Print edition for July 23, 2007

Inspired by heroes, Hopkins insists he can fight four more years: After conjuring the name and deeds of his boxing hero Jersey Joe Walcott on Saturday night, Bernard Hopkins said he hopes to have his next fight at Yankee Stadium, the site of Walcott's heavyweight championship bout against Joe Louis nearly 60 years ago.

SCORE president: Moving race a terrible idea: To Sal Fish, the longtime president of SCORE International, "Only Vegas" is more than a marketing slogan.

FLASHPOINT for Jul 23, 2007: In political terms, Gov. Jim Gibbons continues to complete- ly outflank the Democrats on an issue they should have been all over before he could utter a peep: The proposed buyout of Sierra Health Services by UnitedHealth Group. Gibbons has called for more hearings, raised questions about the impact and even intimated he might be against it. The Democrats? Not a peep. The governor plans to attend two hearings this week on the deal that he calls "the largest health care event in Nevada history." It will be a great opportunity for him to get free media and raise more ...

Editorial: Easing student debt: Under the Higher Education Access Act passed on Friday, students who qualify for federal Pell grants would receive up to $5,400 annually by 2011, compared to the maximum of $4,310 awarded now.

Editorial: A classified mess: Instead of pats on the back, federal officials should be embarrassed. This is just the latest, and possibly the most minor, of recent security breaches suffered by the Energy Department and the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Letter: American citizens can't trust White House: The fact that thousands of Americans are dying because of the mess Bush (Cheney) has gotten us into is the benchmark statement for capital crime.

Letter: Let's bring our troops home to protect U.S.: If you substitute the words "al-Qaida" with "Mafia" or "drug runners" or "criminals," couldn't we be back to the point where we empower our best police and security forces to respond to these acts and put the crooks behind bars? How in the world does keeping our brave military men and women in a "war" sold to us by pure and outright lies help protect the population from these would-be "evil doers"?

Letter: Dim view of Congress due to GOP scandals?: When in the same week socially conservative Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter gets exposed patronizing prostitutes and anti-gay Republican Bob Allen, a Florida state lawmaker, gets caught for soliciting sex in a men's public toilet, it's not hard to see why attitudes toward the Congress in general go south.

Editorial: A matter of spin: Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, says that Sara M. Taylor, former White House political affairs director, and Karl Rove, Bush's chief political adviser, improperly arranged for officials from the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy to appear at about 20 political events - potentially violating a law that says the drug office must be nonpolitical.

LOOKING IN ON: CARSON CITY: CARSON CITY - White Pine County, near bankruptcy two years ago, is back in the black under the state's financial management.

Schools with good ideas share $56 million jackpot: By Emily Richmond; Handing out that $56 million was no cakewalk.

Turnberry residents allege turnabout by developer who's ruining their views: When Jerry Wayne looks out from the balcony of his luxury condominium at Turnberry Place, he sees Strip hotels and , behind them, the big Nevada sky.

LOCKED DOWN: By Jeff German, Steve Kanigher; If a recent federal indictment proves accurate, what the Aryan Warriors do behind bars is as bad as - or worse than - what the white supremacist gang members did to be imprisoned in the first place.