Print edition for March 21, 2007

Letter: Iraq 'victory' no guarantee of terror's end: If it's really true that setting a timetable for leaving Iraq is equal to "aiding and abetting the enemy" because it tells the enemy what we're going to do, then why in the hell did we tell the whole damn world about our upcoming "surge" for months ahead of time? I guarantee you that our ancient Greek ancestors are rolling around in their graves at our collective tactical war planning stupidity.

The case for all-day kindergarten: By Emily Richmond; Funding full-day kindergarten is no longer a choice, but an imperative, Nevada's Democratic lawmakers say.

The case for increasing vo-tech: By Emily Richmond; Last spring, Nevada's fourth graders scored at or above the national average in reading, language, math and science on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. But in the seventh grade, test scores dropped below the national average, and fell still further in the 10th grade .

Bogden not well known at Justice: By Lisa Mascaro; WASHINGTON - Three thousand pages of Justice Department e-mails and other documents released this week provide no clearer explanation for the Bush administration's firing of Nevada's U.S. attorney, but do show just how little officials knew about Daniel Bogden before dumping him.

What will work best for Nevada's schools?: Emily Richmond, Las Vegas Sun; In the quest to improve Nevada's public schools, legislators have, in a sense, a most fundamental decision to make: whether to give a higher priority to the youngest of schoolchildren, or to high school students on the brink of real-world realities.

CONVENTION CRASHING: GAMES EXPO: Fifteen-year-old Daniel Wicks is testing out a sword, holding it sideways with his skinny arms, checking the heft and admiring it. It would go well with the battle ax at home.

Editorial: Undermining public confidence: The Bush administration, which has denied that politics was the reason for the firings, has no credibility left on this issue.

Why did feds intervene in civil dispute?: By J. Patrick Coolican; A federal judge's ruling Monday has brought into clear relief a question of importance to Nevada: Did Gov. Jim Gibbons, while serving in the U.S. Congress, influence the Justice Department - directly or through intermediaries - to intervene in a civil dispute on behalf of his friend Warren Trepp?

FLASHPOINT for Mar 21, 2007: The problem with progressive bloggers is they leave no bad deed - as they see it - unpunished. Be it Democrats vacillating on Iraq or Nevada's state party consorting with the dreaded Fox, these folks will take their mouses and scare the bejesus out of the donkeys while the elephants chortle away. The latest, as Paul Kane of The Washington Post reports, is the Senate Democratic Policy Committee inviting a trio of bloggers to lunch. Kane reports that the head of the Senate Democrats, Harry Reid, hired a staffer two years ago whose sole assignment was to deal with progressive ...

Letter: Troops should get respect they deserve: Even so, more troops, from our already thinning available troops, are being sent. Herbert's eye-opening, frank and heart-rending statement - "There is something profoundly evil about a country encouraging young men and women to go off and fight its wars and then shortchanging them on medical care and other forms of assistance when they come back with wounds that will haunt them forever ..." - has been burned in my mind and should be an awakening call to all of us loyal Americans.

Letter: It's time to take charge of this war: Here we are fighting a so-called war against an enemy that doesn't have an Army, Air Force or Navy. Roughly speaking, we pretty near freed the world in World War II, and here we are pussy-footing around in Iraq. We are losing soldiers and Marines everyday.

Editorial: Pay now, or pay later: According to a story by the Las Vegas Sun on Sunday, state lawmakers and budget experts say that without incremental tax increases, Nevada most certainly will face the kind of financial stress it experienced before the 2003 tax increase - the state's last major increase.

Editorial: Nevada's vocabulary champ: During those two days, 13-year-old John Ling, a student at Las Vegas' Hyde Park Middle School, will be in Orlando, Fla., also competing for a national title.

Jeff Haney on the biggest game in town, happening not on the Strip but downtown at old Binion's: For information on satellite tournaments for the cash game: (800) 622-6468

KATHY HOLMES | 1936-2007: Kathy Holmes had an important job to do before her then-husband, the late Las Vegas architect Jim McDaniel, submitted his drawings for approval.

Jon Ralston on what a secret slush fund tells us about Gibbons: Gov. Jim Gibbons created a secret slush fund, with no indication he ever intended to disclose its contents, violated federal guidelines in setting it up and demolished (at the very least) the spirit of several state laws in accepting what is tantamount to campaign cash when such donations are banned.

Letter: Worker program makes most sense: Border drug smugglers now know that if they attempt to bring in less than 500 pounds of marijuana they will not be prosecuted. Our Border Patrolmen are being arrested and sent to jail for doing their jobs. Mexico seems to have more control of our border than we do.

Miller wants Gibbons' backing on law reform: It took two weeks of badgering from Secretary of State Ross Miller, but Gov. Jim Gibbons on Tuesday finally turned over copies of $169,100 in checks made out to the governor's legal defense fund last year.

Letter: Where are the president's children?: Maybe they secretly enlisted in the armed forces and are now serving in Iraq, fighting their daddy's war.