Print edition for April 25, 2007

Teachers gripe and leave; bill listens up: By Emily Richmond; In August 2005, Angie Orozco was thrilled to be hired by the Clark County School District, one of the more than 3,000 new teachers launching their careers here that year.

Letter: Reductions in budget increases are not cuts: What Gov. Jim Gibbons is asking for is that everyone share in the revenue reduction by scaling back their requests for increases in their budgets.

Jon Ralston on why highway funding could be headed for a crash: The "Nevada Transportation Megaproject Fiscal Model" has about three dozen taxes listed on one side and then extrapolates how much each of them might raise stretched over 40 years. The document is the work product of Guy Hobbs and Jeremy Aguero, the two most respected number-crunchers in the state who have been here before.

Jeff Haney passes along tips from poker pro Fezzik on winning strategies for playing with a 'short stack': But after he described his plan in detail, and invited me to sit in on an early training session, I came away thinking "My Fair Lady" might make for a better comparison.

Editorial: Just the ticket?: But a congressional report has revealed instances of federal employees who, rather than using the transit passes, have instead illegally sold them over the Internet .

FLASHPOINT for Apr 25, 2007: Just in case you were afraid lawmakers weren't taking the $3.8 billion transportation infrastructure seriously : They passed a serious bill to address the problem Tuesday. The measure, Senate Bill 180, was introduced by state Sens. Bob Beers and Maurice Washington. The bill, which will become law if the Assembly passes it and the governor signs it, would allow anyone renewing his vehicle registration to make a voluntary contribution to the state highway fund. Yes, they really passed this Tuesday. Beers surely wanted to make a wry point about taxes by proposing this bill. So now it's up to you, ...

Letter: Banning gun ownership is not the answer: Anytime there is an event such as the horrible tragedy at Virginia Tech, there will be many who are willing to jump on the bandwagon to outlaw private ownership of guns. Ms. Keil is just one of many who will be proclaiming that outrage.

In Ward 5, seat warming or judgment call: When Brenda Williams took over the Las Vegas City Council Ward 5 seat this month as a fill-in until the June general election, she vowed she was not going to simply keep the seat warm for her replacement.

Human after all: By Rob Miech; The Wranglers proved to be human Monday night in Boise, when Idaho ended their winning streak at 18 games in a 4-1 victory that tied the National Conference semifinal series at a game apiece.

Letter: Bush, Gonzales have problem with truth: It seems that avoiding perjury charges requires lots of rehearsal when you are called to testify about things you don't want to talk about. "I don't recollect," "I don't remember it that way," " That's not my recollection." Better to look like an idiot than to be indicted for perjury .

Q+A: Big Bird (Les Bowen of 'Sesame Street Live'): Q+A: Big Bird (Les Bowen of 'Sesame Street Live')

THE ELEVATOR: Who's going to the penthouse in local and regional sports - and who's getting the shaft:

Editorial: Failure cannot be shifted: Funny, isn't that what Bush did four years ago at the start of his war?

LOOKING IN ON: EDUCATION: By Emily Richmond; The cost of full-day kindergarten weighed on the joint Ways & Means Committee on Tuesday, with Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio blaming it for jacking up the cost of teacher signing bonuses and draining millions from the pot set aside for school improvement grants.

Maybe, maybe not: Cheney rescues Reid: WASHINGTON - If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid needed a way to change the topic from last week's "war is lost" comment, Vice President Dick Cheney may have helped him Tuesday.

Forces joined to fight terror: Six months after being brought under the direct oversight of UNLV, the Institute for Security Studies is doing what it rarely did in the past - incorporate the university's resources into its mission to educate the public about counterterrorism.

Letter: Dispel the rhetoric concerning abortion: What person can think that delivering a baby's body and leaving his head in the mother's womb, then crushing his skull and removing the baby's brain, is a sane procedure - either for the mother or for the aborted child?