Print edition for August 8, 2007

Shut down Christian health plan, state says: By Marshall Allen; In a dispute that pits religious liberty against state regulations, the Nevada insurance commissioner has ordered a national Christian group that collects and dispenses money for its members' medical costs to cease operating in the state.

Owed paychecks, three who helped others now struggle, too: By Timothy Pratt; Tonia Kirkland, a 37-year-old single mother of four, found herself in a strange situation last fall.

Teachers who get police training could get extra pay, carry guns: By Emily Richmond; A proposal that Nevada teachers be allowed to carry concealed weapons garnered a lot of notoriety but little traction among state lawmakers this year. Now comes this idea: Give bonus pay to teachers - from kindergarten to college - who would be trained and armed as reserve school police officers.

ALAN JARLSON: 1932-2007: When Fidel Castro rose to power, Las Vegas Sun reporter Alan Jarlson was dispatched to Cuba to get reactions from Las Vegas gaming figures who were working in Havana casinos.

Letter: Infrastructure woes left to our children: "We"? Oh, really? Who is "we"?

THE READERS SOMETIMES E-MAIL: By Mike Trask; The readers sometimes e-mail. But who knew Monday's Opening Line on Dodger broadcaster Vin Scully would draw this much reaction? At least my photograph didn't run with the column, because the Scully faithful are unhappy. Here's a sampling:

Jon Ralston on an up-and-coming politician here who is being dubbed a 'new kingmaker': The last time a promising, young Hispanic elected official from Nevada received national attention, it was a prelude to a precipitous fall.

Editorial: Banning tainted trinkets: A story by The New York Times on Monday says Consumer Product Safety Commission inspectors have been collecting jewelry from importers and retailers and have estimated that 20 percent of the items posed a lead-poisoning hazard. Separate inspections by experts in at least three states found higher contamination levels. And of the 17.9 million items taken from the market since 2005, federal officials told the Times, 95 percent were made in China.

Jeff Haney hears the pitch for a new digital poker table that takes the cards, chips - and dealers - out of the game: His next goal entails extending the reach of his product to the poker rooms of the Las Vegas Strip.

On Angels Peak, camp offers a chance at redemption: Sam Skolnik; One by one, the 40 or so juvenile offenders stepped forward as their names were announced to hearty applause.

FLASHPOINT for Aug 08, 2007: How the view does change from close up. It was ironic Tuesday to watch Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani talk about local government issues now that she is no longer Assemblywoman Giunchigliani. Among the gems from the former lawmaker: "We are creatures of the Legislature." "What do we do with the little bit of a relationship we are trying to repair (with lawmakers)?" And my favorite: "I question that now and I used to be the one who said that!" She was smiling, but the perspective change clearly has been eye-opening. How different it must feel for Giunchigliani after the ...

Editorial: A tragic statistic: According to a story by the Las Vegas Sun on Sunday, figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the suicide rate among people in Nevada 75 and older was 48 per 100,000 from 1999 to 2004. The national rate for the same period was 17 per 100,000.

Letter: Civilians at Pentagon led us the wrong way: In testimony before the Senate a day or two ago, Adm. Michael Mullen, nominated to be the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the so-called surge cannot be sustained "past April 2008 under the military's current force structure." (Italics mine.)

Editorial: Open those records: The Nevada System of Higher Education requires the forms as a way of guarding against employees accepting an outside position that would represent a conflict of interest with their university or college jobs.

Letter: We need to fix more than infrastructure: Increase taxes on gasoline to fix the roads (let's call these user fees - which is what they are - to make them more palatable). Increase user fees on utilities to fix them. Increase user fees on other-than-roads transportation to fix things like railroads, seaports, airports, etc.

Letter: We need to act now to minimize damage later: First, the naysayers denied the existence of global warming. Then they retreated to attacks on the messengers, such as Al Gore. Now, forced to admit the obvious, they say the warming is a natural cycle and that evidence of human impact on climate change is, as Mr. Moreland says, "inconclusive." In fact, there is a great body of evidence that human activity has an impact on warming. Even if we are in a natural cycle, why continue to add to it?