Print edition for August 12, 2007

Jeff Simpson notes that earlier predictions didn't factor in tougher lending standards: Of course, it's not surprising if you are looking to sell your house. Or if you have less-than-stellar credit and are looking to buy a home.

Letter: U.S. needs a new kind of leader: For those younger than 50 or so, Howard Baker was the Republican on the Senate Watergate Committee who made it respectable to criticize someone of his own party for lapses in judg ment and ethics.

Letter: Public sector can learn from private: Unfortunately, simply hiring more people won't always solve the problem. This is because when more government employees are hired, management will make the case that they are now asked to do more and they should be given commensurate salary increases, perhaps add more managers, or both. Not only will taxpayers then foot the bill for more staff, but also the additional managerial costs.

Home prices still far from affordable: By Buck Wargo; Prices for new and resale homes continue to slowly but steadily drop - bad news, maybe, for people who hoped to make a quick profit on home sales, but a glimmer of good news for champions of Las Vegas as a town of blue-collar homeowners.

Q+A: William Boldt: William Boldt starts Sept. 10 as UNLV's vice president of advancement, making him the university's second-highest ranking cheerleader behind President David Ashley.

Editorial: Has tamarisk met its match?: In a year this non-native, deeply rooted and fast reproducing plant sucks in almost twice the amount of river water allotted to all of Southern Nevada.

Editorial: Heavy on criticism: Stevens, a self-professed "weight-loss coach," spent Tuesday afternoon standing on the Las Vegas Strip outside the Flamingo, handing out cards that read, "PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE FAT PEOPLE."

Jon Ralston on how presidential hopefuls are trying to curry favor with the Culinary Union: The gymnastics on Yucca Mountain are occasionally entertaining but usually annoying, with practiced buzz phrases such as "sound science" as predictable as the inflated sense by the media that the issue really matters much in presidential voting.

Editorial: Leading on global warming: The Connecticut senator, formerly a Democrat and now an independent, met with many top Chinese officials, including Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang. A former automotive engineer with the German Audi Corp., Gang returned to China several years ago and headed a national electric car project before being named to his current position.

FLASHPOINT for Aug 12, 2007: If there's one word that always seems to creep into the sto- ries about gaming's annual profits, it is this: record. As in the headline over an AP piece last week: "Nevada casinos win record $12.7 billion in fiscal 2007." Seems resorts on the Strip won just over half of the statewide aggregate, or $6.67 billion. That, too, was a - what is the word? - record. What a shocker. Then again, as a Gaming Control Board analyst pointed out, the 4.6 percent statewide increase over the last year was the smallest in the last four and below the average ...

WHERE I STAND: Guest columnist Walt Rulffes on the challenges of preparing today's children to compete in a global economy: Nationwide, two of the significant themes emerging in public education are redesigning the way we serve students, and developing strategies for attracting and retaining teachers.

When you work in D.C., the story seems bigger: By Lisa Mascaro; During the Senate's all-night session on Iraq last month, I stepped outside the Capitol and found myself alone with a Republican senator I had not yet met. I asked about the war. He replied expansively. He wasn‚t happy with the way the war was going, but the Democrats were making a spectacle with this all-night stunt and a rally with the liberal moveon.org people, he said. Politics like that made him fed up with this place.

LOOKING IN ON: HIGHER EDUCATION: Health sciences dominated conversation at Chancellor Jim Rogers' annual fishing trip the first weekend in August.