Print edition for November 3, 2007

For a day Nevada will be the center of the political universe. And I am not talking about Jan. 19, when the presidential caucus will be held...: By Jon Ralston; For a day Nevada will be the center of the political universe. And I am not talking about Jan. 19, when the presidential caucus will be held. I refer to Nov. 15, when CNN will host a debate at UNLV among the Democratic White House hopefuls. The event will be televised around the world and there will be plenty of hype - and the potential for a memorable gaffe or decisive moment remembered into Campaign '08. But the Democrats have done something even smarter by scheduling the annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner after the debate - and they have commitments from ...

Letter: Bush administration has set us back years: For the first six years President Bush had the help of his Republican rubber - stamp Congress. Now a scared and marginally controlled Democratic Congress is afraid to take Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to task. The Bush/Cheney administration has used every trick imaginable to gain its end.

Letter: Consolidating nuclear waste seems safer: Wouldn't it be better to store nuclear waste in one spot rather than have it sit out in the open, in 108 nuclear facilities across the country?

Editorial: Nuclear insecurity: Only five of the Energy Department's 11 locations that handle nuclear material will meet the congressional deadline of 2008, according to the Government Accountability Office.

LOOKING IN ON: HIGHER EDUCATION: By Charlotte Hsu; LOOKING IN ON: HIGHER EDUCATION

Lack of emissions rules didn't stop Kansas from acting: By Phoebe Sweet; Environmentalists call it a watershed moment.

THE READERS SOMETIMES E-MAIL: Readers have opinions and fill my e-mail box, letting me know when mine are right (sometimes) and wrong (often). From time to time, I'll share their comments.

Which miracle win was better? We go back and forth: Click here for a printable graphic.

LOOKING IN ON: BOXING: By Jeff Haney; Fighting mostly in the United Kingdom throughout his 14-year professional career, super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe has never fashioned a high profile among American boxing fans.

Editorial: Whose side is she on?: Yet Nancy Nord, the acting chairwoman of the overwhelmed and understaffed commission, is lobbying against the bill. Nord objects to provisions that would raise the maximum fines the commission can levy, give the agency greater enforcement power and make it easier to release reports of faulty products. She is raising concerns that industry groups have raised, saying such a bill would place an unnecessary burden on business.

Editorial: Making matters worse: The investigators from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the State Department's investigative arm, promised the guards they would not be prosecuted for any information they gave during investigators' interviews as long as the information was true.

Teachers: Watch out, Berman is coming!: By J. Patrick Coolican, Michael Mishak; Richard Berman has attacked Mothers Against Drunk Driving, tobacco opponents and advocates of healthier food.

CO2 rules still in the air: By Phoebe Sweet; Conspicuously absent from a draft air permit Nevada's Environmental Protection Division approved this week were two words: carbon dioxide.

Gas lamp conversions should be subsidized: Richard Rychtarik, Las Vegas; For the past several months I and other homeowners participating in a group called Southern Nevadans Against Gas Lamps have been trying to get Southwest Gas and the Nevada Public Utilities Commission to acknowledge that we have 17,000 natural gas street lamps operating here in Southern Nevada and they are anything but green.