007: When I first got the call from Carson City, I thought the person must be exaggerating. The tipster informed me that the Assembly Republicans had misread something akin to cheat sheets and had accidentally voted "no" en masse on an innocuous conservation bill. When I saw the Republicans cop to this in the media, I laughed out loud. It's not that it was funny that the members had been exposed for acting like sheep. It is an open secret in any legislative body that most lawmakers do not read every bill. But you never let the public know that you ...

Editorial: Targeting student loans: Previous stories by The New York Times have revealed that some colleges and universities actually routed students' financial aid inquiries directly to private lending companies with which the schools had contracts. Students often did not know - and typically were not told - that they were speaking with a private lender rather than a financial aid counselor from their school. Other schools provided students seeking aid information lists of preferred lenders.

Nevada Republican congressman calls for Gonzales to step down: AP; The third-term congressman said he took the position after hearing Gonzales' testimony Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Gonzales insisted at the hearing that he did nothing improper in firing the federal prosecutors, including Nevada's Daniel Bogden.

Clark County sees a battle in its future over fortune teller and a license: When the Founding Fathers included freedom of speech in the First Amendment, they probably weren't thinking about Las Vegas fortune teller Debbie Marks.

Letter: Let's address holes in campus security: Liviu Librescu was a hero, indeed. And, he will be remembered as a hero. However, I hope his sacrifice at Virginia Tech will not have been in vain. Will it act as the catalyst for addressing holes in campus security? Only time will tell.