By Jon Ralston

Fri, May 16, 2008 (2 a.m.)

With all this talk about raising gaming taxes, I am left wondering again why the state’s real cash cow is being ignored because it is out of sight and out of mind. This from the AP on Thursday: “Nevada’s mining industry set an all-time record in 2007 for total value of mined commodities. The total value was about $5.4 billion, according to reports compiled by the Nevada Division of Minerals. This is a half-billion-dollar increase over the 2006 value of about $4.9 billion.” We have seen this before — and it appeared Thursday on the Pahrump Valley Times Web site with the requisite gushing quote from Gov. Jim Gibbons. Am I missing something here, folks? And if I’m not, why are all the southern legislators missing it?