Print edition for May 5, 2007

Sun photographer snaps a winner: Sun photographer Tiffany Brown has won first place in the feature photography category in the Best of the West journalism contest, an annual competition that this year generated submissions from more than 120 newspapers in 13 Western states.

Contender's religion: A test run: By Michael Mishak; Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney intends to skip past a critical issue today in a speech to a largely evangelical Christian audience: He will not try to sell them on the Mormon religion.

Trying to do right goes so wrong: Joe Schoenmann and J. Patrick Coolican; As Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons famously said last fall: "Gosh, I learned an important lesson, never to offer a helping hand to anybody ever again."

JOHN DERMODY: 1911-2007: When John Dermody bought Nevada farms and ranches more than 30 years ago and turned them into industrial parks, he sowed the seeds for what would become one of the nation's largest private development firms.

Editorial: More guns on campus?: The Nevada System of Higher Education is included among the exceptions.

Letter: Rothman missed in paper and in life: Not only do I miss his entertaining and insightful columns in your paper, but I also miss knowing what he is doing in this community and for this community. As a student of his at UNLV, he challenged me to think bigger. As a friend of his later in my life, he challenged me to stay connected to what really matters.

Letter: Maybe Friedman should run for office: I would suggest to every reader of the Las Vegas Sun to cut that column out and mail it to President Bush and/or Vice President Cheney.

Letter: Bush has a lot of nerve to level that criticism: The hypocrisy of these statements is astounding. Consider this: In the 2001 run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki testified before Congress that the occupation of Iraq would require "several hundred thousand troops." Shinseki's estimate, by the way, was echoed by retired Gens. Norman Schwarzkopf and Wesley Clark.

Editorial: Virtual playgrounds?: Among the most popular of these technologies is Sony's Wii, a game system in which a wireless wand allows players to leap around the room in such activities as virtual tennis matches.

Editorial: Astronaut Wally Schirra, 1923-2007: Pulling the country together was a common question: Who would become the country's first astronauts? When the names of the seven military pilots chosen for Project Mercury were announced, they instantly became national heroes.

Ron Kantowski looks for cigar, fedora as old-school sports of horse racing, boxing retake stage today: Like a Packard backfiring across the back roads of yesteryear, they will rumble back into your living room today. That is, if anybody with a spare $54.95 in his sofa cushions still cares.

FLASHPOINT for May 05, 2007: What kind of newspaper would banner a story on the front page about a poll it commissioned and designed to obtain results that are obvious before the first question was asked? The newspaper that provides the inartful wrapping for this publication, folks. Here's the result the poll discovered: People want to tax anybody but themselves to build roads. Stop the presses! That is priceless. If someone didn't know better - and if someone were to look at what the newspaper did during another tax debate four years ago - someone might think there was an agenda in doing such a ...

Railbirds' dreams come true: A race for the ages: What if it were possible to assemble the greatest thoroughbreds of all time, load them into a starting gate on Wilbur Post's back 40 and turn them loose?