Print edition for January 5, 2007

Letter: Limiting class size would be better: The public demands results in the form of higher test scores - difficult to do in crowded classrooms since individuals get less time. Take my classes as an example. Three of my composition classes have 120 students among them. When I collect an essay, the students need feedback. To give their essays the time they deserve would require at least 20 minutes apiece (40 hours). Instead, they get two minutes.

Funds for new state museum fall short: CARSON CITY - A month ago, state and local officials trumpeted the groundbreaking for a new Nevada State Museum at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve.

Letter: Marketplace will provide least expensive fuel: Apparently, the first rule that liberals do not understand is the law of unintended consequences. The bull's-eye the Democrats are aiming at is painted on the backs of the gasoline consuming public, not evil Big Oil.

Goodman nemesis was thorn in the side of Washoe officials: Mark Hansel, Las Vegas Sun; The gadfly who was removed from a Las Vegas City Council meeting last month has a history of disruptive behavior at local government meetings.

John Katsilometes braces for a visit from Randy Jackson, who has a particular interest in Las Vegas Hilton Theater: Today he's playing deal maker with the Las Vegas Hilton.

Jeff Haney breaks down the money line on the NFL playoffs and offers Super Bowl projections from a Las Vegas handicapper: In Sunday's NFC wild-card playoff game, the Eagles are favored by 7 points against the Giants.

Poise of an officer: Spotlight, center stage: William Huddler sits, military-stiff in a folding chair facing three Metro cops who are grilling the police recruit on his qualifications. Why should Huddler get to wear the badge, get to carry a gun, get to clasp handcuffs around the bad guy's wrists?

What plays in Las Vegas, doesn't stay in Las Vegas: By Jerry Fink; Las Vegas, which has struggled recently to bring top-notch shows to town, will face that challenge times two with Thursday's announcement that two long-running productions will close.

FLASHPOINT for Jan. 05, 2007: Press secretaries have a sometimes impossible job. Take Brent Boynton, Jim Gibbons' communications director. He has been under siege since he took the job, but has always been responsive. After being quizzed by a reporter about the governor's tremors, which caused his hand to shake during his swearing-in, Boynton was trying to make a point about how it would not affect the new governor: "This is nothing that should affect the governor's performance. He is not a brain surgeon." That's fine in context. But imagine what could be done with that out of context. If there is a guide for ...

Editorial: State schools in a deep hole: The publication just released a study that put Nevada at 43rd, but people "probably don't pay attention any more," Keith Rheault, state superintendent of public instruction, told Emily Richmond in a story in Thursday's Las Vegas Sun.

Editorial: Showing a stubborn streak: On Wednesday, in a White House address and in a commentary that he wrote for The Wall Street Journal, Bush made it clear that he hopes to make tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans permanent - cuts that Bush championed and that Democrats opposed. Bush also said that he plans to build consensus "to fight and win the war" in Iraq. The fact that his administration doesn't know what winning would look like apparently doesn't matter.

Sigman expands his photo vistas: Nobody has photographed our casinos' exteriors and interiors quite like Fred Sigman, who set out in the early 1990s to capture them as landscapes.

Letter: Report found what teachers see daily: Teachers have to deal with all the problems this report exposes on a daily basis, plus many more that the report does not cover. And the worst aspect of this problem is there is no hope for any change on the horizon.

CONVENTION CRASHING: PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL: They trudged out of the Mandalay Bay convention center on Thursday like Mongols returning from the sack of Tchotchke, thousands of them, their shoulders hunched against the weight of tote bags, pens, flashlights, blankets, key chains and bathrobes.

Smoking ban is ignored by many: By Liz Benston; While health officials say Reno bars are mostly complying with the state's new smoking restrictions, the Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act is being widely ignored in Clark County, where business owners from Las Vegas' largest casino operator down to the neighborhood slot bar say they didn't know the ban became law nearly a month ago.

Jon Ralston predicts what will happen on the political scene in Nevada: So what happens next? I have some ideas. But first, remember I am the same guy who told you one year ago that the Democrats would have 27 seats in the Assembly (genius!), that Dean Heller would be a congressman (not bad), that Chris Giunchigliani would be a county commissioner (very well done) and that John Ensign and Jon Porter would be re-elected to the gang of 535 (average-padding). So listen well to what follows and please forget I also foretold of TASC and Prop 13 passing (neither was on the ballot) and I said no commission incumbents would lose ...

Editorial: It's a question of trust: For several years now Gibbons and his Republican predecessor, Kenny Guinn, have had a bitter feud, which intensified when Guinn appointed in November his chief of staff, Keith Munro, to the state Gaming Control Board effective Jan. 1.

LOOKING IN ON: LAS VEGAS 51s: If the Los Angeles Dodgers couldn't move their spring training home to Southern Nevada, as 51s President Don Logan had hoped, the Phoenix suburb of Glendale is the next best site.